Originally written during the summer of 1920 in Anacapri, these songs for voice and piano to lyrics by the contemporary Italian poet Gabriele d'Annunzio have also been orchestrated by Swiss-born conductor Adriano who is known as a specialist in Respighi's music. The first song, "Un sogno" (A Dream), wanders through eerie chromatic reveries, subtlely underpinned by arpeggios in an unsettling, asymmetrical 11/8 tempo. This motion stops toward the end, supplanted by slowly moving sombre chords. The effect of Respighi's music is in fact dream-like, but not morbid.

The next song is "La Najade" (The Naiad [a water-nymph]). The voice floats and skips over a slow, steady, semi-staccato accompaniment, describing " the shady forest ... alive with softly trembling water ... now veiling her mysteries, now shivering through her clear veins ". The music becomes enriched with lush impressionistic harmonies. The initial music returns but stilled under the influence of a final strange image - " ... the water is silent, but for the sound of an urn, submerged by an invisible hand ".

The third song "La sera" (The Evening) is built of chromatic vocal lines and chords over an obsessive pulse like a heartbeat, a musical gesture that perfectly fits its morbid text: the singer obliquely addresses someone who has perhaps been stabbed. We are never certain whether a suicide, a murder, a natural death or merely a heavy sleep has occured.

For the fourth and final song "Sopra un'aria antica" (On an ancient air), the composer briefly quotes an aria from Cesti's opera Orontea. This song does nothing to lift the gothic veil of gloom that has permeated this set of songs, an unusual and interesting side of Respighi, as it describes the last conversation of two lovers. But by variations on the Cesti quote, there is a hint of past romance and concern that imbues the scene with some humanity. One of the lovers is aged and dying, but nevertheless expresses mistrust when the speaker still claims love for the dying one (the "dear friend"). The whole scene may also be a remembrance. The singer ends by casting a glance outside, and we are made to realize briefly that deception and desire are among the ways of the world. Respighi's mature achievement is to set the complex emotions and subjects in these texts wihtout sensationalist exaggeration, instead sympathically drawing us into aspects of life that we would often not wish to consider.

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