Songs and Sonnets |
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Musical Reconstructions of Contrafacta by the Sidneys |
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Gavin Alexander |
Much of the poetry of the Sidneys, and of other writers of the period, was written to pre-existing tunes. When Philip Sidney in the Defence of Poesy talks of 'words set if delightful proportion, either accompanied with, or prepared for, the well-enchanting skill of music' he is distinguishing lyric poems which may later be set to music (as many of his were) from poems written to music (contrafacta). Elizabethan poets learned a great deal about poetic imagery, about lyric rhetoric, and about versification, by writing poems which would displace previous song texts, often French and Italian. When we discuss the meaning or the form of such poems we do well to remember the nexus of priorities and traditions which produced the song whose rhetoric the contrafactum adopts. The two examples presented here are a well-known poem by Philip Sidney and a less well-known one by his brother Robert Sidney. Each exists in a lyric collection which mixes musical and non-musical texts. Philip Sidney's Certain Sonnets was first printed in the 1598 edition of the composite Arcadia, following on directly from the Arcadia and proceeding The Defence of Poesie and Astrophel and Stella. Various earlier manuscript copies (with names like "Dyvers and sondry Sonettes" and "Certein lowse Sonnettes and songes") combine various of its 32 poems, many of which are written to named tunes or for named occasions. The Certain Sonnets represents far more clearly than the involved fictions of performance of Arcadia or Astrophel and Stella the social context of Sidney's verse. Robert Sidney's autograph book of poems also distinguished between 'sonnets', used in the narrow sense, and 'songs', strophic poems either written to or prepared for music; indeed Robert Sidney numbers the songs, which are interspersed among the numbered sonnets, in a separate sequence.
The songs presented here have not perhaps been heard since the seventeenth century, yet they were written to be sung. Neither of the sources has been identified before. By retrieving the model to which they were written we also discover a lyric text to which the new English words are some sort of response, and can observe an exercise of imitatio on several levels. Students of Philip Sidney will recognise that the Italian text has influenced others of his poems.
The songs were recorded in June 1998 in the Lord Colyton Hall, Gonville and Caius College. The singers were Lisa Wilson (soprano), Geraldine Rossetti (alto), Chris Goater (tenor 1), Charles Aitken (tenor 2), and James Kazi (bass). David Buckley engineered the recording and Tom Seligman directed.
Gavin Alexander
Philip Sidney, Certain
Sonnets 6
(5 parts)
To the tune of Basciami
vita mia 'Sleep baby mine, Desire,' nurse Beauty singeth: 'Lully, lully, my babe, hope cradle bringeth 'Since, baby mine, from me thy watching springeth, |
Basciami vita
mia basciam'ogn'hora Basciami tanto che contento sia Non voglio che mi grida mamma mia Basciami vita mia e fa che scocca Basciami se voi mo per cortesia Non voglio... Basciami vita mia e fa che tocca Queste tue labra dolce con la mia Non voglio... Basciami vita mia basciami anchora Che tutti due sarem di pena fuora Non voglio che me grida mamma hora. Translation: (i) "Kiss me, my life, kiss me continually. Kiss me enough to satisfy me." - "I don't want my mother to shout at me." (ii) "Kiss me, my life, give me a smacker. Please kiss me now." - "I don't want..." (iii) "Kiss me, my life, and make your lips sweetly touch my own." - "I don't want..." (iv) "Kiss me, my life, kiss me again so that both of us will be put out of our misery." - "I don't want mother to shout at me now." |
listen to the song: | wav (1.25 Mb) | RealAudio (460 Kb) | listen to stanza 1: | wav (400 Kb) | RealAudio (115 Kb) |
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stanza 2 only: | wav (420 Kb) | RealAudio (120 Kb) | |||
stanza 3 only: | wav (420 Kb) | RealAudio (120 Kb) | |||
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Robert Sidney, Song 12
(4 parts)
Song 12 To a French tune 'Où êtes vous allez mes belles amourettes' |
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Since now those fair eyes
do shine in their clear former light, Why should I refuse such guides to bring me out of pain? Ah whither will you lead me flattering delight, Will you then betray me, once again? Since now from those sweetest lips flow words of nectar right, Why should I my thirsting thoughts from so dear cup restrain? Ah whither will you lead me flattering delight, Will you then betray me, once again? Methinks I see in glory, after a long cold night, The sun in beams of comfort over sad darkness reign. Ah whither will you lead me flattering delight, Will you then betray me, once again? Methinks I see a harvest which, of all dearths in spite, A mind long hunger-starvèd in plenty can maintain. Ah whither will you lead me flattering delight, Will you then betray me, once again? Triumph then late wrongèd love, hopes do put cares to flight, Mischiefs now do turn their back, desert the field doth gain. Ah whither will you lead me flattering delight, Will you then betray me, once again? But stay-memory, which did my wrongs in marble write, With the wounds which falsehood gives my joys doth entertain. Ah whither will you lead me flattering delight, Will you then betray me, once again? True it is those diamonds once so dear, still so bright, Did prove false when they were tried, and all their lustre vain. Ah whither will you lead me flattering delight, Will you then betray me, once again? True it is that banquet rich, so sweet set out to sight, Sundry poisons of all sorts did in each dish contain. Ah whither will you lead me flattering delight, Will you then betray me, once again? Worthy he of wounds is, who twice tries the lion's might; He deserves no pity, that twice doth of falsehood plain. Ah whither will you lead me flattering delight, Will you then betray me, once again? Farewell then eyes, error's stars, whose light doth me benight; Farewell venom-stilling lips, whose words stings with them train. You never more shall lead me flattering delight You shall not betray me once again. |
Puis que le ciel veut
ainsi que mon mal je regrette, Je m'en iray dans ces bois conter mes amoureux discours. Où estes vous allez mes [belles] amourettes, Changerez vous de lieu tous les jours. Demeurant en ces désers, si ma langue est muette, Je graveray mon tourment sur ces haus rochers d'alentour. Où estes vous allez... Je baniray tout plaisir, seulement je souhaite D'avoir peinte aupres de moy la déesse de mes amours. Où estes vous allez... J'ay beau conter mon tourment et ma douleur secrette, Rien ne respond à ma vois, les arbres sont muetz et sours. Où estes vous allez... La seulle Echo prent pitié des soupirs que je jette Et se complaint avec moy redisant mes tristes discours. Où estes vous allez... Tu n'es plus douce pourtant à ma juste requeste, Je trouve plus d'amitié dans le cur des tygres et des ours. Où estes vous allez... Las! ne reverray-je plus ceste beauté parfaite, Donc me faudra il mourir sans espérer aucun secours? Où estes vous allez... Adieu donc légere foy plus qu'une girouette, Tant que j'auray l'ame au cors vous ne me ferez plus ces tours. Or adieu vous dis mes [belles] amourettes, Or adieu vous dis tous mes amours. Translation: (i) Since fate wills that I regret my pain I will go into these woods and relate my tales of love. Where have you gone, my [beautiful] loves? Will you change from day to day? (ii) Living in these deserts, if my speech is dumb I will carve my torment on these high rocks around me. Where have you gone...? (iii) I will banish all pleasure, and I only hope to have close to me a picture of my goddess. Where have you gone...? (iv) I tell in vain of my torment and my secret sorrow; nothing replies to my voice; the trees are dumb and deaf. Where have you gone...? (v) Only Echo takes pity on my sighs and complains with me, repeating my sad tales. Where have you gone...? (vi) Even so, you are no longer mild to my just request; I find more friendship in the heart of tigers and bears. Where have you gone...? (vii) Alas! shall I see this perfect beauty no more; must I then die without hope of help? Where have you gone...? (viii) Farewell then faith, lighter than a weather vane. As long as I have spirit in my heart you will no longer play these tricks on me. So farewell I say to you my loves, farewell all my beloveds. |
listen to the song: | wav (1.875 Mb) | RealAudio (540 Kb) | listen to stanzas | ||
stanzas 1-2 only: | wav (375 Kb) | RealAudio (110 Kb) | 1, 2, 7, & 8: | wav (730 Kb) | RealAudio (210 Kb) |
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Bibliographical Details
Philip Sidney: text (modernised) from The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia (1598); music and Italian lyric (original spelling) from Giovanni Ferretti, Il Primo Libro delle Canzoni alla napolitana a cinque voci (Venice, 1567); my translation.
Robert Sidney: text (modernised) from British Library Add. MS 58435, fol. 32r-v; music and French lyric (original spelling) from Jehan Planson, Airs mis en musique à quatre parties (Paris, 1587); my translation; later concordances witness a popular tune on which Planson's 4-part arrangement is based, with the refrain in the form Robert Sidney refers to.
Sidneiana is edited by Gavin Alexander. Contributions, comments, and suggestions welcome.
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This page last updated Thursday, 12 August 1999