Farya Faraji | Je Vivroie Liement - Medieval French Song @faryafaraji | Uploaded August 2024 | Updated October 2024, 3 days ago.
Music & lyrics by Guillaume de Machaut, vocals & arrangement by Farya Faraji. This is a 14th century French song and one of my favourite songs of all time, from one of my favourite composers of all time: Guillaume de Machaut, a monument of not only French but Medieval music as a whole. As a leading figure of the Ars Nova, the emergent style of polyphony in France of the 1300's, he would secure his place as one of the most important musicians of the era.
My goal with this arrangement was to provide a bridge to the gap between Renaissance and earlier medieval music. When comparing historically informed renditions of French music of the early modern era to that of the 1200's and prior, the difference is obvious; one can sense the shift from modality to tonality. However, the 1300's and 1400's mark a more subtle liminal state between both eras. Modality is slowly giving way to the emergent fundamentals of what would become tonality, aka what we now recognise as Western music.
My goal was to create a completely monophonic rendition of this song, as pure monophony was still very much the norm of medieval music and of the virelai genre such as this song's; but the monophonic style here is ostensibly less modal than that of earlier songs like "E Dame de Montpellier," or "Chevaliers Mult Estez Guariz." The vocal style here is less florid and free with pitch inflection; microtonal inflections are gone, the entire attitude towards with pitch is far more strict and closer to our familiar idea of more recent Western music. As the Middle-Ages draw to an end, Western European music has changed into a different paradigm that becomes the recognisable proto-template for tonal music, which is what I wanted to illustrate here, by showing that even when dealing with monophony and a general lack of polyphony and verticality, the broader psychological-musical framework of Western European music has changed from earlier era's. Contrasting this piece with my Renaissance performances and earlier French piece should yield a fuller picture of the gradual shift from a fully modal tradition to the one we now know as Western music.
The instruments used are the harp, the hammered dulcimer, and the vielle.
Lyrics in Middle-French:
Je vivroie liement,
Douce creature,
Se vous saviés vraiement,
Qu′en vous fust parfaitement ma cure.
Dame de meintieng joli,
Plaisant, nette et pure,
Souvent me fait dire 'ai mi!′
Li maus que j'endure
Pur vous servir loyaument.
Et soié seüre
Que je ne puis nullement
Vivre einssi, se longuement
Me dure.
Je vivroie liement,
Douce creature,
Se vous saviés vraiement,
Qu'en vous fust parfaitement ma cure.
Je vivroie liement,
Douce creature,
Se vous saviés vraiement,
Qu′en vous fust parfaitement ma cure.
Car vous m′estes sans mercy
Et sans pité dure.
et s'avés le cuer de mi
Mis en tel ardure
Qu′il morra certeinnement
De mort trop obscure,
Se pour son aligement
Merci n'est procheinnement
Meüre.
Je vivroie liement,
Douce creature,
Se vous saviés vraiement,
Qu′en vous fust parfaitement ma cure.
English translation:
I should lead a happy life,
sweet creature,
if only you truly realized
that you where the cause of all
my concern.
Lady of cheerful bearing,
pleasing, bright and pure,
often the woe I suffer
to serve you loyally
makes me say 'alas!'
And you may be sure
that I can in no way
go on living like this, if it lasts
any longer.
For you are merciless to me
and pitilessly obdurate,
and have put such longing
into my heart,
that it will certainly die
a most dismal death,
unless for its relief
your mercy is soon
ready.
Music & lyrics by Guillaume de Machaut, vocals & arrangement by Farya Faraji. This is a 14th century French song and one of my favourite songs of all time, from one of my favourite composers of all time: Guillaume de Machaut, a monument of not only French but Medieval music as a whole. As a leading figure of the Ars Nova, the emergent style of polyphony in France of the 1300's, he would secure his place as one of the most important musicians of the era.
My goal with this arrangement was to provide a bridge to the gap between Renaissance and earlier medieval music. When comparing historically informed renditions of French music of the early modern era to that of the 1200's and prior, the difference is obvious; one can sense the shift from modality to tonality. However, the 1300's and 1400's mark a more subtle liminal state between both eras. Modality is slowly giving way to the emergent fundamentals of what would become tonality, aka what we now recognise as Western music.
My goal was to create a completely monophonic rendition of this song, as pure monophony was still very much the norm of medieval music and of the virelai genre such as this song's; but the monophonic style here is ostensibly less modal than that of earlier songs like "E Dame de Montpellier," or "Chevaliers Mult Estez Guariz." The vocal style here is less florid and free with pitch inflection; microtonal inflections are gone, the entire attitude towards with pitch is far more strict and closer to our familiar idea of more recent Western music. As the Middle-Ages draw to an end, Western European music has changed into a different paradigm that becomes the recognisable proto-template for tonal music, which is what I wanted to illustrate here, by showing that even when dealing with monophony and a general lack of polyphony and verticality, the broader psychological-musical framework of Western European music has changed from earlier era's. Contrasting this piece with my Renaissance performances and earlier French piece should yield a fuller picture of the gradual shift from a fully modal tradition to the one we now know as Western music.
The instruments used are the harp, the hammered dulcimer, and the vielle.
Lyrics in Middle-French:
Je vivroie liement,
Douce creature,
Se vous saviés vraiement,
Qu′en vous fust parfaitement ma cure.
Dame de meintieng joli,
Plaisant, nette et pure,
Souvent me fait dire 'ai mi!′
Li maus que j'endure
Pur vous servir loyaument.
Et soié seüre
Que je ne puis nullement
Vivre einssi, se longuement
Me dure.
Je vivroie liement,
Douce creature,
Se vous saviés vraiement,
Qu'en vous fust parfaitement ma cure.
Je vivroie liement,
Douce creature,
Se vous saviés vraiement,
Qu′en vous fust parfaitement ma cure.
Car vous m′estes sans mercy
Et sans pité dure.
et s'avés le cuer de mi
Mis en tel ardure
Qu′il morra certeinnement
De mort trop obscure,
Se pour son aligement
Merci n'est procheinnement
Meüre.
Je vivroie liement,
Douce creature,
Se vous saviés vraiement,
Qu′en vous fust parfaitement ma cure.
English translation:
I should lead a happy life,
sweet creature,
if only you truly realized
that you where the cause of all
my concern.
Lady of cheerful bearing,
pleasing, bright and pure,
often the woe I suffer
to serve you loyally
makes me say 'alas!'
And you may be sure
that I can in no way
go on living like this, if it lasts
any longer.
For you are merciless to me
and pitilessly obdurate,
and have put such longing
into my heart,
that it will certainly die
a most dismal death,
unless for its relief
your mercy is soon
ready.
