Volez-vous que je vous chant

The Sounds of Time: Songs of the Trouvères
7pm Friday, October 9, 2015

TENET:
Jolle Greenleaf, soprano
Molly Quinn, soprano
Virginia Warnken, alto
Jason McStoots, tenor
Robert Mealy, vielle
Debra Nagy, winds
Charlie Weaver, medieval lute

Jolle Greenleaf, artistic director
Robert Mealy, guest director

Translation:

Would you like me to sing you
a charming love song?
It isn’t made by a peasant.
It was written by a knight
in the shade of an olive tree
in the arms of his beloved.

She wore a linen skirt,
a white ermine cloak,
and a tunic of silk.
Stockings of gladiolus
and shoes of May flowers
snugly fit her feet.

She wore a girdle of leaves
that grew green when the weather changed;
it had a golden buckle.
Her purse was made of love;
the pendants were of flowers,
given out of true love.

She rode mounted on a mule
with silver horseshoes
and a golden saddle;
on the crupper behind her
she had planted three rosebushes
to give her shade.

As she went along the meadow,
she met some knights
who courteously greeted her:
“Fair one, where were you born?”
“I am from France, the celebrated country,
of noblest lineage.

“The nightingale is my father
who sings on a branch
in the highest forest.
The siren is my mother
who sings in the salty sea
and dwells on the highest bank.”

“Fair one, your rich parentage
is the source of your charmed birth,
and noble lineage.
Were to God, our Father,
that you had been given me
as a wedded wife.”