Composer Caroline Shaw composed “Dolce Cantavi” for TENET Vocal Artists and used as her inspiration a poem written by 16th-century Italian poet Francesca Turini Bufalini.

Bufalini was the first Italian woman to write autobiographically, detailing her life experiences, emotions, and even the places she lived in her poems. After being driven out of her home in Umbria by her sons, she sought refuge at the Colonna Palace in Rome with Duchess Lucrezia Tomacelli. She was very happy there for eight years until the Duchess’s sudden death, forcing Bufalini to return to Umbria. This poem speaks of the lovely little bird who has gone away and we imagine Bufalini speaking directly to the Duchess, longing for her impossible return.

Vago augellin, che per quei rami ombrosi
dolce cantavi a minüir mie pene,
di sentirti al mio cor gran desir viene
per fare in tutto i giorni miei giocosi.

Deh vieni, e teco mena i più famosi
cantor che quella selva in sen ritiene,
ché goderete in queste rive amene,
ed a l'estivo dì starete ascosi.

Il boschetto vi attende, e 'l bel giardino
là dove in fra le fronde e l'onda e l'ora
gareggian mormorando a me vicino.

A cantar sorgeremo in sul mattino:
io con le Muse invocarò l'aurora,
e voi col vostro gorgheggiar divini.

Lovely little bird, who, among those shady branches,
used to sing so sweetly to mitigate my sorrows,
a great desire comes to my heart to hear you again,
to make my days complete in their joy.

Come, and bring with you the most famous singers
that the forest nurtures in its breast,
for you will have the pleasure of these fair waters
and be hidden away from the heat of the summer day.

The little wood awaits you, and the lovely garden where,
among the leaves, the ripples and the breeze
compete in their murmuring beside me.

We will rise together before sunrise:
I will herald the dawn with the Muses,
And you with your warbling divine.