Quanto si gode, lieta e ben contesta

Quanto si gode, lieta e ben contesta
di fior, sopra' crin d'or d'una, grillanda;
che l'altro inanzi l'uno all' altro manda,
come ch'il primo sia a baciar la testa!

Contenta è tutto il giorno quella vesta
che serra 'l petto, e poi par che si spanda;
e quel c'oro filato si domanda
le guanci, e 'l collo di toccar non resta.

Ma più lieto quel nastro par che goda,
dorato in punta, con sì fatte sempre,
che preme e tocca il petto ch'egli allaccia.

E la schietta cintura che s'annoda.
Mi par dir seco: qui vo' stringier sempre!
Or che farebbon dunche le mie braccia?

by Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) , from Rime, no. 4

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

by Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich (1906-1975) , no title, op. 145 no. 2, from Suite, no. 2, also set in Russian

by Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich (1906-1975) , no title, op. 145 no. 2 (1974), from Suite, no. 2, also set in Italian

ENG English (John Addington Symonds)
GER German (Hermann Friedrich Grimm)

Added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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Sheet music:

  Twenty Six Italian Songs and Arias (J. G. Paton) [tismusic.com]
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Books:

  The Art of the Song Recital [amazon.com]
  The Book of Lieder: The Original Texts of Over 1000 Songs [amazon.com]
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Classical Vocal Repertoire