♫ Quis dabit oculis
© Mirare MIR 446
Quis dabit oculis, Naenia in Funere Annae Britannae Galliarum Reginae
Quis dabit oculis is a four parts (ATTB) motet written on the death of Queen Anne of Brittany ( 1477-1514), wife of Louis XII. It is a funeral motet. This motet is a slow and very dignified piece. It’s utterly compelling in its atmospheric simplicity which Mouton renders all the more moving by using simple homophonic chords every time the text mentions Anna’s name ( in Bar 83-84 , 87-88, 169-171). In this funeral motet Mouton genuinely mourned her passing away. This motet is divided in three movements.
In the prima pars the canon is set by Mouton in the Altus and the Tenor II. At the end (bars 62-71) Mouton uses homophonic phrases. In the secunda pars Mouton mixed up polyphonic phrases with homophonic phrases. Sometimes in ‘Heu nobis domine’ Mouton uses in this secunda pars double canonical technique (Tenor I and Bassus) alternated with homophonic chords.
In the tertia pars the canon is set by Mouton in the Altus and Tenor II. As from bar 169 Mouton starts with the last remembrance of Anna of Brittany ‘Requiescat in pace”.
This motet is published in Selecti aliquot moduli...liber primus (1555) and in Motetti de la corona/libero tertio, Ottaviano Petrucci, 1519.
Text:
Prima pars
Quis dabit oculis nostris fontem lacrimarum?
Et plorabimus die ac nocte coram Domino?
Britannia, quid ploras?
Musica, cur siles?
Francia, cur inducta lugubri veste
moerore consumeris?
Translation:
Who will give to our eyes a well of tears?
And shall we weep day and night before the Lord?
Brittany, why do you lament?
Music, why are you silent?
France, why dressed in clothes of mourning
do you waste away in sorrow?
Secunda pars
Heu nobis, Domine, defecit Anna,
gaudium cordis nostri.
Conversus est in luctum chorus noster,
cecidit corona capitis nostri.
Translation:
Woe to us, Lord, for Anne is gone,
the joy of our hearts.
Our song is turned into mourning,
and the crown has fallen from our heads.
Tertia pars
Ergo eiulate pueri, plorate sacerdotes,
ululate senes, lugete cantores,
plangite nobiles, et dicite:
Anna requiescat in pace. Amen.
Translation:
Therefore cry out children, weep priests,
howl old men, mourn singers,
lament noblemen, and say:
May Anne rest in peace. Amen.