Madrigali 'Fire Songs' 4 'Io piango'  Morten Lauridsen
The choral masterpieces of the High Renaissance, especially the madrigals by Monteverdi and Gesualdo, provided the inspiration for Lauridsen.Italian love poems of that era imbue images of flames, burning and fire with symbolic significance. Lauridsen has used Renaissance style compositional idioms including word painting, modality, bold harmonic shifts, and intricate counterpoint to portray the images.