In a broad majestic rhythm Respighi's song tells of mourning. Mists rise slowly across the moorland and ravens fly sadly over it. The bare branches of trees face the biting winds of winter, praying. Lonely and cold, the singer hears across tho cold grey heavens a sigh of his lost beloved and a voice that calls 'Come!'
'BELLA PORTA DI RUBINI' is one of five songs in the style of an older day, very unlike the brilliant orchestral music of Respighi's symphonic poems. With all the simplicity of a folk song, it is in two short stanzas, sung to the same melody with the slightest of accompaniments. It is a little love song in which the singer speaks of his beloved's lips as a 'Fair gate of rubies.'