Cantare di Amore

Composer's note:
Cantare di Amore was composed in 2009, at the request of Perry Goldstein and the Stony Brook Premieres Series. Having long admired the music of Claudio Monteverdi and wishing to compose something in Italian, I struck upon the idea of re-casting poetry from Monteverdi’s madrigals. These iconic love songs provided highly ornate images and words which nevertheless still embody the ideals of love that we still crave. Who doesn’t want “to burn and die” at the sight of a lover’s “sparkling eyes”? Who wouldn’t want a love that will last until “the sun lights the earth at night?” My hope was to remind us of the power, the beauty, and the importance of love as a central feature of our humanity, unchanged by time.