BARBARA STROZZI (1619-AFTER 1664) Cantata: Lagrime mie

[ill

[LamentoJ

60

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tJ - - - it" - ~-
La - - - - - - - gri-me mi - e,
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to

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tJ -che DOD i - slo-p - te fier, ~ 10
il i1 fier do - - - - - -
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~ From Barbara Strozzi, Diporti di Euterpe avera Cantate & ariette ayoce sola, Op. 7 (Venice:Alessandro Magni, 1659), ed. in Carol MacClintock, The Solo Song 1580-1730 (New York: Norton, 1973), pp. 81-88, corrected by reference to the 1659 edition. Half-brackets indicate colored notation for hemiola

321

322 6'0 STROZZI Lagrime mie

15

__ ----------iC-- -

tu, M - ----= -
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.., Che mi to-glie'l - .._. -
-re, re - spi -ro e op-pri - me il co - - - -
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~

[Arioso]

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- - - - - - - reo Li - dia, che tant' a -
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25

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I I 6'0 STROZZI Lagrime mie

323

80

fill - - - -
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I 85

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-gor Yim-prig- gio-no. Tra due mu-ra rin - chiu-sa st& la bel-la in-no-
~II
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III - rag-gio di s~~ .
-cen - te Do-ve giun-ger nonpuo Ie, E quel che pila mi
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duo - Ie ed ac - cresc' il mio mal, tor - men - ti e pe -
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324

6'0 STROZZI Lagrime mie

45

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che per Mia ca-gio-De.permia ca - gio-De pro -va ma - le il mi-o be -
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, I 50

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tI =1 E voi Iv mi do Ien ti. do
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~ 55

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IJ -leu ti. e voi Iv mi do leu ti , do Iea ti. piau
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J J 6'0 STROZZI Lagrime mie

325

85

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- - tel La - - - - - - - gei-me
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I 70

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tJ -:-- r che, , che vi teat - te - ne te?
ml - e, a -
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• 1- la,a I-me, veg-go man - car-ml, 1- la, 1-me, veg-go man - car - mi.

2. Se la moe - te me gra - di -ta, se 1& moe - te me gra- di - ta,

I:i-dol Or che

r

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75

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mio, che tan to a do - - - - eo, Sta co - lei tea d1l- ei mar-ml pee c1Ii
son pri- vo di spe - - - - ne, Dhe to - glie - te - mi la vi - ta (Ve ne
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tJ Bpi - ro, per cui spi E - ijIII roo Sti. co-lei tra du-ri
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pre-go, ve ne pre - go) a - spremi - e pe - - De. Dhe to-glie- te - mi la
1111
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I ~80

326

6'0 STROZZI Lagrime mie

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mar-rot,per CUI spi -ro, per cui spi - ro E pur __ non mo - - - ro. ___
vi - ta, (ve De pre-go, ve ne pre - go) a - spremie pe - - - De. ___
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85

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tJ r che per tor-Men-tar gior
Ma beD mac-cor - go, - - mi mag - - men -
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" -- Adagio

90

6'0 STROZZI Lagrime mie

327

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II.! - te, La te mi nie-ga ,. r mi nie-ga mi
- sor - an -co 1a mar - te, an - co,
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328

6'0 STROZZI Lagrime mie

1t5

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.
. Lagrime mie, a che vi trattenete, Perche non isfogate il fier' dolore,

Chi mi toglie '1 respiro e opprime il core?

Lidia, che tant' adoro,

Perche un guardo pietoso, ahime, mi dono, n paterno rigor l'impriggiono.

Tra due mura rinchiusa

se la bella innocente,

Dove giunger non puo raggio di sole, E quel che piu mi duole

Ed accresc'il mio mal, tormenti

e pene,

E che per mia cagione Prova male il mio bene.

E voi lumi dolenti, non piangete! Lagrime mie, a che vi trattenete?

Lidia, ahime, veggo mancarmi. L'idol mio, che tanto adoro,

Sd colei tra duri marmi

Per cui spiro e pur non moro.

Se la morte m' e gradita,

Or che son privo di spene, Dhe, toglietemi la vita

(Ve ne prego) aspre mie pene.

Ma ben m'accorgo, che per tormentarmi Maggiormente, la sorte

Mi niega anco la morte.

Se dunqu'e vero, 0 Dio,

Che sol del pianto mio,

n rio destino ha sete.

My tears, what holds you back,

why don't you give vent to the fierce pain

that takes away my breath and weighs on my heart?

Lidia, whom I adore so much,

because of the pitying glance, alas, that she gave me, paternal severity has imprisoned her.

Locked up between two walls,

remains the innocent beauty,

where no ray of sun can reach,

and what pains me most

and increases my discomfort, torments,

and anguish,

is that because of me my beloved suffers.

And you, pained eyes, weep not! Tears, what holds you back?

Lidia, alas, I feel myself failing.

My idol, whom I adore so much remains between hard marble walls. For her I sigh, yet I don't die.

If death suits me,

now that I am deprived of hope, Oh, take away my life-

I beg you-my bitter suffering.

Still I realize that to torment me the more, destiny

even denies me death.

It is true then, 0 God,

that only for my tears

does cruel fate thirst.

6'0 STROZZI Lagrime mie

329

In its form, a succession of sections of recitative, arioso, and aria, this work is representative of the solo cantatas of the mid-seventeenth century. The poet may be Giulio Strozzi (of a Florentine noble family but residing in Venice), with whom Barbara Strozzi lived from childhood and who may have been her father. (She set many of his verses.) He founded an academy, the Unisoni, partly to give her an outlet for her performances and compositions.

Except for two stanzas of four eight-syllable lines each, which Strozzi set as a strophic aria (measures 71-87), the text is made up of madrigal-type verse of seven- and eleven-syllable lines without a regular rhyme scheme. She divided this free verse into sections according to content. The first three lines, in which the poet addresses his tears, she made into a lament. The next ten lines, a narration about Lidia, the object of the poet's love, she set as an arioso. When the poet recalled the weeping eyes (measures 49ff.), the composer invoked the conventional emblem of the lament-the descending bass in triple meter. With the return of the opening line, "Lagrime mie, a che vi trattenete?," Strozzi brought back its music as a kind of refrain. After the Aria (so marked in the original), a short recitative leads to a triple-time bel canto section built on a descending-fourth bass, which is abandoned for two closing sections, the first ending deceptively on G (measure 116), the last on the tonic, E minor.

The dry declamation of theatrical dialogue did not fit such intimate poetic texts, so composers softened, sweetened, and intensified the recitative style in the cantatas meant for chamber performance. In the opening recitative, Strozzi very artfully exploited many of the rhetorical devices that the Roman composers Luigi Rossi (1597-1653) and Giacomo Carissimi (1605-1674) had introduced into cantata recitative. The hesitations on the dissonant D#, A, and F# over the opening E-minor harmony, together with the Cq of the harmonic-minor scale, make a most moving and vivid projection of the lamenting lover's weeping and sobbing. In the Arioso, the tasteful word-inspired runs at "adoro," "pietoso," and "rigor," the delicate chromaticism at "tormenti," and the compelling seventh chords and suspensionsparticularly over the descending basses-show Strozzi's mastery in applying the affective vocabulary of this genre.