L'homme armé
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
L'homme armé was a secular song from the time of the Renaissance.
Contents |
[edit] Notes, text and translation
| Original French | English |
|---|---|
| L'homme, l'homme, l'homme armé, L'homme armé L'homme armé doibt on doubter, doibt on doubter. On a fait partout crier, Que chascun se viengne armer D'un haubregon de fer. |
The man, the man, the armed man, The armed man The armed man should be feared, should be feared. Everywhere it has been proclaimed That each man shall arm himself With a coat of iron mail. |
[edit] Use in the Latin Mass
L'homme armé is especially well remembered today because it was so widely used by Renaissance composers as a cantus firmus for the Latin Mass. It was probably used for this purpose more than any other secular song: over 40 settings are known. Most early renaissance masters each set at least one mass on this melody; and the practice lasted into the seventeenth century, with a late setting by Carissimi. The majority of mass settings of "L'homme armé" are from the period between 1450 and 1500.
It was believed that the earliest extant use of the melody was in the combinative chanson Il sera pour vous conbatu/L'homme armé ascribed to Robert Morton, which now is believed to probably date from around 1463, due to historical references in the text. Another possibly earlier version of the tune is an anonymous three-voice setting from the Mellon Chansonnier, which also cannot be precisely dated. In 1523 Pietro Aron, in his treatise Thoscanello suggested that Antoine Busnois was the composer of the tune; while tantalizing, since the tune is stylistically consistent with Busnois, there is no other source to corroborate Aron, and he was writing approximately 70 years after the first appearance of the melody. Richard Taruskin has argued that Busnois wrote the earliest known mass on the melody, but this is disputed, many scholars preferring to see the older Guillaume Dufay as the creator of the first L'homme armé Mass.
The tune is singularly well-adapted to contrapuntal treatment. The phrases are clearly delineated, and there are several obvious ways to construct canons. It is also unusually easy to recognize within a contrapuntal texture.
[edit] Origin
The origins of the popularity of the song and the importance of the armed man are the subject of various theories. Some have suggested that the 'armed man' represents St Michael the Archangel (1) (certainly the composer Johannes Regis (c.1425 – c.1496) seems to have intended that allusion in his Dum sacrum mysterium/Missa l'homme armé based upon the melody, which incoporates various additional trope texts and cantus firmus plainchants in honour of St Michael the Archangel), whilst others have suggested it merely represents the name of a popular tavern (Maison L'Homme Arme) near Dufay's rooms in Cambrai (2). It may also represent the arming for a new crusade against the Turks (3). There is ample evidence to indicate that it held special significance for the Order of the Golden Fleece (4). It is useful to note that the first appearance of the song was exactly contemporaneous with the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks (1453), an event which had a huge psychological effect in Europe; composers such as Guillaume Dufay composed laments for the occasion. Yet another possibility is that all three theories are true, given the feeling of urgency in organizing a military opposition to the recently victorious Ottomans which permeated central and northern Europe at the time.
[edit] Modern treatments
Composers still occasionally turn to this song for spiritual or thematic inspiration. The British composer Peter Maxwell Davies wrote in 1968 his Missa Super L'Homme Armé. The Welsh composer Karl Jenkins continues a 600-year tradition with The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace, written in 1999 to a commission from the Royal Armouries to mark the millennium. Edward Gold includes a set of variations in his Symphonies on Ancient Tunes, and Christopher Marshall wrote L'homme armé: Variations for Wind Ensemble in 2003.
[edit] References
- Penguin History of Music, Vol 2 ed. Robertson & Stevens (1963)
- Pryer's article on Dufay in New Oxford Companion to Music, ed Arnold (1983)
- Lockwood in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1980) (quoted by Peter Phillips, in notes to 1989 recording of the two Josquin masses)
- David Fallows, 'L'homme armé', Grove Music Online
[edit] External link
- The translation above is adapted slightly from program notes for the early music group Capella Alamire.
