Amarilli, mia bella

Amarilli, mia bella appeared in Le nuove musiche, the collection Caccini published in Florence in 1602 whose preface set out the principles of the new solo song: one voice over a figured bass, the words governing the music, ornament used for expression rather than display. The text, attributed to Alessandro Guarini, is a lover's plea to be believed. The piece became the standard specimen of early monody and has been sung by generations of students; its transmission through nineteenth-century anthologies, however, coated it in a Romantic accompaniment Caccini never wrote.