I was introduced to this piece by Stephan Schrader sometime in 2001-2001 as a member of his Bremen recorder ensemble. It is a lovely sonorous setting of sonnet CXXXI from the Canzoniere by Fracesca Petrarca [Petrarch] (1304-1374), the Italian poet who ushered in the Renaissance and who coined the term "Dark Age". There is also a Tenor/Bass version of this piece.
