From Petrarcha’s Trionfo del Tempo

Il Trionfo della Morte, Brussels tapestry (ca. 1510) after the work of Francesco Petrarcha

Passan vostri triomphi e vostre pompe,

Passan le signorie, passano i regni;

Ogni cosa mortal temp’interrompe;

E ritolta a men buon, non da à piu degni:

E non pur quel di fuor il tempo solve,

Ma le vostr’eloquentie e i vostri ingegni.

Cosi fuggend’, il mondo seco volve;

Ne mai si posa ne s’arest’ o torna,

Fin che v’ha ricondotti in poca polve.

Your triumphs and your pomp transpire,

The nobility passes and kingdoms crumble,

Time brings low all mortal things;

And what he reaps from those less good, he does not pass to those more worthy:

And not only the superficial things are laid waste by time,

But also your eloquence and works of genius.

Thus sped along, the world moves with him;

He takes no time to rest; neither does he stop nor turn from his appointed course,

Until in the end he has transformed you back to your essence: a bit of dust.

–Francesco Petrarca, Trionfo del Tempo (The Triumph of Time), v. 112-120 (S.H. transl.) (ca. 1352)

Listen to Orlando di Lasso’s setting of Petrarcha’s Passan vostri triomphi e vostre pompe (Your triumphs and pomp transpire) from Trionfo del Tempo (vv. 112-120) as a madrigal for 11 voices, a masterpiece of the late polyphonic tradition, here in a purely instrumental performance.

And listen here for a vocal performance by the Orlando di Lasso Ensemble.