In campo di pietade

Marcantonio Tornioli, an Italian composer of the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods, wrote this sacred madrigal for treble soloists (SSB). The text, in Italian, speaks of profound personal sorrow and repentance. The singer is rooted in the field of pity, yet feels himself a plant of cruelty, his roots fixed in his own unhappy and obstinate guilt. He compares his sins to the lance that pierced Jesus, which opened his heart only once, while the singer's failings wound him continually. Tornioli's setting captures the deep, personal anguish of the words, offering a poignant meditation on sin and divine suffering.