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Medieval Music Database

De toutes flours n'avoit et de tous fruis
ballade by Guillaume de Machaut

Sources

Florence: Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Panciatichiano 26, fol. 99v (3/1);
Modena: Biblioteca Estense e Universitaria a.M.5.24 (Latino 568; olim IV.D.5), fol. 26 (3/1);
New York: Pierpont Morgan Library M. 396, fol. 213v (3/1); Wildenstein Collection, fol. 313 (3/1);
Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 843 (text); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 1584 (MachA), fol. 470 (3/1); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 1585 (MachB), fol. 312 (3/1); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 9221 (MachE), fol. 150v (4/1); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 22546 (MachG), fol. 144 (3/1); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds italien 568, fol. 120v (3/0); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds nouv. acq. français 6771 (Reina Codex), fol. 72 (4/1); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds nouv. acq. français 23190 (olim Serrant Château, ducs de la Trémoïlle), fol. 12v-13 (lost);
Strasbourg: Bibliothèque Municipale (olim Bibliothèque de la Ville) 222 C. 22, fol. 94-95v (lost).

Facsimiles

1. Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, edited by Friedrich Blume, 16 vols., Kassel and Basel: Bärenreiter, 1949 ff, p. 717 (NYpm396).
2. HOPPIN, Richard H. Medieval Music, New York: W. W. Norton, 1978, p. 423 (Nypm396).
3. Il codice musicale Panciatichi 26 della Biblioteca Nazionale di Firenze, facsimile edition by F. Alberto Gallo, Florence: Leo S. Olschki Editore, 1981, no. 175 (FP).

Editions

1. The Oxford History of Music, edited by H. E. Wooldridge, 2 vols., London: Oxford University Press, 1905. [second edition revised by Percy C. Buck, 1929-1932], Vol. II, p. 33.
2. Hausmusik aus alter Zeit, edited by Hugo Riemann, Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1906, Vol. I, n3.
3. Guillaume de Machaut: Musikalische Werke. Erster Band: Balladen, Rondeaux und Virelais, edited by Friedrich Ludwig, Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1926, p. 35.
4. EINSTEIN, Alfred. A Short History of Music, 2nd American edition, revised and enlarged, New York: Knopf, 1938, p. 267.
5. The Works of Guillaume de Machaut, Second Part, edited by Leo Schrade, Monaco: Editions de L'Oiseau-Lyre, 1956. Polyphonic Music of the Fourteenth Century III, p. 118.
6. Keyboard Music of the Late Middle Ages in the Codex Faenza 117, edited by D. Plamenac, [n.p.]: American Institute of Musicology, 1972. Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae 57, p. 16 (Pn1584).

Text Editions

Guillaume de Machaut: poésies lyriques, 2 vols., edited by V. Chichmaref, Paris: 1909, p. 556.

Literature

1. BORREN, Charles van den. Le manuscrit musical 222 C. 22 de la bibliothèque de Strasbourg (XVe siècle) brulé en 1870, et reconstitué d'après une copie d'Edmond de Coussemaker, Antwerp: E. Secelle, 1924, pp. 158-159.
2. PRESTON, Raymond. 'Chaucer and the "ballades notées" of Guillaume de Machaut', Speculum, XXVI (1951), p. 616., pp. 616-617., p. 619.
3. BESSELER, Heinrich. 'Ars Nova', Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, I (1951): 702-729.
4. MACHABEY, Armand. Guillaume de Machault, 130?-1377: La vie et l'oeuvre musicale, 2 vols, Paris: Richard-Masse-Editeur, 1955. Bibliothèque d'études musicales, pp. 44-46.
5. GÜNTHER, Ursula. Der musikalische Stilwandel der französischen Liedkunst in der zweiten Hälfte des 14. Jahrhunderts, dargestelt an Virelais, Balladen und Rondeax von Machaut., Ph.D. dissertation, University of Hamburg: 1957, Chapter 4.1.
6. REANEY, Gilbert. 'Guillaume de Machaut: lyric poet', Music and Letters, XXXIX (1958), p. 41.
7. REANEY, Gilbert. 'The performance of medieval music', Aspects of Medieval and Renaissance Music: A Birthday Offering to Gustave Reese, edited by Jan La Rue, New York: W. W. Norton, 1966, p. 708.
8. POP, Rodica. 'Elemente ale gindirii functionale prezente in creatia lui Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1377)', Lucrari de Muzicologie, II (1967), p. 3.
9. HASSELMAN, Margaret P. The French Chanson of the Mid-Fourteenth Century, 2 vols., Ph.D. dissertation, University of California (Berkeley), pp. 212, 216.
10. DÖMLING, Wolfgang. 'Aspekte der Sprachvertonung in den Balladen Guillaume de Machauts', Die Musikforschung, XXV/3 (1972), p. 302, 304.
11. SWARTZ, Anne. 'A new chronology of the ballades of Machaut', Acta Musicologica, XLVI (1974): 192-207.
12. WILKINS, Nigel. Music in the Age of Chaucer, Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1979. Chaucer Studies I, pp. 16, 18.
13. HIRSHBERG, Jehoash. 'Hexachordal and modal structure in Machaut's polyphonic chansons', Studies in Musicology in Honor of Otto E. Albrecht, 1980.
14. WILKINS, Nigel. 'Ballade (i)', The New Grove, II (1980): 76-78.
15. LEGUY, Sylvette. 'Les procédés de composition dans l'oeuvre de Machaut (à l'exclusion de la Messe)', Guillaume de Machaut, poète et compositeur. Colloque - Table Ronde, 1978, pp. 307-320.
16. ZIINO, Agostino. 'Guillaume de Machaut, fondateur d'école?', Guillaume de Machaut, poète et compositeur. Colloque - Table Ronde, 1978, p. 334.
17. GÜNTHER, Ursula. 'Contribution de la musicologie à la biographie et à la chronologie de Guillaume de Machaut', Guillaume de Machaut, poète et compositeur. Colloque - Table Ronde, 1978, pp. 95-116.

Recordings

1. Codex Faenza. Italie XVe siècle, : .
2. [Guillaume de Machaut], Illinois Collegium Musicum, Thomas Binkley (lute), directed by George Hunter (1956): Westminster XWN 18166.
3. Guillaume de Machaut. Chansons II, Early Music Studio, directed by Thomas Binkley (1973): EMI-Reflexe IC063-30-109 (GER)/ IC163-30-107/12 (GER).
4. The Art of Courtly Love. Vol. I. Guillaume Machaut and His Age [Contemporaries], Early Music Consort of London, directed by David Munrow (1973): HMV SLS 863(3) (GB).
5. Guillaume de Machaut: 1. The Musical Art of Machaut. 2. Le Remède de Fortune. 3. Veoir Dit., Ensemble Guillaume de Machaut of Paris (1975-1977): Adés 7078 (3 discs).
6. Denkmäler Alter Musik aus dem Codex Reina (14./15. Jh.), members of Syntagma Musicum, directed by Kees Otten (1979): Telefunken AW6 42357.

Text

De toutes flours n'avoit et de tous fruis
En mon vergier fors une seule rose:
Gastes estoit li seurplus et destruis
Par Fortune qui durement s'oppose
Contre ceste doulce flour
Pour amatir sa colour et s'odour.
Mais se cueillir la voy ou trebuchier.
Autre apres li ja mais avoir ne quier.

Mais vraiement ymaginer ne puis
Que la vertus, ou ma rose est enclose.
Viengne par toy et par tes faus conduis.
Ains est drois dons natureus; si suppose
Que tu n'avras ja vigour
D'amanrir son pris et sa valour.
Lay la moy donc, qu'ailleurs n'en mon vergier
Autre apres li ja mais avoir ne quier.

He! Fortune, qui es gouffres et puis
Pour engloutir tout homme qui croire ose.
Ta fausse loy, ou riens de biens ne truis
Ne de seur, trop est decevans chose;
Ton ris, ta joie, t'onnour
Ne sont que plour, tristesse et deshonnour.
Se ty faus tour font ma rose sechier.
Autre apres li ja mais avoir ne quier.

Translation

Of all flowers and all fruits there were none
In my orchard except a single rose:
The rest was laid waste and destroyed
By Fortune who harshly makes war
Against this sweet flower
To crush its colour and perfume.
But if I see it picked or fallen.
After it I never seek to have another.

But truly I cannot imagine
That the virtue which surrounds my rose
Should come from you and by your false deeds.
Rather it is a true gift of nature; and I believe
That you will never have the strength
To abase its value and worth.
Leave it to me then, for elsewhere than in my orchard
After it I never seek to have another.

Ah! Fortune, who are a gulf and pit
To swallow up any man who dares believe
Your false law, in which I find nothing good
And nothing sure, is too deceptive a thing;
Your smile, your joy, your honour
Are only tears, sadness and dishonour.
If your false turns make my rose wither.
After it I never seek to have another.
Text revision and translation © Jennifer Garnham

Content Approved by: MMDB Director
Last updated: Wednesday, 19 March 2003

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