Matona mia cara

The Composer:
Orlando di Lassus (Composer of the late Renaissance)

Terms We Will Use This Week:

Secular Music: Non-religious music. (Think separate from religion. The opposite of this is
Sacred Music: Religious music.) Used throughout the Renaissance.
Madrigal: Popular form of secular, vocal music, especially in Italy and England. Madrigals were
based on poetry often about love. Traditionally unaccompanied.
Word Painting: Music parallels the movement, or action, of the text.
Downbeat: The first beat of the measure.
Crescendo: To gradually get louder. (The opposite of this is Decrescendo: To gradually get
softer)
Word Stress: Accentuating one syllable of the word/ text.
Legato: Tied together. Notes are sung, or played, smoothly with no separation, or intervening
silence. (The opposite of this is Staccato: Notes are short, with purposeful space in-between.)

Context/ Background:
- A German Mercenary solider, possibly a Condottieri, is swooning an Italian maiden.
- He is not fluent in Italian.
- Orlando di Lassus parallels this by placing the incorrect Word Stress on the Downbeats of this
piece. For example, instead of stressing to in Ma-to-na, he places Ma on the downbeat to
stress this syllable louder. To sum, this is purposefully crafted to mimic his inarticulate Italian.

Translation:
Matona, mia cara, Mi follere canzon,
My lovely Lady, I want a song to sing
Cantar sotto finestra, Lantze bon compagnon. Under your window: this lancer is jolly fellow!
Don don don, diri diri, don don don don.
Don don don, diri diri, don don don don.
Ti prego m'ascoltare, che mi cantar de bon,
E mi ti foller bene, come greco e capon.
Don don don, diri diri, don don don don.

Please listen to me, because Im singing well

And Im as fond of you as a Greek is of a capon!
Don don don, diri diri, don don don don.

Se mi non saper dire, tante belle razon,

Petrarcha mi non saper, Ne fonte d'Helicon.
Don don don, diri diri, don don don don.

I cannot tell you many elegant things,

I know nothing of Petrarch, nor the Fountain of Helicon
Don don don, diri diri, don don don don.