CSM Cantiga 87 Lyrics: Muito punna d' os séus honrrar Cantiga 87In this cantiga I depart from Mettmann and follow the structure with variant refrains argued for by Stephen Parkinson [SP1987], which gives by far the best results for performance, avoiding a lot of rather dull musical repetition. It's clear from the manuscripts that none of the scribes understood this structure. The [E] scribe—copied by Mettmann—mistook the variant refrains for two-line stanzas, deciding to add extra repeats of the initial refrain around these; but the consequent alternation between long and short stanzas then left no obvious means of abbreviating the structure of the music, and the whole cantiga ended up being laboriously written out with all of the stanzas overlaid. The [To] and [T] scribes, on the other hand, took the variant refrains to be extensions of the preceding stanza, only repeating the initial refrain after them, not before—but nowhere assigning them any music. Note, by the way, that the refrains do not all share a single identical rhyming scheme as usual, but instead each have one line that rhymes with the associated stanza. I have numbered the rhyming groups specially to highlight this unique feature.

Standard spelling
Muito punna d' os séus honrrar
Cantiga 87: Muito punna d' os séus honrrar
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 mandou que fezéssen bispo ao crérigo que dizía sempre sas hóras.

Line Refrain  Metrics  
1 Muito punna d' os séus honrrar 8  a1
2 sempre Santa María. 6' B
 
  Stanza I     
3 E desto vos quéro contar 8  a1
4 un gran miragre que mostrar 8  a1
5 quis a Virgen que non há par, 8  a1
6 na cidad' de Pavía. 6' B
  Muito punna d' os séus honrrar...    
 
  Stanza II     
7 Un crérig' houv' i sabedor 8  a2
8 de todo ben e servidor 8  a2
9 desta grorïosa Sennor 8  a2
10 quant' ele mais podía. 6' B
Cantigas de Santa Maria for Singers ©2013 by Andrew Casson
www.cantigasdesantamaria.com/csm/87
 
  Refrain     
11 D' honrrar os séus há gran sabor 8  a2
12 sempre Santa María. 6' B
 
  Stanza III     
13 Ond' avẽo que conteceu, 8  a3
14 poi-lo bispo dalí morreu, 8  a3
15 a un sant' hóm' apareceu 8  a3
16 a Virgen que nos guía. 6' B
 
  Refrain     
17 Aos séus honrrou e ergeu 8  a3
18 sempre Santa María 6' B
Cantigas de Santa Maria for Singers ©2013 by Andrew Casson
www.cantigasdesantamaria.com/csm/87
 
  Stanza IV     
19 E pois lle foi aparecer, 8  a4
20 começou-ll' assí a dizer: 8  a4
21 “Vai, di que façan esleer 8  a4
22 cras en aquele día 6' B
 
  Refrain     
23 Os séus faz honrrados seer 8  a4
24 sempre Santa María. 6' B
 
  Stanza V     
25 por bisp' un que Jerónim' há 8  a5
26 nome; ca tanto sei del ja 8  a5
27 que me sérve e servid' há 8  a5
28 ben, com' a mi prazía.” 6' B
Cantigas de Santa Maria for Singers ©2013 by Andrew Casson
www.cantigasdesantamaria.com/csm/87
 
  Refrain     
29 Os séus honrrou e honrrará 8  a5
30 sempre Santa María. 6' B
 
  Stanza VI     
31 Poi-lo sant' hóme s' espertou, 8  a6
32 ao cabídoo contou 8  a6
33 o que ll' a Virgen nomeou 8  a6
34 que por bispo quería. 6' B
 
  Refrain     
35 D' os séus honrrar muito punnou 8  a6
36 sempre Santa María. 6' B
Cantigas de Santa Maria for Singers ©2013 by Andrew Casson
www.cantigasdesantamaria.com/csm/87
 
  Stanza VII     
37 Acordados dun coraçôn 8  a7
38 fezéron del sa esleiçôn, 8  a7
39 e foi bisp' a pouca sazôn, 8  a7
40 ca ben o merecía. 6' B
 
  Refrain     
41 Os séus honrrou con gran razôn 8  a7
42 sempre Santa María. 6' B
 

Footnotes

In this cantiga I depart from Mettmann and follow the structure with variant refrains argued for by Stephen Parkinson [SP1987], which gives by far the best results for performance, avoiding a lot of rather dull musical repetition. It's clear from the manuscripts that none of the scribes understood this structure. The [E] scribe—copied by Mettmann—mistook the variant refrains for two-line stanzas, deciding to add extra repeats of the initial refrain around these; but the consequent alternation between long and short stanzas then left no obvious means of abbreviating the structure of the music, and the whole cantiga ended up being laboriously written out with all of the stanzas overlaid. The [To] and [T] scribes, on the other hand, took the variant refrains to be extensions of the preceding stanza, only repeating the initial refrain after them, not before—but nowhere assigning them any music. Note, by the way, that the refrains do not all share a single identical rhyming scheme as usual, but instead each have one line that rhymes with the associated stanza. I have numbered the rhyming groups specially to highlight this unique feature.

Standard spelling  
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Footnotes

E1:

See the main note to the lyrics for more on the deletion of the 'false refrains' in this cantiga.

E2:

After this point in [E], .rawon changes to .rawo in all similar phrases.

E3:

Many of the final .on notes of the refrain or vuelta are difficult to read in the [E] manuscript facsimile in Anglés, being apparently written on top of the following decorated capital, due to the lyric scribe not leaving enough space on the stave. I have assumed they're there in every case, and transcribed them accordingly.

Manuscript references

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

[E]87viewhttp://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cantigas/facsimiles/E/198small.htmlExternal link
[T]87 
[To]21viewhttp://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cantigas/facsimiles/To/bob021small.gifExternal link

Oxford CSM Database record

External link to poem data:  CSM 87http://csm.mml.ox.ac.uk/index.php?p=poemdata_view&rec=87

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

8  6'

Stanzas

8  8  8  6'

Rhyme

aB / aaaB
 RIIIIIIIVVVIVII
aeu̯aou̯
Bi.a

Estimated performance times

Average syllables / min. Time
Very slow506:44
Slow1003:22
Medium1502:14
Fast2001:41
Very fast2501:20

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: 337