Perissone Cambio
Perissone Cambio is not a well known member of the 16th century madrigal school, despite having published four collections of madrigals and villanellas in the five years between 1545 and 1550. Around 1540 he came from his native Flanders to Venice and joined his more famous countrymen, Cipriano de Rore and Adrian Willaert, who had been ‘maestro di cappella’ at San Marco for over 10 years. In 1547 Perissone became a singer in the choir and remained there for about 10 years. He is thought to have died in the early 1560s.
Buccucia dolce
This villanella is from Perissone’s ‘Canzoni villanesche . . . ‘ (Venice 1545) and edited in Donna G. Cardamone ‘The Canzone Villanesca alla Napolitane . . . ‘, (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1981). The villanella differs from the madrigal — it is strophic, generally has a refrain, and is mostly homorhythmic. It is therefore essentially unable to express the text as closely (and extravagantly) as the madrigal. But it is more direct and accessible to the untrained ear.
Perissone Cambio "Buccucia dolce"
Buccucia dolce chiu que canamielle
Labruccia d’una pampana di rosa.
Refrain: Hai scropolosa s’io cerco un baso,
Rispondi: ba ca marzo te l’a raso.
Lassa signora homai d’esser crudele
Non ti mostrar ver me tanto sdegnosa.
Refrain: Hai scropolosa . . .
Baciame una sol volta e sta sicura
Bocha basciata mai perde ventura
Refrain: Hai scropolosa . . .
Oh, little mouth sweeter than sugarcane,
Softer than the petals of a rose.
Refrain: You’re so scrupulous, if I try a kiss
You say, “Watch out or March will get you.”
Leave off being cruel to me, lady,
Stop behaving in that Haughty fashion.
Refrain: You’re so scrupulous . . .
Kiss me just once, for I promise that
A kissed mouth never loses its luck.
Refrain: You’re so scrupulous . . .
Translation:Theodolinda Barolini
and Donna G. Cardamone