Le dur traveil (or travail)
0:06 Original chanson for 4 voices (double by lute)
1:55 Lute reduction by Domenico Bianchini
3:31 Instrumental arrangement (flute, harp, lute, bass viol)
Although Willaert spent most of his adult life in Venice as music director of the Basilica San Marco, he published a small number of chansons in French. His birthplace was situated near the western edge of the Flemish heartland, so he likely grew up in a bilingual milieu that included French, Dutch and various dialects of both. He furthermore studied music with the master Jean Mouton (a contemporary of Josquin) in Paris.
As with other secular works of Willaert that used Petrarchan sonnets, this piece has a certain melancholic mood. It is a meditation on sorrow without a particular named object.
The song text was inputted using the PRIMA, MAIKA and CYBER SONGMAN voice banks and the Vocaloid 4 voice encoder. The instrumental parts were added using MusicStudio2. Bianchini's lute reduction preserves most of the chanson but adds several passing ornaments that were typical of early 16th century Italian lute music.
Text:
Le dur traveil ou mon cueur est confit
contraint l'esprit d'avoir des maulx assez
Mais le povoir du tres puissant
souffit d'y pourveoir et les rendre cassez
The difficult travail that freezes my heart
forces the spirit to be filled with distress,
but the power of the Almighty
is enough to foresee them and make them go away.
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Descriptions of the photos:
1. Pegasus and the Muses, Girolamo Romanino, c1540
2. Crossing the River Styx, Joachim Patinir, c1524
3. Rustic concert, Anonymous Italian, c1550
4. "Le dur travail" lute reduction, Domenico Bianchini, Venice, 1546
5. Prodigal Son, detail of lutenist playing from tabulature, Anonymous Flemish, c1550
6. Renaissance lute with elaborate wood inlay, Anonymous Venetian, c1550
7. Three musical women, Anonymous Flemish, c1530
8. Venetian Dance Villa Caldogno, Giovanni Antonio Fasolo, c1565
9. Concert after the meal, Ambrosius Benson, c1540
10. Concert, Lattanzio Gambara, c1560
