Description
For SATB chorus, 9’
Commissioned by the Sacred and Profane Chamber Chorus
On “Italia Mia” by Petrarch
About the Music
Petrarch’s remarkable canzona, Italia Mia, is a plea for peace among the warring factions in late medieval Italy. Of his eight original stanzas, I have set six. My setting revolves around an idee fixe made out of minor thirds, emphasizing the bittersweet nature of Petrach’s plea. I also invoke the mainly syllabic style of Renaissance Italian madrigals, but break into melismatic sighs in the last movement, whose final phrase expresses Petrarch’s poignant wish for his country: “Who will assure me? I go my way crying ‘Peace, peace, peace!’”
