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Mignonne allons voir si la rose

No, I have not written up the lovely lute accompaniment. But I intend to arrange a similar version for guitar in the key of Am, which can be capoed up to Cm to sound like Mignarda's performance. If you want a 4-part arrangement of this piece, go to a page associated with The Society for Creative Anachronisms where there is lots of great early music transcribed and downloadable for free. (You will have to hunt around a bit.) A fellow named Steven Hendricks, along with several others, took the time to write up nice arrangements of this and many other popular Renaissance pieces. The site is a wonderful resource for public domain music, music that has been in the public domain for hundreds of years!

I did notice, after my students and I had done some floundering with the lyrics, that Steve's version didn't fit the notes exactly. Therefore, I have re-done the PDFs of this song, but haven't got to the graphics yet. (There are only four very minor changes.)

The printable sheet music I have here is the melody line (treble clef, and also guitar tablature), plus chord suggestions, and also a piano arrangement.


Mignonne allons lead sheet in Am

Mignonne allons lead sheet in Cm

Renaissance music in Dm


The song is much more stirring if you understand what is actually being sung. Knowing just a little bit of French, a person can see that the translation is very good indeed, in fact, almost word for word. The song speaks of the briefness of beauty, shown by the fading hue of the rose, which is like his lovely mistress's cheek... There is only a breath of time in which those who are young can enjoy their youth. Therefore, seize the moment -- seize it!



The translation above is from the site Society for Creative Anachronisms.

The male vocalist in the following Youtube video gives a very strong performance, very enjoyable:

Fabulous! He sings on a recording called The King's Singers' Madrigal History Tour.

A very simple guitar chord, plucked and never varying, can give a good impression of a lute accompaniment. I think a guitar accompaniment is all that was used in this recording. To duplicate it, use the notes of an "open" Em chord (that is, the notes "E" and "B" only, without the third of the chord, "G"). E, B, High E, B, and repeat. That is, fret 2 E on the D string, string B, high string E, back to string B, back down to fret 2 E on the D string.

The key of Dm also works: use open string D, followed by fret 2 A on the G string, then fret 3 D on the B string.



Sheet music printable for Mignonne allons in Am, with guitar tablature

Guitar Tablature for Mignonne allons in Dm

Mignonne allons in Em

You may not agree with the measure of rest, the feeling of pause, at measure 13. Well, I fell in love with it, listening to Mignarda. But take it out if you like the flow better without it.

Here is an arrangement for piano. This does not use all the chords heard in the first video, but I like the simplicity of my arrangement here, as I didn't want too much heaviness from the piano:



Mignonne allons with piano arrangement in Cm

Printable sheet music Mignonne allons with piano arrangement in Dm

Printable piano music Mignonne allons in Em

This final video features a lovely, high soprano sound for Mignonne allons. This is the first version I ever heard, found on a recording given to me by my daughter called La Rocque 'n' Roll - Popular Music of Renaissance France / The Baltimore Consort. It is a fun recording, mostly with vocals by this soprano, but also drums, pipes, and viols of some sort. I can listen to it over and over again.

Big question: How do you pronounce the French words? If you have no background in French, get thee to a library and check out all the books and recordings you can! Show your music students how a self-starter does it!

French looks very daunting... a "slippery sort of language," as Jo March says in Little Women (thereby, perhaps, costing herself a trip to France with her Aunt Josephine). Use the books and CDs that work for you, and return the rest! Personally, I have really enjoyed the recordings of Michel Thomas,

One of the best helps is to listen to native French singers, of course... and there are many to be found on Youtube (though I do not think any of the singers among my Youtube examples on this page are native French speakers).

Be aware that although in everyday speech French words are usually shortened, with final "s" and other consonants and vowels, too, not pronounced, yet in singing, those one-syllable words will frequently turn into two syllables, like Spanish and Italian. The word "chante," for example (sing), ordinarily pronounced "shahnt," becomes "shahn - tuh." Why? Tradition!

Lastly, the description of "Mignonne allons" given by Mignarda says that it is "a song of seduction," and the lovely lyrics are that, but so much more than that. In the Renaissance, CHANGE and DEATH were common themes. Poets, thinkers, and everyday people were deliberately conscious of mortality... they carried pocket-watches shaped like a skull. This was partly a result of the Black Death.

All that lies beneath the sphere of the moon, they believed, is subject to change, to death, to decay, and therefore the time we have must be grasped and lived with urgency. As Andrew Marvell's poem, "To His Coy Mistress," says:"Then let us sport us while we may, and now, like amorous birds of prey, rather at once our time devour than languish in his slow-chapped power...Thus, though we cannot make our sun stand still, yet we will make him run."

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