Canticum Canticorum (Song of Solomon) from 1584 is a cycle of 29 motets by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.
Originally titled Motettorum - Liber Quartus, this Renaissance work is one of Palestrina's largest collections of Sacred motets.
The text uses the main image of a man and wife almost throughout, the poem suggesting movement from courting to consummation.
Palestrina famously declared: "Sic enim rem ipsam postulare intelligebam" - indicating that he realised that he was creating something new which may not be suitable for use in the church.
[2] The entire piece forms a dramatic lyric consisting of a series of individual motets.
Palestrina did not use the biblical verses in their original order, but arranged them to achieve a dramatic context.
Therefore, some writers emphasised that if Palestrina intended for these motets to be a single quasi-dramatic work then the textual content would not have been set to five-part polyphony.
It was common for him and his contemporaries to overcome this obstacle by creating very long pieces that can be divided into shorter works, each clearly distinguishable by their episodic character.