This paper about an Italian madrigal of 1539 contextualizes the issue of death in XVIth century vocal music and poetry into the philosophical, social, political and religious life of the courts of Ferrara and Firenze between 1520 and 1550. Based on the psychoanalytic notions of “joy” and “thing”, it features death as a remissible, voluptuous no-thingness of the subject, within a priviledged, initiatic relationship with Beyond.