Now That's What I Call Madrigals: Texts and Translations
1. Sinfonia No.2 in C Major
Composer: Leonora Duarte (1610 – c.1678)
Samuel Oliver-Sherry & Teresa Lu, violins
Elizabeth Dallosso, Iona Azzopardi & Justin Yu, violas
Lilly Wilcocks, cello
Chris Brain, continuo
2. Flow My Tears
Composer & Lyricist: John Dowland (London, 1563 – London, 1626)
Phoenix Solti, baritone
Teresa Lu, violin
Elizabeth Dallosso, Iona Azzopardi & Justin Yu, violas
Lilly Wilcocks, cello
Chris Brain, continuo
Flow, my tears, fall from your springs!
Exiled for ever, let me mourn;
Where night’s black bird her sad infamy sings,
There let me live forlorn.
Down vain lights, shine you no more!
No nights are dark enough for those
That in despair their lost fortunes deplore.
Light doth but shame disclose.
Never may my woes be relieved,
Since pity is fled;
And tears and sighs and groans my weary days
Of all joys have deprived.
From the highest spire of contentment
My fortune is thrown;
And fear and grief and pain for my deserts
Are my hopes, since hope is gone.
Hark! you shadows that in darkness dwell,
Learn to contemn light.
Happy, happy they that in hell
Feel not the world’s despite.
3. Quanto sia lieto il giorno
Composer: Phillipe Verdelot (Seine-et-Marne, 1480-85 – c.1530-1552)
Lyricist: Niccolò Machiavelli (Florence, 1469 – Florence, 1527)
Seb Carrington, Yueshi Yang, Barnabas Sharp & Henry Hart
Quanto sia lieto il giorno
nel qual le cose antiche
son or da voi dimostra e celebrate:
Si vede perché intorno,
tutte le genti amiche
si son' in questa parte radunate:
noi che la nostra etate
ne' boschi, e nelle selve consumiamo
venuti ancor qui siamo
io ninfa e noi pastori
e giam cantando insieme i nostri amori.
How happy is the day
in which ancient things
are now by you shown and celebrated:
One sees because around us,
all friendly people
are assembled here:
We who spend our lives
in these woodlands and groves,
have also come here,
I, nymph, and we, shepherds,
and we sing together of our loves.
4. Quanta beltà quanta gratia e splendore
Composer: Jacques Arcadelt (Namur, 1507 – Paris, 1569)
Lyricist: Anonymous
Emily Ringwood & Elizabeth Millet, sopranos
Ali Wreggelsworth & Yueshi Yang, altos
Barnabas Sharp & Phoenix Solti, tenors
Chris Brain & Henry Hart, basses
Quanta beltà, quanta gratia e splendore
Si vidde in donna mai,
Vaga angioletta tutt’il ciel vi diede
Quant’ alta cortessia, quanto valore
Regnò in donna gia mai, gia mai
Tutt'in voi regna con pietate e sede
tal che chiunque vi vede
Dice che i bei sembienti vostri e costumi santi,
I divia occhi,
il bel volto e le chiome
D’Angela son insieme col bel nome.
How much beauty, how much grace and splendour
Was ever seen in a woman,
Fair angel, the entire heaven gave you
So much courtesy, so much value
That never reigned in a woman, never before.
Everything reigns in you with pity and has its seat,
So much that everyone who sees you
Says that your gracious line and virtues,
The heavenly eyes,
The beautiful face and hair
Are all together of an Angel, along with your fair name.
5. Vestiva i colli
Composer: Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (Palestrina, 1525 – Rome, 1594)
Lyricist: Lelio Capilupi (Mantua, 1497 – Mantua, 1560)
Elizabeth Millet, Seb Carrington, Franco Lopez, Barnabas Sharp, Chris Brain
Vestiva i colli e le campagne intorno
la primavera di novelli onori
e spirava soavi arabi odori,
cinta d'erbe, di fronde il crin adorno,
quando Licori, a l'apparir del giorno,
cogliendo di sua man purpurei fiori,
mi disse in guidardon di tanti ardori:
A te li colgo et ecco, io te n'adorno.
Così le chiome mie, soavemente
parlando, cinse e in sì dolci legami
mi strinse il cor, ch'altro piacer non sente:
onde non fia già mai che più non l'ami
degl'occhi miei, né fia che la mia mente
altri sospiri desiando o chiami.
Spring, encircled with herbs
and with leaves garlanding her hair, was clothing
the hills and the countryside around with new beauty
and breathing sweet Arabian scents,
when at daybreak, Licori,
gathering purple flowers in his own hand,
told me, in recompense for all that desire:
“I pick them for you, and, look, I adorn you with them.”
And so, speaking sweetly,
he bound my hair; and thus he seized my heart
with such sweet force
that I wanted no other joy:
so now I will never stop looking at him with love,
never sigh or call for any other.
6. Ancor che col partire
Composer: Cipriano de Rore (Ronse, 1515/16 – Parma, 1565)
Lyricist: Alfonso d'Avalos (Ischia, 1502 – Vigevano, 1546)
Emily Ringwood & Elizabeth Millet, sopranos
Ali Wreggelsworth & Yueshi Yang, altos
Barnabas Sharp & Phoenix Solti, tenors
Chris Brain & Henry Hart, basses
Anchor che col partire
io mi senta morire,
partir vorrei ogn'hor, ogni momento:
tant' il piacer ch'io sento
de la vita ch'acquisto nel ritorno:
e così mill' e mille volt' il giorno
partir da voi vorrei:
tanto son dolci gli ritorni miei.
Even though when I leave you
I feel myself dying,
I would be glad to leave every hour, every moment;
I feel so much joy
from the life I renew in coming back:
and so a thousand thousand times a day
I want to leave you—
so sweet are my returnings.
7. Il bianco e dolce cigno
Composer: Jacques Arcadelt (Namur, 1507 – Paris, 1568)
Lyricist: Giovanni Guidiccioni (Lucca, 1480 – Macerata, 1541)
Ali Wreggelsworth, Seb Carrington, Franco Lopez & Chris Brain
Il bianco e dolce cigno
cantando more, ed io
piangendo giung' al fin del viver mio.
Stran' e diversa sorte,
ch'ei more sconsolato
ed io moro beato.
Morte che nel morire
m'empie di gioia tutto e di desire.
Se nel morir, altro dolor non sento,
di mille mort' il di sarei contento.
The white and sweet swan
dies singing, and I,
weeping, reach the end of my life.
Strange and different fate,
that he dies disconsolate
and I die a blessed death,
which in dying fills me
full of joy and desire.
If in dying, were I to feel no other pain,
I would be content to die a thousand deaths a day.