Schmelzer – Lamento sopra la morte di Ferdinand III (PDF Download)

Schmelzer’s Lamento sopra la morte di Ferdinand III was composed in 1657 to mark the death of Ferdinand III, the Holy Roman Emperor. It’s a deeply-felt elegy in which a solo trumpet and piano (originally a violin in a four-part string ensemble) imitates ‘soft’ funeral music, only to explode into a passionate outpouring of grief in short, sobbing phrases. Tolling church bells are soon metamorphosed into a robust dance, a hearty celebration of the late Emperor which leads to a final coda of regret and sustaining loss.