High resolution and stereo sound: www.youtube.com "Zefiro torna e di soavi accenti", SV 251, madrigal for two tenors with basso continuo Text: Ottavio Rinuccini Music: Claudio Monteverdi Published in Scherzi musicali II, in 1632 In this video: Jean-Paul Fouchécourt, tenor Mark Padmore, tenor Les Arts Florissants, Conducted by William Christie Recorded in 1992 "Rinuccini's poem is a close imitation of Petrarch's sonnet 'Zefiro torna e 'l bel tempo rimena' (no. 310 in the Canzoniere) - set by Monteverdi in his Sixth Book of 1614 - and there are also echoes of the nature imagery of Tasso... The poem seems ready-made for musical setting, even if Monteverdi felt it necessary to clinch the point by changing the first parola rima (Rinuccini's first line is 'Zefiro torna, e di soavi odori', rhyming with 'fiori', 'Clori' and 'canori'). The composer's new 'accenti' prompts a setting for the most part over the syncopated ciaccona bass pattern in a jaunty triple time. Nor does he lose any opportunity to 'paint' the specific images of the text - the 'sweet accents' 'murmuring' through the branches, the flowers made to 'dance' to the wind, the 'sweet an joyous notes' of the nymphs and the (high) mountains, low valleys, and echoing caverns. But for the final tercet Monteverdi shifts to a dissonant madrigalian style, contrasting the joys of spring with the pains of the lover: triple time returns only at the end as the poet counterpoints weeping and singing, the reference to 'canto <b>...</b>
Claudio
Monteverdi
Zefiro
torna
di
soavi
accenti
Mark
Padmore
Jean
Paul
Fouchecourt
Arts
Florissants
William
Christie
