Moult sui de bonne heure nee

virelai by Guillaume de Machaut

Sources

Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 843 (text); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 1584 (MachA), fol. 494 (2/1); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 22546 (MachG), fol. 163 (2/1).

Editions

1. Guillaume de Machaut: Musikalische Werke. Erster Band: Balladen, Rondeaux und Virelais, edited by Friedrich Ludwig, Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1926, p. 90.
2. 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. 190.
3. Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1377), p. 20.

Text Editions

Guillaume de Machaut: poèsies lyriques, 2 vols., edited by V. Chichmaref, Paris: 1909, p. 630.

Literature

1. REANEY, Gilbert. 'Fourteenth-century harmony and the ballades, rondeaux and virelais of Guillaume de Machaut', Musica Disciplina, VII (1953), p. 134.
2. MACHABEY, Armand. Guillaume de Machault, 130?-1377: La vie et l'oeuvre musicale, 2 vols, Paris: Richard-Masse-Editeur, 1955. Bibliothèque d'ètudes musicales, pp. 195-195.
3. REANEY, Gilbert. 'The ballades, rondeaux and virelais of Guillaume de Machaut: melody, rhythm and form', Acta Musicologica, XXVII (1955), p. 53.
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 4.3.
5. SALOP, Arnold. 'The secular polyphony of Guillaume de Machaut', [chapter 2 of his] Studies on the History of Musical Style, Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1971, pp. 73, 74.
6. BINKLEY, Thomas. 'Zur Aufführungspraxis der einstimmigen Musik des Mittelalters-ein Werkstattbericht', Basler Jahrbuch für Historische Musikpraxis, Amadeus Verlag, 1977, p. 72.
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. YUDKIN, Jeremy. Music in Medieval Europe, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1989, pp. 493-497.

Recordings

1. Guillaume de Machaut. Chansons II, Early Music Studio, directed by Thomas Binkley (1973): EMI-Reflexe IC063-30-109 (GER)/ IC163-30-107/12 (GER).
2. Music au temps des Papes en Avignon, Florilegium Musicum de Paris, directed by Jean-Claude Malgoire (1973): CBS Masterworks 76534.
3. 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): Adès 7078 (3 discs).

Text

Moult sui de bonne heure nee,
Quant je sui si bien amee
De mon doulz ami
Qu'il ha toute amour guerpi
Et son cuer a toutes vee
Pour l'amour de mi.

Si que bonne Amour graci
Cent mille fois, qui
M'a si tres bien assenee
Que j'aim la fleur et le tri
De ce monde cy,
Sans part et sans decevree,
Pour sa bonne renommee
Qu'est cent fois de tous loee
Plus que je ne di,
Qui mon cuer ha si ravi
Qu'onques mais enamouree
Fame ne fu sy.

Moult sui de bonne heure nee...


Moult sui de bonne heure nee...

Nos cuers en joye norry
Sont, si que soussi
Ne riens qui nous desagree
N'avons, pour ce que assevi
Sommes de mercy,
Qu'est souffisance appellee;
Un desir, une pensee,
Un cuer, une ame est entee
En nous, et aussi
De voloir sommes uni.
Onques plus douce assamblee,
Par ma foy, ne vy.

Moult sui de bonne heure nee...


Moult sui de bonne heure nee...

Nompourquant je me defri
Seulette et gemi
Souvent a face esplouree,
Quant lonteinne sui de li
Qu'ay tant enchiery
Que sans li riens ne m'agree.
Mais d'espoir sui confortee
Et tres bien asseuree
Que mettre en oubly
Ne me porroit par nul sy,
Dont ma joie est si doublee
Que tous maus oubly.

Moult sui de bonne heure nee..

Translation

I was born in a happy hour,
Since I am so well loved
By my sweet friend
That he has left all other loves
And kept his heart from all others
For love of me.

So that I thank kind Love
One hundred thousand times,
Who has so well endowed me
That I love the flower and the choice
Of this world,
Without reserve or deceit,
For his good reknown
Which is highly praised by all
More than I can say;
He who has so ravished my heart
That never so loved
Was any woman.

I was born in a happy hour...


I was born in a happy hour...

Our hearts are nourished in joy,
So that no care
Nor anything that displeases us
Do we have, for we have fullness
Of mercy
Which is called sufficiency;
One desire, one thought,
One heart, one soul is grafted
In us, and also
In will we are united.
Never fairer assemblage
Was seen, by my faith.

I was born in a happy hour...


I was born in a happy hour...

Nevertheless I tremble
Alone, and groan
Often with tearful face
When I am far from him
Whom I have come to love so much
That without him nothing pleases me.
But I am comforted by hope
And most well assured
That he could in no way
Forget me,
At which my joy is so redoubled
That I forget all troubles.

I was born in a happy hour...

Text revision and translation © Jennifer Garnham