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• Ghizeghem: 2 Famous Songs

Ghizeghem: 2 Famous Songs

for 3 voices or instruments.

Remarkably little is known about Hayne van Ghizeghem, considering that he was one of the most important song composers of his day. He was born some time in the 1440s, possibly at Gijzeghem (30km from Ghent), and worked under the patronage of Charles Count of Charolais, later Charles the Bold of Burgundy. The fact that there is no record of him after 1472, when he was with Charles the Bold at the siege of Beauvais, has led scholars to assume that he was one of the casualties there. However, as only two of his pieces appear in manuscripts written before 1480, it seems likely that he survived the experience, though the text of Crétin´s Déploration on the death of Ockeghem of 1497 refers to Ghizeghem as a dead composer.
About twenty songs of Ghizeghem have survived, all of which are rondeaux. But it was with the two printed here that he had the greatest impact - both pieces survive in over 25 different sources, and both were arranged by many other composers. In fact De tous biens playne seems to have been the most frequently worked-over piece of its time - two lively instrument versions by Alexander Agricola can be found in no. 43 of this series, and there are others by Josquin, Ghiselin, Japart, totalling around forty (a list can be found in Howard Mayer Brown, Music in the French Secular Theater, p. 204).
De tous biens playne is printed here after the Mellon Chansonnier (Yale University Library); Aliez, regrets after the Chansonnier of Margaret of Austria (Brussels, Bibliothèque royale, MS 11239). The alternative version of De tous biens playne with the optional fourth part is taken from Petrucci´s Odhecaton (Venice, 1501). The original note values have been halved throughout. In the sources the discantus is the only part to have full text, but this has been added in the present edition to the tenor part. Editorial accidentals are printed small above the stave, applying to the one note only. Original accidentals, printed on the stave, are taken as applying to the whole bar.
These pieces may be performed in various ways: with three voices, with the contratenor either vocalising, or including what text will fit; with one voice and two instruments, either an alto on the top part, or a tenor on the middle part, which is good melodically in both pieces; or instrumentally, on recorders, lutes, or viols.