This edition was prepared by Pothárn Imre — free to download, print, rehearse and perform.
Je suis quasi prest d'enrager
Staff Notation • Secular, Chansons
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2 editions of this piece
Different typesettings and voicings of the same work. This page shows the main edition; the others are below.
SATB · Pothárn Imre
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Je suis quasi prest d'enrager by Orlando di Lasso — Lyrics
Original text
Je suis quasi prêt d'enrager
de me voir ainsi sans pecune,
il m'est bien force d'engager
ma robe et si n'en ai qu'une,
je maudis mille fois fortune,
o benedicite Maria,
car pour vivre en telle rancune
le diable bien me maria.
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About Je suis quasi prest d'enrager
Orlando di Lasso's secular chanson Je suis quasi prest d'enrager ('I am almost ready to rage') offers a wryly humorous take on financial woes. The SATB choir voices the lament of a speaker whose poverty forces him to consider pawning his only coat. He curses his fortune, even invoking the Virgin Mary in his exasperation, feeling that his desperate circumstances have led him into a devilish marriage. This secular song was later adapted as a sacred contrafact, with new sacred Latin text, demonstrating its musical versatility. It is a prime example of the French chanson, a genre of secular part-music popular in the Renaissance.
