imported>Lute88: Reverted 1 edit by Bladeness (talk) to last revision by Tamzin

2025-06-24T12:09:54Z

Reverted 1 edit by Bladeness (talk) to last revision by Tamzin

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{{Short description|16th-century popular Italian song}}
{{for|the singer nicknamed "La Mantovana"|Anna Girò}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2024}}
"'''La Mantovana'''" or "Il Ballo di Mantova" (Mantua Dance) is a popular sixteenth-century song attributed to the Italian [[tenor]] [[Giuseppe Cenci]], also known as Giuseppino del Biado, (d. 1616)<ref>{{cite web
|author=John Walter Hill
|title="Cenci, Giuseppe"
|url=http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/05274
|website=[[Oxford Music Online]]
|publisher=Oxford University Press
|accessdate=21 February 2010}} {{subscription required|s}}</ref> to the text {{Lang|it|Fuggi, fuggi, fuggi da questo cielo}}. Its earliest known appearance in print is in Biado's collection of [[madrigal]]s of the year 1600. The melody, later also known as "{{Lang|it|Ballo di Mantova|italic=no}}" and "{{Lang|it|Aria di Mantova|italic=no}}", gained a wide popularity in [[Renaissance]] Europe, being recorded variously as the Flemish "Ik zag Cecilia komen", the Polish "Pod Krakowem", the Romanian "Carul cu boi", the Scottish "My mistress is prettie", and the Ukrainian "Kateryna Kucheryava". It is best known as the melody of [[Bedřich Smetana]]'s ''[[Má vlast#Vltava|Vltava]]'' and of the Israeli national anthem "[[Hatikvah]]".

==Appearances in classical music==
:<score sound="1">
\relative c'' {
\set Staff.midiInstrument = #"violin"
\tempo 4 = 80
\key bes \major
\time 4/4
g8 a bes c d4 \mark "del Biado" d8 d es4. es8 d4. d8 c4. c8 bes4 c8 bes a4. a8 g4 g
}
</score>

:<score sound="1">
\relative c'' {
\set Staff.midiInstrument = #"violin"
\tempo 4 = 80
\key bes \major
\time 4/4
g8 a bes c d4 \mark "Zanetti" d8 d es4 es8 es d4 d8 d c4 c8 c bes4 c8 bes a4 a8 a g2
}
</score>

"La Mantovana" appears in ''Il Scolaro'' by [[Gasparo Zanetti]] (1645),<ref name="IMSLP: Free Sheet Music PDF Download p478">{{cite web | title=Il scolaro (Zanetti, Gasparo) | website=IMSLP: Free Sheet Music PDF Download | url=https://imslp.org/wiki/Il_scolaro_(Zanetti%2C_Gasparo) | access-date=25 September 2023}}</ref> as "Ballo di Mantova" in ''Duo tessuti con diversi solfeggiamenti, scherzi, perfidie et oblighi'' by [[Giuseppe Giamberti]] (1657) and as "An Italian Rant" in [[John Playford]]'s ''[[The Dancing Master]]'' (3rd edition, 1665).<ref name="Jewish Music Research Centre 2013 t262" /><ref name="Traditional Tune Archive 2021 s591">{{cite web | title=Italian Rant (An) | website=Traditional Tune Archive | date=26 June 2021 | url=https://tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:Italian_Rant_(An) | access-date=25 September 2023}}</ref>

"Fuggi, fuggi, dolente cor", a version of the madrigal setting, provides the source material for [[Biagio Marini]]'s 1655 trio sonata in G minor (Op. 22, Sonata sopra "Fuggi dolente core").<ref>{{IMSLP|work=Sonata sopra 'Fuggi dolente core', Op.22 No.21 (Marini, Biagio)|cname=Sonata sopra 'Fuggi dolente core', Op. 22, No. 21 (Marini, Biagio)}}</ref>

The melody was famously used by the Czech composer [[Bedřich Smetana]] in his [[symphonic poem]] ''[[Má vlast#Vltava|Vltava]]'' (Moldau) from his cycle celebrating [[Bohemia]], ''[[Má vlast]]'':<ref name="Jewish Music Research Centre 2013 t262">{{cite web |last=Seroussi |first=Edwin | title=Hatikvah: Conceptions, Receptions and Reflections | website=Jewish Music Research Centre | date=16 April 2013 | url=https://jewish-music.huji.ac.il/he/node/22482 | language=he | access-date=25 September 2023}}</ref>
:<score sound="1"> \relative c'' { \set Staff.midiInstrument = #"string ensemble 1" \clef treble \key e \minor \time 6/8 \tempo "Allegro commodo non agitato" \partial 8*1 b8-.\p_"dolce" | e4(\< fis8) g4( a8)\! | b4 b8-. b4.--\< | c4.\sf\! c->\> | b->\!\p~ b4 b8\<( | a4.)\!\dim a4 a8 | g4( a8 g4) g8(\< | fis4.)\!\> fis4(\!\> fis8-.)\! | e4\> r8\! } </score>

The motif was also used by the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns in the second movement of "Rhapsodie Bretonne".
"La Montavana" also appears in the song "Kucheriava Katerina", whose composer is unknown.

[[Samuel Cohen (Jewish settler)|Samuel Cohen]], a nineteenth-century Jewish settler in Ottoman Palestine (now, Israel) who was born in [[Moldavia]], adapted a Romanian variation of "La Mantovana" – "Carul cu boi" – to set [[Naftali Herz Imber]]'s poem, "[[Hatikvah]]"; which later became the Israeli national anthem.<ref>[http://www.ingeb.org/songs/hatikvah.html "Ha-Tiqvah"], Ingeb.org</ref><ref name="Zion Rabinovich 2013 y730">{{cite web | last=Zion | first=Ilan Ben | last2=Rabinovich | first2=Abraham | title=How an unwieldy romantic poem and a Romanian folk song combined to produce 'Hatikva' | website=The Times of Israel | date=16 April 2013 | url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/how-an-unwieldy-romantic-poem-and-a-romanian-folk-song-combined-to-produce-hatikva/ | access-date=25 September 2023}}</ref> Another, similar Romanian folk song, "Cucuruz cu frunza-n sus", is also based on "La Mantovana".

==Lyrics==
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Italian !! English
|-
|<poem>{{Lang|it|Fuggi fuggi fuggi da questo cielo
Aspro e duro spietato gelo
Tu che tutto imprigioni e leghi
Né per pianto ti frangi o pieghi
fier tiranno, gel de l'anno
fuggi fuggi fuggi là dove il Verno
su le brine ha seggio eterno.

Vieni vieni candida vien vermiglia
tu del mondo sei maraviglia
Tu nemica d'amare noie
Dà all'anima delle gioie
messagger per Primavera
tu sei dell'anno la giovinezza
tu del mondo sei la vaghezza.

Vieni vieni vieni leggiadra e vaga
Primavera d'amor presaga
Odi Zefiro che t'invita
e la terra che il ciel marita
al suo raggio venga Maggio
vieni con il grembo di bei fioretti,
Vien su l'ale dei zefiretti.|italic=no}}</poem>
|<poem style="margin-left: 1em;">Flee, flee, flee from this sky,
harsh and unyielding, relentless cold.
You, who shackle all in prison
neither bending nor breaking to tears.
You, the year's cruel, frozen tyrant,
flee, flee, flee to wherever winter
has its eternal throne over the frost.

Come, come white, come vermilion,
you are the marvel of the world.
You, nemesis of all things dreary,
give joy to the soul
through your message of spring.
You are the youth of the year
and the beauty of the world.

Come, come, come, graceful and gentle,
spring of foreboding love.
Harken Zephyrus who invites you,
and the earth that marries the sky;
may May come at its ray,
come with your lap full of beautiful blossoms,
come on the wings of little Zephyrs.</poem>
|}

==Other appearances==
It appears also in children's songs: German "{{ill|Alle meine Entchen|de}}" ''(All My Ducklings)'' and Czech "{{ill|Kočka leze dírou|cs}}" ''(The Cat Is Crawling through the Hole)''.<ref name="Maxner 2022 h947">{{cite web | last=Maxner | first=Rebekah | title=Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star Part IV: From minor Twinkle branches into the major key [Printables] | website=Rebekah Maxner | date=21 February 2022 | url=https://rebekah.maxner.ca/2022/02/21/twinkle-twinkle-little-star-the-ultimate-guide-to-this-tune-in-our-culture-part-ii/ | access-date=25 September 2023}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{YouTube|g4Pf1UeXNUk|Twinkle, Twinkle/Ah, vous dirais-je maman/Mozart: 12 Variations/La Mantovana/Die Moldau/Hatikvah}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mantovana, La}}
[[Category:16th-century songs]]
[[Category:Italian folk songs]]
[[Category:Baroque compositions]]

La Mantovana - Revision history

imported>Lute88: Reverted 1 edit by Bladeness (talk) to last revision by Tamzin