| Source title | Motete a cinco de Crequillon, señalase la claue de C solfaut tercera en primero traste, y señalase la voz q[ue] se canta del bajo con vnos puntillos. |
|---|---|
| Title in contents | Nigra sum sed formosa, a cinco, de Criquillon. |
| Text incipit | Nigra sum sed formosa |
Music
Category intabulation
Genre motet
Fantasia type
Mode 5
Voices 5
Length (compases) 160
Vihuela
Tuning A
Courses 6
Final V/3
Highest I/10
Lowest VI/1
Difficulty not specified
Tempo not specified
Song Text
Language LA
Vocal notation texted puntillos
Commentary
Setting of the Prima pars of the motet by Crecquillon. The 2a pars, Posuerunt me, is not intabulated.
The motet text is biblical, from the Song of Solomon 1.5-6 (Vulgate: 1.4-5). The text is Biblical and not the same as that used in the liturgy. The text used in the liturgy in feasts such as 2nd Vespers on Feasts of the BVM [LU 1259] is not the direct biblical text, therefore the motet may not have been composed for use within the liturgy. The manuscript source [D-Z 432] of the vocal polyphony substitutes “nolite me judicare” for the biblical “nolite me considerare”
Literature
Recordings
Song Text
Nigra sum sed formosa,
filiae Jerusalem, sicut tabernacula
Cedar, sicut pelles Salomonis.
Nolite me judicare quod
fusca sum, quia decoloravit me sol.
Filii matris mea
pugnaverunt contra me.
I am black but comely
O ye daughters of Jerusalem,
as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.
Look not upon me,
because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me:
my mother's children
were angry with me.
Intabulations
Modern edition(s)
Crecquillon, Thomas, The four-voice motets of Thomas Crequillon. Ed. H. Lowen Marshall. Brooklyn, N.Y.: Institute of Medieval Music, 1970-71.
Maldeghem, R. J. van. Tresor musical: collection authentique de musique sacree & profane des anciens maitres belges. / recueillie et transcrite en notation moderne par R.J. van Maldeghem. Vaduz, Liechtenstein,1865-1876; rpt New York: Kraus Reprint, 1965.
Printed source(s)
[Susato] Tielman. Liber decimus eccliasticarum cantionum quinque vocum. Antwerp: Susato, 1555.
Manuscripts
[Zwickau] Zwickau, Ratsschulbibliothek, MS Vollhardt 432