Download Henry Purcell If music be the food of love

Tonos
programme for 16/4/2010 Limerick
If Music Be The Food Of Love
Songs of Love from the 17th Century
Henry Purcell
(1659–1695)
If music be the food of love
Fairest Isle
Henry Purcell incorporated Italian and French stylistic elements but devised a peculiarly English
style of Baroque music. He died at his house in Dean’s Yard, Westminster, in 1695, at the height
of his career Fairest Isle, with words by John Dryden (1631–1700), is taken from the
semi-opera, King Arthur, first performed in 1691. The soprano, Charlotte Butler, who performed in
the original production later appeared at the Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin.
If music be the food of love
If music be the food of love,
Pleasures invade both eye and ear,
sing on till I am fill’d with joy; so fierce the transports are, they wound,
for then my list’ning soul you move and all my senses feasted are,
with pleasures that can never cloy, tho’ yet the treat is only sound.
your eyes, your mien,
Sure I must perish by our charms,
your tongue declare
unless you save me in your arms.
that you are music ev’rywhere.
Fairest Isle
Fairest Isle, all isles excelling.
Gentle murmers sweet complaining,
Seat of pleasure and of love,
Sighs that blow the fire of love,
Venus here will choose her dwelling, Soft repulses, kind distaining,
And forsake her Cyprian grove.
Shall be all the pains you prove.
Cupid from his fav’rite nation, Ev’ry swain shall pay his duty,
Care and energy will remove; Grateful ev’ry nymph shall prove;
Jealousy that poisnous passion,
And as these excel in beauty,
And despair that dies for love.
Those shall be renowned for love.
Etienne Mouliníe
(1600–1669)
Claudio Monteverdi
(1567–1643)
Girolamo Frescobaldi
(1583–1643)
Che gioia ne sento mio bene
Non ha sott’il ceil
Dolci miei sospiri
Se l’aura spira
These songs by Mouliníe are taken from Airs de cour avec la tablature de lúth (1629). Moulinié
was the musical director to Gaston d’Orléans, Louis XIII’s younger brother. Airs de cour (1629) is
the only one of Moulinié’s five books of Airs de cours to include songs with guitar
accompaniment. This corresponds to the popularity of the guitar at the French court in the late
1620s and after.
Claudio Monteverdi is today revered as one of the most influential of Baroque composers and
instrumental in the early develoment of Opera. The song, Dolci miei…, describes the age-old
pain of love.
Girolamo Frescobaldi was appointed organist of St. Peter’s in 1608. The sentiment of his
beautiful Se l’aura spira is one of love: love of life, nature and romance.
O che gioia ne sento mio bene
O che gioia che sento mio bene
O my beloved, what joy I feel
Che lo strale d’amor t’ha ferito.
That the arrow of love has injured you
O soavi mie’affanni, mie pene
O my worries and sorrows
O tormemto mio caro e gradito
O my beloved and welcome torment
Hora si, che son lieto, E contento.
Now yes I am gay and happy.
O che gioia ne sento….
Hora si, che felice mi chiamo Now yes I can call myself happy
Ch’amor punse il tuo cor si crudele, Love has punctured your cruel heart,
Disperato morir piu non bramo,
I no longer desire to die desperate
Piu non sparga lamenti, o querele,
May my boredom no longer spread sorrows
Ogni noia E sparcita , ogni stento.
and complaints.
O che gioia ne sento….
Non ha sott’il ciel
Non ha sott’il ciel
Under the sky Cupid does not have a
Un servo Cupido di me piu fedel.
more faithful servant than me
Mio core mi’alma
My heart and my soul carry it’s
Ne porta la palma Per tutto so fa,
glory everywhere
Ch’un servo Cupido
Because Cupid does not have a
piu fidel non ha.
more faithful servant than me.
Troncar non si puo
One cannot cut off that love string
Quel laccio d’amore
that tied the soul.
che l’alma lego.
Ma vita serena,
But a happy life
Fa dolce catena, contenta sara
makes a sweet chain.
Ch’un cor piu gioioso
It will be happy
Cupido non ha.
that Cupid does not have a
happier heart.
Dolci miei sospiri
Dolci miei sospiri
Dolci miei martiri
Dolce mio desio
E voi dolci canti
E voi dolci pianti
Rimanete a Dio
A la ria partita
Vento, e mare invita
o volubili ore
ma non piu querele
dura amor crudele
ama il mio dolore.
Sweet my sighs
Sweet my tortures
Sweet my desire
And your sweet songs
And your sweet laments
May you remain with God.
On my bitter journey
wind and sea are my companions
Oh the fickle hours.
But this is no more trying
than cruel love
which loves my sorrow.
Se l’aura spira
Se l’aura spira tutta vezzosa,
La fresca rosa ridente sta,
La siepe ombrosa di bei smeraldi,
When the lovely breezes blow,
The fresh rose stands smiling.
The hedge, a shady emerald,
D’estivi caldi timor non ha.
Fears not the summer’s heat.
A balli, a balli liete venite
Come dance, come merrily,
Ninfe gradite, fior di beltà,
You dear nymphs, blossoms of beauty!
Or, che sì chiaro il vago fonte Now, when the lovely spring flows
Dall alto monte al mar sen’ va
Clearly from mountain to sea,
Di piant’e querele,
that fierce tyrant
Si burla, si ride
So full of deception
Quel’fiero tiranno
Makes fun of sighing and complaints.
Si pieno d’ingranno.
Non credo mio cor!
I don’t believe my heart!
Amando trovare
By loving
Merced’in amor
Finding pity in love.
Per Terra, e per Mare
By land and by sea
S’encorra veloce
He makes his way fast
Suoi dolce versi spiega l’augello,
The bird sings its sweet notes
E l’arboscello fiorito sta.
And the bushes are full of blossoms.
Un volto solo al l’ombra accanto
Only one face near the shadow
Sol si dia vanto d’haver pietà. Can boast of showing compassion.
Al canto, al canto, ninfe ridenti
Come, sing, laughing nymphs,
Scacciate i venti di crudeltà!
Disperse the winds of cruelty!
Gaspar Sanz
(mid-17th–early 18th century)
Canarios
Gaspar Sanz, a virtuoso guitarist-composer, published one of the most important guitar books of
the seventeenth century and it contains the bulk of the Baroque Guitar music performed today.
The ‘Canarios’ chord sequence first appeared in the late sixteenth century and has served as an
inspiration for composers ever since. It was believed to have come from the Canary Islands and
this version by Sanz is one of the most famous of Baroque guitar compositions.
José Marín
(1618–1699)
Sepan todos que muero
De amores y de ausencias
Ya no puedo más senora
José Marín was a Spanish composer, singer and priest. He sang tenor in the royal chapel of
King Felipe IV from 1644 to 1649. After travelling to Rome, for ordination, and then to the Indies
he returned to Madrid and in 1657 was charged with robbery and murder and subsequently
defrocked. Between 1680 and 1694 Martin Garcia de Olegue, organist at Trinitarian convent in
Madrid, copied a manuscript of fifty-one secular songs composed or arranged by Marín, in a
version for voice and five-course guitar. These songs are taken from that collection.
Translations: Alex MacKenzie
Sepan todos que muero
Sepan todos que muero
Know ye that I die
de un desdén que que quiero of a disdain that I adore
Quiero un desdén a paçible
I long for a quiet disdain
y si ay ángeles acá un angel
and if there be angels here
que quiero está,
an angel that I love is
más alla de lo imposible
beyond the impossible.
quiero sufrir lo in sufrible
I should like to suffer the insufferable
de amar y no perecer
in love and not perish
de sem brar y no cojer pues e
sowing and not reaping after
de morir primero,
and dying first
Sepan todos que muero
Know ye that I die
de un desdén que quiero.
of a disdain that I adore.
De amores y de ausençias
De amores y de ausencias
se queja un desdichado
Con palabras de fuego
suspiros de llanto.
A poor wretch bemoans
love and absence.
With words of fire,
sobbing sighs.
Yo Triste no esperava
del tiempo afortunado
venturas que tampresto
llegan a desengaños.
Divertirme procuro
y en mis tristezas paso
con número de penas
lo major de mis años.
está marchito el gusto
Estribillo
Amor en astremos tales
no quiero tus placers por
pesares.
Unwitting, I did not expect
in a fortunate time
reverses which so quickly
lead to disenchantment.
I try to distract myself,
and pass my best years
in misery
and pain without end.
for ‘tis vain to search
Refrain
Love, in such extremes,
I do not want your pleasures for the pain they
bring.
tus
Ya no puedo más señora
Ya no puedo más señora
que en las lides de mi pecho
vanamente resistida
vençio la pena al silençio.
Ardo y quieres que oprimido
aún no respire el silençio
si te disgustan los humos
porqúe ocasionas los fuegos.
Perdona tú si atrevido
a la ley de tu respeto
mis tristes desconfianzas
tomaran nombre de zelos.
I can resist no more my lady
for in the torment of my bosom
which I fought in vain
pain has overcome silence.
I burn, and you would that, thus oppressed,
I should not even breathe the silence;
if smoke repels you
why do you light fires?
Forgive me if, breaching
the law of your respect,
my dolorous mistrust
should take the name of jealousy.
Estribillo
Refrain
Y aunque sea vivir morir de amores And although to live may be to die of love,
ni dar prisa al vivir que tiempo corre. I shall not live life helter-skelter, for time flies.
Traditional Irish
(18th century)
Siúil a rún
Siúil a rún is a traditional Irish song from the eighteenth century. It is about a young woman and
her love, who has gone into exile with the Wild Geese. The song exists in many forms this
bilingual version owes much to a seventeenth-century Gaelic song, Siúil a ghrá.
Siúil, siúil, siúil a rún,
Walk, walk, walk, O love,
Siúil go sochair agus siúil go ciúin Walk quickly to me, softly move;
Siúil go doras agus ealaigh líon
Walk to the door, and away we’ll flee,
Is go dté tú mo mhuirnín slán
And safe may my darling be.
I wish I was on yonder hill
I’ll dye my petticoats, I’ll dye them red,
‘Tis there I’d sit and cry my fill,
And ‘round the world I’ll beg my bread,
And every tear would turn a mill
Until my parents shall wish me dead,
I’ll sell my rock, I’ll sell my reel,
But now my love has gone to France,
I’ll sell my only spinning wheel, To try his fortune to advance;
To buy my love a sword of steel
If he e’er comes back, ‘tis but a chance.
Juan Arañes
(died after 1649)
Chacona: A la vida bona
Juan Arañes was a Spanish composer, active briefly in Italy. A la vida bona, was the first chacona
for voices by a Spanish composer to appear in print. Writers from the time (such as Cervantes)
indicate that the chacona was associated with servants, slaves and Amerindians. It was often
condemned for its suggestive movements and mocking texts, and was said to have been
invented by the devil.
Chacona: A la vida bona
Un sarao de la chacona
se hizo el mes de las rosas,
huvo millares de cosas
y la fama lo pregona.
A la vida, vidita bona,
vida vámonos a Chacona.
Porque se casó Almadán
se hizo un bravo sarao,
dançaron hijas de Anao
con los nietos de Milán.
Un suegro de Don Beltrán
y una cuñada de Orfeo
començaron un guineo
y acabólo un amaçona
y la fama lo pregona.
One evening in the month of roses
a dancing party was held,
it afforded a thousand pleasures,
as was famed both far and wide.
Here’s to the good, sweet life,
my sweet, let’s dance the chaconne.
When Almadan was wed
a grand old party was thrown,
the daughters of Aneus danced
with the grandsons of Milan.
The father-in-law of Bertran
and Orpheus’s sister-in-law
began a Guinea dance
which was finished by an Amazon,
as was famed both far and wide.