Farya Faraji | Mes Pas Semez - Renaissance French Song @faryafaraji | Uploaded 4 months ago | Updated 9 hours ago
Instrumentation by Tommaso Tarsi, vocals & arrangement by Farya Faraji. This is a 16th century French song arranged by Adrian Le Roy, a renowned music publisher, composer and lute player of the 1500's. I use the term arranged, since this melody is found in many different variations of the era, such as the song Pavana con su Glosa from Spain, bu Antonio de Cabezón. It seems that this melodic formula was a common one in the era, a form of early Follia found in different iterations.
This song is a perfect encapsulation of what defines early modern music: a polyphonic, multi-part structure in which four independent melodic lines move in parallel in order to create harmony. At this stage of European music, we see the rise of modern, classical, tonal harmony that still defines the bulk of modern Western music. One of the individual lines, for example, moves in parallel thirds in relation to the main voice, something we're very used to now and would have been completely alien to the French of the 1100's. For more information on how Western European harmony developed, you can watch my in depth video essay on Medieval Organum and its rise into tonal harmony through the centuries: youtube.com/watch?v=rNY4b0aRLcQ
Tommaso, an early music expert, plays the theorbo, two different lutes, and a baroque guitar, and I also added a cornetto, a Renaissance era reed instrument with a texture similar to that of a trumpet, as well as a period trumpet. I chose to sang this primarily in falsetto, a vocal posture that was quite usual at the time for men to sing with.
Lyrics in Early Modern French:
Mes pas semez et loing allez
Par diuers solitaires lieux:
Sont de pensers entremellez,
Qui rendent humides mes yeux,
Et tant plus i’ay ma voix haucée,
Tant moins ie me sens exaucée,
Et si ne sçay quand i’aurai mieux.
Je n’ai tenu mes pas si chers,
Ny mon esprit tant endormy,
Que par montaignes et rochers
Ie n’aye cherche mon amye:
L’oeil au guet, l’aureille ententiue,
La parolle prompte et naïfue,
Mais d'elle n’ay mot ne demy.
Quand quelqu’un parle il m’est auis
Que Narcissus ha quelque ennuy,
Je me presente vis à vis
Pour tenir propos à celuy
Que telle parole prononce,
En luy faisant mesme response,
Mesme propos et mesmes dicts.
Narcissus, respons s’il te plaist,
Ois tu mon cry, ie croy que non:
Rien ne sera mon piteaux plaid,
Fors par tout espandre ton nom.
Donce ie te pry ne me nie
Ta bien amée compaignie,
Et tu seras en bon renom.
Ton bon sçauoir ny parler prompt
Ne m’acquierent aucun plaisir:
Car l’absence de l’amye, rompt
Tout ce qu’en espere mon desir:
Mais plus que c’est ma destinée,
Que ie soye amante obstinée,
Ie quitte propos et plaisir.
Respondant á plusiurs parleuses,
Je n’en y sceu trouuer aucun,
Qui s’aprochast de tes valeurs:
Pour cela i’entretiens chacune,
C’est en attendant ta presence:
C’est ie suis en ferme constance,
Parler á tous, et n’aimer qu’une.
English translation:
My steps, wandering and scattered,
Through many lonely places,
Are mingled with thoughts
That wet my eyes with tears.
And the more I’ve called out,
The less I’ve felt I was heard.
Yet I do not know when I shall have things better.
I have never found my steps so precious,
Nor my mind so benumbed,
As in this searching among mountains and boulders
For my beloved.
My eyes watchful, my ears alert,
My tongue ready and open --
But not a word or syllable of her
When someone speaks, it seems to me
That Narcissus is vexed at something --
I turn to face him
Who says this thing
And talk with him,
Answering him with the same answer,
The same subject, the same words.
Narcissus, answer me, please.
Do you not hear my cry? I fear not;
Nothing will come of my woeful plea, except
To spread your name everywhere.
I beg you not to deny me
Your affectionate company,
And then you will be well spoken of.
Your learning, your ready speech
Bring me no pleasure;
For the absence of my beloved shatters
Everything my longing hopes for.
But since it’s my destiny
To be a stubborn lover,
I abandon my purpose and my pleasure.
Answering several suitors,
I’ve not found any
Who came near to your value --
And I entertain each of them
Only in awaiting your return;
For I am constant;
To speak to all and love only one.
Instrumentation by Tommaso Tarsi, vocals & arrangement by Farya Faraji. This is a 16th century French song arranged by Adrian Le Roy, a renowned music publisher, composer and lute player of the 1500's. I use the term arranged, since this melody is found in many different variations of the era, such as the song Pavana con su Glosa from Spain, bu Antonio de Cabezón. It seems that this melodic formula was a common one in the era, a form of early Follia found in different iterations.
This song is a perfect encapsulation of what defines early modern music: a polyphonic, multi-part structure in which four independent melodic lines move in parallel in order to create harmony. At this stage of European music, we see the rise of modern, classical, tonal harmony that still defines the bulk of modern Western music. One of the individual lines, for example, moves in parallel thirds in relation to the main voice, something we're very used to now and would have been completely alien to the French of the 1100's. For more information on how Western European harmony developed, you can watch my in depth video essay on Medieval Organum and its rise into tonal harmony through the centuries: youtube.com/watch?v=rNY4b0aRLcQ
Tommaso, an early music expert, plays the theorbo, two different lutes, and a baroque guitar, and I also added a cornetto, a Renaissance era reed instrument with a texture similar to that of a trumpet, as well as a period trumpet. I chose to sang this primarily in falsetto, a vocal posture that was quite usual at the time for men to sing with.
Lyrics in Early Modern French:
Mes pas semez et loing allez
Par diuers solitaires lieux:
Sont de pensers entremellez,
Qui rendent humides mes yeux,
Et tant plus i’ay ma voix haucée,
Tant moins ie me sens exaucée,
Et si ne sçay quand i’aurai mieux.
Je n’ai tenu mes pas si chers,
Ny mon esprit tant endormy,
Que par montaignes et rochers
Ie n’aye cherche mon amye:
L’oeil au guet, l’aureille ententiue,
La parolle prompte et naïfue,
Mais d'elle n’ay mot ne demy.
Quand quelqu’un parle il m’est auis
Que Narcissus ha quelque ennuy,
Je me presente vis à vis
Pour tenir propos à celuy
Que telle parole prononce,
En luy faisant mesme response,
Mesme propos et mesmes dicts.
Narcissus, respons s’il te plaist,
Ois tu mon cry, ie croy que non:
Rien ne sera mon piteaux plaid,
Fors par tout espandre ton nom.
Donce ie te pry ne me nie
Ta bien amée compaignie,
Et tu seras en bon renom.
Ton bon sçauoir ny parler prompt
Ne m’acquierent aucun plaisir:
Car l’absence de l’amye, rompt
Tout ce qu’en espere mon desir:
Mais plus que c’est ma destinée,
Que ie soye amante obstinée,
Ie quitte propos et plaisir.
Respondant á plusiurs parleuses,
Je n’en y sceu trouuer aucun,
Qui s’aprochast de tes valeurs:
Pour cela i’entretiens chacune,
C’est en attendant ta presence:
C’est ie suis en ferme constance,
Parler á tous, et n’aimer qu’une.
English translation:
My steps, wandering and scattered,
Through many lonely places,
Are mingled with thoughts
That wet my eyes with tears.
And the more I’ve called out,
The less I’ve felt I was heard.
Yet I do not know when I shall have things better.
I have never found my steps so precious,
Nor my mind so benumbed,
As in this searching among mountains and boulders
For my beloved.
My eyes watchful, my ears alert,
My tongue ready and open --
But not a word or syllable of her
When someone speaks, it seems to me
That Narcissus is vexed at something --
I turn to face him
Who says this thing
And talk with him,
Answering him with the same answer,
The same subject, the same words.
Narcissus, answer me, please.
Do you not hear my cry? I fear not;
Nothing will come of my woeful plea, except
To spread your name everywhere.
I beg you not to deny me
Your affectionate company,
And then you will be well spoken of.
Your learning, your ready speech
Bring me no pleasure;
For the absence of my beloved shatters
Everything my longing hopes for.
But since it’s my destiny
To be a stubborn lover,
I abandon my purpose and my pleasure.
Answering several suitors,
I’ve not found any
Who came near to your value --
And I entertain each of them
Only in awaiting your return;
For I am constant;
To speak to all and love only one.
