SALACIOUS CHANSONS
NEW YORK ENSEMBLE FOR EARLY MUSIC'S "GLEEMEN"
NINOT LE PETIT (d. 1502)
[1] Et leves vo gambe, Jennette
[2] Nostre chamberiere, si malade elle est HENRICUS MORINENSIS
[3] Je mefie en tout le monde
JEAN MOUTON (1459-1522)
[4] Je le lairay puisqu'il me bat
ANTOINE BRUHIER (d. 1521)
[5] Frapes petit coup, petit Jehan
mon amy
[6] La dolleur de mon con, pere
NINOT LE PETIT
[7] Mon amy m'avoit promis ANONYMOUS
[8] England, be glad
HENRY VIII (1491-1547)
[9] Pastime with good company
[10] Green groweth the holly
DR. COOPER
[11] I have been a foster
[12] Helas madame ANONYMOUS
[13] Tapster, drinker, fill another ale
WILLIAM CORNISH (d. ca. 1502)
[14] Blow thy horn hunter
[15] Ah Robin, gentle Robin ANONYMOUS
[16] Be peace! Ye make me spill my ale!
[17] Up I arose in verno tempore (1 :05)
WILLIAM CORNISH, JR. (d. 1523)
[18] Hoyda, hoyda, jolly rutterkin
THREE SCOTTISH SONGS
[19] Now let us sing
[20] My heartly service (The Pleugh Song)
[21] The gowans are gay (2: 11)
New York Ensemble for Early Music's "Gleemen"
Peter Becker, Countertenor
Elliot Levine, Baritone
Wilbur Pauley, Bass
Jeffrey Thomas, Tenor
Frederick Renz, Director
The songs on this record, though apparently so straightforward and informal, represent a major musical revolution at the turn of the 16th century that quickly spread to all corners of Europe. The all-pervasive antecedent of the style was the secular Burgundian chanson, usually arranged for solo voice and a few instruments, highly contrapuntal, detailed, delicate and refined, deliberately conservative in an attempt to adhere to medieval forms and textures. When the interest of the finest trained composers of the late fifteenth century was stimulated toward popular song as a possible starting-point for serious music, their compositions dealt the final deathblow to those medieval forms, and ultimately built the foundations for modern tonality and sonority.
The Strozzi Chansonnier (Florence: Biblioteca del Conservatorio di Musica, MS Basevi 2442), from which the French-language repertoire of the Gleemen is taken, is one of the earliest to indicate a cappella vocal performance as a preferred medium. (The bass part is presently lacking. Where the bass could not be supplied by comparison with a concordance, it has been reconstructed by Howard Mayer Brown.) This manuscript was apparently prepared, in about 1527, as a gift to the nephew of Pope Leo X, Filippo Strozzi, a Francophile and a seasoned traveler, a
cosmopolite who we may assume would have been amused at the rustic flavor of the four singers, perhaps appropriately costumed, without the customary appurtenance of instrumental accompaniment. Yet the style was about thirty years old at the date of the manuscript, and the popularity of the genre was waning; such pieces had begun to appear in the 1480s, and by 1527 most of the composers represented here had died. After all, the possibilities of development in such an intentionally simple style soon had been exhausted. Though the songs are in French, and refer exclusively to Parisian customs and places, a very strong Italian influence must be recognized in the music itself. Serious music in Italy for a century had been dominated by maestri imported from the north, and as a sort of nationalistic "grassroots" revolt, the native frottola was beginning to be cultivated in the noble courts of Italian patrons. It was strophic, minimally contrapuntal, in what we would call "harmony" of three or four parts, optionally, and it allowed for any manner of performance. It was so simple as to be supposedly capable of extempore improvisation. The round sonority, simple harmonic structure, and direct text declamation, not to mention the wild popularity, of the frottola could not help but
attract the French and Flemish composers in the employ of the pope in Rome, among whom were Ninot le Petit, Jean Mouton, and Antoine Bruhier.
The real name of the apparently diminutive "Ninot" was Jean Baltazar, his nickname deriving from the Italicization, "Giovannino." He was a singer in the Sistine Chapel until his death in 1502, and 13 pieces in the Strozzi Chansonnier are attributed to him. Very few of his works are found elsewhere. Jean Mouton (1459-1522) was very famous in his time, a favorite musician of the pope and the French kings Louis XII and Francis I. Petrucci published a whole volume of his Masses, and he was a teacher of the great and influential Adrian Willaert. Also a singer for Leo X was Bruhier (d. 1521 ), about whom little else is known. The name of Henricus Morinensis appears only in the Strozzi manuscript.
Let it be said that not all of the 55 pieces in the Strozzi Chansonnier are obscene; there are lyric, pastoral, rustic, and narrative songs as well. What the repertoire most importantly represents is a movement away from what Howard Mayer Brown (in an article on this manuscript in Acta Musicologica XL (1969), 115) calls " the flaccid fin de siecle artifice of many of the Burgundians," and a movement toward the acceptance of the more common human passions as subjects for artistic expression. Yet, as Brown observes, "the rhythm of the words rather than their meaning determines the musical style, this reluctance to interpret the inner significance of the poetry being a characteristic of French composers and of popular music at all times."
It is not difficult to imagine presentations of these four-voice pieces within the theatrical context of a courtly pastoral masque, and with the songs from "Henry VIII's book" (British Library, Additional MS 31922, compiled about 1513), we know for a fact that they were used for just such dramatic occasions. Henry was very fond of mummings and "disguisings as entertainments, to supplement the tournaments, hunting, dancing, and music making at which he also excelled. He once of a morning, dressed as Robin Hood and accompanied by his merry men, surprised and woke from her bed his queen, Catherine of Aragon. Though these songs were perhaps not used as part of complete dramas, we may assume that the singers of "I have been a foster," "Tapster, drinker," or "Blow thy horn, hunter'' were courtiers appropriately disguised. Desiderius Erasmus remarked in his Praise of Folly that "the English claim, besides a few other things, good looks, music and the best eating as their special properties." Henry VIII,
as the exemplary Englishman, cultivated his own musicianship with a collection of 26 lutes and numerous other instruments: trumpets, viols, rebecs, sackbuts, pipes and tabors, harps and organs. He played the lute, organ, and harp, wrote poetry, sang well at sight, and was a dancer of good form. "Henry VIII's book" contains 33 compositions attributed to him, and though the assertion cannot be made with certainty that he indeed wrote all of them, the stylistic simplicity and similarity among several of the pieces would argue for it. Nearly every one of his songs begins with a quarter note and two eighths or a dotted quarter and an eighth note.
William Cornish was a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal under Henry VII, and later succeeded to the Mastership and functioned for Henry VIII as a trainer of choristers and master of courtly revels. The text to "Ah, Robin, gentle Robin" has been assumed to be from the pen of Sir Thomas Wyatt, but it appears in so many different sources and variant versions, that it may as well be presumed to be Cornish's own. It was popular enough to survive a century later, if fragmentarily, in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. The music of the Ritson and Fairfax manuscripts (British Library Additional MSS 5665 and 5465) dates from about 1500 and, though written for a courtly audience, was most probably performed by professional entertainers, if one may judge by the degree of vocal and musical technique that it requires. This style is closer to the Burgundian chanson, including as it does complicated rhythms and counterpoint, extended wordless melismas, macaronic (mixed-language) texts, and a three-part texture. But as John Stevens has observed in the introduction to his edition of Early Tudor Songs and Carols (Musica Britannica Series, 1975), these composers nonetheless "effected a minor revolution" in the art of text setting, treating the words as "physical sound-objects of an individual kind." It is a development that subsequent centuries have taken entirely for granted.
The last three songs on the record are from a highly diverse and refined Scottish repertoire of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, which comes down to us in widely separated, corrupted, and fragmentary manuscript sources. Yet it represents an advanced culture politically and aesthetically close to that of France. The Scots language, though it seems a quaint dialec to us now, was as versatile and expressive as any in Europe, though of course in "The Pleugh Song" we once again hear an amusing rustic twang. This piece belongs to a genre called the "medley," whose French equivalent is the
"fricassee," whose Spanish is the "ensalada," and it was performed by masquers in a "Plough Play" for the festival of Plough Monday. "The gowans are gay" brings us full circle with its nostalgic reference to the same type of conventional rustic seduction scene that we found in the French songs of the Strozzi Chansonnier.
Diverse as the styles and languages of these
[I] Et leves vo gambe, Jennette (Strozzi Chansonnier)
Et leves vo gambe, Jennette,
Et levez vo gambe, levez.
Encoire ai-ge unne boursette
Que man amy m'a donne.
Et man mari en grognette:
II dist qu'il le m'octera.
S'il le prent temprement,
Je le feray foursener.
Je l'ay gaingne au filler,
Au filler a happeler.
Et a la gambe, gambe, gambette,
Et a la gambe lever.
J'ay la mal, tous dis mal,
J'ay la mal, la mal.
Lez fillettes de maintenant,
Elles s'en vont ainsi disant:
J'ay la mal, tous diz mal.
J'ay la mal, la mal.
songs are, they are all similar in their appealing good humor and verve. They appear at a time in history when the cultivation of musical abilities was spreading both upward and downward in the social scale, when people of all sorts and conditions were discovering the joys of singing together in harmony. Small wonder it is that the English came to call such a musical diversion, for professional and amateur alike, a "glee."
-Lucy Cross
purse that my friend gave me. My husband growls and says he'll take it away, but if he touches it, I'll drive him crazy. Lift your leg, Jennette. "I feel sick, I feel sick." Girls nowadays go around saying, "I feel sick, I feel sick." ("In the morning" is understood.)
[2] Nostre chambrière, si malade elle est (Strozzi Chansonnier)
Nostre chambrière, si malade elle est,
Se elle avoit du let, elle se gariret.
Elle amena son tambourine!
Elle a pris sa cane, s'en est allée au let. Tous les jours au soir et au beau matinet, Elle amena son tambourine!.
Our chambermaid is so sick, she must go to bed to be cured. She has taken along her little tabor, and her pipe, and is gone to bed. Every day, morning and evening, she takes along her little tabor.
Lift your leg, Jennette, lift your leg. I have a
[3] Je méfie en tout le monde
(Strozzi Chansonnier)
Je méfie en tout le monde
Fors qu'en mon ribault mari.
Quant ii se mest a disner, Le viellart ne voeult mengier.
Je suis morte, je suis morte.
Je m'en ay vestu ma coste, Pardessulz ma mariote, Fi fi fi fi fi fi fi,
Et bonne gens, le mary le dole!, Et ho ho ho ho.
I mistrust the whole world, because of my ribald husband. When the old man sits down to dinner, he doesn't want to eat. I die, I die, I have put on my shroud, under my big husband. Fie, fie. Good folks, marriage is miserable. And ho ho.
[4] Je le lairay pisqu'il me bat
(Strozzi Chansonnier)
Je le lairay puisqu'il me bat, He Dieu, hellaz.
L'ort villain mal engrongne, Qui dessulz moy a con trouve
Que j'estoie allee a l'esbat. He Dieu, hellaz.
I'm leaving him, because he beats me. Oh God, alas! The villain complains because he found out that I'd gone out for some entertainment. Oh God, alas!
[5] Frapes petit coup, petit Jehan mon amy
(Strozzi Chansonnier)
Frapes petit coup, petit Jehan mon amy,
Ma mere nos escoute.
S'il me devoit couster cent soulz,
Frapez petit coup, gros coup, moiens coup, S'il fault ii que je jouste.
Hellaz et vous l'avez si gros, Frapes petit coup, gros coups, moiens coupz, Que vous mi rompes toucte.
Frapes petit coup, petit Jehan mon amy,
Ma mere nos escoute.
Et vous mi rompes char et os, Frapez-petit coup, gros coup, moienz coup, Et si ni rendes goucte.
Et demenes vous ung peu plus tost, Frapes petit coup, gros coup, moiens coup, La chandelle est trop courte.
Frapes petit coup, petit Jehan mon amy, Je sens venir la goucte
Frapes petit coup, Jehan mon amy, Ma mere nos escoute.
Hit it softly, little John my friend, Mother is listening. If it costs me a hundred sous, hit it softly, hit it hard, hit it less, if I must joust with you. Alas, yours is so big, you will break me. You are breaking my body and bones. Move yourself a little quicker, the candle is too short. I feel the drop is coming.
[6] La dolleur de mon con, père
(Strozzi Chansonnier)
La dolleur de mon con, pere,
Qui le mi garira dont?
Je demanday a mon pere
Que je feray de mon con, Et mon pere mi respond
Que g'y misse du charbon.
Le charbon ni est pas bon.
La dolleur de mon con, pere,
Qui le mi garira dont?
Je demanday a ma mere
Que je feray de mon con,
Et ma mere mi respond
Que g'i misse unne anguile.
L'anguille mi fertille,
L'andoulle mi barboulle,
Le charbon ni est pas bon.
La dolleur de mon con, pere,
Qui le mi garira dont?
Je demanday a mon frere
Que je feray de mon con.
II me consilla d'i mectre
Lez oustieulx du compaignon,
Et je le creu, et sai-ge feu.
Et pluz ni mi brusle,
Et plus ne mi art,
Et plus ne mi souffle,
Maistre Monart,
Et pluz ne mi gecte flamme.
Je suis gari de mon con
Par la Ires doulce dame.
The pain in this corner, Papa-who will cure it? I asked my father what to do, and he told me to put in a piece of coal. Coal is no good. I asked my mother what to do, and she said to put in an eel. Eels are uncomfortable. Sausage is messy. Coal is no good. I asked my brother what to do, and he recommended the utensils of his friend. I took his advice, and it doesn't hurt or burn any more. Now I am cured, by the grace of Our Lady.
[7] Mon amy m'avoit promis
(Strozzi Chansonnier)
Mon amy m'avoit promis
Unne si belle chainture.
Il ne me l'a poinct donnee, Il le m’a bien chier vendue.
Ay, ay, ay, dist Marion.
Vous mi deschirez mon plichon.
My friend promised me a very pretty sash. He gave it not at all, but sold it to me at a high price. Ay, ay, cried Marion, you are tearing my placket!
[8] England, be glad
(King Henry VIII's Manuscript)
England, be glad! pluck up thy lusty heart!
Help now thy king, and take his part.
Against the Frenchmen in the field to fight in the quarrel of the Church
and in the right, with spears and shields on goodly horses light, bows and arrows to put them all to flight to put them all to flight: help now thy king, etc.
[9] Pastime with good company (King Henry VIII's Manuscript)]
Pastime with good company
I love and shall until I die.
Gruch who lust, but none deny; So God be pleas'd, thus live will I; For my pastance, Hunt, sing and dance; My heart is set
All goodly sport For my comfort: Who shall me let?
Youth must have some dalliance, Of good or ill some pastance; Company methinks then best All thoughts and fancies to digest, For idleness Is chief mistress Of vices all: Then who can say But mirth and play Is best of all? Company with honesty Is virtue, vices to flee; Company is good and ill, ., But every man hath his free will. The best ensue, the worst eschew, My mind shall be; Virtue to use, Vice to refuse, Thus shall I use me.
[10] Green groweth the holly
(King Henry VIII's Manuscript)
Green grow'th the holly, So doth the ivy,
Though winter blasts blow never so high, Green grow'th ...
As the holly grow'th green And never changeth hew, So I am, e'er hath been Unto my lady true.
Green grow'th ...
As the holly grow'th green With ivy all alone, When flowers cannot be seen And greenwood leaves be gone.
Green grow'th ...
Now unto my lady Promise to her I make,
From all other only To her I me betake. Green grow'th ... Adieu, mine own lady, Adieu, my special, Who hath my heart truly, Be sure, and ever shall.
Green grow'th ...
[11] I have been a foster I have been a foster Long and many a day; Foster will I be no more, No longer shoot I may Yet I have been a foster.
Hang I will my noble bow
Upon the greenwood bough, For I cannot shoot in plain Nor yet in rough; Yet have I been a foster. Every bow for me is too big; Mine arrow nigh worn is; The glue is slipp'd from the nick; When I should shoot I miss; Yet have I been a foster. Lady Venus hath commanded me Out of her court to go; Right plainly she sheweth me That beauty is my foe; Yet have I been a foster. My beard is so hard, Got wot, When I should maidens kiss, They stand aback and make it strange; Lo, age is cause of this; Yet have I been a foster. Now will I take to me my beads For and my psalter-book, And pray I will for them that may, For I may nought but look; Yet have I been a foster.
[12] Helas madame
(King Henry VIII's Manuscript)
Helas madame, celle que j'aime tant Souffrez que sois
Votre humble servant. je serai a toujours,
Et tant que je viv'rai aultr n'aimerai que vous Alas, my lady whom I love so well, your humble servant. So I will ever be
As long as I live, And never love another.
[13] Tapster, drinker
Tapster, drinker, fill another ale anon. Have I to?
God send us good sale. Avale the stake, avale. Here is good ale ye found. Drink to me, and I to thee, And let the cup go round.
[14] Blow thy horn, hunter
(King Henry VIII's Manuscript)
Blow thy horn, hunter, and blow thy horn on high! There is a doe in yonder wood; in faith she will not die: Now blow thy horn, hunter, now blow thy horn, jolly hunter!
Sore this deer stricken is, And yet she bleeds no whit; She lay so fair, I could not miss; Lord, I was glad of it!
Now blow ...
As I stood under a band The deer shoff on the mead;
I struck her so that down she sank, But yet she was not dead.
Now blow ...
There she go'th! See ye not, How she go'th over the plain? And if ye lust to have a shot, I warrant her barrain.
Now blow ...
He to go and I to go, But he ran fast afore; I bad him shoot and strike the doe, For I might shoot no more.
Now blow ...
To the covert both they went, For I found where she lay; An arrow in her haunch she hent; For faint she might not bray.
Now blow ...
I was weary of the game, I went to tavern to drink; Now, the construction of the same What do you mean or think.
Now blow ...
Here I leave and make an end
Now of this hunter's lore:
I think his bow is well unbent, His bolt may flee no more.
Now blow ...
[15] Ah, Robin, gentle Robin
(King Henry VIII's Manuscript)
Ah, Robin, gentle Robin, tell me how thy leman doth
and thou shalt know of mine.
My lady is unkind, iwis, Alas, why is she so?
She lov'th another better than me and yet she will say no.
Ah, Robin ...
I cannot think such doubleness for I find women true; In faith my lady lov'th me well; She will change for no new.
Ah, Robin ...
[16] Be peace! Ye make me spill my ale!
(Ritson Manuscript) Be peace!
Ye make me spill my ale!
Now think ye this is a fair ray?
Let go, I say!
Straw for your tale!
Leff work a twentyadevil away!
Ween ye that ev'rybody list to play? Abide a while! What have ye haste?
I trow for you great affray, Ye will not make too huge a waste. After assay then may ye wit; Why blame ye me without offence? lwis, wanton, ye shall not yet!
Ah, can ye that? Now, good, go hence! What do you here within our spence? Reck ye not to make us shend?
I wou Id not yet for forty pence
My mother come in, ere that ye wend.
Come, kiss me! Nay! By God, ye shall!
By Christ, I nill, what says the man?
Ye hurt my leg against the wall; Is this the gentry that ye can?
Take to give all, and be still then!
Now ye have laid me on the floor; But had I wist when ye began, By Christ, I would have shut the door.
[17] Up I Arose (Ritson Manuscript)
Up I arose in verno tempore (in spring time)
And found a maiden sub quadam arbore (beneath a certain tree)
That did complain in suo pectore (in her breast),
Saying, I feel puerum movere ( a child moving).
Adiu, pleasures antiquo tempore (of olden times)!
Full oft with you solebaum ludere (pleasure I enjoyed to the fullest);
But for my miss michi deridere (I ridicule myself)
With right good cause incipeo flere (I begin to weep).
Now what shall I say meis parentibus (to my parents)
Because I lay with guidam clericus (this priest)?
They will me beat cum virgis ac fustibus (with rod and cudgel)
And sore chast coram omnibus (with everything at hand).
With the said child, quid faciam (what shall I do)?
Shall I keep it vel interficiam (or slay it)?
If I slay it, quo loco fugiam (where shall I flee)?
I shall lose God et vitam eteran (and eternal life).
[18] Hoyda, hoyda, jolly rutterkin (Fairfax Manuscript)
Hoyda, joyda, jolly rutterkin, hoyda, hoyda!
Like a rutterkin, hoyda!
Rutterkin is come unto our town,
In a cloak without coat or gown, Save a ragged hood to cover his crown, Like a rutterkin: Hoyda ...
Rutterkin can speak none English; His tongue runneth all on buttered fish,
Be smeared with grease about his dish,
Like a rutter: Hoyda ...
Rutterkin shall bring you all good luck,
A stoup of beer up at a pluck, Till his brain be as wise as a duck,
Like a rutter: Hoyda ...
When rutterkin from board will rise, He will piss a gallon pot full at twice, And the overplus under the table of the new guise,
Like a rutter: hoyda ...
[19] Now let us sing (Thomas Wade's Part-Books, 1562)
Now let us sing,
Christ kelp our King
Lord save our King, sing altogither, Christ keip his grace and long to rigne
That we may love lyk faithful brether.
Deame, fill a drink and we shall sing Lyk mirrie men of musick fyne. Tak Bacchus' blessing it to bring So it be wight as any wine. If it be weak, giv't to the Treble
Becaus he sings the clearest part. Small drink and butter maks him able, Sik fooq pertaineth to his art.
The Counter is the prince of all Whilk does require a might voce
Deame fill the cup aye when I call For I suld drink at evry close.
The Tenor is the ground but doubt.
Deame, fill a drink, I shall sing siccar. I sail keep time to drink it out
I pray you, deame, gar fill the bicker.
I blaw the Basse with meikle pain
For want of drink to wash my throat.
I pray you, sirs, gar fill wicht wine
And I shall sing the laichest note.
Thes Art of Musick is right dry
Of all the seavine the mirriest.
Deame, ye ar sweir that lets us cry
One fill the stoop and let us rest.
Hey down-a-die.
My heartly service to you, my Lord, I recommend, as I suld accord. There is one ox into your pleugh, so mot he go, it is richt so, and he is waxed old eneugh. Ye say the sooth, he has not a tooth, and he no langer may be drawn but he be led. I dare say well, bot he was never half so thrawn, nor yet so acwart, but goeth backwart. Now is he weak and wonder sweer. Full sweer is he, I tak on me, out of ane house he may not stire. Suppose ye brod him whill he die.
[20] The Pleugh Song
(Thomas Wode's Part-Books, 1562)
Yet better it were that some remeid were found in tym or he be dead for causes, for sklenting of brawts and startling of other men's nowts: and I am wo your pleugh suld lie, and might come and be nearby to yoke another in his steid, to drug and draw, whill he be dead, out of ane uncouth fair laysour to do your Lordship more plesour. And if it be your proper will, gar call your hyndis all you till: Ginken and Wilken Higgin and Habken, Hankin and Rankin, Robert and Colin, Hector and Aiken, Martin Mawer, Sandie Sawyer, Michael and Morice, Falselips Fergus, Reynaud and Guthrey, Symon and Jufrey, Orphus and Arthur, Allan, Morice, Dounie, Davie, Robert, Richard, Philpie Foster and Mackay Miller, Ruffie Tasker and his marrows all, Straboots, Tarboys and Ganzel, and all that hes most domination and pastorie of your common, before you ane and ane present, and thereto
show them your intent.
Speir at them all if they will be, require them all if they will be appleasit for to mell with me, and make me als so fast and sicker as l were bound ev'n with ane wicker for to deliver me be the heid: the old ox Tripfree, he be dead. Then sall l come, be robles cocks, and bring with me my fair fresh ox, with all that belongs to the pleugh; soms of iron stark enough, the cowter and the pleugh-head, sok sheet and mowdie bread, rack, rest, and the gluts and the slee band, the missel and the pleugh-bowl, the pleugh-staff, the pleugh-shoon, the mell and the stilt and the beam and the heel wedge, the chock, the yoke, the ring, the sling. Mine oxen bolls is wreathed and pind, this whole year saw no sun nor wind. The gadwand is both light and sharp, to brod his belly while he start. Hey! Now in the rood name call about, our pleugh so graiths with a shout, and a brod. Brod about Haken, wind about Brandie, call the broun Humly, Trowbelly, Chowbullock Whytehom, Grayhon and Cromack, wind Marrowgaire, wind about hey! Brod futt thee further. I sall brod him whill he rair, the rid stot and the dun. Wynd about again sune, wind narrow, wind about. Hold, draw him forthe in the Rood's name. Not ane of them for sic draught, in all Scotland is ther sic aught. And if ye please this pleugh of mine, tell me shortly into time, or I contract and hired be with others that desires me. Not else but the Trinite conserve you into Charitie. Amen.
[21] The gowans are gay
(Cantus Songs and Fancies printed, John Forbes, Aberdeen, 1662)
The gowans are gay, my jo, the gowans are gay.
They make me wake when I should sleep
The first morning of May.
About the fields as I did pass the gowans are gay.
I chanc’d to meet a proper lass
The first morning of May.
Right busie was that bonny Maid the gowans are gay
And I thereafter to her said:
The first morning of May.
‘O Ladie fair, what do you here?"
the gowans are gay
Gatn’ring the dew, what needs you speir?
The first morning of May.
The dew,' quoth I, what can that mean?' he gowans are gay
She said, To wash my Ladie clean.
The first morning of May.
I asked farther at her sine the gowans are gay.
To my will if she would incline.
The first morning of May.
She said her errand was not there the gowans are gay.
Her maiden-head on me to ware.
The first morning of May.
Thus left I her and past my way the gowans are gay.
Into a garden me to play
The first morning in May.
Where there was birds singing full sweet the gowans are gay.
Unto me comfort was full meet. The first morning of May.
And thereabout I past my time the gowans are gay.
While that it was the hour of Prime the first morning of May.
And then returned home again the gowans are gay.
Pansing what Maiden that had been.
The first morning of May.
–Translations by Lucy Cross
The New York Ensemble for Early Music performs an extraordinary gamut of literature that spans the anonymous, illuminated manuscripts of medieval Europe through the printed engravings of 18thcentury masters, including everything from bawdy ballads of worldly brilliance to the mystical glories of sacred motets.
Directed by Frederick Renz and assisted by an advisory board of musicologists, the Ensemble's goal is to recreate the ambience of a particular period through the use of instruments and voices, and techniques of performance which blend imaginative insight with sound scholarship.
Frederick Renz studied harpsichord with the eminent performer/scholar Gustav Leonhardt as a Fulbright Scholar. He holds graduate degrees and honors from Indiana University where he also taught harpsichord and conducted chamber ensembles. He has given solo recitals, appeared with orchestras and chamber groups in New York and has recorded for Decca, Vanguard, and Musical Heritage.
Recorded in the St. James Chapel of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York City, in 1980.
Produced by Dr. Frederick J. Bashour and Jeffrey Nissim.
Engineering and Tape Editing: Dr. Frederick J. Bashour
Digitally remastered by Dr. Frederick J. Bashour, Dulay Digital Music, Leverett, Massachusetts, with the David Manley 20-bit analogue to digital converter, and the Studer EdiTech Dyaxis® II hard disk editing system.
