Best 4 Voice

"April Is in My Mistress' Face" is a secular four-part madrigal by the English composer Thomas Morley, published in his First Book of Madrigals to Four Voices in 1594. Its brief text maps the seasons onto a woman's changing appearance: April in her face, July in her eyes, September in her breast, an...

Cipriano de Rore’s “Ancor che col partire” is a Renaissance madrigal composed around 1547. This piece, written for four voices and characteristic of Italian vocal music from that era, explores themes of farewell and separation. It gained significant popularity during the sixteenth century due to its...

Arcadelt’s “Il bianco e dolce cigno” is a Renaissance-era Italian madrigal for four voices. Composed around 1538, it represents a pivotal work in the development of the secular madrigal form. Its beauty and melodic invention quickly made it exceptionally popular throughout Europe. The piece is prima...

Fair Phyllis I Saw Sitting All Alone is a four-voice English madrigal by John Farmer, published in his First Set of English Madrigals in 1599. Its pastoral text follows the shepherdess Phyllis and her lover Amyntas, moving from solitude and searching to the couple's joyful reunion. Farmer uses word...

Ultimi miei sospiri is a four-voice Italian madrigal associated with Philippe Verdelot, an important composer in the early development of the genre. Its text sends the speaker's final sighs to a beloved and asks them to describe a death caused by separation. The musical setting uses clear declamatio...

A madrigal from Wilbye's Second Set (1609) arguing that true love transcends physical beauty, set with expressive chromatic writing characteristic of his mature style.

“Morir non può il mio cuore” is a four-voice Italian madrigal by Renaissance composer Maddalena Casulana, published in her First Book of Madrigals in 1568. Casulana was among the earliest women to have a substantial collection of her own music printed under her name. The work belongs to the secular...

O felici occhi miei is an Italian Renaissance madrigal by Jacques Arcadelt, a composer of Franco-Flemish origin who worked in Italy and France. Written for four unaccompanied voices, it sets a text praising the beloved's eyes and uses balanced phrases, clear declamation, and predominantly smooth pol...

Farmer's four-voice madrigal published in 1599, notable for its charming imitative texture depicting a shepherd searching through the fields for the shepherdess Phyllis.

Io son ferito, ahi lasso is a secular Italian madrigal by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, published in his First Book of Madrigals in 1555. Written for four voices, it sets a text of emotional injury and longing through balanced Renaissance polyphony while using musical gestures to clarify the poe...

“Madonna, il tuo bel viso” is an Italian madrigal by Philippe Verdelot, a Franco-Flemish composer active in Italy during the early sixteenth century. Verdelot worked principally in Florence and was among the composers who shaped the madrigal as a distinct genre through settings of Italian secular po...

Matona mia cara is a comic villanella by the Flemish composer Orlando di Lasso, also known as Orlande de Lassus, set for four voices. The text depicts a German landsknecht's clumsy courtship sung in deliberately broken Italian, with bawdy double meanings. The piece became widely popular across Europ...

Italian madrigal by Claudio Monteverdi on the theme of a wound in the heart, employing expressive dissonance and word-painting typical of the late Renaissance madrigal tradition.

"Mein G'müt ist mir verwirret" is a secular German lied composed by Hans Leo Hassler, first published in his 1601 collection titled *Lustgarten neuer teutscher Gesänge*. The piece is structured as a five-part madrigal and features amorous text characteristic of the late Renaissance period. Its most...

Franco-Flemish composer Jacques Arcadelt (c.1507–1568) wrote over 200 madrigals; his first book (1538) was one of the most frequently reprinted vocal collections of the 16th century.

Il vostro gran valore is an Italian four-voice madrigal by Maddalena Casulana, a Renaissance composer, singer, and lutenist active in northern Italy. Casulana became the first woman known to have a substantial collection of her own music printed under her name, beginning with her 1568 book of four-v...

A moralistic madrigal by Wilbye addressing those living in worldly pleasure, notable within his output for its serious, reflective tone rather than amorous content.

Wilbye's four-voice farewell madrigal from his First Set of Madrigals (1598), notable for its refined simplicity and affective setting of a pastoral parting scene.

Italian madrigal by Luca Marenzio praising the beloved in elegant polyphonic writing, typical of his graceful lyrical style found in his books of the 1580s.

“Quand'io penso al martire” is an Italian Renaissance madrigal by Jacques Arcadelt, a Franco-Flemish composer active principally in Italy and France. Written for four unaccompanied voices, it sets an Italian text associated with Petrarchan love poetry and uses the clear textures and balanced phrasin...

Lady, the birds right fairly is an English madrigal by Thomas Weelkes, a composer active around the turn of the seventeenth century. Written for four voices, it uses pastoral imagery in which birds and their singing provide the setting for an address to a lady. The work belongs to the English madrig...

Italian madrigal by Jacques Arcadelt lamenting the absence of the beloved, in the expressive four-voice style of his Roman and Florentine period during the 1530s–40s.

Pastoral madrigal by John Farmer from his First Set of English Madrigals (1599), affectionately describing a charming country girl in a light-hearted, dance-like style.

Italian madrigal by Jacques Arcadelt addressing the beloved departing to heaven, written in the graceful homophonic style characteristic of his Florentine period.

"April Is in My Mistress' Face" is a four-voice madrigal composed by the English composer Thomas Morley. Published in 1594, it is one of the most recognizable examples of the Italian madrigal style adapted for English audiences during the Renaissance. The piece sets a pastoral poem about a woman who...

A four-voice madrigal by Verdelot, a pioneer who helped establish the Italian madrigal in Florence and Rome during the 1520s, setting a text of amorous appeal.

'Lady, those cherries plenty' is a canzonet by Thomas Morley (1557–1602), an English composer whose lighter vocal works were central to popularizing the Italian style in England.

An early Italian madrigal by Verdelot, one of the Flemish-born composers credited with creating the madrigal form in Italy in the 1520s.

“Love Me Not for Comely Grace” is an English madrigal by John Wilbye, published in his First Set of Madrigals in 1598. Its text asks that love be based neither on physical beauty nor on qualities that can fade or change, but on love itself. Wilbye treats the reflective argument through balanced voca...