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Protestants of the sixteenth century reformation found the music of Lassus beautiful and powerful, and also often quite inappropriate in its texts. Firstly, the text was offensive, bawdy, or just too concerned with worldly things. Secondly, it was generally agreed that music had power, particularly good music, and this power could be used to sway the human spirit either towards worldly, sensual pleasures or towards God. By reworking the texts of the songs of Lassus they were saving good music form being used for bad purposes, making use of the power of music for the edification of their own people, and also giving good Protestants music they could sing at home, enjoy, and feel good about doing so. It meant that one could be good by one's religious standards, could still take part in some of the respectable pleasures of life; it was wholesome music for families.

Some pieces lent themselves well to rewriting, those whose texts were about devotion to a loved one could be changed to be devotion to God and those about the absence of a loved one could become one longing to be closer to God without a significant change in the mood of the music. Longing is longing, regardless of what one is longing for.

Other pieces, ones that were more bawdy in nature, could be turned into a list of "don'ts" by negating everything in the song. "Don't look lovingly, don't touch, don't desire, don't love," sorts of pieces. But the mood of the original made for a strangely pattery song of prohibitions.

Using three specific pieces, Si du malheur vous aviez cognoissance, one where little needed changing, Fleur de quinze ans, where a fair amount was changed but the structure remained intact, and Margot labourez les vignes, where one version kept the poetic refrain structure intact, and the other kept rhyming structure, but not as much of the words, to see how the contrafacta worked, or didn't as the case may be, with the original music.

Si du malheur vous aviez cognoissance's original text reads:

Si du malheur vous aviez cognoissance

Dont ma vie east a l'oeil ma perdurable crainte.

Absent je meurs, et en vostre presence

Present aves de moy l'ame ravie,

Helas! c'est bien par divine puissance

Mourir aupres, et loing perdre la vie.

The contrafacta reads:

De ce malheur tu as la connaissance,

Dont ma vie est a rude mort attainte

Tu vois a l'oeil ma perdurable crainte

D'estre oublie, o Dieu, par ton absence.

Absent je meurs, et puis en ta presence

Soudain a toi je sue l'ame ravie.

Helas, si tost n'apparoist la clemence,

Je meurs pres toi, et loin je pers la vie.

In this contrafacta the essential mood of the original is preserved, one of longing and neglect, the rhythmic and rhyme structure are also preserved, leaving an abba acac structure with ten syllables per line, which worked for the usual six and four grouping of text. Richard Freedman has already done a study of this contrafacta, in which he notes that some of the gestures are also well preserved, for example the "..absence./ Absent" series in lines four and five, followed by the contrast with "presence./ Present" at the end of line five and the beginning of line six.[1] Many of the lines are nearly exactly reproduced, and if they aren't, then the main words are, so in the music the same words get emphasis of leaps, counterpoint, unison, and silence.

Fleur de quinze ans is an example of a piece whose original text was a offensive to Protestant listeners, "Kissing yields to touching, and after that, I won't say...But if you'd like to come to my room I'll be more than happy in my shirt, Or even better in the nude to teach you."[2] The original and contrafacta read:

Fleur de quinze ans si Dieu vous sauve et gard',

J'ay en amour trouve cinq pons expres:

Premierement il y a le regard,

Puis le devis et le baiser de pres,

Et tous ceux le tendent au dernier point

Qui est--Est quoi?--le ne le diray point,

Mais s'il vous plait en ma chambre vour rendre,

Je me mettray volontiers en pourpoint

Voire tout nud pour le vous faire apprendre.

and the contrafacta:

Fleur de quinze ans Dieu vous sauve et gard',

J'ay quelques point a vous monstrer expres,

C'est que n'ayez impudique regard,

Soyez prudente et modeste en apres,

L'honnestete la vertu suit de pres

Qui vous fera fuir le vain plaisir

D'amour et l'effrene desir,

Dont est tousjours la jeunesse vuivie,

Sur tout de Dieu la crainte faut choisir,

Pour parvenier a l'eternelle vie.

The contrafacta takes the subject of the original and turns it around into a "don't do X," leaving the final word of each line, and thus the rhyming structure of the text whole, for the first half of the poem. In the second half the rhyming structure is kept, but with different words and sounds. In the original there is an odd twist at the end, a list of points, but then the final one is left out, and there is the question presumably from the "flower of fifteen" "What is it?" followed by the, "I won't say, but come to my room and I'll show you." In the contrafacta the list of points becomes a list of admonitions to the young, and the question is gone. In its place is the phrase, "D'amour" which gets the emphasis originally on the question " Est quoi?" This is a bit odd, but seeing as the overall subject of the contrafacta was warnings about love and conduct, it works. "Flee from vain pleasure/ Of love (here is the final moral) and avoid desire" continuing on to urge youth to seek and fear God.[3] The twist is gone, but the idea of a coda with the moral of the text summarized works with the coda in the original music.

Margot Labourez les Vignes is a song described by Freedman as a "patter song," one based primarily on fast moving parts, a bit of a narrative, but mostly quickly moving sounds and repetition. The original text reads:

Margot labourez les vignes,

vinge vigne vignolet

Margot labourez les vignes

bien tosts:

En ruement de Lorraine

Margot,

Rencontrat trois capitaines

vingne vigne vignolet,

Margot labourez les vignes

bien tost.

Ilz m'ont salue vilaine

Margot

Ie suis leurs fieres quartaines

vigne vigne vignolet

Margot labourez les vignes

bien tost

In this piece there is a refrain formed by the phrase "Margot labourez les vignes" and a repetition of the word "vignes" which also rhymes with the other phrase endings, "Lorraine," "Capitaine, "Vilaine," and "quartaines." There is the pattery refrain of "vinge vigne vignolet," and the repetition of "Margot" and the assonant "bien tost."

In the contrafacta by Pasquier he retains the "vigne vigne vignolet" and the sound of "-got" using words such as "ragot," "cagot," "bien tost." This contrafacta is pattery, but is also a prohibitive song, saying, "I met a man while working in the vines who told me gossip, I'll pay him no head and "give him a taste of the pot." [?][4] This keeps the fun part of the song and its sounds, but does turn it into a "don't" song. Pasquier's contrafacta reads:

Faites laboure la vigne, Labor at the vine

vigne, vigne, vignolet, vine, vine, viney-wine

Faites labourere la vigne Labor at the vine

ragot. gossip.

J'y ay trouve un fort digne There I found a well dignified

cagot hypocrite.

Qui m'a dit parle indigne, Who said some undignified words

vigne, vigne, vignolet, vine, vine, viney-wine

Faites labourere la vigne Labor at the vine

bein tost: very soon:

Donné luy ay sur lechine Gave him a taste of

d'un pot a pot [?]

Et fait la barbe sans peigne, And pay the beard no notice

vigne, vigne, vignolet vine, vine, viney-wine

Faites labourer la vigne Labor at the vine

ragot. gossip.[5]

Goulart's contrafacta retains more of the original mood of the piece, a fun piece without moral "don'ts" thrown in, but loses the refrain pattern of the original. "vigne vigne vignolet" is gone, but in its place is the similar sounding "volonte divine" the vine becomes divine in this case. He keeps a strong rhyme structure, but it is not the one originally used. the "-got" becomes "-ment" and the refrain of "Margot" becomes "Gaiment," which alternates with the other lines ending in "-ange." Goulart's text is:

Qui laboure champ ou vigne Whomever works in field or vineyard

Est heureux, si humblement Is happy, if humbly,

A la volonté divine To divine will

S'attent Attending.

Chantant de Dieu la louange Singing praise of god

Gai'ment Gaily.

Il a veu bleds et vendange He has seen country and vintage

Se meurissant doucement Expiring sweetly.

De ces beins il boit et mange Of these goods he drinks and eats

Deu'ment Sweetly.

Quiconque au Seigneur se range Whomever strives to the Lord

Vraiment Truly,

Ne craint si le tems se change Fears not if the weather changes

Ains repose seurement Thus rests assuredly

Et labore champ et vigne And works in field and vineyard

Gai'ment Gaily.⁶

The second contrafacta is still a moralizing text, but rather than simply negating the original Goulart created a new idea that is pleasant in feeling and still has the idea of "singing gaily," which Pasquier lost in his contrafacta. Pasquier did keep the idea of a story retold, or what happened to Margot in the field becoming a story of what someone was told in the field (the teller could very well have heard the story of Margot, he never recounts exactly what gossip he heard.) but it becomes, I think much less happy and "pattery" than the original. It seems to me that the second Margot contrafacta and Si du malheur were the most successful of the four contrafacta; Si du malheur and Goulrat's Margot retain most successfully the idea of the original, it's linking to the music, and don't turn the piece into as much a list of prohibitions, which I find to be the least successful of the contrafacta. A prohibitive contrafacta takes what was a cheerful, celebratory song and turn it into cheerful, celebratory music with lecturing lyrics. Contrafacta writers were faced with the difficult task of either modifying the existing lyrics minimally, and most likely ending up with a "this is immoral behavior" sort of piece, modifying them greatly, but trying to maintain the original rhyme structure or refrain pattern, or some combination of keeping idea, mood, structure, and rhyme pattern without overly sacrificing any one of these elements. By using a mood that still fits with the music but texts more acceptable to reformationsist Protestant ears the music becomes something the Protestant audience could listen to, enjoy, and gain something good from what they saw as the pursuasive power of music.

Bibliography:

Bernstein, Jane A, The Sizteenth-Century Chanson (Orlando de Lassus, Volumes 11-14) Garland Publishing, NY and London. 1987.

Christophorus, Orlando Di Lasso, Popular Songs and Chansons MuisContact, Heidelberg. 1992.

Freedman, Richard, Lassus Chanson and their Protestant Readers (sample chapter)

Hilliard Ensemble Lassus, Virgin Records, London. 1994.