Mille regretz
Sixteenth-century French chanson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mille regretz is a four-voice chanson from the 16th century whose attribution to Josquin des Prez is almost certainly erroneous.[1] The song evidently draws some of its melodic material from Josquin's securely attributed five-voice Du mien amant.
Mille regretz was a favourite of the Emperor Charles V and it is known in Spanish as La canción del Emperador.[2] Apart from its plangent simplicity, musicians were presumably attracted by the royal connection: Spanish reworkings from the 16th-century include a mass setting by Cristóbal de Morales and variations for vihuela by Luis de Narváez and there is a chanson (SATTBB) by court composer Nicolas Gombert.
Text:
Mille regretz de vous abandonner
Et d'eslonger vostre fache amoureuse,
Jay si grand dueil et paine douloureuse,
Quon me verra brief mes jours definer.
In Modern French:
Mille regrets de vous abandonner
et de m'éloigner de votre visage amoureux.
J’ai si grand deuil et peine douloureuse
qu’on verra vite mes jours prendre fin.
English Translation:
A thousand regrets at deserting you
and leaving behind your loving face,
I feel so much sadness and such painful distress,
that it seems to me my days will soon dwindle away.
Translations differ in their interpretation of the words 'fache/face amoureuse' in line 2 (variously "amorous anger" or "loving face").
External links
- Mille regretz (original): Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
- Du mien amant (Josquin): Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
- Missa "Mille regretz" (Morales): Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
- Free scores by Canción I, del Emperador (Libro 3, No.6) (Narváez at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
- Mille regretz (Gombert): Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
- Mille Regretz and other Three-part Pieces (Susato): Scores at the International Music Score Library Project