Utendal – Je veus morir

Title

Je veus morir pour tes beautez

Composer

Alexander Utendal  (c. 1543-1581)

Source

Fröhliche neue Teutsche und Frantzösische Lieder, Dieterich Gerlach (Nuremberg) 1574

(text on Lieder.net site here)
(blog entry here)
(recorded extract here:  source, Hofmusik auf Schloss Ambras: Froeliche newe Teutsche vnnd Frantzoesische Lieder (1574), Neue Innsbrucker Hofkapelle)

Just the one sonnet, but Utendal spreads the text over three separate parts of this song, making it one of the longest I’ve yet posted (at over 200 bars). Each section starts with a variant of the ‘Je veux morir’ motif from the beginning. It’s also one of the most chromatic songs yet, with dozens of sharps and flats marked. The ‘replique’ (part three) has a most astonishing run of them, more than 50 accidentals printed in the first half! As Utendal is flattening several E’s he also feels the need to mark some of them ‘sharp’ (i.e. natural) to indicate when he is not flattening them.

My extract is roughly bars 136-158, part of that very chromatic section.

Although mostly the voices overlap, there are moments of homophony for emphasis: at bar 45, everyone comes together to emphasise that the lady is like a goddess (“d’une deesse”), for instance. And in the second section, the 5th voice drops out for another change in the ‘sound’.

part 2        

part 3

Utendal – Jane en te baisant

Title

Jane en te baisant

Composer

Alexander Utendal  (c. 1543-1581)

Source

Fröhliche neue Teutsche und Frantzösische Lieder, Dieterich Gerlach (Nuremberg) 1574

(text on Lieder.net site here)
(blog entry here)
(recorded extract here:  source, Hofmusik auf Schloss Ambras: Froeliche newe Teutsche vnnd Frantzoesische Lieder (1574), Neue Innsbrucker Hofkapelle)

Another of Utendal’s pieces, this a light ode all about kissing & cuddling. It gets a lively performance from the Austrians; the extract is from the opening. They get through 60 bars of music in a minute – quite reasonably! You can readily hear the imitative style of ‘international’ polyphony, the overlapping opening phrases etc: how unlike Clereau and the French homophnoic air de cour style.

Utendal is one of those composers who likes to dot the i’s: all through this book he carefully marks all the accidentals, incliding lots that are ‘understood’ in most books of this period – the ficta notes at a cadence, where the leading note is raised a semitone: note all the C-sharps and G-sharps in this piece. Worth pointing out that musicologists seem quite divided on whether Cs and Gs generally get sharpened or not. But they are usually focusing on a period a century or more earlier; by the 1570s these sort of accidentals are more common so Utendal is not sticking his neck out. Even so we can see other books from this period where both notes are quite obviously not sharpened.

Utendal writes the bass line of this song low: it ends on a low D, 2 or 3 notes lower than most bass lines and a quite demanding note – especially as in the next song in the book the bass is expected to go up to the D two octaves above!

Helen 2:69

Tes freres les Jumeaux, qui ce mois verdureux

Maistrisent, et qui sont tous deux liez ensemble,

Te devroient enseigner, au moins comme il me semble,

A te joindre ainsi qu’eux d’un lien amoureux.

 

Mais ton corps nonchalant revesche et rigoureux,

Qui jamais en son cœur le feu d’amour n’assemble,

En ce beau mois de May, malgré tes ans ressemble,

O perte de jeunesse ! à l’Hyver froidureux.

 

Tu n’es digne d’avoir les deux Jumeaux pour freres :

A leur gentille humeur les tiennes sont contraires,

Venus t’est desplaisante, et son fils odieux,

 

Au contraire, par eux la terre est toute pleine

De Graces et d’Amours : change ce nom d’Helene :

Un autre plus cruel te convient beaucoup mieux.

 

 

 

 

                                                                            Your brothers the Twins [Gemini], who are in charge

                                                                            Of this verdant month, and who are both bound together,

                                                                            Ought to teach you – or so it seems to me –

                                                                            To bind yourself as they have with the ties of love.

 

                                                                            But your body – indolent, surly and harsh,

                                                                            Never in its heart gathering the fires of love –

                                                                            In this fair month of May, despite your youth, resembles

                                                                            (O waste of youth!) the freezing winter.

 

                                                                            You are not worthy to have the Twins as brothers;

                                                                            To their gentle humour your own are opposed,

                                                                            Venus [Love] displeases you, her son is hateful,

 

                                                                            And yet through them the earth is filled

                                                                            With Graces and Loves! Change your name of Helen;

                                                                            A different one, more cruel, would suit you much better.

 

 

 

Straightforward mythology throughout here. Castor & Pollux, the Gemini, are Helen’s brothers through their mother Leda; of course Helen shares Zeus as a father with one of the two (the other had a mortal father). The Twins are, however, generally seen as gods of travellers, sailors, sportsmen rather than “Graces and Loves”, although a “gentle humour” fits them.

 

I am a little surprised by Ronsard’s last line: he often treats Helen as a name linked with destruction (I assume he derives it from ἑιλον, ‘I captured, killed, destroyed’, rather than ἑλένη, or ‘torch’, ‘light’ which seems popular these days, though considered doubtful by Liddell & Scott) – yet here is presumably thinking of that more attractive etymology, if telling her to lose that name and choose one ‘more cruel’.

 

Blanchemain offers a variant in line 6, not changing the sense:”Qui jamais nulle flamme amoureuse n’assemble”, ‘Never gathering any flame of love‘. Additionally, he offers an alternative reading for the final tercet:

 

Au contraire, par eux tout est plein d’allegresse,
De Graces et d’Amours : change de nom, maistresse.

Un autre plus cruel te convient beaucoup mieux.

 

                                                                            And yet through them all is filled with the happiness 

                                                                            Of Graces and Loves! Change that name, mistress;

                                                                            A different one, more cruel, would suit you much better.

 

 

 

 

 

Helen 2:57

De Myrte et de Laurier fueille à fueille enserrez

Helene entrelassant une belle Couronne,

M’appella par mon nom : Voyla que je vous donne,

De moy seule, Ronsard, l’escrivain vous serez.

 

Amour qui l’escoutoit, de ses traicts acerez

Me pousse Helene au cœur, et son Chantre m’ordonne :

Qu’un sujet si fertil vostre plume n’estonne :

Plus l’argument est grand, plus Cygne vous mourrez.

 

Ainsi me dist Amour, me frappant de ses ailes :

Son arc fist un grand bruit, les fueilles eternelles

Du Myrte je senty sur mon chef tressaillir.

 

Adieu Muses adieu, vostre faveur me laisse :

Helene est mon Parnasse : ayant telle Maistresse,

Le Laurier est à moy je ne sçaurois faillir.

 

 

 

 

                                                                            With myrtle and laurel closely twined leaf by leaf

                                                                            Helen was weaving a fair crown,

                                                                            And she called me by my name : « This is what I give you:

                                                                            Of me alone, Ronsard, you shall write.”

 

                                                                            Love, who heard her, with his sharp blows

                                                                            Drives Helen into my heart, and ordains me her Singer;

                                                                            “May a subject so fertile not silence your pen:

                                                                            The greater the topic, the greater the swan you will die as.”

 

                                                                            So said Love to me, striking me with his wings;

                                                                            His bow made a great noise, the eternal leaves

                                                                            Of myrtle I felt rustling on my head.

 

                                                                            Farewell Muses, farewell, your favour has left me.

                                                                            Helen is my Parnassus; having such a mistress,

                                                                            The Laurel is mine and I cannot fail.

 

 

 

Here Ronsard takes one metaphor, that of the Muses on Parnassus, and twists it into another metaphor we are quite familiar with – though rarely this literally – the beloved as the poet’s muse. Here Helen weaves him a crown of myrtle, representing poetry, and laurel, representing victory; and crowning him her ‘champion’ insists he look to her, not the Muses, for inspiration. And in the last lines that is what he does, encouraged by Love (Cupid) who endorses the choice emphatically. Parnassus does not just represent the home of the Muses (hence Helen is the ‘home’ of his new muse), Ronsard also wants us to think of how poets sought inspiration: as Richelet tells us, “those who wished to become poets would go and sleep on this mountain”, and I have no doubt Ronsard wants us (and Helen) to get the message about sleeping together…

 

I suspect “calling me by my name” in line 2 is significant, the kind of magic spell which is more potent for naming names specifically. In line 8 the ‘swan’ who dies is of course the poet – “you will die the greater poet for singing of Helen”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Helen 2:41

Laisse de Pharaon la terre Egyptienne,

Terre de servitude, et vien sur le Jourdain :

Laisse moy ceste Court et tout ce fard mondain,

Ta Circe, ta Sirene, et ta magicienne.

 

Demeure en ta maison pour vivre toute tienne,

Contente toy de peu : l’âge s’enfuit soudain.

Pour trouver ton repos, n’atten point à demain :

N’atten point que l’hyver sur les cheveux te vienne.

 

Tu ne vois à ta Cour que feintes et soupçons :

Tu vois tourner une heure en cent mille façons :

Tu vois la vertu fausse, et vraye la malice.

 

Laisse ces honneurs pleins d’un soing ambitieux,
Tu ne verras aux champs que Nymphes et que Dieux,
Je seray ton Orphee, et toy mon Eurydice.

 

 

 

 

                                                                            Leave Pharaoh’s land, Egypt,

                                                                            Land of servitude, and come to the Jordan ;

                                                                            Leave this Court for me, leave all its worldly artifice,

                                                                            Leave your Circe, your siren, your witch.

 

                                                                            Stay home, and live by yourself,

                                                                            Content yourself with little; age rushes on us so suddenly.

                                                                            To find peace, do not wait on tomorrow ;

                                                                            Don’t wait till winter comes upon your hairs.

 

                                                                            At your Court, you see only deception and suspicion ;

                                                                            You see see each hour pass in a hundred thousand ways ;

                                                                            You see false virtue and true malice.

 

                                                                            Leave those honours, full of ambitious care :

                                                                            In the countryside, you’ll see only nymphs and gods ;

                                                                            I’ll be your Orpheus, you my Eurydice.

 

 

 

The basic message is obvious: leave the pretence (pretensions) of the court, come and live the simple life with me. The presentation, the detail is typically complex – a mix of classical and Biblical material.

 

We begin in the Bible: the image of Israel leaving Egypt with Moses to move to the Promised Land, Jordan. The Jewish people in Egypt were of course in servitude – but some at least (Moses for example) served at the Egyptian court and lived like the nobility: no doubt Ronsard is thinking of both, despite speaking only of servitude – or perhaps service – at court. The key point is in the next line: it’s the difference between artifice and reality, not service and freedom, which is at issue here.

 

That becomes clear from line 4: Circe the temptress (and sorceress, enchanting men to be her porcine servants), the siren again calling men temptingly and irresistibly. Servitude at court is not tempting, but the artificiality of life there certainly could be.

 

The second quatrain is pretty optimistic after that: give up all that temptation to grow old alone! The point is in the next tercet: simplicity and a life alone, instead of deception, suspicion, malice. Honours maybe, but honours accompanied by care and ambition, which will not sustain you into old age, nor make life truly pleasant.

 

And so back to mythology: the simplicity of country life represented by the traditional ‘nymphs and shepherds’ and by the gods Ronsard invokes so often, the gods of the countryside; and finally Orpheus and Eurydice, famous for their simplicity, their single-minded love, and (in Orpheus’s case), for poetry and music.

 

It’s a lovely sonnet. Come back and read it regularly.

 

(One tiny variant in Blanchemain’s version: line 9 begins “Tu ne vois à la Cour …”) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Helen 2:18

Je voyois me couchant, s’esteindre une chandelle,

Et je disois au lict bassement à-par-moy,

Pleust à Dieu que le soin, que la peine et l’esmoy,

Qu’Amour m’engrave au cœur, s’esteignissent comme elle.

 

Un mastin enragé, qui de sa dent cruelle

Mord un homme, il luy laisse une image de soy

Qu’il voit tousjours en l’eau : Ainsi tousjours je voy,

Soit veillant ou dormant, le portrait de ma belle.

 

Mon sang chaud en est cause. Or comme on voit souvent

L’Esté moins boüillonner que l’Automne suivant,

Mon Septembre est plus chaud que mon Juin de fortune.

 

Helas ! pour vivre trop, j’ay trop d’impression.

Tu es mort une fois bien-heureux Ixion,

Et je meurs mille fois pour n’en mourir pas une.

 

 

 

 

                                                                            I saw, as I was lying down, my candle go out

                                                                            And on my bed I said quietly to myself,

                                                                            ‘Would to God that the care, pain and agitation

                                                                            Which love engraves on my heart, could be extinguished like that. »

 

                                                                            A mad mastiff, which with its cruel teeth

                                                                            Bites a man, leaves him an image of itself

                                                                            Which he sees always as he sees water. And thus I always see,

                                                                            Waking or sleeping, the portrait of my fair one.

 

                                                                            My hot blood is the reason for it. Just as we often see

                                                                            The summer less boiling than the autumn which follows,

                                                                            So it chances my September is hotter than my June.

 

                                                                            Alas! From living too long, I have felt too much:

                                                                            Happily you died just once, Ixion,

                                                                            While I die a thousand times so as not to die of it once.

 

 

 

 

 

Here Ronsard provides three finely-drawn images one after another. First, the candle at his bedside, so easily extinguished – unlike the flame of love. Second, quite a shocking image suggesting that love’s madness is very like the most deadly madness of all – rabies, or hydrophobia, a real killer disease now as then. (Richelet, Ronsard’s commentator here, tells us of line 7, that “this illness is called ‘pathos hydrophobikon’, because those who are affected by this illness fear water, because water always represents to them a dog.” That might not be quite how it is, but clearly there is a similar image in Ronsard’s mind as he talks of the infected man seeing an image of the mad dog when he sees water.)

 

Then, third, in the sestet, Ronsard alludes to the heat of the dog-days (generally, August-September), carefully leaving us to make the link with the heated madness of  the ‘mad dog’ of the previous four lines. It is a lovely image linking the unusual sultry heat of the post-summer months, with the unusual heat of his love now that he is past his youth. 

 

Then finally a mythological reference, of course. Usually Ixion is represented as bound to a burning wheel for eternity – hardly dying just once! (Though I suppose, with typical romantic hyperbole, Ronsard could be saying “Ixion’s post-death pains aside, he did in fact die just once; whereas I the poet die hundreds of times – how much worse that is!”) Ixion in any case has other resonances: Ixion, guilty of murdering his father-in-law, is another example of madness, perhaps even love’s madness; and some sources make Ixion’s father Phlegyas – a name meaning ‘fiery’. Hence, Ronsard is making a multi-layered reference here, and perhaps he did have in mind some version of the story where Ixion did indeed die a single, simple death – though the way he writes “even Ixion…” suggests the hyperbole above instead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Helen 2:27

Le Juge m’a trompé : ma Maistresse m’enserre

Si fort en sa prison, que j’en suis tout transi :

La guerre est à mon huis. Pour charmer mon souci,

Page, verse à longs traits du vin dedans mon verre.

 

Au vent aille l’amour, le procez et la guerre,

Et la melancholie au sang froid et noirci :

Adieu rides adieu, je ne vy plus ainsi :

Vivre sans volupté c’est vivre sous la terre.

 

La Nature nous donne assez d’autres malheurs

Sans nous en acquerir. Nud je vins en ce monde,

Et nud je m’en iray. Que me servent les pleurs,

 

Sinon de m’attrister d’une angoisse profonde ?

Chasson avec le vin le soin et les malheurs :

Je combas les soucis, quand le vin me seconde.

 

 

 

 

                                                                            The Judge deceived me : my mistress has shut me up

                                                                            So firmly in her prison that I am as dead ;

                                                                            War is on my doorstep. To charm away my cares,

                                                                            My page, pour long draughts of wine into my glass.

 

                                                                            Send to the wind love, trials and war,

                                                                            And melancholy with its cold, dark blood ;

                                                                            Farewell frowns, farewell, I’ll no longer live like this.

                                                                            Living without pleasures is like living underground.

 

                                                                            Nature gives us enough troubles

                                                                            Without adding more ourselves. Naked I came into this world,

                                                                            And naked I shall leave it. What use are tears,

 

                                                                            Except to sadden me with deep anguish?

                                                                            Let’s chase away care and troubles with wine:

                                                                            I can fight my cares, when wine helps me!

 

 

 

It’s nice to see Ronsard turning to drink in his problems! It’s a bit of a mix of all the motifs that he uses regularly: war, prison, and a nice glass of wine… In fact, though, the first eight lines are largely about misdirection – pointing us at another sonnet about being imprisoned in love’s coils, all hope lost – but then it turns out this is more like one of Ronsard’s Odes, offering us the surprising conclusion that all this angst is pointless in the long run, so getting drunk is a better option. As I say, more like the lighter-hearted Odes than the serious sonnets, and a welcome moment of comedy in the generally serious run of Helen sonnets.

 

A couple of more obscure references: the black blood of the melancholic humour is something we’ve also seen before; and Blanchemain tells us that the end of line 8, ‘living underground’, is a reference to being dead…

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ronsard on music

Music seems closely linked with Ronsard – partly because so many composers set so many of his poems to music, partly because Ronsard’s poetry itself is littered with references to music, musical instruments, and singing his own songs. In the past scholars and readers assumed that Ronsard must himself have been musical, not least because he refers to playing his songs on the lyre or guitar. But more recently the view of Ronsard’s musicianship has taken a more cynical turn – for good reason!

 

For a start, recall that he was hard of hearing: we don’t now how severe his deafness was, but it certainly inhibited his ability to present his own poetry as music at court (or – perhaps it did, if we assume that the musical supplement to the 1552 Odes was intended to paper over this problem area, and give Ronsard a weapon in the ‘war’ to replace Mellin de Saint-Gelais as court poet in residence).

 

Then, consider the famous Preface to the 1560 ‘Mellange de chansons’ by Le Roy & Ballard (reprinted with some additions in 1572). What evidence does this provide?

 

 

The Mellange is a large collection of songs old and new: Ronsard refers to some of them as positively ancient, though the oldest can date from no earlier than the 1490s! What we must recall is that, until the advent of printing, music was only transmitted in manuscripts, and consequently ‘old’ music was essentially forgotten music. This is the reason why Josquin (in particular, though some of his peers also) became a figure of legend, the paradigm of good music. For Josquin was the first ‘great’ composer whose music was preserved and perpetuated in prints for future generations to read and perform. He was the first composer to get a ‘revival’, as German publishers and musicians discovered the early prints and re-published material from them – and looked out more manuscript material to publish. It was Josquin who, as one German publisher pointed out, was producing more music dead than he had alive… So, Ronsard’s preface had to justify re-producing old music as well as new, despite the fact that in his poetry he had made clear that the new poetry – his poetry, that of the Pleiade – was the only poetry which adequately reflected that of the (true) ancients, the Greek and Roman masters. Hence it is that Josquin has to become an ‘ancient’: a true exemplar whom other ‘moderns’ can follow.  

 

 

Ronsard’s text (above) is not readily available, so here is a transcription:

 

PREFACE DE P. DE RONSARD

AV ROY CHARLES IX.

SIRE, tout ainsi que par la pierre de touche, on esprouve l’or s’il est bon ou mauvais, Ainsi les anciens esprouvoyent par la Musique les esprits de ceux qui sont genereux, magnanimes, & non forvoyans de leur premiere essence: & de ceux qui sont engourdiz paresseux, & abastardiz en ce corps mortel, ne se souvenant de la celeste armonie du ciel, non plus qu’aux compagnons D’ulisse d’avoir esté hommes, apres que Circe les eut transformés en porceaux. Car celuy, S I R E, Iequel oyant un doux accord d’instrumens ou la douceur de la voyx naturelle, ne s’en resjouist point, ne s’en esmeut point & de teste en piedz n’en tressault point, comme doucement ravy, & si ne sçay comment derobé hors de soy: c’est signe qu’il à l’ame tortue, vicieuse, & depravée, & duquel il se faut donner garde, comme de celuy qui n’est point heureusement né. Comment pourroit on accorder avec un homme qui de son naturel hayt les accords? celuy n’est digne de voyr la douce lumiere du soleil, qui ne fait honneur a la Musique, comme petite partie de celle, qui si armonieusement (comme dit Platon) agitte tout ce grand univers. Au contraire celuy qui luy porte honneur & reverence est ordinairement homme de bien, il a l’ame saine & gaillarde, & de son naturel ayme les choses haultes, la philosophie, le maniment des affaires politicques, le travail des guerres, & bref en tous offices honorables il fait tousjours apparoistre les estincelles de sa vertu. Or’ de declarer icy que c’est que Musique, si elle est plus gouvernée de fureur que d’art, de ses concens, de ses tons, modulations, voyx, intervalles, sons, systemates, & commutations: de sa division en Enarmonique, laquelle pour sa difficulté ne fut jamais perfaittement en usage: en chromatique, laquelle pour sa lasciveté fut par les anciens banye des republiques, en diatonique laquelle comme la plus aprochante de la melodie de ce grand univers fut de tous approuvée. De parler de la Phrigienne, dorienne, lydienne: & comme quelques peuples de Grece animez d’armonie, alloyent courageusement a la guerre, comme noz soldatz aujourdhuy au son des trompettes & tabourins: comme le Roy Alexandre oyant les chams de Timothée, devenoit furieux, & comme Agemennom allant a Troye, laissa en sa maison tout expres je ne sçay quel Musicien D’orien, lequel par la vertu du pied Anapeste, moderoit les efrenées passions amoureuses de sa femme Clytemnestre, de l’amour de laquelle Ægiste emflamé, ne peut jamais avoir joyssance, que premierement il n’eut fait meschamment mourir le Musicien. De vouloir encores deduire comme toutes choses sont composées d’accordz, de mesures, & de proportions, tant au ciel, en la mer, qu’en la terre, de vouloir discourir davantage comme les plus honorables personnages des siecles passez se sont curieusement sentiz espris des ardeurs de la Musique, tant monarques, Princes, Philosophes, gouverneurs de provinces, & cappitaines de renom: je n’auroys jamais fait: d’autant que la Musique à tousjours esté le signe & la merque de ceux qui se sont monstrez vertueux, magnanimes & veritablement nez pour ne sentir rien de vulgaire. Je prendray seullement pour exemple le feu Roy votre Pere, que Dieu absolve, lequel ce pendant qu’il a regné a fait apparoistre combien le ciel l’avoit liberallement enrichy de toutes graces, & de presens rares entre les Roys lequel a surpassé soit en grandeur d’empire, soit en clemence, en liberalité, bonté, pieté & religion, non seullement tous les Princes ses predecesseurs, Mais tous ceux qui ont jamais vescu portant cet’ honorable tiltre de Roy: lequel pour descouvrir les etincelles de sa-bien naissance, & pour montrer qu’il estoit acomply de toutes vertus, a tant honoré, aymé, & prise la Musique, que tous ceux qui restent aujourdhuy en France bien affectionnez a cet art, ne le sont tant tous ensemble, que tout seul particulierement l’estoit. Vous aussi S I R E,   comme heritier & de son Royaume & de ses vertus, monstrez combien vous estes son filz favorisé du ciei, d’aymer si perfaittement telle sçience & ses accords sans lesquelz chose de ce monde ne pourroit demourer en son entire. Or de vous conter icy d’Orphée, de Terpandre, d’Eumolpe, d’Arion ce sont histoires, desquelles je ne veux empescher le papier, comme choses a vous congneues. Seullement je vous reciteray que les plus magnanimes Roys faisoyent anciennement nourrir leurs enfans en la maison des Musiciens, comme Peleus qui envoya son filz Achille, & Æson son filz Jason, dedans l’Antre venerable du Centaure Chiron, pour estre instruitz tant aux armes, qu’en la medecine, & en l’art de Musique: d’autant que ces trois mestiers meslez ensemble ne sont mal seans a la grandeur d’un Prince, & advint d’Achille & de Jason, qui estoyent princes de votre age, un si recommandable exemple de vertu, que l’un fut honoré par le divin poëte Homere, comme le seul autheur de la prinse de Troye: & l’autre celebré par Apolloine Rhodien, comme le premier autheur d’avoir apris a la mer, de soufrir le fardeau incongnu des navires: lequel ayant outrepassé les roches Symplegades, & domté la furie de la froide mer de Scytie, Finablement s’en retourna en son pays, enrichy de la noble toyson dor. Donques, S I R E, ces deux Princes vous seront comme patrons de la vertu, & quand quelque foys vous serez lassé de voz plus urgentes affaires, à leur imitation, vous adoucirez voz souciz par les accordz de la Musique, pour retourner plus fraiz & plus dispos a la charge Royalle que si dextrement vous suportez. Il ne faut aussi que votre Magesté s’esmerveille si ce livre de mellanges lequel vous est treshumblement dedié par voz treshumbles & tresobeissans seruiteurs & Imprimeurs Adrian le Roy, & Robert Ballard, est composé des plus vieilles chanssons qui se puissent trouver aujourdhuy, pource qu’on a tousjours estimé la Musique des anciens estre la plus divine, d’autant qu’elle a esté composée en un siecle plus heureux, & moins entaché des vices qui regnent en ce dernier age de fer. Aussi les divines fureurs de Musique, de Poësie, & de paincture, ne viennent pas par degrés en perfection comme les autres sçiences, mais par boutées & comme esclairs de feu, qui deça qui dela apparoissent en divers pays, puis tout en un coup sesvanouissent. Et pource, S I R E, quand il se manifeste quelque excellent ouvrier en cet art, vous le devez songneusement garder, comme chose d’autant excellente, que rarement elle apparoist. Entre lesquelz se font depuis six ou sept vingtz ans eslevez, Josquin des prez, Hennuyer de nation, & ses disciples Mouton, Vuillard, Richaffort, Janequin, Maillard, Claudin, Moulu, Jaquet, Certon, Arcadet. Et de present le plus que divin Orlande, qui comme une mouche à miel a cueilly toutes les plus belles fleurs des antiens, & outre semble avoir seul desrobé l’harmonie des cieux pour nous en resjouir en la terre surpassant les antiens, & se faisant la seule merveille de notre temps. Plusieurs autres choses se pourroyent dire de la Musique, dont plutarque & Boëce ont amplement fait mention. Mais n’y la breveté de ce præface, ny la commodité du temps, ny la matiere ne me permet de vous en faire plus long discours, Supliant le Createur, S I R E, d’augmenter de plus en plus les vertus de votre majesté , & vous continuer en la bonne affection qu’il vous plaist porter a la Musique, & à tous ceux qui s’estudient de faire reflorir soubz votre regne, les sçiences & les artz qui florissoyent soubz l’empire de Cesar Auguste: duquel Auguste Dieu tout puissant vous vueille donner les ans, les victoyres, & la prosperité.

And a translation:

 

PREFACE, BY P. DE RONSARD

TO KING CHARLES IX

SIRE, Just as with the touchstone it may be proven whether gold is true or false, so the ancients used music to prove the souls of those who are generous, magnanimous, and insightful as to their prime essence; and of those who are lazy, slothful, debased in this mortal body, not recalling the celestial harmony of heaven any more than the companions of Ulysses recalled being men after Circe had transformed them into swine. For, SIRE, he who, hearing the sweet harmony of instruments or the sweetness of the natural voice, does not rejoice in it, is not moved at all, does not shiver from head to foot like one sweetly swept away, and feel himself somehow swept up out of himself: this is a sign that he has a twisted, vicious, depraved soul, and we must take guard against him as one who is unhappily born.

How could we be in harmony with a man who, by his nature, hates harmonies? That man is not worthy to see the sweet light of the sun who does not honour music as a small part of that greater Music which so harmoniously (as Plato says) moves all our great Universe. By contrast, he who bears it honour and reverence is ordinarily a good man who has a healthy, happy soul and by nature loves higher things, philosophy, the management of political affairs, the work of war; briefly, in all honourable tasks the stars of his virtue will always appear.

So, to state here what Music is: whether it is governed more by passion than art, of its harmonies, of its notes, modulations, voices, intervals, sounds, organisation and linkages; of its division into Enharmonic, which because of its difficulties was never perfectly used, and Chromatic, which for its sensuality was banned by the ancients from their republics, and Diatonic, which as the one most closely approaching the melody of this great universe was approved of all.

– to speak of the Phrygian, Dorian, Lydian, and how some Greek peoples aroused by harmony went off courageously to war, as our soldiers do today to the sound of trumpets and drums; how Alexander the king, hearing the songs of Timotheus became mad, and how Agamemnon as he went to Troy deliberately left in his home some musician from the East who by the power of the Anapaestic metre could moderate the unchained passions of love in his wife Clytemnestra, inflamed by love of whom Aegisthus could never be happy had he not first of all had the musician killed.

– to seek again to deduce how all things are composed of harmonies, of measures, of proportions – whether in heaven, in the sea or on earth; to seek to discover furthermore how the most honoured persons of past ages felt themselves curiously swept up by the passions of music – whether monarchs, princes, philosophers, provincial governors, or renowned captains;

all these I would never have done, since music has always been the sign and mark or those who have shown themselves virtuous, magnanimous and truly born to feel nothing that is common. I shall take as example only the late King your father, whom God absolve, who while he reigned made apparent how much heaven had liberally enriched him with all graces and with gifts rare among Kings; who surpassed in the greatness of his power, in his clemency, in liberality, goodness, piety and religion not only all princes before him, but also all those who have ever lived bearing that honourable title of King; who to display the stars governing his fair birth and to show that he was accomplished in all virtues, so honoured, loved and took up music that all those who remain today in France who favour this art are not so significant all together as he was by himself.

You too SIRE, the inheritor of both his kingdom and his virtues, show how far you are his son, favoured by heaven, by loving so perfectly this science and its harmonies, without which no thing of this world could subsist entire. So, to tell you here of Orpheus, of Terpander, of Eumolpe, of Arion – these are stories with which I do not want to clutter up this paper as they are things which are well-known to you. I shall only tell you that the most magnanimous kings brought their children up of old in the houses of musicians, like Peleus who sent his son Achilles, and Aeson his son Jason, into the venerable cave of the centaur Chiron to be instructed as much in arms as in medicine and in the art of music; especially since these three roles mixed together sit not badly with the grandeur of a prince, and were for Achilles and Jason, who were princes of your own age, so commendable examples of virtue that one was honoured by the divine poet Homer as the sole author of the capture of Troy; and the other was celebrated by Apollonius of Rhodes as the first inventor of teaching the sea to suffer the unknown burden of ships – who, having passed beyond the rocks of the Symplegades [the Clashing Rocks], and conquered the fury of the frozen seas of Scythia, and finally returned to his own country enriched with the noble Golden Fleece.

So, SIRE, these two princes shall be patrons of your virtue, and when sometimes you are tired of your more urgent affairs, in imitation of them you will sweeten your cares through the harmonies of music, to return fresher and more eager to the royal charge which you carry out so ably. Your Majesty need also not marvel if this book of songs, which is most humbly dedicated to you by your most humble and most obedient servants and printers Adrian le Roy and Robert Ballard, is composed of the oldest songs which can be found today, since we have always considered the music of the ancients to be the most divine as it was composed in a more fortunate age, less stained with the vices which reign in this last age of iron.

Also, the divine passions of music, poetry and painting do not come to perfection by degree like the other sciences, but by bounds, and like flashes of lightning which appear here and there in various countries and just as quickly disappear. And so, SIRE, when some excellent workman in this art appears you should carefully protect him as a most excellent thing which appears but rarely. Among such men arose in the last twenty-sex or -seven years Josquin des Prez, a man of Hainault, and his disciples Mouton, Willaert, Richafort, Janequin, Maillard, Claudin [de Sermisy], Moulu, Jaquet, Certon and Arcadelt. And at the present time the more-than-divine Orlando [di Lasso] who like a honey bee has gathered all the fairest flowers of the ancients, and beyond that seems alone to have uncovered the harmony of the heavens for us to enjoy on this earth, surpassing the ancients, and making himself the sole wonder of our time.

Many other things could be said about music, of which Plutarch and Boetius have made ample mention. But neither the brevity of this preface nor the availability of time or material allow me to provide you with a longer discussion; calling on the Creator, SIRE, to increase more and more the virtues of Your Majesty and to continue you in the good affection it pleases you to bear towards music, and towards all those who study to make flourish again under your rule all the sciences and arts which flourished under the rule of Caesar Augustus; of which Augustus may the all-powerful God choose to give you the years, victories and prosperity.

Although this preface is sometimes presented as a unique and important statement of new enlightenment views, as I read it it seems to show more continuity with medieval views than a new departure: the Enharmonic, Chromatic & Diatonic; the Phrygian, Dorian & Lydian modes;  discussion of music’s ‘affect’, its impact on the emotions. Of course all this is fundamental to Ronsard’s view of music: it is important because it is useful, because it is affective, because it enhances the impact of poetry and because, like poetry, it can lead us to different emotional and intellectual states.

 

If Ronsard brings something new, it is of course a deep engagement with the classics, and therefore examples drawn from the myths to illustrate music’s importance. It has, however, been noted that Ronsard’s examples appear to have been lifted from his fellow-poet Baif, who wrote a much lengthier dialogue on the topic – and explained everything at much greater length, for let us be clear, Ronsard does not actually explain anything here. He simply summarises very briefly, without exploring in any detail.

 

And what Ronsard offers is not by any means an analysis of how music works – of the means and techniques which are used, of what makes good music ‘good’, let alone what makes music have the effects it does. All we are offered is (again) a list, some of the component parts of music: “de ses concens, de ses tons, modulations, voyx, intervalles, sons, systemates, & commutations…” In this respect Ronsard is very far from a ‘working musician’ or even (apparently) from ‘understanding’ music.  

 

Of course, Ronsard does offer a convincing list of leading musicians – something which has been used as evidence of his engagement with music, but which would not be difficult for anyone connected with Le Roy & Ballard to have provided (or helped him with). Indeed, most feature in the ‘Mellange de chansons’: Josquin, Mouton, Richafort, Maillard, Moulu, and especially Willaert, account for nearly 50 songs in the book, with Certon and Arcadelt adding a few more. Missing from the book, though in Ronsard’s list, are other significant French composers: Janequin and Claudin de Sermisy. But Ronsard omits others who might today seem greater than some in his list – Gombert and Clemens, for instance. So, is this list any evidence of Ronsard’s expertise? I don’t think it provides any substantial evidence.

 

What we are left with, then, is a decent ‘philosophical’ context for music, a list of music’s techniques, some evidence of classical reading about affects, and some borrowed mythological evidence, together with a fair list of composers. Not much, in effect, to build a reputation on – either for this preface or for Ronsard’s knowledge of music as ‘a science’.

 

Is that too cynical?  

 

 

 

 

Clereau – La Lune est coustumiere

Title

La Lune est coustumiere

Composer

Pierre Clereau (or Cler’eau)  (c.1520-c.1567)

Source

Premier Livre de Chansons, Le Roy & Ballard 1559

(text not (apparently) on Lieder.net site)
(blog entry here)
(recorded extract here – Ensemble Gilles Binchois, from CD Amours, amours)

Another 3-voice setting by Clereau. The text comes from the Odes, so making it entirely appropriate for re-publication later in Clereau’s Odes de Ronsard. The Ensemble Gilles Binchois used this song to open their CD Amours, amours which, to me, implies that they put a high value on it. So it is good to see Clereau getting some recognition.

Although, as I mentioned, the 3-voice songs are all relatively short, this one is particularly short, filling a bare two lines of music – only 3 musical phrases. Clereau considerately(!) prints 5 more verses to be sung to the same music – see picture. (The Ensemble Gilles Binchois sensibly present these in a variety of dfferent voicings – solo voices with instrumental accompaniment, reduced voices with instruments, etc). The excerpt I offer is the final verse with the fullest voicing.

Clereau – Comme un qui prend une coupe

Title

Comme un qui prend une coupe

Composer

Pierre Clereau (or Cler’eau)  (c.1520-c.1567)

Source

Premier Livre de Chansons, Le Roy & Ballard 1559

(text on Lieder.net site here)
(blog entry here)
(recording not available)

We head into uncharted territory with the first 3-voice setting so far added. I mentioned that Le Roy & Ballard’s ’10th book’ was devoted entirely to Clereau, which I take as a sign of his importance; note that this book – also entirely of settings by Clereau – came out in the same year as the ’10th book’, this time issued effectively as Clereau’s ‘opus 1’ (though that is a concept not yet used).

All the Ronsard settings in this book are in the homophonic style of the air de cour. This wasn’t because Clereau could only write that way: take for example the song Pis ne me peut venir, at the end of the book, which is a text of no particular literary pretensions widely set by other composers of the period. Clereau, like the others, sets it in the imitatve polyphonic style, demonstrating his mastery of that genre as well as leaving us with the question why all his Ronsard settings are in a ‘domestic’, French style rather than the international style.

These 3-voice songs are all relatively short. The 3 voice parts are labelled Superius, Superius 2, and Concordans (effectively the Tenor which supports both upper voices).

Clereau was one of the first to jump on the bandwagon for producing ‘Ronsard volumes’. He re-published this 1er Livre in 1566 as Odes de Ronsard, though 2 of the 3 part-books have not survived; and in the mid-1570s produced an expanded book of Odes of Ronsard, re-printing all the pieces in this First Book together with a number of new pieces. However, a large number of the over 45 pieces in the book were not Ronsard settings!

No recorded extract, as this – with Clereau’s other 3-part songs – has been neglected to date.