Claudio Monteverdi
Lamento della ninfa, II. Amor
Analysis by Bruce Mayhall Rastrelli, 2014
Fibonacci Golden Section
Melodic change:
descending retardations
Continuo
1 2 3 4 5
ground bass, 34x
6
7
a
8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69
a
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g g
g
g g
g
g g
Retardation
Nymph
Men
Cadential
Amor x3,
amor dove…
fa che ritorni… tu m'ancidi
Love,
where is the faith…
let my love return…or else kill me
dicea il ciel…
she said, stopping to look at the sky,
miserella (TTB)
wretched
no mi tormenti x3
so I may no longer be tormented
Chromaticism
ù ch'ei sospiri
I do not want his sighs or martyrdom
Cad.
Ascending scale Chromaticism
If I fret, he is proud; if I flee,will he pray to me?
she can't endure such suffering
T1 T2 B
G2 G3
G4
G5
G6 (kill me)
G7 (sighs)
Hits will be affected by flexibility of tempo in the Nymph's part (as instructed by Monteverdi); the points are close enough to be valid.
Range narrows
se ciglio ha piu sereno colei…rinchiudi
perdi lui mi struggo…ancor mi preghera
miserella (a3) T2: più no tanto gel soffrir
B
T2
T1
a3
ah miserella, p ù no, no
Fibonacci
Descending retardations
Her brow may be more serene
ne mai si dolci baci mai…taci che troppo il sa.
but her breast has not faith
T1
T1 men tacet until b. 53 T2
T2
T1 T2
B
B: tanto gel…
B
miserell'ah' piu no, no
miserell' ah
tanto gel soffrir no puo
G8
Never will I have kisses from his mouth
T1
T2
B
Silent, he knows too much.
T1 men tacet to fine.
T2
B
miserella
G12 (silent)
G9 (return of men)G10 (return of nymph)G11 (mouth)
G14 (final cad.)
G13 (Nymph alone:
"Silent"