CSM Cantiga 62 Lyrics: Santa María sempr' os séus ajuda Cantiga 62Cantigas 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.

Standard spelling
Santa María sempr' os séus ajuda
Cantiga 62: Santa María sempr' os séus ajuda
Please read the notes on using the texts and the IPA transcriptions Please read the notes on using the music transcriptions
   
Standard spelling
Epigraph  

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.

Standard spelling  
Zoom

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]62viewhttp://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cantigas/facsimiles/E/157small.htmlExternal link
[T]62 
[To]49view 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
 RIIIIIIIVVVIVIIVIIIIXX
Auda
b adai.aaʤeantoeʎoeseitoanʦaaβaeŋes

Estimated performance times

Average syllables / min. Time
Very slow5013:38
Slow1006:49
Medium1504:32
Fast2003:24
Very fast2502:43

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