Como Santa María déu fillo a ũa bõa dona que deitara en pennor, e crecera a usura tanto que o non podía quitar.
| Line | Refrain | Metrics | |
| 1 | Santa María sempr' os séus ajuda | 10' A | |
| 2 | e os acórr' a gran coita sabuda. | 10' A | |
| Stanza I | |||
| 3 | A qual acorreu ja ũa vegada | 10' b | |
| 4 | a ũa dona de França coitada, †CSM 62:4Elmes points out that in [E] the last word coitada has "four notes/ligatures against a word of three syllables", and elects to ignore one of the notes solely on the basis of correspondence with other lines. To my eye, however, the extra note is clearly crossed out in the manuscript (as shown in my transcription on the Music tab) so there really is no problem. [To] and [T] have the right number of notes for the same words, in any case. | 10' b | |
| 5 | que por fazer ben tant' endevedada | 10' b | |
| 6 | foi que sa herdad' houvéra perduda. †CSM 62:6Elmes' additional comment concerning the surplus syllable in erdade in [E] (and Mettmann I) can be safely ignored. Mettmann II's elision to erdad', which matches [To] and [T], is a completely satisfactory resolution. | 10' A | |
| Santa María sempr' os séus ajuda... | |||
| Stanza II | |||
| 7 | Se non fosse pola Virgen María | 10' b | |
| 8 | que a acorreu, todo quant' havía | 10' b | |
| 9 | perdud' houvéra; que ja non podía | 10' b | |
| 10 | usura sofrer, tant' éra creçuda. | 10' A | |
| Santa María sempr' os séus ajuda... | |||
| Cantigas de Santa Maria for Singers ©2013 by Andrew Casson www.cantigasdesantamaria.com/csm/62 | |||
| Stanza III | |||
| 11 | E macar a dona de gran linnage | 10' b | |
| 12 | éra, non quiséron dela menage | 10' b | |
| 13 | séus devedores; mais déu-lles en gage | 10' b | |
| 14 | séu fill', onde foi pois mui repentuda. | 10' A | |
| Santa María sempr' os séus ajuda... | |||
| Stanza IV | |||
| 15 | Ca daquesto pois pres mui gran quebranto, | 10' b | |
| 16 | porque a usura lle creceu atanto †CSM 62:16See main note to this cantiga. | 11' b | .ood |
| 17 | que a non podía pagar por quanto | 10' b | |
| 18 | havía, se d' al non foss' acorruda. | 10' A | |
| Santa María sempr' os séus ajuda... | |||
| Stanza V | |||
| 19 | E porque achar non pode consello | 10' b | |
| 20 | nos que fïava, porend' a concello | 10' b | |
| 21 | non ousou saír, mas ao Espello | 10' b | |
| 22 | das Vírgẽes foi ben come sisuda. | 10' A | |
| Santa María sempr' os séus ajuda... | |||
| Cantigas de Santa Maria for Singers ©2013 by Andrew Casson www.cantigasdesantamaria.com/csm/62 | |||
| Stanza VI | |||
| 23 | E de coraçôn que a acorresse | 10' b | |
| 24 | lle rogou entôn, como non perdesse | 10' b | |
| 25 | séu fill' en prijôn, mais que llo rendesse. | 10' b | |
| 26 | E sa demanda lle foi ben cabuda; | 10' A | |
| Stanza VII | |||
| 27 | ca ben como se lle houvésse dito | 10' b | |
| 28 | Santa María: “vai, e dar-ch-ei quito | 10' b | |
| 29 | téu fillo do usureiro maldito”, | 10' b | |
| 30 | assí foi ela léd' e atrevuda. | 10' A | |
| Santa María sempr' os séus ajuda... | |||
| Stanza VIII | |||
| 31 | E cavalgou lógo sen demorança | 10' b | |
| 32 | e foi a séu fillo con esperança, | 10' b | |
| 33 | e viu-o estar u fazían dança | 10' b | |
| 34 | a gente da vila, qu' esteve muda, | 10' A | |
| Cantigas de Santa Maria for Singers ©2013 by Andrew Casson www.cantigasdesantamaria.com/csm/62 | |||
| Stanza IX | |||
| 35 | que non disse nada quand' o chamava: | 10' b | |
| 36 | “ven acá, méu fillo”, e poi-lo deitava †CSM 62:36See main note to this cantiga. | 11' b | .ood |
| 37 | depós si na bestia que o levava | 10' b | |
| 38 | per meia a vila, de todos vïúda, †CSM 62:38For this line, the music is different from the other lines with metrical problems. The suggested synalepha works well though, with the combined metrical syllable -ia a falling on a very comfortable five-pitch plicated ligature .eyeyehod. | 10' A | .eyeyeod |
| Stanza X | |||
| 39 | que sól non disséron: “Dona, onde vẽes?” †CSM 62:39See main note to this cantiga. | 11' b | .onwo |
| 40 | nen “de que o lévas, gran tórto nos tẽes.” †CSM 62:40See main note to this cantiga. | 11' b | .ood |
| 41 | Esto fez a Virgen que ja outros bẽes †CSM 62:41See main note to this cantiga. | 11' b | .onwo |
| 42 | fez e sempre faz, ca dest' é tẽuda. | 10' A | |
| Santa María sempr' os séus ajuda... | |||
Footnotes
Cantigas 1 to 61 have their share of metrical quirks and oddities, but this one is the first to present a real puzzle. All starts well, but line 16 has an extra syllable (not unusual in isolation), and then the last two stanzas turn up with five lines out of eight also being too long. All three manuscripts have exactly the same problems.
The key to solving the puzzle is the observation that five of the six cases (including line 16, but not line 38) can be fixed musically by breaking identical-sounding ligatures .ohod or .onwo into two separate notes .on + .o. (In Elmes' edition, these are the F minim + G crotchet ligatures in lines 5, 7 and 9). In each case, this matches the previous two notes in the manuscript, also .on + .o (Elmes' C minim + D crotchet, unligated) so, musically, the result is pleasantly satisfying. Note that in lines 16 and 40 this ligature breaking has the same musical outcome as ordinary synalepha between vowels in the appropriate words: a usura in line 16, que o in line 40. However, I have chosen here to mark the ligature breaking consistently throughout, since in the other three cases (acá meu, non disseron, fez a) there are consonants in the way, and synalepha is not an option.
| Line 4: | Elmes points out that in [E] the last word coitada has "four notes/ligatures against a word of three syllables", and elects to ignore one of the notes solely on the basis of correspondence with other lines. To my eye, however, the extra note is clearly crossed out in the manuscript (as shown in my transcription on the Music tab) so there really is no problem. [To] and [T] have the right number of notes for the same words, in any case. |
| Line 6: | Elmes' additional comment concerning the surplus syllable in erdade in [E] (and Mettmann I) can be safely ignored. Mettmann II's elision to erdad', which matches [To] and [T], is a completely satisfactory resolution. |
| Line 16: | See main note to this cantiga. |
| Line 36: | See main note to this cantiga. |
| Line 38: | For this line, the music is different from the other lines with metrical problems. The suggested synalepha works well though, with the combined metrical syllable -ia a falling on a very comfortable five-pitch plicated ligature .eyeyehod. |
| Line 39: | See main note to this cantiga. |
| Line 40: | See main note to this cantiga. |
| Line 41: | See main note to this cantiga. |
Footnotes
| E1: | See E2. |
| E2: | See the main note to the Lyrics for discussion of the ligature breaking here and at E1 and E5 in stanzas IV, IX and X. |
| E3: | See the note to line 4 of the lyrics. |
| E4: | This division was left in the wrong place by the preceding scribal correction, so I have moved it to where it belongs. |
| E5: | See E2 |
| E6: | These last three notes and ligatures have no underlaid lyrics in the manuscript. |
Manuscript references
External links marked 
are to facsimiles on Greg Lindahl's Cantigas de Santa Maria website.
| [E] | 62 | viewhttp://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cantigas/facsimiles/E/157small.htmlExternal link |
| [T] | 62 | |
| [To] | 49 | view p1http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cantigas/facsimiles/To/bob047small.gifExternal link view p2http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cantigas/facsimiles/To/bob048small.gifExternal link |
Oxford CSM Database record
External link to poem data: CSM 62http://csm.mml.ox.ac.uk/index.php?p=poemdata_view&rec=62
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
Refrain
| 10' 10' |
Stanzas
| 10' 10' 10' 10' | I II III V VI VII VIII |
| 10' 11' 10' 10' | IV IX |
| 11' 11' 11' 10' | X |
Rhyme
AA / bbbA| R | I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII | IX | X | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | uda | ||||||||||
| b | ada | i.a | aʤe | anto | eʎo | ese | ito | anʦa | aβa | eŋes | |
Estimated performance times
| Average syllables / min. | Time | |
|---|---|---|
| Very slow | 50 | 13:38 |
| Slow | 100 | 6:49 |
| Medium | 150 | 4:32 |
| Fast | 200 | 3:24 |
| Very fast | 250 | 2:43 |
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: 682
