Scorrete lagrime mie; flow, my tears. Tears of sorrow, of joy, of penance, of self-pity; pious tears, passionate tears, tears of longing, of betrayal; tears shed for God; because “faith is dead” or “the stars have no pity”; tears as one's only sustenance, or as a sole refuge of solace. Tears of death, and of life.
In their treatment of these themes, Barbara Strozzi, Francesca Caccini, Sigismondo d'India and Giovanni Battista Bovicelli use extremely colourful word-painting and encourage and require an extreme level of subtlety and variation in sound colours, articulations and shading. Their music thus constitutes a perfect conduit for Lagrime to explore the vocal virtuosity of the trombone, an instrument that historically has perhaps more than any other been associated with the voice.