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• Janequin, Clément: 2 Chansons

Janequin, Clément: 2 Chansons

(Il estoit une fillette, M´y levay par ung matin) for 4 voices or instruments.

Clément Janequin was born around 1485 near Bordeaux, and in fact spent much of his working life there, only moving on to Angers in the 1530s. Strangely enough, he was enrolled as a student at Paris Univeristy in 1549; he died in that city in 1558. His very modest life seems at odds with his outstanding reputation as a composer (Attaingnant started issuing his works as early as 1529): he was certainly the most adventurous of the chanson composers whose music was published in Paris. Though known primarily for his long “programmatic” chansons, he wrote simple melancholy pieces in the manner of Claudin de Sermisy, as well as witty imitative pieces.
Both the present pieces have narrative texts of the naughty variety. Many chansons of the time begin with the time-honoured words “M´y levay par ung matin”, an opening that usually precedes an amorous encounter.
II estoit une fillette is printed here after Attaingnant´s Huitiesme livre contenant xix Chansons nouvelles, Paris, 1540, M´y levay par ung matin after the same publisher´s Trente et une chanson musicales, 1529. The original note values have been halved here. Editorial accidentals are printed above the stave in a smaller size, applying to the one note only. I am grateful to Jeannine Alton for translating the texts of these songs.