Loading ...
Music

Sources used for collation: AnGa-1594; AnGa-1603; Ma-Ga-1614

Other sources: Ka-1601; Ph-1609; Ph-heirs-1632

Measures Sources – Voices Variants
53 AnGa-1603 – A

sharp missing on f3
69

AnGa-1594

AnGa-1603

Ma-Ga-1614

 all voices

color of the three blackened M, with a "3" after the first one
AnGa-1603 – sharp missing on f3
AnGa-1594 – AnGa-1603 – Ma-Ga-1614 – color of the three blackened M, with a "3" after the first one
Text
Lines Sources – Voices Variants
8

AnGa-1594 – B

Ma-Ga-1614 – B

 vendetta
8

AnGa-1594 – A2

poi
14

Ma-Ga-1614 – N

 son
15

AnGa-1603 – AQ

 sospir'il
vendetta (AnGa-1594 – B)
vendetta (Ma-Ga-1614 – B)
poi (AnGa-1594 – A2 )
son (Ma-Ga-1614 – N)
sospir'il (AnGa-1603 – AQ)

Edition and commentary

Deh, Tirsi, Tirsi, anima mia, perdona / Che se tu se’ ’l cor mio

Battista Guarini, Il pastor fido, III, 4, 539–555

Madrigal: Mostly unrhymed eleven- and seven-syllable lines (endecasillabi e settenari sciolti), with concluding rhyming couplets.

(Prima parte)
Deh, Tirsi, Tirsi, anima mia, perdonaPray, Thyrsis, Thyrsis, my soul, forgive her
A chi t’è cruda sol dove pietosawho is merciless to you only
Esser non può; perdona a questa solowhen she cannot be compassionate; forgive her,
Nei detti e nel sembianteonly in her words and countenance
5Rigida tua nemica, ma nel coreyour harsh enemy, but in her heart
Pietosissima amante;your most tender lover;
E se pur hai desio di vendicarti,and even if you wish to revenge yourself,
Deh, qual vendett’aver puoi tu maggiorealas, what greater revenge can you take
Del tuo proprio dolore?than your own suffering?
(Seconda parte)
10Che se tu se’ ’l cor mio,For, if you are my heart,
Come se’ pur mal gradoas you are, in spite of heaven and earth,
Del cielo e de la terra,
Qualor piagni e sospiri,whenever you weep and sigh,
Quelle lagrime tue sono il mio sangue,those tears of yours are my blood,
15Que’ sospiri il mio spirto, e quelle penethose sighs my spirit, and those pains
E quel dolor che sentiand that sorrow that you feel
Son miei, non tuoi, tormenti.are my, not your, torments.

English translations of madrigal texts based with permission on those by Kathryn Bosi, The complete five voice madrigals: for mixed voices / IV, The sixth and seventh books. New York: Gaudia Music and Arts, 1996.

Contemporary editions

Battista Guarini, Il pastor fido, tragicommedia pastorale, Venice: G.B. Ciotti, 1602, 173–174.

Notes

The original incipit of this excerpt from Il pastor fido (“E tu, Mirtillo, anima mia, perdona”) has been modified to accommodate the name Tirsi. Furthermore, the 1602 edition of Il pastor fido has “vendetta aver” at line 8. On the problem of variants and adaptations in Marenzio’s settings from Il pastor fido, see Cecchi, “List of Secular and Devotional Compositions by Luca Marenzio,” 490, n. XLVI, and the literature quoted there.