Lamento della ninfa: Text and Music

Posted May 1st, 2008 by allaboutclassical

After taking a concise look at the historical background that surrounded Monteverdi's madrigals in the last article, now we will take a look at the music and text of the lament. 

Lamento della Ninfa: The Lament's Text

Original Text by Rinnucini (Italian)

English Translation

Non havea Febo ancora
recato al mondo il dí,
ch'una donzella fuora
del proprio albergo uscí.
Sul pallidetto volto
scorgeasi il suo dolor,
spesso gli venia sciolto
un gran sospir dal cor.
Sí calpestando fiori
errava hor qua, hor là,
i suoi perduti amori
cosí piangendo va:

"Amor", dicea, il ciel
mirando, il piè fermo,
"dove, dov'è la fè
ch'el traditor giurò?"
Miserella.

"Fa' che ritorni il mio
amor com'ei pur fu,
o tu m'ancidi, ch'io
non mi tormenti più."
Miserella, ah più no, no,
tanto gel soffrir non può.

"Non vo' più ch'ei sospiri
se non lontan da me,
no, no che i martiri
più non darammi affè.
Perché di lui mi struggo,
tutt'orgoglioso sta,
che si, che si se'l fuggo
ancor mi pregherà?
Se ciglio ha più sereno
colei, che'l mio non è,
già non rinchiude in seno,
Amor, sí bella fè.
Ne mai sí dolci baci
da quella bocca havrai,
ne più soavi, ah taci,
taci, che troppo il sai."

Sí tra sdegnosi pianti
spargea le voci al ciel;
cosí ne' cori amanti
mesce amor fiamma,
e gel.

Phoebus had not yet
escorted daylight into thte world,
when a young damsel stepped out
of her home.
Sorrow could be seen
in every expression on her pallid face,
and often she would give a great
despairing sigh from her sad heart.
Thoughtlessly and aimlessly, she wandered about,
trampling the flowers,
walking here and there,
thus lamenting her beloved, now lost to her:

"Love", she said
looking at the sky, standing steadily.
"where is that
faithfulness the traitor swore, love?"
Poor, wretched one!

"Make him return,
as loving as he was
or kill me so that
I will not be tormented any longer."
Poor, wretched one! No, no
longer can she stand such harsh suffering.

"I don't want him to sigh unless he is far from me,
no, no, nor have him tell me of his sufferings.
Because he knows that I
love him so deeply, he is
haughty; of course, if I
refuse him, he will come
begging. Even if the other woman is fairer than I,
she cannot love him more
or be more faithful.
Nor will he ever have from
her lips such sweet or
tender kisses-
ah, be silent,
because he well knows all of this."



And so, amidst her indignant tears,
she spoke these words to the sky.
It is like this in low ring hearts
when feelings of love, fire and ice
can be intermingled together.

 

Thoughts on Monteverdi's treatment of the text and music

With a quick look at the text of the lament then taking another look at the score, one can quickly notice Monteverdi’s ingenuity in manipulating the text and trying to renew the rather familiar worn-out strophic form of the verses. In fact, the same text was put to music by at least three known composers before Monteverdi published his work, and all is in strophic form!

So how did Monteverdi treat the text? He eliminated the stanzas of indirect speech, probably acting as refrains, in the text thus leaving a long uninterrupted monologue to be sung by the heroine; while he took those and assigned them to a three-male chorus as compassionate commentary interjections in the background; This leaves the original canzonetta far behind; and effectively gives the nymph a voice of her own instead of depending on narrative verse.

The structure thus arisen from this step is an unusual one; not an aria, but very similar to one; and also different from a recitative. The 4 parts are then set against an underlying fixed ostinato, of only four descending notes: A, G, F, E (or what is known as a ‘descending tetrachord’). This same basso ostinato became later a basis of many laments in the baroque era, and an archetype or an ‘emblem of lament’ was established, and thus we can observe the influence of this particular composition, which was both immediate and profound.

The directness and simplicity of the text and the immediacy of the emotions it wants to convey contains more drama than many a full-fledged opera. The dissonance in the nymph's melody is also crucial to the expression of the emotions that are to be conveyed by the text.

Writing process in progress- to be continued ...