O Rosa Bella
Encyclopedia
O Rosa Bella is a popular 15th century chanson
Chanson
A chanson is in general any lyric-driven French song, usually polyphonic and secular. A singer specialising in chansons is known as a "chanteur" or "chanteuse" ; a collection of chansons, especially from the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, is also known as a chansonnier.-Chanson de geste:The...

, originally attributed to John Dunstable
John Dunstable
John Dunstaple was an English composer of polyphonic music of the late medieval era and early Renaissance...

, but now to John Bedingham (see say the article by David Fallows, http://www.jstor.org/pss/764088). It is based on a poem written by Leonardo Giustiniani
Giustiniani
Giustiniani is the name of a prominent Italian family which originally belonged to Venice, but also established itself subsequently in Genoa, and at various times had representatives in Naples, Corsica and in the islands of the Archipelago, where they had been the last Genoese rulers of the Aegean...

 (1388-1446)

The text of the first verse is:
O rosa bella,
O dolce anima mia
Non mi lassar morire
In cortesia, in cortesia.


Stanley Sadie in the Cambridge Music Guide gives as translation:
O lovely rose
My sweet soul
Let me not die
In courtly love


The chanson was used as a basis for several other works, including that by Ockeghem, and masses attributed to Gilles Joye
Gilles Joye
Gilles Joye was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance. A member of the Burgundian school, he was known mainly for his secular songs which were in a lyrical and graceful style.- Life :...

; however, Johannes Ciconia
Johannes Ciconia
Johannes Ciconia was a late medieval composer and music theorist who worked most of his adult life in Italy, particularly in the service of the Papal Chapels and at the cathedral of Padua....

's early version shares the words but not the tune (see e.g. http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/cds/atn59210.htm)

External links

  • Enzyklopædia super O rosa bella by composer Karlheinz Essl
    Karlheinz Essl
    Karlheinz Essl is an Austrian composer, performer, sound artist, improviser and composition teacher.- Biography :Essl was born in Vienna. His studies at the University of Music in Vienna included: composition , electro-acoustic music and double bass...

    (1995)

CD

  • O rosa bella: English and Continental Music from the Late Gothic Period: Clemencic Consort / René Clemencic

(Arte Nova 59210)
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