Lyr Req: My Heart Is Offered Still to You

Subject: My Heart is Offered Still To You
From: GUEST,Christie
Date: 15 Apr 00 - 01:39 PM

Might anyone out there have the lyrics to this madrigal? I sang this in high school 20-something years ago, but can only remember the chorus and the first verse. I'd settle for the composer's name....anything so that I can research further.

Here's what I remember:

(Chorus) My heart is offered still to you
Full now of woe and deep despairing
Be not to constancy untrue
Say one farewell my sorrow sharing

(First Verse) My heart which once could smile in gladness
And charming stories improvise
Now may only curse in its madness
Those who banished me from your eyes

Thank you!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Heart is Offered Still To You
From: Ed Pellow
Date: 15 Apr 00 - 04:14 PM

Christie,

Composed by Orlandus Lassuss (or Lassus), published by Roberton Publications.

I couldn't find the words, but there's a Quicktime file of it being sung here

Hope this helps

Ed

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Heart is Offered Still To You
From: GUEST,Christie
Date: 16 Apr 00 - 07:32 PM

Thank you very much! That gives me a good direction to start. It's been driving me crazy trying to remember all the words.

Again, thanks.

Christie

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Heart is Offered Still To You
From: Amos
Date: 16 Apr 00 - 09:42 PM

I'll be hornswaoggled if this isn't a madrigal I sang in highschool too. Our rendition sounds like an earlier verse to the one in the Quicktime link, but the tunes and parts are identical. We knew it as "My Heart Doth Beg You'll Not Forget", and the lyrics went:

My heart doth beg you'll not forget,
My heavy heart, with sorrow aching
And spite of jealous eyes e'en yet
One last farewell we might be taking

Once smiled my eyes were ever laughing
And loving words were all they knew
Now (something something something)
Those who banish me love from you.

Anyway, I was amazed to hear it after all these years and with a verse we never learned, too!

A

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Heart is Offered Still To You
From: GUEST,Christie
Date: 17 Apr 00 - 10:27 PM

Thanks to both of you for your assistance. Amos, I'd never heard these words before, but I can probably incorporate them fairly easily. LOL, my Ren-Faire wenches will never survive this coming season.

Thanks again for your help.

Christie

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Heart is Offered Still To You
From: GUEST,Tree
Date: 18 Apr 00 - 10:20 PM

Ed and Amos...you don't know what you've started!! I'm one of the singing wenches...and Christie's probably right...we won't survive the coming fest season LOL

I just wanted to thank all for your prompt and informative assistance...you are a great bunch!

Tree

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Heart is Offered Still To You
From: GUEST,Jen
Date: 12 Sep 06 - 11:53 AM

My heart doth beg you'll not forget,
My heavy heart, with sorrow aching
And spite of jealous eyes e'en yet
One last farewell we might be taking

Once smiled my eyes were ever laughing
And loving words were all they knew
Now FOR ONLY CURSING THEY'RE SERVING
Those who banish me, love, from you.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Heart is Offered Still To You
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 07:06 PM

I'm singing that for my senior districts. but i can't find the lyrics.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Heart is Offered Still To You
From: GUEST,LynnT
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 07:32 PM

And then there's the original French, which my choir sang in high school, but helas I can only remember the first line, and a Google search turned up (surprisingly) no postings of the lyrics. Can anyone supply the frog-speech version, "Mon coeur se recommend a vous"?

lynnT

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Heart is Offered Still To You
From: Barbara Shaw
Date: 19 Sep 07 - 08:57 PM

Wow, I too sang this in choral club many decades ago! Here's what we sang in English and French:

My Heart is Offered Still to You
Orlandus Lassus
English version by Alice Parker

My heart is offered still to you
Full now of woe and deep despairing
Be not to constancy untrue
Say one farewell my sorrow sharing.

My mouth which once could smile in gladness
And charming stories improvise
Now may only curse in its madness
Those who banished me from your eyes.

My heart is offered still to you
Full now of woe and deep despairing
Be not to constancy untrue
Say one farewell my sorrow sharing.

Mon Coeur se Recommande a Vous

Mon coeur se recommande a vous
Tout plein d'ennui et de martyre
Au moins en depit des jaloux
Faites qu'adieu vous puisse dire.

Ma bouche qui savait sourire
Et conter propos gracieux
Ne fait maintenant que maudire
Ceux qui m'ont banni de vos yeux.

Mon coeur se recommande a vous
Tout plein d'ennui et de martyre
Au moins en depit des jaloux
Faites qu'adieu vous puisse dire.

What's really bizarre is that this music was still in my piano bench after all these years...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Heart is Offered Still To You
From: GUEST,LynnT
Date: 20 Sep 07 - 08:39 PM

Thanks, Barbara!

I cross-posted my request on a historical-reenactment list I frequent, and they came back with more languages yet:

Italian translation
Il mio cuore si raccomanda a voi
colmo di malinconia e di cruccio:
almeno a dispetto dei gelosi,
fate che vi possa dire addio!
La mia bocca, che sapeva sorridere
e raccontare cose graziose,
ora non fa che maledire
coloro che mi hanno bandito dai vostri occhi.
Dutch translation


   Eindelijk leg ik mijn hart in jouw handen
   Nog vol van smart en verdriet.
   En voor hen die misschien jaloers zijn:
   Zeg maar vaarwel aan oude pijnen.
   Mijn lippen kunnen weer glimlachen
   En heerlijke verhalen vertellen.
   Want ik hoef niemand meer te vervloeken
   Die me uit jouw ogen dreigt te verbannen.

Enjoy!

LynnT

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Heart is Offered Still To You
From: GUEST,Sam T
Date: 15 Dec 07 - 09:26 PM

(Chorus) My Heart is offered still to you
Full now of woe and deep despairing
Be not to constancy untrue
Say one farewell my sorrow sharing

(First Verse) My Heart which once could smile in gladness
And Charming Stories Improvise
Now may only curse in it's madness
Those who banished me from your eyes

My heart is offered still till to you
full now of woe and deep despairing
be not to constancy untrue
say one farewell my sorrow sharing

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Heart is Offered Still To You
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Sep 09 - 06:02 PM

HI MY NAME IS KENIA AND I THINK I HAVE THE MUSIC SOME WHERE LET ME LOOK FOR IT!!! OH AND A FEW OLD MAD'S R GETTING TOGETHER B4 HOME COMING GAME OCT 30 TO SING MY HEART AND GO OUT FOR SOME DRINKS.... *:)

Subject: Lyr Add: Mon cueur se recommande à vous
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 25 Sep 09 - 12:26 AM

I think the French version posted above has been modernized. This is probably closer to the original, from Oeuvres de Clément Marot, Volume 2, edited by Pierre René Auguis (Paris: Constant-Chantepie, 1823), page 427:

CHANSON XLII
(1528)

Mon cueur se recommande à vous,
Tout plein d'ennuy et de martyre:
Au moins en despit des jaloux,
Faites qu'adieu vous puisse dire:
Ma bouche qui vous souloit rire,
Et compter propoz gratieux,
Ne faict maintenant que mauldire
Ceulx qui m'ont banny de vos yeulx.

Banny j'en suis par faulx-semblant:
Mais pour nous veoir encore ensemble,
Fault que me soyez ressemblant
De fermeté; car il me semble
Que quand faulx-rapport desassemble
Les amans qui sont assemblez,
Si ferme-amour ne les rassemble,
Sans fin seront desassemblez.

Here's an English translation from Lyrics of the French Renaissance: Marot, Du Bellay, Ronsard by Norman R. Shapiro (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006), page 61:

My heart commends itself to you,
Full to the brim with sorrows fell;
Despite what jealous folk may do,
Let me, at least, sigh my farewell.
My lips, that pleasantries would tell,
Now only curse those knaves whose spite
Has cast me from where I would dwell,
Evermore in your tender sight.

Cast out am I by False Pretense;
But if we once again would be
Rejoined, then from this moment hence
Be strong, like me: for certainly
When False Report works villainy
Against two lovers bound together,
Unless Strong Love rejoin them, he
Shall have forever cut their tether.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Heart is Offered Still To You
From: GUEST,Guest, Glenn
Date: 02 Aug 10 - 12:16 AM

I sang the same madrigal in high school over 40 years ago!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Heart Is Offered Still to You
From: GUEST,David
Date: 25 Aug 10 - 01:11 AM

Any tips on the basic story of this piece? Was the lover stolen from the singer? Did she cheat? I'm having trouble with interpretation.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Heart Is Offered Still to You
From: leeneia2
Date: 25 Aug 10 - 10:00 AM

All these old love songs are about the same deal, David.

There was a king. He distrusted his dukes, earls, barons, etc, so he demanded that they send a son or daughter to his court, basically as a hostage. These sons and daughters may be referred to as courtiers. (Courtezan is something else.)

Now it was believed at the time that any kind of work with the hands was ignoble, so these poor oourtiers were bored out of their minds. They could not go fishing, do woodworking or have jam sessions. (Women were permitted to do needlework, as long as it produced nothing useful.)

There were only two activities left to do - write poetry and seduce one another. However, seduction meant great risk to the women, so they tended not to go along with it. The result - much poetry about unrequited love by male courtiers.

In this case, he's been trying to seduce a woman, but somebody else has spotted them, and it's over.

Have you heard of ladies in waiting? I believe 'ladies in watching' would have been a better title.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Heart Is Offered Still to You
From: GUEST,Albert
Date: 02 Mar 11 - 12:10 AM

Glad to see this thread, very informative.

And a haunting and challenging tune.

Words I remember differ slightly:

My heart doth bid you'll not forget
My heavy load with sorrow aching
--Don't remember this line--
One last farewell we might be taking

From Milton College Music Festival, Milton, Wisconsin, ca. 1964.

And where's the phrase "with sorrow aching?" NOwhere in this thread! And how is that possible-- because that's the string that got me here in the first place!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Heart Is Offered Still to You
From: GUEST,Albert - WOMEN'S LARGE Band
Date: 02 Mar 11 - 12:17 AM

AAAaahhhhh Sorry! My searcher was crotcheted.

We may be performing this with WOMEN'S LARGE band.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Heart Is Offered Still to You
From: GUEST,Albert
Date: 02 Mar 11 - 03:43 AM

MMMmmmmmm I'm wondering. Is the tune of the chorus the same as the verse? I only know one tune . . .

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Heart Is Offered Still to You
From: GUEST,L. West
Date: 13 Oct 13 - 12:27 AM

I awakened this morning with this madrigal coming out of a dream--looking up the words, came upon this thread. My high school chorus sang this in 1958.

we also sang a sonnet by Elizabeth Barrett Browning that was set to music. I wonder if anyone else remembers this one:

Sonnet 21

Say over again, and yet once over again,
That thou dost love me. Though the word repeated
Should seem "a cuckoo-song," as thou dost treat it,
Remember, never to the hill or plain,
Valley and wood, without her cuckoo-strain
Comes the fresh Spring in all her green completed.
Belovèd, I, amid the darkness greeted
By a doubtful spirit-voice, in that doubt's pain
Cry, "Speak once more—thou lovest!" Who can fear
Too many stars, though each in heaven shall roll,
Too many flowers, though each shall crown the year?
Say thou dost love me, love me, love me—toll
The silver iterance!—only minding, Dear,
To love me also in silence with thy soul.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Heart Is Offered Still to You
From: GUEST,Judi
Date: 29 Jun 14 - 07:11 PM

I also sang this song in my high school madrigals group.(1970)
I was just thinking of this song today, wondering if anyone knew all the verses...
Thanks for all you help and input!
Judi

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Heart Is Offered Still to You
From: GUEST,#
Date: 29 Jun 14 - 08:51 PM

http://www3.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Mon_c%C5%93ur_se_recommande_%C3%A0_vous_(Orlando_di_Lasso)

That page is worth it if you like the song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Heart Is Offered Still to You
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Jun 19 - 02:56 AM

I cant get the reflections of this song, can anyone help me please....