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• Rore, Cipriano de: O Sonno

Rore, Cipriano de: O Sonno

for 4 voices or instruments.

Cipriano Rore´s remarkably expressive O Sonno comes from his Il secondo libro de madrigali a quatro voci of 1557. Compared with most of the pieces in his first book of four-part madrigals, this is music of astonishing originality, and represents an extraordinarily intense and detailed response to the complex imagery of Giovanni della Casa´s sonnet. Perhaps the most striking aspect of this madrigal is its concentration: with only the tiniest decorative melismas, every single note derives from the sense and sound of the language.
In this edition the original note values have been halved. The occasional editorial accidental appears printed small above the stave, applying to one note only. I have used irregular barring in order to have the main accented syllables on the first beat of the bar. I am grateful to Alan Robson for translating the text of this work.
O Sonno can be performed by a group of singers, or by a solo singer and instruments (Girolamo Dalla Casa´s diminution treatise of 1584 includes decorated top parts for this and other Rore madrigals apparently intended to be sung to the lute). But it is by no means out of the question to perform the piece on instruments such as viols or recorders; it is certainly harmonically much richer than any purely instrumental piece of its time, and repays the extra effort involved in following the accents of the language.