Bandez votre arc

Jacob Buus, a composer of the later Renaissance, wrote this secular French chanson for an eight-part choir (SATTTB). The text is a passionate appeal to Cupid, asking him to aim his arrows of pleasure at the singer's beloved, to aid the singer in his plight. Should Venus's son refuse this request, the singer asks that his heart, eyes, and ears be bound, so that he might forget his suffering. Buus's setting would have been part of the vibrant tradition of secular vocal music in the courts and cities of 16th-century Europe, where such chansons offered sophisticated entertainment and artistic expression.