Ja Nuns Hons Pris - French and Occitan Medieval Song

Music* and lyrics by Richard the Lionheart, vocals & arrangement by Farya Faraji. Unlike most performances, I chose to sing both the French and Occitan lyrics, as Richard wrote in both. *Though the attribution of the poem to Richard seems to be certain, I couldn’t find any comprehensive sources giving any clear evidence that he also wrote the melody; it may be a case of a melody written by someone else at a later point based on the text, although the other alternative is just as possible. He wrote the song after being imprisoned in 1192 by Leopold of Austria, who accused him of arranging the murder of his cousin Conrad of Montferrat. Richard was kept prisoner at Dürnstein Castle, and there, he wrote this, addressed to his half-sister Marie, to express the feeling that his people had abandoned him. Richard was finally released two years later. The arrangement is meant to be historically accurate, and consists of a simple heterophonic arrangement which involves slight counterpoint by the en