Le rossignol plaisant et gratieux

Settings by composers

• William Byrd — The nightingale  English SAT
• Jean de Castro — Le rossignol  French SAT
• Alfonso Ferrabosco I — Le rossignol plaisant et gratieux  French SATTB
• Alfonso Ferrabosco I — The nightingale so pleasant and so gay  English SATTB
• Orlando di Lasso — Le rossignol plaisant et gratieux  French SATTB,ATTBB
• Mittantier — Le rossignol plaisant et gratieux  French SSAT,ATTB
• Andreas Pevernage — Le rossignol plaisant et gratieux  French SSAATTB

 

Text and translations

The text was printed in La fleur de Poésie françoyse (Paris, 1543). No authors are named in this collection.

French text Le rossignol, plaisant et gratieux, habiter veut toujours au verd bocage, aux chams voler et par tous autres lieux, aimant mieux sa liberté que sa cage. Mais le mien coeur qui demeure en ostage sous triste deuil qui le tient en ses lacs du rossignol ne cherche l'avantage ne de son chant, recevoir le soulas.

English text From Musica Transalpina. The nightingale so pleasant and so gay, In greenwood groves delights to make his dwelling, In fields to fly chanting his roundelay, At liberty against the cage rebelling. But my poor heart with sorrows overswelling, Through bondage vile, binding my freedom short, No pleasure takes in these his sports excelling, Nor of his song receiveth no comfort.

English translation The merry and graceful nightingale wants to live always in the verdant woods, to fly to the fields and everywhere else, loving its freedom more than its cage. But my heart, which remains a hostage to sad grief, which holds it in its snares, does not reach for the privilege of the nightingale, nor wants to get relief by its song. Translation by Gerhard Weydt

German translation Die fröhliche und anmutige Nachtigall will immer wohnen in den grünen Wäldern, in die Felder fliegen und sonst wohin, ihre Freiheit mehr liebend als ihren Käfig. Aber mein Herz, das immer noch die Geisel traurigen Kummers ist, der sie in seinen Schlingen hält, sucht nicht das Vorrecht der Nachtigall, noch durch ihren Gesang Trost zu erlangen. Translation by Gerhard Weydt