Fors seulement is a French

chanson A (, , french: chanson française, link=no, ; ) is generally any lyric-driven French song, though it most often refers to the secular polyphonic French songs of late medieval and Renaissance music. The genre had origins in the monophonic s ...

, popular as a basis for variations and as a

cantus firmus In music, a ''cantus firmus'' ("fixed melody") is a pre-existing melody forming the basis of a polyphonic composition. The plural of this Latin term is , although the corrupt form ''canti firmi'' (resulting from the grammatically incorrect tr ...

. An early version, attributed to

Johannes Ockeghem Johannes Ockeghem ( – 6 February 1497) was a Franco-Flemish composer and singer of early Renaissance music. Ockeghem was the most influential European composer in the period between Guillaume Du Fay and Josquin des Prez, and he was—with his ...

, is sometimes called ''Fors seulement l'attente'' to distinguish it from his similarly titled ''Fors seulement contre''. Brumel wrote a polytextual version, combining a tenor setting of '' Du tout plongiet'' with the words and ''

superius In early music polyphony, ''superius'' or cantus is the Latin language-derived name given to the highest voice or part.Arnold D. (ed), ''New Oxford Companion to Music'', Oxford, (1983) See also * Voice type * Quintus (vocal music) The Latin word q ...

'' from Ockeghem's ''Fors seulement l'attente'' for baritone.

Lyrics

Versions and settings

Many versions of the chanson were produced including those by

Josquin des Prez Josquin Lebloitte dit des Prez ( – 27 August 1521) was a composer of High Renaissance music, who is variously described as French or Franco-Flemish. Considered one of the greatest composers of the Renaissance, he was a central figure of the ...

Pierre de La Rue Pierre de la Rue ( – 20 November 1518) was a Franco-Flemish composer and singer of the Renaissance. His name also appears as Piersson or variants of Pierchon and his toponymic, when present, as various forms of de Platea, de Robore, or de Vico ...

Matthaeus Pipelare Matthaeus Pipelare ( – ) was a Netherlandish composer, choir director, and possibly wind instrument player of the Renaissance. He was from Louvain, and spent part of his early life in Antwerp. Unlike many of his contemporaries, many of whom t ...

Johannes Ghiselin Johannes Ghiselin (Verbonnet) ( fl. 1455–1511) was a Flemish composer of the Renaissance, active in France, Italy and in the Low Countries. He was a contemporary of Josquin des Prez, and a significant composer of masses, motets, and secular mus ...

Jacob Obrecht Jacob Obrecht (also Hobrecht; 1457/8

Antoine Brumel Antoine Brumel (c. 1460 – 1512 or 1513) was a French composer. He was one of the first renowned French members of the Franco-Flemish school of the Renaissance, and, after Josquin des Prez, was one of the most influential composers of his gene ...

, Jheronimus Vinders and

Alexander Agricola Alexander Agricola (; born Alexander Ackerman; – 15 August 1506) was a Netherlandish composer of the Renaissance writing in the Franco-Flemish style. A prominent member of the ''Grande chapelle'', the Habsburg musical establishment, he wa ...

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

settings include those by Vinders, Ockeghem, Obrecht, Pipelare, and

Carpentras Carpentras (, formerly ; Provençal Occitan: ''Carpentràs'' in classical norm or ''Carpentras'' in Mistralian norm; la, Carpentoracte) is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. ...

.Black (2003), pp. 48; 65.

References

* George H Black (2003). ''Matthaeus Pipelare’s Fors Seulement (II) Chanson and its Related Motet and Mass Performance Editions and Commentary.'' DMA thesis. Louisiana State Univ.
online
PDF, 3,13 MB)

Notes

Renaissance chansons {{song-stub