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Pastourelle jolie: The Chanson at the Court of Lorraine, c. 1500

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Richard Freedman
Richard Freedman*
Affiliation:
Haverford College, Pennsylvania
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Extract

The focus of this study is an anonymous four-voice chanson of the early sixteenth century. On its own the piece is enigmatic at best, a densely contrapuntal arrangement of a simple monophonic song. The importance of Pastourelle jolie, however, transcends the apparent simplicity of these musical materials. Its ‘meanings’, according to this argument, are multiple, dwelling at once in the lyric traditions on which it draws, in its place in the history of French secular music around the year 1500, and in its important links with popular and aristocratic cultures of the day. This essay, therefore, reads and rereads this song in a series of related contexts. It dwells, for instance, upon the conventions of French pastoral poetry and the habits of composers who reworked the popular tunes with which songs like Pastourelle jolie are associated. But the piece has a highly specific meaning, too, one suggested by the only source to preserve this particular chanson and by the literary tastes of the ducal household that was its special audience.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Royal Musical Association , Volume 116 , Issue 2 , 1991 , pp. 161 - 200
Copyright
Copyright © 1991 Royal Musical Association

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References

A shorter version of this study was presented at the Sixteenth Annual Conference on Medieval and Renaissance Music, University of Edinburgh, 12-15 August 1988. Special thanks to Lawrence Bernstem for many keen suggestions on ways to improve this piece. My colleague Jacques-Jude Lupine kindly helped with translations of the poetic texts.Google Scholar

1 Jones, William Powell, The Pastourelle A Study of the Origins and Tradition of a Lyric Type (Cambridge, Mass., 1931), 6–7 Further on the history of the pastourelle and its allied genres in the sixteenth-century chanson, see Jeffery, Brian, ‘Thématique de la chanson entre 1480 et 1525’, La chanson à la renaissance Actes du XXe colloque d'études humanistes du Centre d'études supérieures de la renaissance de l'université de Tours, juillet 1977, ed Jean-Michel Vaccaro (Tours, 1981), 51–60, and Peter W Christoffersen, ’ “Or sus vous dormez trop” The Singing of the Lark in French Chansons of the Early Sixteenth Century’, Festskrift Henrik Glahn, ed Mette Muller (Copenhagen, 1979), 35–67 The broad history of the musical pastoral is considered in Hermann Jung, Die Pastorale Studien zur Geschichte eines musikalischen Topos, Neue Heidelberger Studien zur Musikwissenschaft, 9 (Munich, 1980) For recent studies of the pastoral in Renaissance literature, see Blanchard, Joel, La pastorale en France aux XIVe et XVe siècles Recherches sur les structures de l'imaginaire médiéval, Bibliothèque du XVe siècle, 45 (Paris, 1983), and Le genre pastoral en Europe du XVe au XVIIe siècle Actes du colloque international tenu à Saint-Étienne du 28 septembre au 1er octobre 1978, Centre d‘études de la renaissance et de l‘âge classique (Saint-Étienne, 1980)Google Scholar

2 I have avoided the terms ‘model’ and ‘borrowing’ in this discussion with special purpose, for they may connote a rather direct causal connection between the thing borrowed and the resulting work The case of Pastourelle jolie should alert us, however, to the liquidity of what may have been a largely oral tradition in the case of the monophonic melodies. Some scribe took the trouble to record the poem and tune of Pastourelle jolie in Paris 12744 Musicians of the early sixteenth century may well have noticed its similarity to the melody arranged for four voices in Paris 1597. But this does not mean that the composer of that polyphonic setting must have started with the simple tune just as it was preserved in Paris 12744 The ‘model’, in short, may not have been the model at allGoogle Scholar

3 The manuscript was probably compiled during the first decade of the sixteenth century, although precisely where and for whom is in some doubt The book gives no attribution for any of the over five dozen works it contains, and of those pieces that can be reliably credited to some composer on the basis of other anthologies, none is by any musician known to have worked for the ducal court Either the manuscript itself or the sources from which it was compiled, therefore, could have been imported to the court at Nancy, perhaps from France, with which the ducal household was closely allied during the period The heraldic bookplate does little to resolve the question of ownership, since it was used by both René II (d 1508) and his heir, Antoine (ruled 1508–44) The emblem, moreover, appears at the end of the decorated vellum codex on a rogue leaf that does not belong to any of the ten more or less regular gatherings of the book The coat of arms thus serves to connect the manuscript – but not necessarily its origins – with the court of Lorraine Further on the dating and heraldic questions, see Shipp, Clifford Marion, ‘A Chansonnier of the Dukes of Lorraine The Paris Manuscript Fonds Français 1597’ (Ph D dissertation, North Texas State College, 1960), 7–9, and Jonathan Paul Couchman, ‘The Lorraine Chansonnier Antoine of Lorraine and the Court of Louis XII’, Musica disciplina, 34 (1980), 85–157 A detailed description of the manuscript, its contents, and a bibliography of writings concerning it appears in Census-Catalogue of Manuscript Sources of Polyphonic Music, 1400–1550, ed Charles Hamm and Herbert Kellman, 5 vols., Renaissance Manuscript Studies, 1 (Neuhausen-Stuttgart, 1979–88), iii, 21–2Google Scholar

4 The Lorraine chansonnier was nevertheless planned and copied with great thought The two principal scribes (ff 1–63 and 63v–77) of the book were meticulous in their copying of the poetic texts in relation to the music They carefully arranged the music of the volume in repertoriai groups whose divisions coincide with those of the physical design of the book itself the first quire of leaves is dedicated exclusively to motets, all but one for three voices (The very first piece in the codex, the chanson Dueil et ennuy, was an afterthought, copied onto the verso of a flyleaf and the first recto of the book) The second to sixth gatherings are given over to secular music for three voices – chansons as well as two works to Italian texts The last four gatherings of the codex (ff 48–77) contain exclusively chansons for four voices – except for the motet at the end of the section copied by the first scribe and the pair of three-voice chansons at the very end of the gatherings copied by the second scribe (nos 65–6) Further on the scribes of Paris 1597, the music they copied and the philological traditions on which they probably relied, see Bernstein, Lawrence F, ‘Notes on the Origins of the Parisian Chanson’, Journal of Musicology, 1 (1981), 275–326, Louise Litterick, ‘Performing Franco-Netherlandish Secular Music of the Late 15th Century Texted and Untexted Parts in the Sources’, Early Music, 8 (1980), 474–85, and Richard Freedman, ‘Music, Musicians, and the House of Lorraine During the First Half of the Sixteenth Century’ (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1987), 278–97Google Scholar

a The first composition in the codex and the last piece in each of the first nine gatherings technically belong to two adjacent quires of leaves The folios on which they appear are indicated in square brackets The numbering in this list follows the inventory published in Jonathan Paul Couchman, “The Lorraine Chansonnier Antoine of Lorraine and the Court of Louis XII”, Musica disciplma, 34 (1980), 85-157 (pp 133-57) The spellings are those of the manuscript, but punctuation, mainly apostrophes, has been added sparinglyGoogle Scholar

5 Brown's terminological distinction took its cue from a poetic anthology issued at Paris nearly half a century after the Lorraine chansonnier is likely to have been compiled, Jehan Bonfons's Chansons nouvellement composées sur plusiers chants tant de musique que de rustique of 1548. See Brown, Howard Mayer, Music in the French Secular Theater (Cambridge, Mass., 1963), 108 In a recent essay, Leeman Perkins suggested that Bonfons's distinction between musicale and rustique referred chiefly to musical rather than poetic characteristics, ‘the difference between a polyphonic setting on one hand, designated unfailingly by Attaingnant as a chanson musicale, and a monophonic one, on the other, which Bonfons calls rustique’ Leeman Perkins, ‘Towards a Typology of the “Renaissance” Chanson’, Journal of Musicology, 6 (1988), 421–47 (p 431) The polyphonic arrangements found in the Lorraine chansonnier, in short, may not strictly speaking be chansons rustiques in the sixteenth-century sense of the term This is precisely the point of my argument courtly audiences and composers read and reread chansons according to their own needsGoogle Scholar

6 Further on the regretz settings and their distribution in sources of the years around 1500, see Picker, Martin, The Chanson Albums of Marguerite of Austria MSS 228 and 11239 of the Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique, Brussels (Berkeley, 1965), 58ff. Don Randel has recently demonstrated the considerable musical and poetic richness to which fifteenth-century chansons often aspired. See his ‘Dufay the Reader’, Music and Language, Studies in the History of Music, 1 (New York, 1983), 38–78Google Scholar

7 The monophonic chansonniers have been issued in modern transcriptions Chansons du X Ve siècle publiées d'après le manuscrit de la Bibliothèque Nationale de Parts, ed Gaston Paris and Auguste Gevaert (Paris, 1875, repr New York, 1965), and Le manuscrit de Bayeux Texte et musique d'une recueil de chansons du X Ve siècle, ed. Théodore Gérold (Strasbourg, 1913, repr Geneva, 1976) Further on the textual topoi of the chansons rustiques, see Brown, Music in the French Secular Theater, 110, Rudolf Dähne, Die Lieder der Maumariée seit dem Mittelalter, Romanistische Arbeiten, 20 (Halle, 1933), Helen Hewitt, ‘Malmaridade and Meshouwet’, Tijdschrift voor Muziekwetenschap, 17 (1950), 181–91, and Émile Picot, Chants historiques français du seizième siècle (Paris, 1903)Google Scholar

8 The chanson also appears in Petrucci 1504' and St Gall 462 A complete modern edition of the four-voice chanson may be found in Theatrical Chansons of the Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries, ed Howard Mayer Brown (Cambridge, Mass., 1963), 142–6 A list of rival settings, including ones by Pierre Certon and Jean Richafort, appears in Brown, Music in the French Secular Theater, 247–8 The melody in question also served another chanson rustique, Jamés je n'aure (Paris 12744, no 51) The monophonic version of the song contains additional stanzas for the couple and tierce For a modern edition of these extra stanzas, see Jeffery, Brian, Chanson Verse of the Early Renaissance, 2 vols (London, 1971–6). i, 48 The same author has elsewhere called attention to the song for its inclusion of pastoral images and stock locutions, see his ‘Thématique de la chanson entre 1480 et 1525’, 56Google Scholar

9 The monophonic source also contains four more eight-line stanzas that elaborate the scenario in similar language See Chansons du X Ve siècle, ed Paris and Gevaert, 109–10 A complete modern edition of the four-voice setting of Mon man m'a diffamée appears in Freedman, ‘Music, Musicians, and the House of Lorraine’, 352–7Google Scholar

10 Further on Braconnier's career and his connection with France, Lorraine and the Netherlands, see Freedman, ‘Music, Musicians, and the House of Lorraine’, 42–3 and 77–83 Amours me troct has been credited to Braconnier on the basis of its ascription to ‘Lourdoys’, an appellation by which the singer was known at the royal court of France A modern edition of the song appears in Ottaviano Petrucci Canti B numero cinquanta, Venice, 1502, ed Helen Hewitt, Monuments of Renaissance Music, 2 (Chicago, 1967), 108–10 Additional information on the texts and sources of this piece can be found on pp 28–32 and 66–8 of this publication The tune upon which Amours me troct is based was also used for another popular song of the years around 1500, Ne l'oserayje dire (Paris 9346, no 17) Bernstein has included Loyset Compere's Lourdault, Lourdault among the list of pieces belonging to this homorhythmic variety For a broader discussion of the four-part pieces in the Lorraine chansonnier, see his ‘Notes on the Origin of the Parisian Chanson’, 282ff According to this study, other early examples of the homorhythmic type of piece are to be found in Petrucci's Odhecaton See, for instance, Jean Mouton's Jamais, jamais, jamais, available in modern edition in Harmonice musices odhecaton A, ed. Helen Hewitt (Cambridge, Mass., 1946), 296–8Google Scholar

11 These conclusions rely heavily on the bibliographical information contained in the appendix to Brown's Music in the French Secular Theater, which offers a catalogue of texts and tunes as they appear in the theatrical repertory and in musical settings The tool is indispensable, although a basic problem of the type of comparison I attempt here is deciding what does and what does not constitute a relationship between two works There seems no doubt, for instance, that works sharing a common melody or text draw on a common tradition of songs But other pieces resemble one another only indirectly quodlibets allude to a number of songs without being much like any of them, while still other texts draw on some common topos or formula far too widely disseminated to suggest direct connection I have chosen to exclude the latter two sorts of relationship from my conception of ‘model’ and ‘arrangement’ I have likewise excluded from this survey four-part works that use a popular melody in canon or as a slow-moving cantus firmus, since these represent traditions of polyphonic arrangement with histories rather separate from the sort of reworking in question here, one that shares borrowed melodic material in all parts, making ample use of short points of imitation, shared motivic material and shifts in texture and mensuration Further on the four-part arrangement and its place in the history of the French chanson, see Bernstein, ‘Notes on the Origins of the Parisian Chanson’, 284–301, and ‘A Florentine Chansonnier of the Early Sixteenth Century Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, MS Magliabechi XIX 117’, Early Music History, 6 (1987), 1–107 (PP 67ff)Google Scholar

12 Concerning this anthology and its contents, see Chaillon, Paule, ‘Le chansonnier de Françoise (Ms Harley 5242, Br Mus)’, Revue de musicologie, 35 (1953), 1–31Google Scholar

13 Concerning the manuscripts now in Florence, see Brown, Howard Mayer, ‘Chansons for the Pleasure of a Florentine Patrician Florence, Biblioteca del Conservatorio di Musica, MS Basevi 2442’, Aspects of Medieval and Renaissance Music A Birthday Offering to Gustave Reese, ed Jan LaRue et al (New York, 1966, repr New York, 1978), 56–66, Brown, ‘The Music of the Strozzi Chansonnier (Florence, Biblioteca del Conservatorio di Musica, MS Basevi 2442)’, Acta musicologica, 40 (1968), 115–29, and Bernstein, ‘A Florentine Chansonnier of the Early Sixteenth Century’Google Scholar

14 A complete modern edition of the anonymous three-part piece appears in Freedman, ‘Music, Musicians, and the House of Lorraine’, 332–4 For a translation of the text, a modern edition of the first half of the monophonic tune and a discussion of Josquin's treatment of the same melody in his own three-voice arrangement, see La couronne et fleur des chansons a troys, ed Lawrence F Bernstein, 2 vols., Masters and Monuments of the Renaissance, 3 (New York, 1984), ii, 135–6 For a modern edition of Josquin's setting, see ibid., i, 51–3Google Scholar

15 Modern editions of Josquin's piece appear in The Collected Works of Josquin des Prez, ed Jaap van Benthem and Howard Mayer Brown (Utrecht, 1987), xxvii, 3–5, and in La couronne et fleur, ed Bernstein, 1, 143–7 For a translation of the text of the chanson, see La couronne et fleur, ii, 140Google Scholar

16 A complete modern edition of Josquin's piece appears in The Collected Works of Josquin des Prez, ed van Benthem and Brown, xxvii, 54–7, and in La couronne et fleur, ed Bernstein, i, 90–5 For a translation of the text and an analysis of the monophonic model (Paris 12744, no. 103), see La couronne et fleur, ii, 140–1Google Scholar

17 La couronne et fleur, ed Bernstein, ii, 139. Josquin himself wrote a four-part arrangement of this same tune, a modern edition of which appears in Em altes Spielbuch aus der Zeit um 1500 (Liber Fridolini Sichery) der Stiftsbibliothek zu St Gallen, ed Franz Julius Giesbert, 2 vols. (Mainz, 1967), i, 32–3Google Scholar

18 The question of Josquin's relationship to the court of Lorraine has been the subject of considerable interest and speculation André Pirro suggested that the ‘Josquin chantre’ mentioned in a Nancy chapel register for 1493 might be tentatively identified with Josquin des Prez (in Pirro's words ‘On serait tenté d'identifier ce personnage avec Josquin des Prés, mais il semble que celui-ci servit le pape sans interruption pendant cette année-là’) See Pirro's ‘Notes sur Jean Braconnier, dit Lourdault’, La revue musicale, 9 (1928), 250–2 (p 251) Herbert Kellman later discovered that the ‘Josquin chantre’ who served in the ducal choir of René II in the early 1490s was the singer Josquin Stellain, surely the same Josse van Seelant who served the Hapsburg court during the early sixteenth century, not the celebrated composer (I am grateful to Professor Kellman for sharing his findings with me) Further on Seelant/Stellain, see Edmond Van der Straeten, La musique aux Pays-Bas avant le XIXe siècle, 8 vols in 4 (Brussels, 1867–88, repr New York, 1969), vu, 152–70 and 274, and Freedman, ‘Music, Musicians, and the House of Lorraine’, 21–75 Pirro's speculation, however, prompted Helmuth Osthoff to surmise that the inclusion of some of Josquin's chansons rustiques in Paris 1597 was evidence that such works might have been composed specifically to suit the tastes of René II, among others See Osthoff, Helmuth, Josquin Desprez, 2 vols (Tutzing, 1962–5), i, 31, ii, 165–6 and 195 More recently, and perhaps ironically, new evidence has established a link between Josquin des Prez and the dukes of Lorraine According to some recently uncovered archival documents he did once serve René d'Anjou, grandfather of René II In 1478 Josquin was with the elder René in Provence, and later that year the royal patron enquired about the availability of a benefice for the composer at the collegiate church of St-Maxe-de-Bar in the capital of one of the twin duchies soon to be controlled by the younger René The request was recently brought to light by Françoise Robin, ‘Josquin des Prés au service de René d'Anjou?’, Revue de musicologie, 71 (1985), 180–1 Other newly discovered evidence of Josquin's service in Provence appears in Yves Esquieu and Noël Coulet, ‘La musique à la cour provençale du Roi René’, Provence historique, 31 (1981), 299–312 (p 301)Google Scholar

19 Couchman, ‘The Lorraine Chansonnier’, 110–11Google Scholar

20 The original text of the record reads ‘A messire Jehan Braconnier chantre de la chappelle du Roy La somme de deux cens frans monnoye de Lorraine qu'il a pleu à mondict seigneur luy donner pour aider à la despence qu'il a faicte et soustenue en venant de Blois en Lorraine et retournant audict Blois Appertenant par mandement de mondict seigneur Donne à Condey sur Muzelle le penultime jour de juillet mil cinq cens et dix Cy rendue pour ce. iie frans’ Further on Braconnier's career at Nancy and the musical circumstances of the ducal court during the first years of the sixteenth century, see Freedman, ‘Music, Musicians, and the House of Lorraine’, 42–3 and 77–83Google Scholar

21 Gringore's association with the court of Lorraine is discussed in Henri Lepage, ‘Études sur le théâtre en Lorraine et sur Pierre Gringore’, Mémoires de la Société des sciences, lettres et arts de Nancy, 15(1848), 187–346 A modern reprint of the farce in question appears in Recueil général des sotties, ed Émile Picot, 3 vols., Société des anciens textes français, 1902, 3 (Paris, 1904), ii, 199–244 Further on Gringore and the Parisian Basosche responsible for similar theatrical works, see Picot, ‘La sottie en France’, Romania, 7 (1878), 275–7Google Scholar

22 A modern edition of the poem appears in Eduard Chmerlarz, ‘Le songe du pastourel von Jean du Prier’ Jahrbuch der kunsthistonschen Sammlungen des allerhochsten Kaiserhauses, 13 (1892), 226–66 Further on the text, codex and illustrations of the lone surviving copy of this work (Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek. Codex 2556). see Franzosische Schule Die illuminierten Handschriften und Inkunabeln der Oesterreichischen Nationalbibliothek ed Otto von Pächt and Dagmar Thoss 2 vols., Denkschrift der Oesterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophischhistorische Klasse, 128 (Vienna, 1977), i. 102–10, Figs 65–70, and ii, Figs 242–61Google Scholar

23 Beauvau's account survives in a unique source, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français, MS 1974 The text appears in Oeuvres complètes du roi René, avec une biographie et des notices, ed Comte Théodore de Quatrebarbes, 2 vols (Angers, 1843–5), ii, 45–96, and in a rare modern print, Le pas d'armes de la bergère, maintenu au tournoi de Tarascon (Paris, 1828)Google Scholar

24 The poem, once ascribed to the king himself, seems rather to have been the work of a member of his court See Chichmaref, Victor, ‘Notes sur quelques oeuvres attribuées au Roi René’, Romania, 55 (1929), 226–41 The text of Regnault et Jeanneton appears in modern edition in Oeuvres complètes du roi René, ed de Quatrebarbes, ii, 97–151 Further on the poem and its exploration of pastoral themes, see Blanchard, La pastorale en France, 118–41 There survives ample evidence that the tenor of artistic life in Lorraine during the rule of René II might have drawn its inspiration and perhaps its character from the liberal patronage of his famous namesake During the period of Josquin's service in Provence (see note 18 above), for instance, instrumentalists were repeatedly sent by René II from Lorraine to the south, apparently as musical emissaries In 1479 the young duke himself was welcomed at the court by a group of minstrels who received new clothing for the occasion A visit by René II to Provence is reported in G Arnaud d'Agnel, Les comptes du roi René d'après les originaux inédits conservés aux archives des Bouches-du-Rhône, 3 vols (Paris, 1908–10), no 3492, and Françoise Piponnier, Costume et vie sociale La cour d'Anjou XIVe–XVe siècles, Civilisations et sociétés, 21 (Paris and The Hague, 1970), 221 References to players of a musette and tabourin from Lorraine are found as nos 3453 and 3491 of Arnaud d'Agnel's study. Not long after the death of his Maecenas René d'Anjou in 1480, the Provençal illuminator Georges Trubert took up residence at the ducal court of Lorraine where he remained even into the early sixteenth century On the artist's association with Lorraine, see Reynaud, Nicole, ‘Georges Trubert, enlumineur de Roi René et de René II de Lorraine’, Revue de l'art, 35 (1977), 40–63 A similar move was made during the late fifteenth century by one of the members of the elder René's literary circle, Jean le Prieur, author of the Songe du pastourel cited aboveGoogle Scholar

25 Cited in Oeuvres complètes du roi René, ed de Quatrebarbes, ii, 116–20Google Scholar