High resolution and stereo sound:nhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85tCzdRt6UE&fmt=18nn"Zefiro torna e di soavi accenti", SV 251,nmadrigal for...
High resolution and stereo sound:nhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85tCzdRt6UE&fmt=18nn"Zefiro torna e di soavi accenti", SV 251,nmadrigal for two tenors with basso continuonnText: Ottavio RinuccininnMusic: Claudio MonteverdinnPublished in Scherzi musicali II, in 1632nnnIn this video:nnJean-Paul Fouchécourt, tenornMark Padmore, tenornLes Arts Florissants,nConducted by William ChristiennRecorded in 1992 nn"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' providing the final justification for the use of the two gestures that most obviously invoked 'song' in the early seventeenth century, triple-time writing and (in the final cadence) ornamental roulades. Thus Monteverdi's 'Zefiro torna' conventionally plays off aria styles (for the delights of spring) against 'recitative' (for the grieving lover). "n- Tim CarternnZefiro torna, e di soavi accentinl'aer fa grato e 'l pie discioglie a l'onde,ne mormorando tra le verdi fronde,nfa danzar al bel suon su 'l prato i fiori.nnInghirlandato il crin Fillide e Clorinnote tempran d'amor care e gioconde;ne da monti e da valli ime e profondenraddoppian l'armonia gli antri canori.nnSorge più vaga in ciel l'aurora, e 'l solensparge più luci d'or: più puro argentonfregia di Teti il bel ceruleo manto.nnSol io, per selve abbandonate e sole,nl'ardor di due begli occhi e 'l mio tormento,ncome vuol mia ventura, hor piango hor canto.nnTranslation (by Tim Carter):nnZephyrus returns, and with sweet accentsnmakes the air pleasing and loosens his foot from the waves,nand murmuring among the green branches,nhe makes dance to his sound the flowers in the meadows.nnPhyllis and Chloris, garlands on their brow,ntemper their sweet and joyous notes of love;nand from the mountains and the valleys low and deepnsonorous caverns echo their harmony.nnDawn rises more lovely in the heavens,nand the sun spreads forth more rays of gold;nwhile purer silver adorns Thetis' fair cerulean mantle.nnOnly I, wandering through abandoned, lonely woods,nthe brightness of two lovely eyes and my torment,nas my fortune wills it, now I weep, now I sing. Less
