La Trobe University - Library: Medieval Music Database - Annual cycle of feasts of liturgical chant, liturgical polyphony and secular music of the late middle ages.

Che pen'è quest'al cor, che sì non posso

Three-voice ballata by Francesco Landini

Sources

Florence: Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana, Palatino 87 (Squarcialupi Codex), fol. 130v (3/3); Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Incunab. F.5.5, fol. 138v; Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Panciatichiano 26, fol. 36v-37 (3/2); San Lorenzo, Archivio Capitolare 2211 [palimpsest], fol. 41v;
Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds italien 568, fol. 100v-101 (3/3); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds nouv. acq. français 4917, fol. 19v-20 (2/2);
Treviso: Biblioteca Comunale 43, fol. 7 (text).

Facsimiles

1. GENNRICH, Friedrich. Abriss der Mensuralnotation des XIV und der ersten Hälfte des XV Jahrhunderts, Nieder-Modau: 1948. Musikwissenschaftliche Studienbibliothek 3-4, p. 60 (Pn4917).
2. Il codice musicale Panciatichi 26 della Biblioteca Nazionale di Firenze, facsimile edition by F. Alberto Gallo, Florence: Leo S. Olschki Editore, 1981, no. 69 (FP).
3. FABBRI, Mario & John NADAS. 'A newly discovered Trecento fragment: scribal concordances in late-medieval Florentine manuscripts', Early Music History, 3 (1983), (Fn5.5).
4. Il Codice Squarcialupi edited by F. Alberto GALLO, Lucca: Libreria Musicale Italiana, 1992.

Editions

1. The Works of Francesco Landini, edited by Leonard Ellinwood, Cambridge/Massachusetts: The Mediaeval Academy of America, 1939, p. 188.
2. Die mittelalterliche Mehrstimmigkeit, edited by Heinrich Husmann, Cologne: Arno Volk Verlag, 1954. Das Musikwerk IX. [English edition as Medieval Polyphony, Anthology of Music IX, 1962], p. 49 (Fn26).
3. Der Squarcialupi-Codex Pal. 87 der Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana zu Florenz, edited by Johannes Wolf and H. Albrecht, Lippstadt: Kistner and Siegel, 1955, p. 218.
4. The Works of Francesco Landini, edited by Leo Schrade, Monaco: Editions de L'Oiseau-Lyre, 1958. Polyphonic Music of the Fourteenth Century IV, p. 162.
5. 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. 98 (Fn26).

Text Editions

CORSI, Giuseppe. Poesie musicali del Trecento, Bologna: Commissione per i testi di lingua, 1970, p. 145.

Literature

1. LUDWIG, F. 'Die geistliche nichtliturgische, weltliche einstimmige und die mehrstimmige Musik des Mittelalters bis zum Anfang des 15. Jahrhunderts', Handbuch der Musikgeschichte, edited by G. Adler, vol. I, Frankfurt am Main: Frankfurter Verlag, 1924, p. 281.
2. FISCHER, Kurt von. 'On the technique, origin and evolution of Italian Trecento music', Musical Quarterly, XLVII (1961), pp. 54-55.
3. GÜNTHER, Ursula. 'Die "anonymen" Kompositionen des Ms. Paris BN, fonds ital, 568 (Pit)', Archiv für Musikwissenschaft, XXIII (1966), p. 80.
4. BAUMANN, Dorothea. Die dreistimmige italienische Lied-Satztechnik im Trecento, Baden-Baden: Valentin Koerner, 1979. Sammlung musikwissenschaftlicher Abhandlung no. 64, passim.
5. D'ACCONE, Frank. 'Una nuova fonte dell' "Ars nova" italiana: il codice di San Lorenzo, 2111', Studi Musicali, XIII (1984): 3-31.
6. GALLO, F. Alberto. 'The musical and literary tradition of 14th century poetry set to music', Musik und Text in der Mehrstimmigkeit des 14. und 15. Jahrhunderts, edited by U. Günther and L. Finscher, Kassel: Bärenreiter: 1984, pp. 55-76.
7. NADAS, John. 'Editorial practices in early Quattrocento Florentine anthologies of secular polyphony', L'Ars nova italiana del Trecento VI: Certaldo 1984, Certaldo: Centro di Studio L'ars nova italiana, 1992.

Recordings

1. Codex Faenza. Italie XVe siècle, : .
2. Francesco Landini 1325 - 1397, Early Music Studio, directed by Thomas Binkley (1973): EMI-Reflexe 1CO63-30-113 (GER).

Text

Che pena _ questa al cor, che s_ non posso
usar cortesemente
con questa mala gente,
ch'i' non sia pur da l'invidia percosso!

Ma veramente ma' non mi torrano
dal proposito mio quest'invidiosi.
Ben potranno dir mal, se dir vorrano,
ch'i' non seguiti quel ch'io mi disposi
gi_ lungo tempo; e farogli dogliosi
non gi_ con villania,
ma per tener tal via,
che far non mi potran diventar rosso

Translation

What pain is this in my heart,
that I cannot deal politely
with these evil people
without being smitten by their envy.

And yet, truly, they will not keep me
from my purpose, these envious people.
Let them speak evil if they want to:
I will still pursue what I decided to do
a long time ago, and I will make them feel sorry,
not by being discourteous,
but by treading such a path
that they will be unable to make me blush.
Text revision and translation © Giovanni Carsaniga