When Jacqui contacted me about a project for her new ensemble ModernMedieval, newly commissioned works setting older texts and using period instrumentation, I jumped at the opportunity. She sent me a sampling of anonymous poems taken from the Findern Manuscript, a collection of 14th-century secular love poetry compiled in England in the late 15th century. It is generally thought that women wrote many of the poems although it is not definitively known. I selected the text “Continuance.” I not only loved the poem, but I adored the “exotic sound” of the Middle English pronunciation, which sounded to me like a cross between how French is pronounced when set to music, those “silent ending syllables” added and sounding, and how Scottish is spoken. For example:

Con-tin-oo-an-cuh

Of re-mem-bra-oon-cuh

With-oot-uh ending-uh,

Doth may pen-a-oon-cuh

And gray-tuh gre-va-oon-cuh,

For your par-ting-uh.

Originally the song was composed for mezzo-soprano and viola da gamba. At the request of Jacqui I have adapted the piece to be played on modern cello (or viola). This gives the song a darker, more expressively romantic sound. There are three versions to chose from: with tenor viol (viola da gamba), with viola, or with cello. Contact me. The song is affectionately dedicated to Jacqui.