Madrigals by the Renaissance composer Monteverdi provided the inspiration for my own Madrigali. Symbolic images of flames, burning and fire recur often in Italian love poems from this era and my cycle on texts employing this fire motive blends stylistic musical features of the period (word painting, modality, bold harmonic shifts, intricate counterpoint, augenmusik, etc.) within a contemporary compositional idiom. The music emanates from a single, primal sonority (the Fire-Chord) which opens the piece and is found extensively throughout all six movements in myriad forms and manipulations, providing motivic unity to complement the poetic. This cycle of madrigals has been designated an American Choral Masterpiece by the National Endowment for the Arts. --Morten Lauridsen