Per mezz'i boschi (Cipriano de Rore)
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- (Posted 2020-04-16) CPDL #58017:
- Editor: Pothárn Imre (submitted 2020-04-16). Score information: A4, 8 pages, 187 kB Copyright: CPDL
- Edition notes: Transcribed from 1552 Gardano edition. Original note values.
General Information
Title: Per mezz'i boschi
Composer: Cipriano de Rore
Lyricist: Francesco Petrarca
Number of voices: 5vv Voicing: SATTB
Genre: Secular, Madrigal
Language: Italian
Instruments: A cappella
First published: 1542 in Il primo libro de madrigali a cinque voci, Edition 1, no. 11
2nd published: 1544 in Il primo libro de madrigali a cinque voci, Edition 3, no. 12
Description: Two-part madrigal:
I. Per mezz'i boschi
II. Parmi d'udirla
External websites:
Original text and translations
Italian text
Per mezz’i boschi inhospiti et selvaggi,
Onde vanno a gran rischio homini et arme,
Vo secur’ io, che non pò spaventarme
Altri che ’l sol, ch’à d’amor vivo i raggi.
Et vo cantando (o pensier miei non saggi)
Lei che ’l ciel non poria lontana farme,
Ch’i’ l’ho negli occhi; et veder seco parme
Donne et donzelle, et sono abeti et faggi.
Parme d’udirla, udendo i rami et l’ore
Et le frondi et gli augei lagnarsi, et l’acque
Mormorando fuggir per l’herba verde.
Raro un silentio, un solitario horrore
D’ombrosa selva mai tanto mi piacque,
Se non che dal mio sol troppo si perde.
Petrarca, Canzoniere 176
English translation
Through the midst of hostile savage woods,
where armed men go at great risk,
I go without fear, for nothing can frighten me
except that sun which takes its rays from living Love.
And I go singing (oh my unwise thoughts!)
of her whom the heavens could not put far from me,
for I have her before my eyes; and with her I seem to see
ladies and damsels, and they are but firs and beeches.
I seem to hear her, hearing the branches and the breeze
and the leaves, and the birds lamenting, and the waters
fleeing with a murmur across the green grass.
Rarely has a silence, a solitary horror
of shady woods ever pleased me so much,
except that I lose too much of my sun.