Fand Catalogue

  

L’amour de moi

A fifteenth-century French chanson

arranged for medium voice and piano

Traditional French

arr. John Goss

Julien Tiersot (1857–1936) was a pioneering musicologist responsible for transcribing French melodies and songs from the 13th to the 17th centuries. In 1906, he published a large collection of folksongs from the French Alps, Chansons populaires recueillies dans les Alpes françaises. This volume contains 1200 pages of songs, including L’amour de moi, which is thought to originate from the 15th century.

The British singer and scholar John Goss (1891–1953) published an arrangement by Hubert Foss in his Anthology of Song (Oxford University Press, 1929). Goss, a lyric baritone, was an early recording artist for HMV, performing with his own Cathedral Male Quartet in ballads, folksongs and sea shanties. He was also a close friend and collaborator with composers of his era, such as Peter Warlock, E. J. Moeran, Bernard van Dieren, Rebecca Clarke and Frederick Delius. His own personal dossier of songs in manuscript form was discovered in 2008. Along with many other transcriptions of songs in his own hand, here we find his own keyboard arrangement of L’amour de moi. Foss’s version with a simpler harmonic treatment is set in the key of E flat major, whereas Goss’s version is in D flat major, a preferable key for baritones and mezzo-sopranos.

The song has been a favourite for many years with popular recording artists, and has been recorded in arrangements by Jane Birkin and by the Mediæval Bæbes. Foss’s version features on Gossiana, a 1920s Anthology of Song celebrating the life and work of John Goss.

This is the first time Goss’s version has appeared in print, along with a new translation for singers who are more comfortable with English. It does so with the kind permission and approval of Andy Low, the grandson of John Goss.

—Giles Davies, August 2021

Sample pages

(Click to enlarge)

	Composer	Title	Grade	Vocal range	Forces	Duration
	Traditional French arr. John Goss	L’amour de moi A fifteenth-century French chanson arranged for medium voice and piano	5	D♭ to E♭'	Medium voice, Piano	2½ mins

Recorded performance

Giles Davies, Baritone and John Mitchell, Piano – recorded especially for this publication

Catalogue code: FM235 • Published: 27th September 2021
Entry last updated: 10th December 2021