• Startseite
• Literatur
• Noten
• Noten 4-stimmig
• J´ay pris amours (5 settings c. 1500)

J´ay pris amours (5 settings c. 1500)

for 3 - 4 instruments.

The Anonymous late-15th-century rondeau J´ay pris amours was, together with Hayne van Ghizeghem´s De tous biens playne, the most frequently arranged work of its day, with literally dozens of settings surviving. In the original chanson. the discantus and the tenor are of equal importance (they share the same material in imitation much of the time). Some arrangements keep these two main parts, and add one or more elaborate contratenor or bassus parts. Other settings, (like nos. 2 and 3 here) retain the original discantus, and add three “free” parts, though even these occasionally incorporate phrases from the original, especially towards the end of the setting. The remaining 4-part version here combines the discantus of J´ay pris amours with the rhythmically reworked tenor of De tous biens playne. In the two versions from the Glogauer Liederbuch (nos.1 and 5) the original melody is transposed down a fourth: in no. 1 the original discantus appears in the tenor, and no. 5 the original tenor appears in the bassus.
It is reasonable to suppose that these arrangements of the famous rondeau were essentially intended for instruments, though there is no objection to, for instance, having the top part sung, and the remaining parts played on suitable instruments. For the benefit of those who want to do this, and also for those who wish to get to know the original before embarking on the arrangements, we are including a copy of the original rondeau, printed after the Dijon Chansonnier.
In this edition we have halved the original note values throughout. Editorial accidentals are printed small above the stave, applying to the one note only. For the sake of convenience the original accidentals are taken as applying to the whole bar. The three 4-part settings are printed after Petrucci prints: nos. 2 and 4 after Harmonice Musices Odhecaton (Venice, 1501), no. 3 after Canti C numero cento cinquanta (Venice, 1504). The dates of these collections give us little clue about the date of the pieces, which could easily have been composed around 1470-80. The Glogauer Liederbuch, from which the two remaining settings are taken, is generally thought to have been written between 1475 and 1485.
Settings nos 2 and 4 are a tone lower in the original. They appear here at the higher pitch (that at which most J´ay pris amours settings are found) in the interests of musical continuity.