Works in French

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terredepomme
Posts: 11
Joined: 27 Feb 2010 08:17

Works in French

Post by terredepomme »

I've been listening to choral music for less than a year now, and since I am more familiar with English and French than I am with Latin, I tend to enjoy more the works in these languages. I've purchased some choral musics in French recently, by Ensemble Gilles Binchois, through Internet, but the problem is that I can't find the lyrics. Often I have to dig up obscure internet pages just to get the lyrics, and translations in Modern French or English are rarer. And unfortunately my ear cannot pick up Old French without the aid of written text.
I thought this was classical music, and that resources should abound in the internet regarding its texts and translations, studies, notes, etc. But nobody seems to be listening to French choral. Why are the so disregarded?

Here are some of the songs whose lyrics I gave up finding:

La lune est coustumiere
Triste Plaisir
Quand j'estois libre
Que N'Est Elle Aupres de Moy
carlos
Site Admin
Posts: 1870
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Location: São Paulo, Brasil

Re: Works in French

Post by carlos »

Hello, I believe I have found the lyrics for the first one, it's a poem by Ronsard:

La lune est coutumière
De naître tous les mois :
Mais quand notre lumière
Est éteinte une fois,
Sans nos yeux réveiller
Faut longtemps sommeiller.


Source: ''Études sur la Poésie Latine'', by Henri Joseph Guillaume Patin (via Google books :^)
carlos
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Location: São Paulo, Brasil

Re: Works in French

Post by carlos »

Triste plaisir was tougher to find! It's a poem by Alain Chartier titled Rondeau:

Triste plaisir et douloureuse joie,
Aspre douceur, réconfort ennuyeux,
Ris en pleurant, souvenir oublieux
M'accompagnent, combien que seul je sois.

Embusqués sont, afin qu'on ne les voie
Dedans mon cœur sous l'ombre de mes yeux.
Triste plaisir et douloureuse joie !

C'est mon trésor, ma part et ma montjoie ;
Par quoi Danger est sur moi envieux ;
Bien le sera s'il me voit avoir mieux
Quand il me hait de ce qu'Amour m'envoie.
Triste plaisir et douloureuse joie.


The translation for the first stanza is:

Sad pleasure and painful joy
Bitter sweetness, uneasy comfort,
Laughter while weeping, forgotten memory,
Accompany me, whenever I am alone.
terredepomme
Posts: 11
Joined: 27 Feb 2010 08:17

Re: Works in French

Post by terredepomme »

Thanks, Carlos! I really appreciate it. :D I'm curious about, however, why the lyrics can be so challenging to find. Why is it that a lot of people listen to classical music, but not choral works, especially those in French?
anaigeon
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Joined: 06 Dec 2005 21:15
Location: France
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Re: Works in French

Post by anaigeon »

Well... I don't know which kind of music you're looking for, but you'll find (here on cpdl) many pieces by Sermisy, Sandrin, Janequin, Lassus (Bonjour mon coeur)...
Since those are from a late period of time, they are rather understandable (at least the meaning, if not, sometimes, every word).
terredepomme
Posts: 11
Joined: 27 Feb 2010 08:17

Re: Works in French

Post by terredepomme »

There are about dozens of works I failed to find lyrics... I just gave up listening to them. If no one bothered to post lyrics on the web, I guess that they're not very significant pieces of work. Too bad not many major works are written in French.
carlos
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Location: São Paulo, Brasil

Re: Works in French

Post by carlos »

terredepomme wrote:There are about dozens of works I failed to find lyrics...
I guess the main problem you may face is that French orthography changed a lot in the last 500 years; thus, when searching for the title in one of the old spellings, you may not find the lyrics; but if you switch to the modern spelling, chances are high that you'll find them. That's what happened with me in the two examples above. For example, I began searching for "Triste plaisir et douleureuse joye" and found nothing, until I changed to "Triste plaisir et douloureuse joie".
anaigeon
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Re: Works in French

Post by anaigeon »

Though google has a sophisticated search engine ; I've just found Binchois and Dufay pieces
by entering exactly
Triste plaisir et douleureuse joye
(without quotes)
!
carlos
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Location: São Paulo, Brasil

Re: Works in French

Post by carlos »

Oh yes, anaigeon, Google brings thousands of results, and that's exactly the problem! Almost all pages are about recordings or sheet music for sale; finding the lyrics in the midst of all these is the big challenge.

What I usually do is to listen to an excerpt of the song (major music selling sites usually have this feature), trying to guess a couple of words. I then introduce these words in the search query, alongside with the title, and if my guess was correct, the lyrics will be among the first results displayed.
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