Belle, Qui Tiens Ma Vie/Oh a Vivre: A Song History

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“Belle qui tiens ma vie” is a pavane printed in Orchésographie, a French dance manual written as a dialogue between a dancing master and his pupil.[1] The book was printed at Langres under the name Thoinot Arbeau, an anagram of its author, the cleric Jehan Tabourot.[1] Its title page is dated 1589, but the extract of its royal privilege is dated November 1588, and some reference works give 1588 as the year.[1][2] Tabourot, a priest attached to the cathedral at Langres, wrote the book late in life, and most of its dances were probably ones he remembered from his youth.[3]

Engraving of a richly dressed sixteenth-century couple dancing

Heinrich Aldegrever, Dancing Couple, from The Large Wedding Dancers, engraving, 1538. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0). A German print from the same century, shown for its subject.

Arbeau sets the pavane out in four vocal parts, superius, contratenor, tenor and bassus, with the rhythm of the accompanying drum written out alongside.[4] He then prints the complete words of the love song, in case his pupil should one day want to sing it.[4] The early-music writer and performer Ian Pittaway notes that no other dance in the book comes with words and no other piece is harmonized for four voices; the rest of the music is melody alone.[3] He also points out that the Spanish composer Antonio de Cabezón had used the same melody for sets of variations published in 1578, eleven years before Orchésographie.[3]

Pittaway counts it today among the best-known songs of the French Renaissance.[3] Peter Warlock drew his Capriol Suite from tunes in Arbeau’s book, and its Pavane movement is built on this song, keeping Arbeau’s four-part harmony nearly as printed.[5][6] Modern editions and arrangements of the pavane, for voices, guitars and keyboard, are collected in the public score library IMSLP.[7] The second tune in this medley, “Oh a Vivre,” could not be identified in any of the sources consulted here, including Orchésographie itself.[4]

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Sources

  1. Library of Congress: "Orchesographie. Et traicte en forme de dialogve..." (1589).
  2. Encyclopaedia Britannica: "Thoinot Arbeau".
  3. Early Music Muse (Ian Pittaway): "The pavan, the priest and the pseudonym: ‘Belle qui tiens ma vie’ and Arbeau’s ‘Orchésographie’ (1589)".
  4. Internet Archive: Thoinot Arbeau, "Orchesographie" (Langres, 1589).
  5. Peter Warlock Society: "Capriol".
  6. Arizona Philharmonic: "Classic Wines in New Bottles" (program notes, 2022).
  7. IMSLP: "Belle qui tiens ma vie (Arbeau, Thoinot)".