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Medieval Music Database

Qui es promesses; Ha! Fortune; Et non est qui adjuvat
Three-voice motet by Guillaume de Machaut

Sources

Cambrai: Bibliothèque Municipale 1328, fol. 16v Lerner partial? probably written before;
Ivrea: Biblioteca Capitolare 115, fol. 24v-25 (3/2);
New York: Wildenstein Collection, fol. 267v (3/2);
Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 1584 (MachA), fol. 421v (3/2); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 1585 (MachB), fol. 265v (3/2); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 1586 (MachC), fol. 212v (3/2); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 9221 (MachE), fol. 133 (3/2); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 22546 (MachG), fol. 109v (3/2); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds nouv. acq. français 23190 (olim Serrant Château, ducs de la Trémoïlle), fol. 8.

Facsimiles

1. DROZ, Eugénie and Geneviève THIBAULT. 'Un chansonnier de Philippe le Bon', Revue de musicologie, VII (1926), (F-Pn23190).
2. LERCH, Irmgard. Fragmente aus Cambrai: Ein Beitrag zur Rekonstruktion einer Handschrift mit spätmittelalterlicher Polyphonie, Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1987. Göttinger Musikwissenschaftliche Arbeiten, Band II, 202.

Editions

1. Guillaume de Machaut: Musikalische Werke. Dritter Band: Motetten, edited by Friedrich Ludwig, Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1929, p. 30.
2. The Works of Guillaume de Machaut, First Part, edited by Leo Schrade, Monaco: Editions de L'Oiseau-Lyre, 1956. Polyphonic Music of the Fourteenth Century II, p. 134.
3. Study Scores of Musical Styles, edited by Edward R. Lerner, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1968, no. 27 (incomplete).
4. Anthology of Medieval Music, edited by Richard H. Hoppin, New York: W. W. Norton, 1978, no. 61 (Pn1584).
5. LERCH, Irmgard. Fragmente aus Cambrai: Ein Beitrag zur Rekonstruktion einer Handschrift mit spätmittelalterlicher Polyphonie, Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1987. Göttinger Musikwissenschaftliche Arbeiten, Band II, p. 216.

Text Editions

Guillaume de Machaut: poésies lyriques, 2 vols., edited by V. Chichmaref, Paris: 1909, p. 497.

Literature

1. GENNRICH, Friedrich. 'Zur Machaut-Forschung', Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie, L (1930), p. 355.
2. 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. 81-82.
3. REICHERT, Georg. 'Das Verhältnis zwischen musikalischer und textlicher Struktur in den Motetten Machauts', Archiv für Musikwissenschaft, XIII (1956): 197ff.
4. 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 4.5.
5. SANDERS, Ernest. 'The mediaeval motet', Gattungen der Musik in Einzeldarstellungen: Gedenkschrift Leo Schrade, Erste Folge, Bern, Munich: 1971, pp. 497-573.
6. HOPPIN, Richard H. Medieval Music, New York: W. W. Norton, 1978, pp. 412-413.
7. 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.
8. EARP, Lawrence. 'Machaut's role in the production of manuscripts of his works', Journal of the American Musicological Society, 42 (1989), pp. 494-497.

Recordings

1. The Ars Nova in France. Guillaume de Machaut: La Messe de Nostre Dame; Ten Secular Works, Brussels Pro Musica Antiqua, directed by Safford Cape (1956): Archiv ARC 3032 [US].
2. Music of the Gothic Era [c.1160 - 1400], Early Music Consort of London, directed by David Munrow (1975): Archiv 2723 045(3) (EUR)/ 2710 019(3) (GER/USA).
3. Ars Magis Subtiliter, Project Ars Nova (1989): New Albion Records NA 021 CD.

Text

Triplum:

Qui es promesses
de Fortune se fie
et es richesses
de ses dons s'asseure.
ou cilz qui croit
qu'ele soit tant s'amie
que pour li soit
en riens ferme ou seure.
il est trop folz, car elle est non seure
sans foy, sans loy, sans droit et sans mesure.
c'est fiens couvers de riche couverture.
qui dehors luist et dedens est ordure.
Une ydole est de fausse pourtraiture.
ou nulz ne doit croire ne mettre cure;
sa contenance en vertu pas ne dure.
car c'est tous vens, ne riens qu'elle figure
ne puet estre fors de fausse figure;
et li siens sont toudis en aventure
de trebuchier, car, par droite nature.
la desloyal renoie, parjure.
fausse, traitre, perverse et mere sure
oint et puis point de si mortel pointure
que ciaulz qui sont fait de sa norriture
en traison met a desconfiture.

Motetus:

Ha! Fortune, trop sui mis loing de port.
quant en la mer m'as mis sans aviron
en un bastel petit, plat et sans bort.
foible, porri, sans voile; et environ
sont tuit li vent contraire pour ma mort.
si qu'il n'i a confort ne garison.
merci n'espoir, ne d'eschaper ressort.
ne riens de bien pour moy, car sans raison
je voy venir la mort amere a tort
preste de moy mettre a destruction;
mais cele mort recoy par ton sort.
Fausse Fortune, et par ta traison.

Translation

Triplum:

He who trusts
the promises of Fortune
and feels secure
in the riches of her gifts.
or he who believes
her to be so much his friend
that for him she will be
firm or sure in anything.
he is too foolish, for she is not true.
but without faith, without law, without justice and without She is excrement covered in rich clothing, [moderation.
which glistens on the outside, and within is dross.
She is an idol of false appearance.
in whom none should believe nor put their trust.
Her promise of virtue does not last.
for it is all wind, nor can anything
that she represents be anything but false appearance.
and those who follow her are always in danger of falling.
for, by her true nature.
the disloyal one denies and perjures.
False, treacherous, perverse and bitter mother.
she flatters and then pierces with such a mortal wound
that those who have been nourished by her.
in treachery she sends to their destruction.

Motetus:

Ha, Fortune! I am placed too far from port
when you put me in the sea without an oar.
in a little boat, flat and without sides.
weak, rotten and without a sail.
and all about all the winds contract to bring about my death.
so that there is no comfort or protection, pity or hope.
or means of escape, or anything good for me.
for wrongly, without reason.
I see bitter death approach.
quick to annihilate me.
But this death I receive through your spell.
False Fortune, and through your treachery.
Text revision and translation © Hop n61; Lerner: Study 68# n27; AA:B1; R

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

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