Farya Faraji | Can She Excuse my Wrongs - English Renaissance Song @faryafaraji | Uploaded 1 year ago | Updated 2 hours ago
Music by John Dowland, vocals by Farya Faraji. This is a song from renowned lute player and composer John Dowland (c. 1563-1626), one of the foremost composer of English Renaissance music. Typical of Renaissance music of this era, the arrangement is highly complex and features multiple interwoven melodic lines—what we call polyphony. The identity of the lyricist is unkown, and it is assumed that the melody was written independently from the text and that the latter was adapted to the melody later due to the unusual stress patterns that do no match the normal pronunciation of the words.
I didn’t have time to learn this era’s pronunciation so I chose to go with the conventional pronunciation used by English singers of the Early Music repertoire—a sort of heightened version of Received Pronunciation, with more exaggerated vowel qualities, like more rounded vowel sounds, and R’s pronounced as alveolar taps or trills; a similar pronunciation is used in English opera also.
Lyrics:
Can she excuse my wrongs with Virtue’s cloak?
Shall I call her good when she proves unkind?
Are those clear fires which vanish into smoke?
Must I praise the leaves where no fruit I find?
No, no; where shadows do for bodies stand,
That may’st be abus’d if thy sight be dim.
Cold love is like to words written on sand,
Or to bubbles which on the water swim.
Wilt thou be thus abused still,
Seeing that she will right thee never?
If thou canst not o’ercome her will,
Thy love will be thus fruitless ever.
Was I so base, that I might not aspire
Unto those high joys which she holds from me?
As they are high, so high is my desire,
If she this deny, what can granted be?
If she will yield to that which reason is,
It is reason’s will that love should be just.
Dear, make me happy still by granting this,
Or cut off delays if that I die must.
Better a thousand times to die
Than for to love thus still tormented:
Dear, but remember it was I
Who for thy sake did die contented.
Music by John Dowland, vocals by Farya Faraji. This is a song from renowned lute player and composer John Dowland (c. 1563-1626), one of the foremost composer of English Renaissance music. Typical of Renaissance music of this era, the arrangement is highly complex and features multiple interwoven melodic lines—what we call polyphony. The identity of the lyricist is unkown, and it is assumed that the melody was written independently from the text and that the latter was adapted to the melody later due to the unusual stress patterns that do no match the normal pronunciation of the words.
I didn’t have time to learn this era’s pronunciation so I chose to go with the conventional pronunciation used by English singers of the Early Music repertoire—a sort of heightened version of Received Pronunciation, with more exaggerated vowel qualities, like more rounded vowel sounds, and R’s pronounced as alveolar taps or trills; a similar pronunciation is used in English opera also.
Lyrics:
Can she excuse my wrongs with Virtue’s cloak?
Shall I call her good when she proves unkind?
Are those clear fires which vanish into smoke?
Must I praise the leaves where no fruit I find?
No, no; where shadows do for bodies stand,
That may’st be abus’d if thy sight be dim.
Cold love is like to words written on sand,
Or to bubbles which on the water swim.
Wilt thou be thus abused still,
Seeing that she will right thee never?
If thou canst not o’ercome her will,
Thy love will be thus fruitless ever.
Was I so base, that I might not aspire
Unto those high joys which she holds from me?
As they are high, so high is my desire,
If she this deny, what can granted be?
If she will yield to that which reason is,
It is reason’s will that love should be just.
Dear, make me happy still by granting this,
Or cut off delays if that I die must.
Better a thousand times to die
Than for to love thus still tormented:
Dear, but remember it was I
Who for thy sake did die contented.
