Diffugere nives (Leonhard Lechner)

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• (Posted 2025-11-28)  CPDL #87571: 

Editor: Christopher Shaw (submitted 2025-11-28).   Score information: A4, 3 pages, 70 kB   Copyright: CC BY SA

Edition notes: Please click on the link for preview/playback/PDF download.

General Information

Title: Diffugere nives
Composer: Leonhard Lechner
Lyricist: Horace
Number of voices: 5vv   Voicing: SATTB
Genre: Secular, Madrigal

Language: Latin
Instruments: A cappella

First published: 1581 in Sacrarum cantionum, liber secundus (Leonhard Lechner), no. 13
Description: The setting of an Horatian Ode, concerning the return of spring, contained in Lechner's Sacrarum cantionum, book 2; probably better considered as a secular madrigal. The translation by Christopher Smart was highly regarded in its day.

Original text and translations

Latin text Diffugere nives, redeunt iam gramina campis Arboribusque comae; Mutat terra vices et decrescentia ripas Flumina praetereunt; Gratia cum nymphis geminisque sororibus audet Ducere nuda choros. Immortalia ne speres, monet annus et almum Quae rapit hora diem.

English translation The snows are fled, the herbage now returns to the fields, and the leaves to the trees; the earth changes its appearance, and the decreasing rivers glide along their banks; the elder Grace, together with the Nymphs and her two sisters, ventures naked to lead off the dance. That you are not to expect things permanent, the year, and the hour that hurries away the agreeable day, admonish us. (Trans. Christopher Smart)