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Quoy? faut​-​il donc qu'Amour vainqueur

from Doulce m​é​moire by Mignarda

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about

Pierre Guédron (c. 1570 – 1620)

“Quoy? faut-il donc qu’Amour vainqueur” is an air composed on an attractive chaconne, or a repeating harmonic progression. Guédron’s original setting of the air was likely composed for four voices in an accessible homophonic style. The song text describes an amorous journey through various stages of anxiety and bliss associated with nascent love, with Cupid personified as tour guide. The song—in triple time despite the time signature of the unbarred music in the original print— was probably extracted from a staged ballet de cour, and the underpinning of the chaconne signals that there was quite likely a choreographed dance in the original performance.

The voice-lute version of “Quoy? faut-il donc qu’Amour vainqueur” printed in Bataille’s 1615 book has the voice pitched rather high but displays very comfortable fingering for the lute. As was usual for the times, the voice was most assuredly transposed (probably down) to fit the pitch of the lute, with a parenthetical cue note supplied at the beginning of the lute part to facilitate this commonly accepted procedure. Since we recognize the 1615 printed version as an early adaptation of Guédron’s vocal original, we took matters in hand and transposed the lute part to a pitch that features the voice in a most communicative range. The repeating chaconne accompaniment happily responds to this transposition, which is nothing more than common-sense musicianship that we are quite certain was the norm when the music was new—a fact that is reinforced by surviving historical transpositions of similar repertory.

lyrics

Quoy? Faut-il donc qu’amourvainquer
Soit de nouveau roy de mon coeur,
Et me donne encor du martyre?
N’ay-je pas assés soupiré,
N’ay-je pas assés enduré
J’adis sous son cruel empire?

Tant de serments que mon devoir
Avoyent fait contre son pouvoir
Seront ils si peu veritables
Qu’ils ne puissent durer qu’un jour,
Et pour estre faits contre Amour,
En sont ils moins inviolables?

Mais il n’en faut plus disputer,
Je ne puis ce mal eviter,
Car Amaranthe à tant de charmes,
Et tant d’appas en ses beaux yeux,
Qu’il ne me peut arriver mieux
Que mourir de si belle armes.

Faut-il encor que ce poison,
Troublant mes sens et ma raison
Change tout l’estat de ma vie?
Et bref qu’une jeune beauté
Triomphant de ma liberté,
Tienne encor mon ame asservie?

Ainsi Cleandre bassement
Soupiroit le nouveau tourment
De sa flame encore naissante,
Qui presageoit qu’à ‘avenir
Il n’auroit en son souvenir
Que sa belle et chere Amaranthe.

What? Must conquering Love
Return to rule my heart again,
And torture me even more?
Haven't I sighed enough,
Haven't I endured enough,
Before under his cruel reign?

So many oaths I took
to resist his power.
Do they carry so little weight
That they last but a day,
And because they were sworn against Love,
Does that make them any less sacred?

But there's no denying
I can't avoid this torture
Because Amaranthe is so irresistible
And has so many charms in her lovely eyes,
That the best thing that could happen to me
Would be to die in her lovely arms.

Must this poison that again
upsets my senses and my reason
Change my whole way of life?
And can a young beauty,
Triumphing over my freedom,
Still keep my heart enslaved?

Thus Cleandre basely
yearns for the new torment
Of his still nascent passion,
Someday, in the future,
All he will remember
Is his lovely and beloved Amaranthe.

English translation by Donna Stewart.

credits

from Doulce m​é​moire, released September 3, 2021
Donna Stewart, voice
Ron Andrico, lute

Recorded at the Lava Room, Beachwood, OH
Engineer, Chris Ebbert

Lute by Nico Van Der Waals, courtesy of Glen Yasharian

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Mignarda Cleveland Heights, Ohio

Mignarda specializes in thoughtful programming illuminating the vibrant mingling of renaissance music & poetry. Noted for awakening modern audiences to an appreciation for historical music, their work encompasses concertizing, teaching & recording, with 17 critically-acclaimed CDs, a series of 16 music editions, scholarly articles, reviews and the internationally-popular blog, Unquiet Thoughts. ... more

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