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• Le Jeune, Claude: May fait les bois

Le Jeune, Claude: May fait les bois

for 8 voices or instruments in 2 choirs.

Claude Le Jeune´s May fait le bois comes from his Second livre des meslanges, published in Paris by Pierre Ballard in 1612.
Le Jeune uses the two choirs to present an antithesis between the month of May, with all the light and gaiety it traditionally brings (Chorus I), and the miserable poet (Chorus II), who feels his own troubles only highlighted by the arrival of spring. In view of this, it is not surprising the two choirs each have their own music, rather than engaging in antiphony in the Venetian style. However, slightly more than half-way through, the two choirs begin to share musical material, and there are two tutti passages in which all eight parts blend together.
Le Jeune´s harmonic style is a little different from that of most of the north Italian composers who dominate the double-choir repertoire, with somewhat more use of sixth chords. In performance the music requires a certain lightness, even transparency: clarity is more important than volume. In bar 46 choir I will need to shorten the last note to avoid a clash with the entry in the second choir.
In this edition the original note values have been retained in the duple, but halved in the triple sections. I have rationalised the partnames, which in the original are as follows: Choir I: dessus, haute-contre, taille, septiesme; Choir II: sixiesme, cinquiesme, huictiesme, basse-contre. Editorial accidentals are shown in the usual way, that is printed small above the stave, applying to the one note only. For the sake of simplicity, the original accidentals are taken as applying to the whole bar. I am grateful to Jeannine Alton for translating the text of this chanson.