CSM Prologue A Lyrics: Don Afonso de Castéla, de Toledo, de Leôn

Don Afonso de Castéla, de Toledo, de Leôn

Prologue A: Don Afonso de Castéla, de Toledo, de Leôn

Lyrics
Music
Resources

Please read the notes on using the texts and the IPA transcriptions Please read the notes on using the music transcriptions

Standard spelling

Line	Stanza I	Metrics
1	Don Afonso de Castéla,	7' a
2	de Toledo, de Leôn	7 b
3	Rei e ben des Compostéla	7' a
4	ta o reino d' Aragôn,	7 b

	Stanza II
5	de Córdova, de Jaên,	7 a
6	de Sevilla outrossí,	7 b
7	e de Murça, u gran ben	7 a
8	lle fez Déus, com' aprendí,	7 b

	Stanza III
9	do Algarve, que gãou	7 a
10	de mouros e nóssa fé	7 b
11	meteu i, e ar pobrou	7 a
12	Badallouz, que reino é	7 b
Cantigas de Santa Maria for Singers ©2013 by Andrew Casson www.cantigasdesantamaria.com/csm/A

	Stanza IV
13	muit' antigu', e que tolleu	7 a
14	a mouros Névl' e Xerez,	7 b
15	Beger, Medina prendeu	7 a
16	e Alcalá d' outra vez,	7 b

	Stanza V
17	e que dos Romãos Rei	7 a
18	é per dereit' e Sennor	7 b
19	este livro, com' achei,	7 a
20	fez a honrr' e a loor	7 b

	Stanza VI
21	da Virgen Santa María,	7' a
22	que éste Madre de Déus,	7 b
23	en que ele muito fía.	7' a
24	Porên dos miragres séus	7 b
Cantigas de Santa Maria for Singers ©2013 by Andrew Casson www.cantigasdesantamaria.com/csm/A

	Stanza VII
25	fezo cantares e sões,	7' a
26	saborosos de cantar,	7 b
27	todos de sennas razões,	7' a
28	com' i podedes achar.	7 b

Footnotes

This first prologue lacks an epigraph, both in the main text and the manuscript index in [E]. It also lacks music, but a spoken recitation would make an excellent introduction to any performance or recording of the Cantigas de Santa Maria. Note that the first stanza here, and the last two, have a slightly different metre to the rest, with feminine rhymes and therefore an extra syllable in the first and third lines. Fortunately, that kind of systematic change is very rare amongst the vast majority of cantigas which do have music, but in which the music is only written out for the first stanza; see CSM 162 and CSM 173 for examples of the problems this can cause.

Prologue A has no music.

Manuscript references

External links marked are to facsimiles on Greg Lindahl's Cantigas de Santa Maria website.

[E]	A	viewhttp://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cantigas/facsimiles/E/053small.htmlExternal link
[T]	A
[To]	A

Oxford CSM Database record

External link to poem data: CSM 428http://csm.mml.ox.ac.uk/index.php?p=poemdata_view&rec=428

Links to the Oxford database are provided with the kind permission of the project team. When planning a concert or recording, I would recommend that you use (and credit) my more pragmatic texts and supporting materials in the preparation of your performance, but that you request permission from the Oxford database team to reproduce (and credit) their own critically edited texts in your programme or liner notes, as these adhere to stricter criteria that keep them closer to the original sources, and undoubtedly have the greater academic authority.

Metrical summary

Stanzas

7' 7 7' 7	I VI VII
7 7 7 7	II III IV V

Rhyme

abab

	I	II	III	IV	V	VI	VII
a	ɛla	eŋ	ou̯	eu̯	ei̯	i.a	oŋes
b	oŋ	i	ɛ	eʣ	oɾ	ɛu̯s	aɾ

Estimated performance times

Average syllables / min.		Time
Very slow	50	4:02
Slow	100	2:01
Medium	150	1:20
Fast	200	1:00
Very fast	250	0:48

These are very approximate total times for a full sung (or spoken) performance of all stanzas with all repeats of the refrain. Note that the speed is in average syllables per minute, and no particular mensural interpretation is assumed. More ornamented music will reduce the syllabic speed considerably. Remember also to add time for instrumental preludes, interludes and postludes.

Total syllables: 202