Cantilena

Cantilena (2025)

for voice and piano

Duration: 3 minutes

Originally composed in 2012 for the final scene in Michelangelo Drawing Blood,
a music-theatre for voices and period instruments, this new version – for voice and piano –
was created in 2025.

The text is from Michelangelo Buonarroti’s Rime 247, written in his later years,
possibly between 1532 and 1546, during his relationship with Tommaso dei Cavalieri.

Text:
Caro m’è ‘l sonno, e più di sasso,
mentre che ‘l danno e la vergogna dura:
non veder, non sentir m’è gran ventura;
però non mi destar, deh! parla basso.

Translation:
Slumber is sweet, but is were sweeter still
To turn to stone while shame and sorrow last,
Nor see, nor hear, and so be freed from ill;
Ah, wake me not! Whisper as you go past!

Score

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