Work

Alexander Agricola Composer

Allez, regretz (rondeau cinquain a3), L.v/20

Performances: 1
Tracks: 1
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Musicology:
  • Allez, regretz (rondeau cinquain a3), L.v/20
    Year: 148?
    Genre: Chanson
    Pr. Instrument: Chorus/Choir

Secular musicians in the late fifteenth century often composed what we would call a "cover" arrangement. Popular songs of a generation before could inspire a large family of derivative arrangements. Hayne van Ghizighem's Rondeau Allez, regretz (Go, Regrets, and Void My Presence!) was one. At least five composers (Josquin, Compère, Prioris, Bruhier, and Champion) used its music as the model for imitation masses, and several others created new secular arrangements. Alexander Agricola wrote one arrangement of Ghizighem's chanson. Like Bartolomeo degli Organi and Ludwig Senfl when they reworked it, Agricola treated Ghizighem's song as material for a cantus firmus setting. Agricola took Ghizighem's original tenor and adopted it wholesale as the basis for his own Allez, regretz. Above this tenor, he wrote two new upper voices in overlapping ranges. The breadth of the upper voices' ranges, their frequent octave leaps, and their highly melismatic character likely indicate performance by a pair of instruments, while a singer presented the well-known chanson tune. The upper voices often use close imitation (as that between the first and second poetic lines) or Agricola's characteristic trait of sequence. The charm and polish of his setting apparently helped sell the piece: Ottaviano Petrucci quickly published it in the Odhecaton of 1502, and three other manuscript songbooks preserve it.

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