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The Horse, the Clerk and the Lyric: The Musicography of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Mark Everist
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Type
Review Articles
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Journal of the Royal Musical Association , Volume 130 , Issue 1 , 2005 , pp. 136 - 153
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Copyright © 2005 Royal Musical Association

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References

1 Peraino, Judith A., ‘Re-Placing Medieval Music’, Journal of the American Musicological Society, 54 (2001), 209–64 (p. 264). Almost identical words are used, but without the exact formulation ‘new musicology’, ibid., 209. Peraino's principal sources are either extremely local (‘Report on the State of the Humanities at Cornell University’, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Office of the Dean of Arts and Sciences, 1998; cited at p. 211, n. 3) or so unreliable as to be almost meaningless (the ‘graduate student interest in medieval topics’ culled from an investigation of DDM Online makes no sense as there is no comparison with previous periods or with other parts of the discipline; cited at p. 212, n. 6).Google Scholar

2 Jacques Boogaart, ‘Speculum mortis: Form and Signification in Machaut's Motet Hé! Mors / Fine Amour / Quare non sum mortuus (M3)’ (pp. 13–30); Alice V. Clark, ‘Observations on Machaut's Motet He! Mors, com tu es haie / Fine Amour, qui me vint navrer / Quare non sum mortuus (M3)’ (pp. 31–5); Thomas Brown, ‘Flos / Celsa and Machaut's Motets: Emulation – and Error?’ (pp. 37–52). See also Karl Kügle, The Manuscript Ivrea, Biblioteca Capitolare 115: Studies in the Transmission of Ars Nova Polyphony, Musicological Studies, 69 (Ottawa, 1997).Google Scholar

3 Guillaume de Machaut, Motets, The Hilliard Ensemble (ECM 1823, 2004). The recording consists of all the motets with the exception of nos. 1, 6, 12, 15 and 17; so, while presenting the more heterogeneous tail of the collection in its entirety, it does not offer the complete sequence of works proposed in Robertson's Guillaume de Machaut and Reims (see below).Google Scholar

4 Lawrence Earp, Guillaume de Machaut: A Guide to Research, Garland Composer Resource Manuals, 36; Garland Research Library of the Humanities, 996 (New York and London, 1995), 25–6, 276 and 382.Google Scholar

5 The bibliography on this subject is by now extensive. For two representative studies see Huot, Sylvia, Allegorical Play in the Old French Motet: The Sacred and the Profane in Thirteenth-Century Polyphony, Figurae: Reading Medieval Culture (Stanford, CA, 1997), and Kevin Brownlee, ‘La polyphonie textuelle dans le Motet 7 de Machaut: Narcisse, la Rose, et la voix féminine’, Guillaume de Machaut, 1300–2000: Actes du colloque de la Sorbonne, 28–29 septembre 2000, ed. Jacqueline Cerquiglini-Toulet and Nigel Wilkins, Musiques / Écritures: Études (Paris, 2001), 137–46.Google Scholar

6 Sylvia Huot, ‘Patience in Adversity: The Courtly Lover and Job in Machaut's Motets 2 and 3‘, Medium aevum, 63 (1994), 222–38.Google Scholar

7 See, for the evidence for dating F–Pn fr. 1586, François Avril, ‘Les manuscrits enluminés de Guillaume de Machaut: Essai de chronologie’, Guillaume de Machaut: Colloque–Table ronde, Reims (19–22 Avril 1978) (Paris, 1982), 117–33.Google Scholar

8 Montpellier, Bibliothèque de l'Université, Faculté de Médecine (hereafter F–MOf) H 196; Turin, Biblioteca Reale, vari 42. For the dating of the former see Everist, Mark, Polyphonic Music in Thirteenth-Century France: Aspects of Sources and Distribution (New York and London, 1989), 118–34. Even the view of the manuscript that attempts to argue that all its parts were assembled simultaneously agrees with an early fourteenth-century date for its eighth fascicle (Mary Wolinksi, ‘The Compilation of the Montpellier Codex’, Early Music History, 11 (1992), 263–301).Google Scholar

9 John Haines, ‘The Musicography of the Manuscrit du Roi’ (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Toronto, 1998). The claim (Peraino, ‘Re-Placing Medieval Music’, 233, n. 70) that Haines's view represents one of ‘two very different hypotheses’ for the origin of the manuscript is false. The suggestions that the manuscript was commissioned by Guillaume de Villehardouin and that it was produced in Artois are not mutually exclusive (Haines, pp. 81–7; Everist, Polyphonic Music, 171–88). I am grateful to Prof. Haines for his comments on these observations and on Peraino's use of them (personal communication to the author, 8 July 2002).Google Scholar

10 The confusion is exacerbated by the fact that Todd's dating of the work goes back to 1883.Google Scholar

11 Jacques Chailley, Les chansons à la Vierge de Gautier de Coinci (1177[78]–1236): Édition musicale critique avec introduction et commentaires, Publications de la Société Française de Musicologie, 1/15 (Paris, 1959).Google Scholar

12 Their texts are inventoried and edited in Nico H. J. van den Boogaard, Rondeaux et refrains du xiie siècle au début du xive: Collationnement, introduction, et notes, Bibliothèque française et romane, D:3 (Paris, 1969). For a musical edition, see below, note 25.Google Scholar

13 Jacques Boogaart, ‘Encompassing Past and Present: Quotations and their Functions in Machaut's Motets’, Early Music History, 20 (2001), 1–86 (p. 19, n. 48).Google Scholar

14 Hirschberg, ‘A Portrayal of a Lady who Guards her Honour (B25)’ (pp. 139–60); Bain, ‘Balades 32 and 33 and the “Res dalemangne”’ (pp. 205–19); Flynn, ‘The Intabulation of De toutes flours (B31) in the Codex Faenza as Analytical Model’ (pp. 175–91); Lefferts, ‘Machaut's B-flat Balade Honte, paour (B25)‘ (pp. 161–74).Google Scholar

15 Leech-Wilkinson, ‘Rose, lis Revisited’ (pp. 249–62); Plumley, ‘The Marriage of Words and Music: Musique naturele and Musique artificiele in Machaut's Sans cuer, dolens (R4)’ (pp. 231–48); Kügle, ‘Some Observations Regarding Musico-Textual Interrelationships in Late Rondeaux by Machaut’ (pp. 263–76).Google Scholar

16 Leach, ‘Singing More about Singing Less: Machaut's Pour ce que tous (B12)‘ (pp. 111–24).Google Scholar

17 Mahrt, ‘Male and Female Voice in Two Virelais of Guillaume de Machaut’ (pp. 221–30); Stone, ‘Music Writing and Poetic Voice in Machaut: Some Remarks on B12 and R14‘ (pp. 125–38).Google Scholar

18 Berger, ‘Machaut's Balade Ploures dames (B32) in the Light of Real Modality’ (pp. 193–204).Google Scholar

19 This is particularly pressing in the case of Example 11, a possible reconstruction of laisse 9 from Aucassin et Nicolette borrowed from John Stevens, Words and Music in the Middle Ages: Song, Narrative, Dance and Drama, 1050–1350, Cambridge Studies in Music (Cambridge, 1986), 226. It is presented in Poetry and Music (p. 193) with no commentary beyond the caption that alludes to its nature as a possible reconstruction (the bibliographical citation is found only in the ‘List of Musical Examples’, p. xiii), and Stevens's very careful explanation is suppressed. This matters because Stevens describes three possible interpretations of the relationship between word and note in Aucassin et Nicolette (Poetry and Music, 225–7), and proposes his example – which Butterfield reproduces – not as a reconstruction but as ‘one [of at least three] possible arrangements of melodies’ (ibid., 226).Google Scholar

20 For full details of the bibliography of this song, including other modern editions, see Linker, Robert White, A Bibliography of Old French Lyrics, Romance Monographs, 31 (University, Mississippi, 1979), 226. Gennrich's Altfranzösische Lieder, 2 vols. (Halle, 1953; Tübingen, 1955), ii, 40, from which Butterfield takes her example, represents ‘the final form’ of his ‘highly sophisticated system of rhythmic “progressions” to reflect the inner metre of the poem from line to line … which involved three levels of rhythm – “Distinktion – (D-Rhythmik)”, “Einheiten – (E-Rhythmik)” and “Tongruppen (G-Rhythmik)”’ (Ian D. Bent, ‘Gennrich, Friedrich’, Grove Music Online, ed. Laura Macy, <www.grovemusic.com>, accessed 6 October 2004). The effect of this edition is to foreground Gennrich's life work in the development of theories of rhythm for medieval monody rather than to offer a usable edition for posterity., accessed 6 October 2004). The effect of this edition is to foreground Gennrich's life work in the development of theories of rhythm for medieval monody rather than to offer a usable edition for posterity.' href=https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=For+full+details+of+the+bibliography+of+this+song,+including+other+modern+editions,+see+Linker,+Robert+White,+A+Bibliography+of+Old+French+Lyrics,+Romance+Monographs,+31+(University,+Mississippi,+1979),+226.+Gennrich's+Altfranzösische+Lieder,+2+vols.+(Halle,+1953;+Tübingen,+1955),+ii,+40,+from+which+Butterfield+takes+her+example,+represents+‘the+final+form’+of+his+‘highly+sophisticated+system+of+rhythmic+“progressions”+to+reflect+the+inner+metre+of+the+poem+from+line+to+line+…+which+involved+three+levels+of+rhythm+–+“Distinktion+–+(D-Rhythmik)”,+“Einheiten+–+(E-Rhythmik)”+and+“Tongruppen+(G-Rhythmik)”’+(Ian+D.+Bent,+‘Gennrich,+Friedrich’,+Grove+Music+Online,+ed.+Laura+Macy,+,+accessed+6+October+2004).+The+effect+of+this+edition+is+to+foreground+Gennrich's+life+work+in+the+development+of+theories+of+rhythm+for+medieval+monody+rather+than+to+offer+a+usable+edition+for+posterity.>Google Scholar

21 Fowler, Maria V., ‘Musical Interpolations in Thirteenth- and Fourteenth-Century French Narratives’, 2 vols. (Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University, 1979), ii, 344.Google Scholar

22 See the themed issue of Speculum, 65 (1990), entitled The New Philology, for an excellent view of the spectrum of literary subdisciplines encompassed by the term.Google Scholar

23 Lawrence Earp, ‘Lyrics for Reading and Lyrics for Singing in Late Medieval France: The Development of the Dance Lyric from Adam de la Halle to Guillaume de Machaut’, The Union of Words and Music in Medieval Poetry, ed. Rebecca A. Baltzer, Thomas Cable and James I. Wimsatt (Austin, TX, 1991), 101–31.Google Scholar

24 Sarah Jane Williams, ‘The Music of Machaut’ (Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University, 1952); Lawrence Gushee, ‘Two Central Places: Paris and the French Court in the Early Fourteenth Century’, Gesellschaft für Musikforschung: Bericht über den Internationalen Musikwissenschaftlichen Kongress Berlin 1974, ed. Hellmut Kühn and Peter Nitsche (Kassel, etc., 1980), 135–57; Christopher Page, Voices and Instruments of the Middle Ages: Instrumental Practice and Songs in France 1100–1300 (London and Melbourne, 1987), 126–33.Google Scholar

25 Anne Ibos-Augé, ‘La fonction des insertions lyriques dans des œuvres narratives et didactiques aux xiiième et xivème siècles’, 4 vols. (Ph.D. dissertation, Université Michel de Montaigne-Bordeaux III, 2000).Google Scholar

26 The cryptic comment (Poetry and Music, p. 335, n. 2) to the effect that ‘comparative research is needed on the relation between the song forms in these manuscripts and the Montpellier Codex’ is difficult to understand. With the exception of the very few opening texts, the majority of the ‘song forms’ are analogous to those in the de la Halle canon, and it is not hard to agree that a systematic comparison would be useful (for a beginning, see Everist, Mark, ‘The Polyphonic Rondeau c.1300: Repertory and Context’, Early Music History, 15 (1996), 59–96), but it is not clear to which song forms in the Montpellier Codex she alludes. If she is talking about the French tenors in the seventh and eighth fascicles of the manuscript, then that comparison has already been undertaken (Thomas Walker, ‘Sui tenor francesi nei motetti del ‘200’, Schede medievali: Rassegna dell’ officina di studi medievali, 3 (1982), 309–36 (not cited in the bibliography)).Google Scholar

27 The two songs are edited in Rondeaux, Virelais und Balladen aus dem Ende des XII., dem XIII., und dem ersten Drittel des XIV. Jahrhunderts mit den überlieferten Melodien, ed. Friedrich Gennrich, 3 vols., Gesellschaft für romanische Literatur, 43 (Dresden, 1921), 1, 262–4 (the editions, given that the notation is fully mensural, are antiquated but trustworthy). Both songs are found on f. 68 of the manuscript, and neither has anything to do with the previous six compositions; see Reaney, Gilbert, Manuscripts of Polyphonic Music (c. 1320–1400), Répertoire international des sources musicales, BIV/2 (Munich and Duisburg, 1969), 197–9.Google Scholar

28 Alison Stones, ‘The Illustrated Chrétien Manuscripts and their Artistic Context’, Les manuscrits de Chrétien de Troyes / The Manuscripts of Chrétien de Troyes, ed. Keith Busby, Terry Nixon, Alison Stones and Lori Walters, 2 vols. (Amsterdam, 1993), 1, 227–322 (pp. 256–7).Google Scholar

29 Ruffo, Kathleen W., ‘The Illustration of Noted Compendia of Courtly Poetry in Late Thirteenth-Century Northern France’ (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Toronto, 2000), 61–4 and 125–82. I am grateful to Alison Stones for her thoughts on this complex of manuscripts, and for granting me access before publication to the entries on the manuscripts in her forthcoming monograph on French manuscripts, 1250–1320 (personal communication to the author, 12 October 2003).Google Scholar

30 F–Pn fr. 846, ff. 21r–v. See the facsimile in Reproduction phototypique du chansonnier Cangé: Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, ms. français no 846, ed. Jean Beck, 2 vols., Corpus cantilenarum medii aevi, 1 / Les chansonniers des troubadours et des trouvères, 1 (Paris and Philadelphia, 1927), and the – again old but serviceable – edition ibid., ii, 49.Google Scholar

31 See Boogaart, ‘Encompassing Past and Present’, passim, and the sources cited there.Google Scholar

32 Ursula Günther, ‘Zitate in französischen Liedsätzen der Ars nova und Ars subtilior’, Musica disciplina, 26 (1972), 53–68 (pp. 54–5). For a critique of this argument, see Everist, Mark, ‘The Origins of Polyphonic Song, I: Citation, Motet, Rondeau’, paper read at the colloque ‘La musique à Avignon au XIVe siècle’, Abbaye de Royaumont, 8–12 July 1988.Google Scholar

33 Anne Walters Robertson, ‘The Mass of Guillaume de Machaut in the Cathedral of Reims’, Plainsong in the Age of Polyphony, ed. Thomas Forrest Kelly (Cambridge, 1992), 100–39; Daniel Leech-Wilkinson, Machaut's Mass: An Introduction (Oxford, 1990).Google Scholar

34 Gilbert Reaney, ‘Fourteenth-Century Harmony and the Ballades, Rondeaux and Virelais of Guillaume de Machaut’, Musica disciplina, 7 (1953), 129–46.Google Scholar

35 Daniel Leech-Wilkinson, ‘Machaut's Rose, lis and the Problem of Early Music Analysis’, Music Analysis, 3 (1984), 9–28 (p. 9, n. 2).Google Scholar

36 Robert Surles, ‘Introduction’, Medieval Numerology: A Book of Essays, ed. Robert Surles, Garland Medieval Casebooks, 7 / Garland Reference Library of the Humanities, 1640 (New York, 1993), 1–xii (p. viii).Google Scholar

37 Kevin Moll, ‘Texture and Counterpoint in the Four-Voice Mass Settings of Machaut and his Contemporaries’, pp. 53–73 (p. 73).Google Scholar

38 An obvious point of comparison would be John Haines, Eight Centuries of Troubadours and Trouvères: The Changing Identity of Medieval Song (Cambridge, 2004).Google Scholar