This is actually a mini-ballet that Monteverdi revised for inclusion in his seventh book of madrigals by reducing it from eight parts to five.

During the first large section, with Tirsi and Clori, the music is relatively spare and recitative-like, about as engaging as one of the lesser duets in the book. Versus Tirsi's agitated, chatty lines, Clori sings in a manner much more legato and drawn out. Hers is the preferable music. When they sing together the melodic style becomes, predictably, a mixture of the two manners. OK so far, but, when all five voices come in for the latter sections, it's one of the best parties you've ever been to.

The good stuff is made up mostly of strong, dancy homophonic statements by part of or the whole of the vocal group. There are moments when the marcati are so strong, backed with heavy emphasis on the harpsichord, that they seem like flashes of benevolent lightning, and are quite as pleasantly shocking.

The tone of the madrigal, as befits the text, and as befits the final number in a grand collection, is unreservedly celebratory. It's fully harmonized in the voices so the instruments are mainly present to enrich the timbre, and enrich it they do. Some cakes are barely as tall as the icing on top. Monteverdi is perhaps at his best when composing in a celebratory vein, and is surely one of the great composers of happy music of all time. It's strange to read Monteverdi's suck-up letters to his patron, Royal Highness of Mantua, regarding this music, because it's hard to imagine she could have deserved such a brilliant crown.

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