“A man with a distinctive voice and unusual ability,” in spite of a highly impressive career, the Roman composer Felice Sances (c. 1600-1679) owes a large proportion of his fame to the fact that in the 1630s he was amongst the first to publish no less than four books of cantade, the term he used to describe a genre of compositions for one, two or three solo voices and basso continuo consisting of several sections with an alternation of recitative, arioso and aria, a form which was establishing its popularity in that very period. Listen to Tirsi morir volea, the famous text by Guarini set to music by Sances. Two lovers search together for a morte sì soave e sì gradita (such a sweet and welcome death), a death they will manage to attain together in the parody of a sensual and voluptuous embrace.

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