UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI

Date:___________________
I, _________________________________________________________,
hereby submit this work as part of the requirements for the degree of:

in:

It is entitled:

This work and its defense approved by:

Chair: _______________________________
_______________________________
_______________________________
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Musical Rhetoric in the Multi-Voice Chansons of Josquin des Prez and His
Contemporaries (c. 1500-c. 1520)

A dissertation submitted to the

Graduate School
of the University of Cincinnati
In partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
In the Division of Composition, Musicology and Theory
of the College-Conservatory of Music

By

VASSILIKI KOUTSOBINA
B.S., Chemistry
University of Athens, Greece, April 1989
M.M., Music History and Literature
The Hartt School, University of Hartford, Connecticut, May 1994

Committee Chair: Dr. Stephanie P. Schlagel

2008

ABSTRACT
The first quarter of the sixteenth century witnessed tightening connections between
rhetoric, poetry, and music. In theoretical writings, composers of this period are evaluated
according to their ability to reflect successfully the emotions and meaning of the text set in
musical terms. The same period also witnessed the rise of the five- and six-voice chanson, whose
most important exponents are Josquin des Prez, Pierre de La Rue, and Jean Mouton. The new
expanded textures posed several compositional challenges but also offered greater opportunities
for text expression. Rhetorical analysis is particularly suitable for this repertory as it is justified
by the composers contacts with humanistic ideals and the newer text-expressive approach.
Especially Josquins exposure to humanism must have been extensive during his long-lasting
residence in Italy, before returning to Northern France, where he most likely composed his multivoice chansons. The present dissertation explores the musico-rhetorical resources that
demonstrate how composers read and interpreted contemporary poetic texts in conjunction with
their efforts to accommodate larger textures in the secular domain. Musical rhetoric is thus
understood as the totality of musical gestures that aim to secure a successful delivery of musical
speech.
Musico-rhetorical analysis of the repertory demonstrates that composers of the time read
more in the poetry they set than the rhyme scheme and the syntax of the verses. They responded,
albeit by various and subtle musical means, to the semantic implications of the text, its bawdy,
serious, or mixed register, to the changes from indirect speech to personal declaration or thirdperson address, to the sonorous quality of the verse and its projection through the expanded
polyphonic fabric, and to the resonances of the text with other texts or musical settings.

iii

Especially in chansons in the courtly register, composers frequently employed gestures derived
form classical rhetoric either to alert the listener to a specific textual point or to weave
meaningful connections that project the larger argument of the text. The expanded texture
functioned as a multi-layered canvas on which multiple readings of the text were juxtaposed in
intricate relationships.

iv

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
No dissertation is prepared single-handedly and I have been especially fortunate in the
support I received from my professors, colleagues, and friends. My deepest thanks go foremost
to my advisor, Stephanie P. Schlagel, for her swift and thorough readings, her astute
observations, and her patient guidance in sharpening my research skills, critical thinking, and
writing style. I cannot but express my deepest gratitude while during the same period she was so
willing to read my drafts for conference papers and the numerous versions of my first published
article. My most sincere appreciation goes to Professor Miguel Roig-Francoli, whose theory
seminar provided the impetus for undertaking this project. I thank him deeply for his
encouragement and support to pursue this research and for the valuable advice he provided on
my many analytical questions regarding the thorny issue of Renaissance modality. My gratitude
also goes to Professor Edward Nowacki for his confidence in my abilities and encouragement
throughout my studies at the University of Cincinnati, his thought-provoking contributions
during the Colloquium, as well as the lucid English translations of Latin passages he was always
so eager to provide. I must also thank Professor Lowanne Jones, Head of the Department of
Romance Languages and Literatures, for her helpful suggestions on translating and interpreting
the frequently ambiguous Middle French lyrics of my repertory.
Studying with Professors Stephen Cahn, bruce mcclung, Mary Sue Morrow, Karin
Pendle, Hilary Poriss, and Robert Zierolf enabled me to develop as an independent scholar and
build my confidence for undertaking this dissertation and sharing my findings with the scholarly
community. I would like especially to thank Professor Cahn for the inspiring conversations he
shared with me. I am also indebted to Honey Meconi for reading and commenting on my first

vi

paper to be presented at an international conference and the subsequent follow-up she offered
whenever I asked.
The University of Cincinnati Summer Graduate Student Research Award and
Distinguished Dissertation Fellowship made it possible for me to continue and expand my
research, and my appreciation extends to the nomination committees for reading through and
evaluating my proposals. I am also thankful to the excellent resources and the helpful staff of the
College-Conservatory of Music Library, particularly the Head Librarian Mark Palkovic, whose
office door was always open for reference inquiries.
I was fortunate to enjoy the friendship of my colleague Jewel Smith, CollegeConservatory of Music doctoral graduate, who was always alerting, preparing, and encouraging
me for the next daunting step. My most sincere thanks go to my friends Thomas LeClair and
Anna Aliki Antoniou, as well as Stefanos Manganaris and Theodosia Kalfas for opening their
homes to me during my visits in Cincinnati at the final stages of the dissertation process. Special
thanks are due to my cordial friends Will and Jane Hillenbrand for their good cheer, faith, and
support, and to my numerous friends from Terrace Park who were always showing interest in
and enthusiasm for my project. I am grateful to my parents, Thomas and Helen, for all that they
have done for me. To my family, Argy, Stergios, and little Thomas, goes my deepest gratitude
for sharing this lifetime experience with me.

vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT...iii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS..vi
LIST OF TABLES AND MUSICAL EXAMPLES....x
INTRODUCTION...1
Chapter
I.

RHETORIC AND HUMANISM DURING THE FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH

CENTURIES: THE IMPACT OF THE WORD..22
The foundations of rhetoric
Classical learning in the Renaissance
Humanism and rhetoric north of the Alps
Rhetoric and music

II.

LYRIC AND CHANSON VERSE IN THE LATE FIFTEENTH AND EARLY

SIXTEENTH CENTURIES.54
French poetry in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries
Chanson verse and the multi-voice song repertory

III.

JOSQUINS MULTI-VOICE CHANSONS ON A MELODY OF HIS OWN

INVENTION95

IV.

JOSQUINS MULTI-VOICE CHANSONS ON A CANTUS PRIUS FACTUS...207

V.

ASPECTS OF INTERTEXTUALITY IN JOSQUINS MULTI-VOICE

CHANSONS..287

VI.

PIERRE DE LA RUES MULTI-VOICE CHANSONS...349

VII.

MULTI-VOICE CHANSONS BY JEAN MOUTON AND OTHER

CONTEMPORARY COMPOSERS..416
Multi-voice chansons by Jean Mouton
Multi-voice chansons by other contemporary composers

CONCLUSIONS.502

viii

BIBLIOGRAPHY510
Appendix
1. INVENTORY OF MULTI-VOICE CHANSONS FROM THE 1490s TO C. 1520...531
2. CONTEMPORARY MANUSCRIPT SOURCES AND PRINTED EDITIONS OF
MULTI-VOICE CHANSONS.537

ix

TABLES
Table

Page

1.1

Rhetorical figures and tropes in Rhetorica ad Herennium and Institutio oratoria

that can have possible applications in music..................52

3.1

Multi-voice chansons by Josquin according to the type of pre-compositional

material.......96

3.2

Chansons based on Josquins own melodies (Group 1).97

4.1

Chansons on a known cantus prius factus (Group 2) showing the provenance of

the borrowed material...208

5.1

Motivic content of the individual phrases in La tricote est par matin leve and
Je me complains de mon amy (in the canonic voices)..308

5.2a

Comparison of the Susato 154515 phrase structure of the canonic melodies in

Josquins Nesse pas ung grant desplaisir with Le Brungs Si vous navez
aultre desir....343

5.2b

Comparison of the Mellange15722 phrase structure of the canonic melodies in

Josquins Nesse pas ung grant desplaisir with Le Brungs Si vous navez
aultre desir343

6.1

Multi-voice chansons attributed to Pierre de La Rue in contemporary sources...350

6.2

Multi-voice chansons conjecturally attributed to Pierre de La Rue..350

7.1

Multi-voice chansons by Mouton, divided according to the nature of the poetry418

7.2

Multi-voice chansons of the first quarter of the sixteenth century by composers

other than Josquin, La Rue, and Mouton..466

MUSICAL EXAMPLES
Example

Page

3.1

Josquin, Cueur langoreulx........113

3.2

Josquin, Douleur me bat...123

3.3

Josquin, VienNB Mus. 18746, Douleur me bat, Contratenor, mm. 38-53...130

3.4

Josquin, Plusieurs regretz.....135

3.5

Josquin, Incessament livr suis.144

3.6

Josquin, Regretz sans fin, section B..153

3.7

Josquin, Plaine de dueil....159

3.8

Josquin, Parfons regretz.......168

3.9

Josquin, Du mien amant....177

3.10

Josquin, Pour souhaitter...187

3.11

Canonic melodies of Josquin's own invention (Group 1 chansons), including the

non-canonic Je ne me puis tenir d'aimer..193

4.1

Josquin, Faulte d'argent219

4.2

Josquin, Allgez moy.227

4.3

Ockeghem, S'elle m'amera/Petite camusette237

4.4

Josquin, Petite camusette..239

4.5

Josquin, Se congi prens...247

4.6

Josquin, Tenez moy en vos bras. Superius/Tenor phrase structure...259

4.7

Josquin, Tenez moy en voz bras263

4.8

Josquin, Je ne me puis tenir d'aimer.274

xi

5.1

Josquin, Douleur me bat, mm. 34-40295

5.2

Josquin, Plusieurs regretz, mm. 31-43.300

5.3

Josquin, Douleur me bat, mm. 3-15..301

5.4a

Josquin, Plusieurs regretz, Tenor, mm. 43-49..302

5.4b

Josquin, Nymphes, napps, mm. 35-49.303

5.5

Tenor of Belle tens moy la promesse/La tricote est par matin leve/La tricote
(after Brown 1963)....306

5.6

Josquin, Je me complains de mon amy (after Susato 154515)...309

5.7a

Josquin, Je me complains, mm. 19-22..315

5.7b

Josquin, Je me complains, mm. 41-51..315

5.7c

Josquin, Je me complains, mm. 51-57..315

5.8a

Josquin, Fortuna dun gran tempo, mm. 1-10...319

5.8b

De Vigne, Franc coeur qu'as tu/Fortuna dun gran tempo, mm. 10-14...320

5.8c

Anon., Le serviteur infortun, mm. 32-34320

5.9

Josquin, Pour souhaitter, mm. 1-9...322

5.10a

Josquin, Vous l'arez, Tenor, ll. 1 and 3.325

5.10b

Josquin, Vous l'arez, mm. 1-9...327

5.11

Josquin, Vous ne l'aurez pas.328

5.12

Josquin, Vous l'arez, mm. 33-43...334

5.13

Josquin, N'esse pas ung grant desplaisir..337

5.14

Phrase structure of canon in N'esse pas ung grant desplaisir, according to

Susato (S) and the Mellange (M)..345

5.15

Phrase structure of canon in Si vous n'avez aultre desir...346

xii

6.1

La Rue, D'ung aultre aymer, Superius and Tenor (after VienNB Mus. 18746)...358

6.2

La Rue, Fors seullement (after Picker 1981)362

6.3

La Rue, Cent mille regretz (after Smijers)370

6.4

La Rue, Incessament mon povre cueur, Quinta (after Smijers)378

6.5

La Rue (?), Cueurs desolez/Dies illa (after Picker 1965).381

6.6

La Rue (?), Cueurs desolez/Plorans ploravit (after Smijers)...389

6.7

Deuil et ennuy, mm. 12-35 (after Picker 1965)401

6.8

Quant il advient (after Picker 1965).405

6.9

Je ne dis mot (after Picker 1965)..411

7.1

Mouton, Du bon du coeur, Superius (after Jacobs 1982).423

7.2

Mouton, Vray Dieu d'amours (after Jacobs 1982)426

7.3

Mouton, Vray Dieu, qu'amoureux (after Jacobs 1982).432

7.4

Mouton, Le berger et la bergre (after Jacobs 1982)...443

7.5

Mouton, Ce que mon coeur pense (after Jacobs 1982).450

7.6

Mouton, La rouse du mois de may (after Jacobs 1982)..458

7.7

Anon., Je suis d'Alemagne/Joliettement (after Brown 1983)...469

7.8a

De Vigne, Franc coeur qu'as tu/Fortuna dun gran tempo, Superius and Tenor
(after Hewitt 1967)472

7.8b

De Vigne, Franc coeur qu'as tu/Fortuna dun gran tempo, mm. 1-14..473

7.9

Prioris, Par vous je suis (after Keahey and Douglas 1985)..479

7.10

Le Brung, N'avez point veu mal assene (after Bernstein 1990)..487

7.11

Richafort, D'amour je suis desherite (after Elzinga 1999).496

xiii

INTRODUCTION
By the opening decades of the sixteenth century, humanism had become a predominant
mode of thought throughout Europe, albeit with varying degrees of intensity and with markedly
different profiles depending on the region. The humanistic concern with rhetoric, its applications,
and effects had a profound impact on all aspects of literature as well as on the other arts. French
poetic theory at the turn of the sixteenth century, in particular, greatly emphasizes the
relationship between rhetoric, poetry, and music. In musical theoretical treatises of the second
half of the fifteenth century, theorists frequently refer to the tightening of connections between
the text and its musical setting, often applying rhetorical nomenclature to describe such relations.
In the writings of the following century one composer is repeatedly singled-out for the great care
with which he set his texts: Josquin des Prez (c. 1450/55-1521).
German interest in history and in Josquins music, in particular, greatly contributed to
keeping the composers name alive throughout the sixteenth century. Publications of Josquins
motets in German anthologies, such as the Liber selectarum cantionum (1520) and the Novum et
insigne opus musicum (1537-38), fuelled a posthumous interest in the composers works and
made readily available his motet repertory, subsequently studied and commented upon by midsixteenth century theorists. 1 The main feature of Josquins music that implicitly emerges as the
focus of the paratextual matter of the above two publications (preface, dedicatory letters, and
epilogue), and which justifies the centrality of his works therein, is the composers superb

Liber selectarum cantionum quas vulgo mutetas appellant (Augsburg: Grimm & Wyrsung, 1520) [RISM
1520 ]; Novum et insigne opus musicum (Nrnberg: Formschneider, 1537-38) [RISM 15371].
4

capability in successfully conveying the meaning and emotion of the text. 2 Later oltremontani
theorists, such as Adrianus Petit Coclico and Hermann Finck, explicitly acknowledge Josquins
pivotal role in establishing word-note relationships. 3 In his Dodecachordon, the Swiss humanist
and music theorist Glarean compares Josquin to Virgil in his ability to express effectively human
emotions. 4
In addition to the above criticisms, which mainly concern his sacred music, Josquins
name also came to be associated with a major innovation taking place in the realm of secular
music: the expansion of texture from the customary three and four voices to five- and six-part
structures. Sacred compositions for more than four voices had already appeared among
Ockeghems contemporaries but the expansion of texture in secular music only emerges c. 1500.
Although Josquin may not have been the first composer to contribute a five-voice chanson, he
eventually became tightly associated with secular songs for larger textures. 5 Among his most
important contemporaries only Pierre de La Rue (c. 1452-1518) and Jean Mouton (before 14591522) have composed a substantial number of such chansons, yet Josquins output largely
outnumbers them. Thirty-five chansons for extended textures will be included in the New

For a thorough discussion of the reception history of Josquins music in the sixteenth century and the midcentury renewed interest in the composer initiated in Germany see Stephanie P. Schlagel, Josquin des Prez and His
Motets: A Case Study in Sixteenth-Century Reception History (Ph.D. diss., University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill, 1996) and idem, The Liber selectarum cantionum and the German Josquin Renaissance, Journal of
Musicology 19, no. 4 (2002): 564-615.
3
Adrianus Petit Coclico, Compendium musices (Nrnberg: Berg & Neuber, 1552); facs. (Kassel:
Brenreiter, 1954); trans. Albert Seay, Colorado College Music Press Translations, vol. 5 (Colorado Springs:
Colorado College, 1973); Hermann Finck, Practica musica (Wittenberg: Rhaw, 1556); facs. (Hildesheim: Olms,
1971).
4
Heinrich Glarean, Dodecachordon (Basle: Petri, 1547); facs. (New York: Broude Brothers, 1967), 367368; trans. Clement A. Miller, Musicological Studies and Documents, vol. 6 (n.p.: American Institute of
Musicology, 1965), 264-65.
5
For a discussion of contemporary associations between Josquin and composition for larger textures see
Kate van Orden, Chansons from un sicle plus heureux, in International Conference: New Directions in Josquin
Scholarship, Princeton University, 29-31 October 1999, 336-337.

Josquin Edition, whereas La Rue is credited only with five and Mouton with six. 6 Within the
approximately ninety multi-voice chansons surviving from the first quarter of the sixteenth
century, Josquins output accounts for more than one third of the entire repertory (for a complete
list of five- and six-voice chansons from the first quarter of the sixteenth century see Appendix
1). 7
Within the genre of the chanson, therefore, the subgenre of multi-voice song emerges
during a period of continuing change dominated by humanistic notions of parity between the text
and its musical setting. Its most important exponent, Josquin des Prez, has been highly praised
for his effective union of words and music. Josquins exposure to humanistic thought most
certainly took place during his long-lasting residence in Italy between 1484 and 1504, that is,
before his return to Cond-sur-lEscaut, where he most likely composed his multi-voice songs. 8
While neither La Rue nor Mouton are known to have resided in Italy, it is safe to assume that
they received an education informed by humanistic ideas: La Rue was educated in a matrise and
Mouton was ordained a priest by 1483. 9 The multi-voice chanson of the first quarter of the
sixteenth century, that is, of the period that spans the first appearance of this subgenre to the
death of its most important exponents (c. 1500-c. 1520) constitutes, therefore, an appealing and
distinct repertory to study from a rhetorical perspective and account for comprehensively.

Josquins five- and six-voice chansons will appear in vols. 29 and 30 of the New Josquin Edition,
respectively. For their contents see Willem Elders, ed., Proceedings of the International Josquin Symposium Utrecht
1986 (Utrecht: Vereniging voor Nederlandse Musiekgeschiedenis, 1991), 216.
7
Lawrence F. Bernstein has coined the term multi-voice chanson for settings of French poetry that
extend beyond the common four-voice texture. See his Chansons for Five and Six Voices, in The Josquin
Companion, ed. Richard Sherr (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 393-422.
8
Josquin was employed in Italian courts almost without interruption from 1484 to 1504. Paul A. Merkley
and Lora L. M. Merkley, Music and Patronage in the Sforza Court, Studi sulla storia della musica in Lombardia:
Collana di testi musicologici, vol. 3 (Turnhout, Netherlands: Brepols, in association with the Pietro Antonio
Locatelli Foundation, 1999). Josquins whereabouts between 1496 and 1503 are still mostly unknown.
9
Mouton traveled to Italy in 1515 as part of Franois Is retinue. Lewis Lockwood, Jean Mouton and Jean
Michel: New Evidence on French Music and Musicians in Italy, 1505-1520, Journal of the American
Musicological Society 32, no. 2 (1979): 212-213.

Starting from the premise that chanson settings realize readings of poetic texts in musical
form, this dissertation provides an analysis and interpretation of the music on the basis of internal
musical evidence, classical rhetorical principles, contemporary poetic practices, and modern
literary theory. The aim of the project is to overview the musico-rhetorical resources that
demonstrate how composers read and interpreted contemporary poetic texts in conjunction with
their efforts to accommodate larger textures in the secular domain. Musical rhetoric can be
understood then as the totality of musical gestures that aim to secure a successful delivery of
musical speech. Within this expanded view of musical rhetoric, I assess the expressive means
idiosyncratic to music, as well as how the principles and figures of classical oratory found a
place in the expressive apparatus of secular vocal composition of the period.
In addition to the expansion of texture, secular music for francophone audiences at the
turn of the sixteenth century undergoes important changes on several other levels: the formes
fixes give way to a variety of free forms; courtly imagery coexists with the popular register;
melodic writing becomes predominantly syllabic; and imitation is increasingly applied as a
structural device. For all such changes we can speculate a humanistic influence, at least to a
certain extent. First, with the humanistic emphasis on the written word, the shift from the formes
fixes to freer forms may be said to signal a rhetorical approach to chanson composition in the
sense of an oration that unfolds through time without verbatim repetition of already exposed
material. Second, the increasing infiltration of themes of a popular register and their
accompanying vocabulary into a domain that has been for centuries embedded in the courtly love
tradition could be partly traced to the emphasis on the vernacular advocated by the humanists.
Third, scholars have already attributed the change from melismatic to predominantly syllabic
writing at the end of the fifteenth century to the humanistic concern with the text, to which the

music had to fit accordingly. In order for the meaning of the text to be properly understood,
melodies had to follow the rhythmic pace of the poetic verse, in a note-to-syllable general
framework. At the same time, the rise of vernacular song, with its inherently syllabic melodies,
may have equally contributed to the shift towards syllabic declamation. The rise of the
vernacular lyric and the syllabic treatment of the melodies may thus be viewed as interrelated
phenomena, commonly traced to humanistic ideas. 10
None of the above issues has received as much attention in musicological literature as the
Renaissance concept of imitatio and its applications to music. 11 Imitation, the explicit or
concealed reference to earlier texts, is one of the major concerns of humanistic literature. 12 The
term enters musical theoretical discussion during the closing decades of the fifteenth century in
the work of Bartolomeo Ramos de Pareja. In his Practica Musica, Ramos applies the verbal form
of the noun, to imitate, as a purely technical term to describe the replication (exact or
approximate) of one voice by another: But the best method of organizing is when the organum

10

I do not imply that vernacular song was syllabic due to humanistic ideas, but that the turn of
compositional writing to predominantly syllabic declamation could have been equally influenced by both the
vernacular lyric, which possibly rose in prominence due to humanism, and humanistic ideas about the text and its
understanding.
11
The rhetorically-oriented educational curriculum of the time has guided modern scholars to explain the
increase of polyphonic borrowing in the fifteenth century as a musical response to classical theories of imitation.
However, musicologists are not always in agreement as to whether we can trace such change to the rhetorical
concept of imitation, or which compositional periods and techniques best qualify for such an interpretation. The
notion that borrowing practices such as parody constitute musical expressions of the rhetorical imitatio entered
musicological discussion with Lewis Lockwoods, On Parody as Term and Concept in Sixteenth-Century Music,
in Aspects of Medieval and Renaissance Music: A Birthday Offering to Gustave Reese, ed. Jan La Rue (New York:
W. W. Norton, 1966), 560-575. Subsequent studies elaborating Lockwoods views include Howard M. Brown,
Emulation, Competition, and Homage: Imitation and Theories of Imitation in the Renaissance, Journal of the
American Musicological Society 35, no. 1 (1982): 1-48; Leeman L. Perkins, The LHomme Arm Masses of
Busnoys and Ockeghem: A Comparison, Journal of Musicology 3, no. 4 (1984): 363-396; and J. Peter Burkholder,
Johannes Martini and the Imitation Mass of the Late Fifteenth Century, Journal of the American Musicological
Society 38, no. 3 (1985): 470-523. At the other end of the spectrum, Honey Meconi is skeptical about such
wholesale interpretations of musical borrowing. Honey Meconi, Does Imitatio Exist? Journal of Musicology 12,
no. 2 (1994): 152-178.
12
For different contemporary views regarding the rhetorical imitatio consult G. W. Pigman, Versions of
Imitation in the Renaissance, Renaissance Quarterly 33, no. 1 (1980): 1-32.

imitates the tenor in ascending and descending . . . Practical musicians call this process fuga. 13
Although in this context imitation has a rather restricted sense, its connection to the classical
notion of modeling upon someone or something else is retained. In fact, in the writings of the
late sixteenth-century theorist Pietro Pontio, the two versions of musical imitationsuccessive
entries of a melody in different voices and a composition modeled on anotherare conflated. 14
Furthermore, the means of structural organization through imitation proposed by Ramos above
may again be related to the humanistic emphasis on the text, since imitative points mainly occur
at the beginning of textual phrases or at important poetic junctures; the delineation of the verses
through points of imitation reflects the poetic structure and thus contributes to a better projection
of the text across the music.
The prominence of rhetorical ideals during the first quarter of the sixteenth century in
conjunction with the above-mentioned changes taking place in the domain of secular music, and
which are possibly partly traceable to humanistic influences, invite the analysis of the multivoice song repertory from a rhetorical perspective.
Methodology
Our understanding and appreciation of late medieval repertories has greatly benefited
from rhetorical analysis. The path-breaking study applying this brand of analysis, Patrick
Maceys dissertation Josquins Miserere mei Deus: Context, Structure, and Influence, is
focusing on Josquins motet. 15 Macey convincingly demonstrated that rhetorical thought is at the
heart of Miserere mei, Deus both at the large structural level and in the surface details. His model
13

Est tamen modus organizandi optimus quando organum imitatur tenorem in ascensu aut descensu . . .
quem modum practici fugam appelant . . . Bartolomeo Ramos de Pareja, Musica practica (Bologna: Baltasar de
Hiriberia, 1482); facs. (Bologna: Forni, n.d.), 55; trans. Clement A. Miller, Musicological Studies and Documents,
vol. 44 (n.p.: American Institute of Musicology, 1993), 122-123.
14
Pietro Pontio, Dialogo (Parma: E. Viothi, 1595), 106.
15
Patrick Macey, Josquins Miserere mei Deus: Context, Structure, and Influence (Ph.D. diss., University
of California, Berkeley, 1985).

of musico-rhetorical analysis for assessing Josquins compositional strategies relied on the

principles and figures of the classical orators, as well as those described by seventeenth- and
eighteenth-century music theorists. In his more recent essay Josquin and Musical Rhetoric,
however, Macey restricted the use of rhetorical figures to those derived from classical oratory
only. 16 The latter approach has the advantage of eschewing the fundamental question and
problem of this kind of analysis: whether or not retrospectively applying figures described by
music theorists at least a hundred years after the composition of a musical work is a legitimate
and useful way to analyze it or not. As Brian Vickers demonstrated, music theorists of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries often assigned different meanings to the same rhetorical
figure, thereby making it impossible to talk about a generally agreed upon system. 17 To rely,
therefore, upon the figures of the classical orators ensures a more consistent and reliable
framework for rhetorical analysis. In addition, Vickers expressed skepticism about applying a
linguistic system (rhetoric) to a non-linguistic one (music). His main criticism is that, in doing
so, musicians and critics unavoidably transform the nature of the figures of speech from semantic
to structural. He, therefore, advises caution in distinguishing between what is purely musical
from what can be derived from rhetoric.18
Lawrence Bernstein has applied a different brand of rhetorical analysis in his study of
Josquins stylistic approach specific to multi-voice chanson composition. 19 In his most recent

16

Patrick Macey, Josquin and Musical Rhetoric: Miserere mei, Deus and Other Motets, in The Josquin
Companion, ed. Richard Sherr (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 495-530. This essay is a consolidated
version of his dissertation.
17
Brian Vickers, Figures of Rhetoric/Figures of Music? Rhetorica 2, no. 1 (1984): 1-44.
18
Vickers, Figures of Rhetoric. In a more recent study, Timothy McGee expresses similar reservations.
He concludes that prior to the late sixteenth century it is possible to discuss compositions in terms of their use of
rhetorical figures as long as one does not assume that they match those of the text. Timothy J. McGee, Music,
Rhetoric, and the Emperors New Clothes, in Music and Medieval Manuscripts. Paleography and Performance:
Essays Dedicated to Andrew Hughes, ed. John Haines and Randall Rosenfeld (London: Ashgate, 2004), 252.
19
Lawrence F. Bernstein, A Canonic Chanson in a German Manuscript: Faulte dargent and Josquins
Approach to the Chanson for Five Voices, in Von Isaac bis Bach: Festschrift Martin Just zum 60. Geburtstag, ed.

Chansons for Five and Six Voices, Bernstein attempts to refine a methodology for assessing
authorship, using as a starting point characteristics of style and compositional method that are
shared by works most securely attributed to Josquin. Bernstein focuses mainly on issues of
poetic syntax and tonal manipulation for expressive purposes. His interpretations make apparent
that there is much to gain by a thorough exploration of Josquins poetic texts. In contrast to
Maceys exclusively classical rhetorical approach, Bernstein applies rhetorical analysis in a
larger sense and has greatly informed my analyses of the music.
Other studies focus on individual compositions or small groups of works and do not seek
a systematic examination of musico-rhetorical gestures across a genre. For example, Christopher
Reynolds demonstrated the circular symbolism and symmetrical structure of Josquins four-voice
Plus nulz regretz, using the concentric organization of Jean Lemaire de Belges poem as a
conduit. 20 Warren Kirkendales study Circulatio-Tradition, Maria Lactans, and Josquin as
Musical Orator argues for the rhetorical significance of circular motives in Josquins sacred
music. 21 Finally, in his Rhetorical Aspects of the Renaissance Modes, Bernhard Meier
emphasizes the rhetorical use of the modes for the interpretation of texts. 22
In contrast to the literature focusing on Josquins musical rhetoric, similar studies on La
Rue, Mouton, and other multi-voice chanson composers are completely lacking. Honey Meconi
has explored the style of Pierre de La Rues secular songs mainly with the purpose of

Frank Heidlberger, Wolfgang Osthoff, and Reinhard Weisend (Kassel: Brenreiter, 1991), 53-71; idem, Ma bouche
rit et mon cueur pleure: A Chanson a 5 Attributed to Josquin des Prez, Journal of Musicology 12, no. 3 (1994):
253-286; and idem,Chansons for Five and Six Voices.
20
Christopher Reynolds, Musical Evidence of Compositional Planning in the Renaissance: Josquins Plus
nulz regretz, Journal of the American Musicological Society 40, no. 1 (1987): 53-81.
21
Warren Kirkendale, Circulatio-Tradition, Maria Lactans, and Josquin as Musical Orator, Acta
Musicologica 56 (1984): 69-92.
22
Bernhard Meier, Rhetorical Aspects of the Renaissance Modes, Journal of the Royal Musical
Association 115 (1990): 182-190.

establishing a canon of his works, but, in general, she does not touch upon issues of text
expressivity. 23 There is no study of Moutons secular music whatsoever.
My analysis of the multi-voice chanson uses as a starting point the work of Macey and
Bernstein. Although Maceys study has provided the impetus for examining whether classical
rhetoric also permeated the secular repertories, in my approach, classical rhetorical principles
and figures are but one aspect of musical rhetoric in the broader apparatus of expressive
techniques. Furthermore, Bernsteins analyses have demonstrated that a deeper understanding of
the poetryits context, conventions, and prosodic featuresis indispensable for a rhetorical
approach to the music. In addition, although focusing on an earlier repertoryGuillaume
Dufays secular compositionsDon Michael Randel proposed that even from this early period
musical settings constitute close readings of their poetic texts. Randel suggests that the relations
between the poetry and the music can guide us through the text to the composers reading(s) and,
vice versa, through the musical reading of the text by the composer to the understanding of the
text itself, a premise central to my approach. 24
Despite the fact that the above studies have made evident that rhetorical analysis needs to
rely as much on the poetry as on the music, there has been no substantial effort to study in depth
the verses Josquin and his contemporaries had set. The lack of scholarship in this field seriously
impedes the understanding of compositional choices on the level of both surface detail and
compositional planning and strategies. This absence of interest in the deep interactions between
poetry and music is partly due to the fact that lyric and chanson verse from this period are often
23

Honey Meconi, Style and Authenticity in the Secular Works of Pierre de la Rue (Ph.D. diss., Harvard
University, 1986).
24
Don Michael Randel, Dufay the Reader, in Music and Language, Studies in the History of Music, vol.
1 (New York: Broude Brothers, 1983), 38-78; idem, Music and Poetry, History and Criticism: Reading the
Fifteenth-Century Chanson, in Essays in Musicology: A Tribute to Alvin Johnson, ed. Lewis Lockwood and
Edward Roesner (n.p.: American Musicological Society, 1990), 52-74; and idem, Reading Composers Reading,
Words and Music 17 (1993): 89-107.

dismissed by musicologists and literary critics as conventional and dull, and, therefore,
unworthy. The enduring popularity of both the poetry and the music, however, begs for revisiting
these works in poetic and musical terms. In such an approach, the process is often circular: on
one hand, prosodic features can inform our understanding of musical choices while, on the other
hand, outstanding musical features offer glimpses into how a composer interpreted a particular
point in the poetry.
Recent studies in literary criticism provide nuanced interpretations of the lyric poetry of
the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries that can enlighten musical readings of the chanson
repertory. Instead of accepting received views on the artistic quality of lyric verse, such studies
explore a wide variety of issues ranging from authorial self-representation to the rhetoric of the
obscene, the play with form and convention for rhetorical purposes, the interactions between the
courtly and the popular registers, and the intertextuality of medieval texts. 25 Such literary
interpretations have subsequently provided the impetus to expand my analysis to consider the

25

Some of the most recent studies are: Paul Zumthor, Le masque et la lumire: La potique des Grands
Rhtoriqueurs (Paris: Seuil, 1978); Kevin Brownlee, Poetic Identity in Guillaume de Machaut (Madison: University
of Wisconsin Press, 1984); Leonard W. Johnson, Poets as Players: Theme and Variation in Late Medieval French
Poetry (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1990); Michael Randall, Building Resemblance: Analogical Imagery in
the Early French Renaissance (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996); and Catherine Attwood,
Dynamic Dichotomy: The Poetic I in Fourteenth- and Fifteenth-Century French Lyric Poetry (Atlanta, GA:
Rodopi, 1998). The literature regarding intertextuality is ever growing. Studies focusing on intertextuality in
chanson repertories of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries include Kevin Brownlee, Literary Intertextualities in
Fourteenth-Century French Song, in Hauptreferate, Symposien, Kolloquien, vol. 1 of Musik als Text: Bericht ber
den Internationalen Kongress der Gesellschaft fr Musikforschung Freiburg in Breisgau 1993, ed. Hermann
Danuser and Tobias Plebuch (Kassel: Brenreiter, 1998), 295-299; Paula Higgins, Servants, Mistresses and the
Fortunes of Their Families: Influence and Intertextuality in the Fifteenth-Century Song, in Hauptreferate,
Symposien, Kolloquien, 346-357; David Fallows, Le serviteur of Several Masters, in Hauptreferate, Symposien,
Kolloquien, 336-345; Yolanda Plumley, Citation and Allusion in the Late Ars Nova: The Case of Esperance and
the En attendant songs, Early Music History 18 (1999): 287-363; idem, Intertextuality in the Fourteenth-Century
Chanson, Music and Letters 84, no. 3 (2003): 346-377; idem, Playing the Citation Game in the Late FourteenthCentury Chanson, Early Music 31, no. 1 (2003): 21-39; idem, Crossing Borderlines: Points of Contact between
the Late Fourteenth-Century French Lyric and Chanson Repertories, Acta Musicologica 76, no. 1 (2004): 3-23; and
Elizabeth E. Leach, Fortunes Demesne: The Interrelations of Text and Music in Machauts Il mest avis (B22), De
fortune (B23) and Two Related Anonymous Balades, Early Music History 19 (2000): 47-79. Also relevant here is
Christopher Reynoldss essay on the intertextual function of chanson quotations in Mass settings. Christopher
Reynolds, The Counterpoint of Allusion in Fifteenth-Century Masses, Journal of the American Musicological
Society 45, no. 2 (1992): 228-60. For further literature regarding intertextuality see Chapter V.

10

representation of the poetic I in musical terms; the musical treatment of obscene expressions
and double entendres; melodic articulation as a means for enhancing the prosodic features; the
expressive function of canons and canonic techniques; the manipulation of musical texture for
the dramatization of text; the use of repetition as an expressive device; the impact of the nature
of the poetrycourtly or popularon the compositional choices and style; and intertextual
relationships within Josquins oeuvre and across the genre. An interdisciplinary approach of this
kind requires a systematic study of the lyric poetry of the period with emphasis on the points of
cross-fertilization between the lyric and chanson verse. To this end, I have taken into account
contemporary poetic theories and overviewed the poetic tradition of the fifteenth century,
especially focusing on the features of versification, the prominent themes and topoi and their
related imagery, as well as the nature of the poetry (courtly or popular) and the lexicon that
accompanies it (see Chapter II). 26
Sources
The multi-voice chanson repertory of Josquin, La Rue, Mouton, and their contemporaries
survives mainly in posthumous sources, especially printed editions dating after 1540. The main
manuscript repositories of multi-voice chansons are the Habsburg-Burgundian chansonniers
Vienna, sterreichische Nationalbibliothek, Musiksammlung. MS Mus. 18746 (olim
A.N.35.H.14), henceforth referred to as VienNB Mus. 18746, and Brussels, Bibliothque Royale,
MS 228, henceforth referred to as BrusBR 228. 27 VienNB Mus. 18746 is the largest
contemporary collection of multi-voice chansons. Completed by 1523, it was copied at the
26

Warner F. Patterson provides a comprehensive account of poetic treatises from the early fifteenth to the
middle of the sixteenth century. Warner F. Patterson, Three Centuries of French Poetic Theory: A Critical History
of the Chief Arts of Poetry in France (1323-1630), Language and Literature, vol. 15 (Ann Arbor: University of
Michigan Press, 1935; repr. New York: Russell & Russell, 1966).
27
For a modern edition of BrusBR 228 see Martin Picker, ed., The Chansons Albums of Marguerite of
Austria (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1965).

11

workshop of Petrus Alamire, who was personally involved in its preparation. The manuscript
subsequently found its way to the library of Raimund Fugger the Elder of Augsburg (14891535). 28 The collection contains fifty-four five-voice compositions, the majority of which are
French chansons. 29 The songs are transmitted anonymously with the exception of two
compositions by Pierre de La Rue, and one each by Antoine Brumel (c. 1460-?1512/13) and Jean
Le Brung (fl. early sixteenth century). Although the chansons are copied without their literary
texts, the anthology remains an important source of the early sixteenth-century multi-voice
repertory, as most of its content is otherwise only transmitted in later printed editions. VienNB
Mus. 18746 contains seven of Josquins chansons firmly attributed to him and scholars have
speculated that another four may also be by him. The seven Josquin chansons are: Douleur me
bat, Du mien amant, Incessament livr suis, Parfons regretz, Plaine de deuil, Je me complains,
and Plusieurs regrets. 30
VienNB Mus. 18746 completely lacks initials, decoration, and coats of arms and there are
frequent errors in the music. Combined with the absence of texts, VienNB Mus. 18746 has little
practical use and appears to have been copied out of a concern for preservation rather than for
the purpose of presentation. Nevertheless, the manuscript is characterized by the internal
organization of codices, grouping compositions that are thematically (and possibly musically)

28

Alamires signature appears in the two Tenor part-books. The Fuggers, a powerful family of merchants
and bankers, were important patrons of the arts. Over forty printed collections of music were dedicated to Raimund
Fugger and his brother Anton (1493-1560). William E. Hettrick, Fugger, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and
Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell, vol. 9 (London: Macmillan, 2001), 315-317.
29
VienNB Mus. 18746 contains precisely fifty chansons, three motets, and one motet-chanson. For a
complete list of the contents of VienNB Mus. 18746 see Eric Jaas, The Treasury of Petrus Alamire: Music and Art
in Flemish Court Manuscripts 1500-1535, ed. Herbert Kellman (Ludion: University of Chicago Press, 1999), 161162.
30
Jaap van Benthem has argued for the attribution to Josquin of Dame dhonneur, Saillis avant, Sans vous
veoir, and Consideres mes incessantes plaintes/Fortuna desperata (see also Appendix 1). Jaap van Benthem,
Einige wiedererkannte Josquin-Chansons im Codex 18746 der sterreichischen Nationalbibliothek, Tijdschrift
van de Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis 22 (1971-72): 18-42.

12

related, as is evident in the four opening regretz chansons and the closing five Fors seullement
settings. 31
The chansonnier BrusBR 228, prepared for Marguerite of Austria and probably
completed between 1516 and 1523, transmits five multi-voice chansons, two of which are
concordant with VienNB Mus. 18746: Cueurs desolez/Dies illa, Deuil et ennuy, Je ne dis mot,
Plaine de deuil, and Quant il advient. 32 With the exception of Josquins Plus nulz regretz, all of
the chansons in this manuscript are transmitted anonymously. Nevertheless, four of the five
multi-voice chansons therein have been widely accepted as La Rues, the composer most closely
related to Marguerites court. 33 As La Rues multi-voice chansons did not enjoy the posthumous
fame of Josquins and Moutons chansons, the above two Flemish chansonniers constitute the
main sources transmitting this repertory. 34
Aside from these two central sources, multi-voice chansons appear only scattered in
manuscript and printed editions of the first half of the sixteenth century. The earliest source
containing multi-voice chansons is Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, MS Banco Rari 229
(olim Magliabechi XIX.59) (FlorBN BR 229), compiled during 1492-93. 35 Two five-voice
compositions appear therein: a textless piece by Isaac (c. 1450/55-1517), possibly instrumental in
conception, and the double-texted Je suis dAlemagne/Joliettement men vay. Another early
multi-voice chanson, although its appearance in sources postdates FlorBN BR 229, is Johannes
31

Other groupings include the two Dung aultre aymer settings by La Rue and Le Brung (fols. 17v-18v)
and the four chansons related to douleur and tristesse in fols. 31v-34v.
32
The concordant chansons are Deuil et ennuy and Plaine de deuil.
33
For modern attributions of these four chansons and my views regarding their authorship based on the
musico-rhetorical analysis see Chapter VI.
34
The only exception is La Rues Incessament mon povre cueur, widely transmitted throughout the
sixteenth century. For a complete list of sources of La Rues works see Honey Meconi, Pierre de la Rue and
Musical Life at the Habsburg-Burgundian Court (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 264-286.
35
Modern edition in Howard M. Brown, ed., A Florentine Chansonnier from the Time of Lorenzo the
Magnificent: Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, MS Banco Rari 229, 2 vols., Monuments of Renaissance
Music, vol. 7 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983). The dating of manuscript sources follows the CensusCatalogue of Manuscript Sources of Polyphonic Music, 1400-1550, 5 vols., ed. Herbert Kellman, Renaissance
Manuscript Studies, vol. 1 (n.p.: American Institute of Musicology, 1979-1988).

13

de Stokems five-voice Brunette mamiette. 36 Stokems death is recorded in 1487, which

provides a terminus ante quem for this chanson. 37
The scattered appearances of chansons for five- and six-voices in turn-of-the-century
manuscript sources testify that such compositions were the exception rather than the norm during
this period. A similar picture also emerges when browsing through the repertories of the first
printed chansonniers: Ottaviano Petrucci included two five-voice chansons in the Odhecaton A
(Brunette mamiette and Hor oires une chanson) and only one in his Canti B (Franc coeur, quas
tu/Fortuna dun gran tempo). 38 The five-voice Vray Dieu damours/Sante Iouanes/Ora pro nobis
in Canti C belongs to the sacred domain rather than to the secular. 39 Other chanson printers such
as Andrea Antico and Antonio Gardano published chansons for exclusively three and four
voices, while Jacques Moderne published only four multi-voice chansons throughout his
career. 40 Pierre Attaingnant issued only one volume of chansons for more than four voices, the
Trente sixiesme livre, which contained mainly chansons by Josquin (see discussion of this print
below).
The picture regarding multi-voice chansons publications, in general, and Josquins related
repertory, in particular, begins to change with mid-century prints from the north, possibly an
36

Brunette mamiette appears in Harmonice musices Odhecaton A (Venezia: O. Petrucci, 1501) [RISM
1501]. For a modern edition see fnn. 37 and 38 below. For a discussion of the earliest multi-voice chansons see
Chapter VII.
37
Recently, David Fallows questioned the attribution to Stokem and suggested a new date of composition
for Brunette mamiette in the 1490s. David Fallows, ed., One Hundred Songs of Harmonic Music: Ottaviano
Petrucci 1501, A Quincentenary Performing Edition, rev. ed. (Amherst: Amherst Early Music, 2003), 11.
38
Modern edition in Helen Hewitt, ed., Harmonice Musices Odhecaton A (Cambridge, MA: Mediaeval
Academy of America, 1942; repr. New York: Da Capo Press, 1978) and Helen Hewitt, ed., Ottaviano Petrucci:
Canti B, Numero cinquanta, Venice, 1502, Monuments of Renaissance Music, vol. 2 (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1967).
39
Canti C. Numero cento cinquanta (Venezia: O. Petrucci, 1503) [RISM 15043]; facs. Monuments of
Music and Music Literature in Facsimile I, vol. 25 (New York: Broude Brothers, 1978), fols. 95v-96v.
40
For a study of Gardanos printing enterprise see Mary S. Lewis, Antonio Gardano, Venetian Music
Printer, 1538-1569: A Descriptive Bibliography and Historical Study, 3 vols. (New York: Garland Publishing,
1988). For Modernes publications see Samuel F. Pogue, Jacques Moderne: Lyons Music Printer of the Sixteenth
Century (Geneva: Droz, 1969). The multi-voice chansons published by Moderne fall outside the chronological
framework explored here.

14

aftermath of the German Josquin Renaissance of the late 1530s. The first important music print
including Josquins multi-voice chansons dates from 1540 and comes from the print shop of
Melchior Kriesstein in Augsburg. Selectissimae necnon familiarissimae cantiones contains three
chansons attributed to Josquin: Jay bien cause de lamenter, Mi lars vous, and Nesse pas ung
grant desplaisir. 41 It also includes the six-voice Allgez moy, ascribed to Josquin in later
sources, but which Kriesstein attributes to both Antoine Barb (d. 1564) and Jean Le Brung.
Kriessteins print is the earliest source for the above four compositions but it remains unclear
how the publisher acquired the repertory. One possible channel would be through his editor
Sigmund Salblinger, who had probably access to the library of the Fugger family.42
The interest in printing chansons for more than four voices grew radically with the
publications of the Antwerp-based printer Tylman Susato, in the middle of the sixteenth century.
Throughout his career as a printing entrepreneur (1543-1561), Susato published chansons for the
customary textures as well as chansons ranging from five to eight voices. Susato printed the
latter chansons in sets of five part-books, thus elevating the chanson to a status of a luxury
good. In addition to his interest in promoting such compositions Susato also initiated singleauthor editions, a practice that was soon followed by other printers in the Netherlands and
France. 43 According to Kate van Orden

41

Selectissimae necnon familiarissimae cantiones, ultra centum vario idiomate vocum, tam multiplicium
quam etiam paucar (Augsburg: M. Kriesstein, 1540) [RISM 15407].
42
Sigmund Salblinger, a German Reform leader, teacher, and music editor, spent most of his life in
Augsburg. Imprisoned for his religious beliefs in 1527, he was reinstated in Augsburg in 1537 and enjoyed the
patronage of the Fugger family. His sacred editions for Melchior Kriesstein and Philipp Ulhart are important since
they transmit many unica motets by leading German and Netherlandish composers. As mentioned above, the Fugger
family was the recipient of VienNB Mus. 18746, and it is possible that they also possessed sources containing other
multi-voice chansons. Marie L. Gllner, Salminger, Sigmund, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and
Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell, vol. 22 (London: Macmillan, 2001), 169-170.
43
For a discussion of the changing status of the chanson in the hands of Tylman Susato see van Orden,
Chansons, 338-341 and idem, Tielman Susato, Music, and the Cultures of Print, in Tielman Susato and the
Music of His Time: Print Culture, Compositional Technique and Instrumental Music in the Renaissance, ed. Keith
Polk (Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon Press, 2005), 143-163.

15

in Susatos hands, the chansonand more specifically, the chanson in the

material form of printbecame the medium for figurations of the composer that it
had not known before, not in print and perhaps not in manuscript either. The
chanson was drawn into a wholly different social economy dominated by authors:
a genre that had been characterized in print by collectivity (the anthology) and a
relatively high degree of anonymity came, in Susatos classier prints, to be
inscribed with names in an unprecedented way, attracting both the names of
patrons . . . and the names of composers . . . 44
Among Susatos major contributions to our knowledge of the history of the early
sixteenth-century multi-voice chanson is his seventh book, a commemorative volume devoted to
the memory of Josquin, published in 1545. 45 Le septiesme livre includes twenty-three multivoice chansons ascribed to Josquin, a response composed by Le Brung, and three Latin epitaphs
by the prominent northern composers Benedictus Appenzeller, Nicolas Gombert, and Jheronimus
Vinders. 46 Susatos print provides the earliest source for five of Josquins multi-voice chansons
and the earliest texted source for about one-third of Josquins total output in this subgenre. 47
Among Josquins contemporaries only Noel Bauldeweyn (c. 1480; fl. 1509-1513), Jean Le
Brung, and Jean Mouton are represented in Susatos secular music editions and only with one
chanson each. 48 The scope of Susatos seventh book and the inclusion of the literary texts render
this print an invaluable tool for the study of the early sixteenth-century multi-voice chanson from
a musico-rhetorical perspective.

44

van Orden, Chansons, 338.

Le septiesme livre contenant vingt & quatre chansons a cincq et a six parties, composes par feu de
bonne memoire & tres excellent en musicque Iosquin des Pres, avecq troix Epitaphes dudiet Iosquin, composez par
divers aucteurs (Antwerp: Tylman Susato, 1545) [RISM 154515].
46
Appenzeller and Gombert set the text Musae iovis for four and six voices, respectively. Vinderss lament
for seven voices sets the text O mors inevitabilis. The earliest surviving source for Appenzellers epitaph is Cambrai,
Bibliothque Municipale, MSS 125-128 (olim 124), dated to 1542. For the other two, the earliest source is Susato
154515. Le Brungs response, Si vous navez autre desir ( 6), is placed immediately following Josquins Nesse pas
ung grant desplaisir. For a discussion of these two chansons see Chapter V.
47
The five chansons for which the seventh book is the earliest source are En non saichant, Pour souhaitter,
Regretz sans fin, Vous larez, and Vous ne laurez pas.
48
The distribution of the multi-voice chansons for these composers is: Bauldeweyn, En douleur en
tristesse; Le Brung, Si vous navez autre desir; and Mouton, La rouse du mois de may.
45

16

Prompted by Susatos commemorative edition, Pierre Attaingnant, the royal French

printer of music between 1528 and 1553, issued a pirate copy of Susatos seventh book: the
Trente sixiesme livre contenant trente chansons tres musicales, a quatre, cinq et six parties . . .
de feu Iosquin des prez, tres corectement imrimees par Pierre Attaingnant (Paris: Pierre
Attaingnant, 1549) with multi-voice chansons mainly by Josquin. 49 Attaingnant published the
Trente sixiesme livre almost immediately after Susatos privilege expired in 1549 and included
all of the chansons in Susatos print with the exception of Josquins dploration on the death of
Ockeghem (Nymphes des bois/Requiem aeternam) and the three Latin epitaphs. He even
included Le Brungs response Si vous navez autre desir, eliminating, however, Susatos
attribution. The Trente sixiesme livre is a novelty in Attaingnants output, who was otherwise
devoid of interest for Josquins works. 50 It stands out as his only edition in five part-books and is
one of his very few single-author chanson prints (the others being six Janequin editions and one
by Gervaise). 51
The almost wholesale copying of Susatos edition notwithstanding, Attaingnants
publication is valuable for our knowledge of the early sixteenth-century multi-voice chanson
since it also includes seven additional compositions (six at the end of the edition and one
between the first two pieces), three of which are unica. 52 Apparently, Attaingnant had an editor
who improved on many details in the text and the music and who was possibly responsible for

49

RISM J681. For Attaingnants publications see Daniel Heartz, Pierre Attaingnant, Royal Printer of
Music (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969).
50
Attaingnant had printed only two of Josquins chansons before the Trente sixiesme livre: the four-voice
Cueurs desolez in 1529 (most likely by Appenzeller) and Mille regretz in 1533, the earliest surviving source for this
chanson. See Heartz, Pierre Attaingnant, 97.
51
See Heartz, Pierre Attaingnant, nos. 4, 40, 73, 75, 90, 155, and 166.
52
The three pieces are Plus nestes ma maistresse ( 4), Cueurs desolez/Plorans ploravit ( 5), and Lamye
a tous/Je ne vis oncques la pareille ( 5).

17

acquiring the seven additional chansons. 53 Despite the editorial improvements, the Trente
sixiesme livre is not considered entirely reliable: two pieces, Cent mille regretz and Incessament
mon povre cueur, are now securely attributed to Pierre de La Rue. In addition, I have reattributed Cueurs desolez/Plorans ploravit to La Rue on the basis of my musico-rhetorical
analysis (see Chapter VI).
It was not until ten years later that the next publication with a substantial number of early
sixteenth-century multi-voice chansons appeared. The firm of Le Roy & Ballard published the
Livre de meslanges in 1560. 54 Le Roy & Ballard succeeded Attaingnant in 1553 as imprimeurs
de roi (music printers to the king). In 1567 they obtained the exclusive right to print the works of
Josquin, Mouton, Richafort, Lassus, Gascongne, Jaquet, Maillard, Gombert, Arcadelt, and
Goudimel. In 1572, the firm issued a reprint of the 1560 edition, the Mellange de chansons tant
des vieux autheurs que des modernes. 55 Both the Livre de meslanges and the Mellange de
chansons are historical anthologies that juxtapose the compositions of the older chanson
composers to those of the younger generation. The 1572 Mellange is especially important as it is
the only source for five of the six extant multi-voice chansons by Mouton. 56

53

Bonnie Blackburn has suggested that Claude Gervaise, a composer of dance music and arranger of
chansons, could have served as editor for this volume. Bonnie Blackburn, Josquins Chansons: Ignored and Lost
Sources, Journal of the American Musicological Society 29, no. 1 (1976): 56-60. According to Blackburn, if
Gervaise was indeed the editor of the Trente sixiesme livre, he must have had access to Netherlandish sources to
acquire this repertory.
54
Livre de meslanges, contenant six vingtz chansons, des plus rares, et plus industrieuses qui se trouvent,
soit des autheurs antiques, soit des plus memorables de nostre temps: composes cinque, six, sept, & huit parties,
en six volumes (Paris: Le Roy & Ballard, 1560) [not in RISM].
55
Mellange de chansons tant des vieux autheurs que des modernes, a cinq, six, sept, et huict parties (Paris:
Le Roy & Ballard, 1572) [RISM 15722].The main corpus of chansons remains the same, but the 1572 edition adds
sixty-eight new works and omits thirty-five from the 1560 edition. See Kate Van Orden, Imitation and La musique
des anciens, Revue de musicologie 80, no. 1 (1994): 7.
56
The six Mouton multi-voice chansons are Ce que mon coeur pense, Du bon du coeur, La rouse du mois
de may, Le berger et la bergre, Vray Dieu damours, and Vray Dieu, quamoureux. Only the chanson Le berger et
la bergre, in its five- and six-voice versions, appears in earlier sources, Susatos Vingt et six chansons musicales
(Antwerp: Tylman Susato, 1543) [RISM 154315] and Le sixiesme livre (Antwerp: Tylman Susato, 1545) [RISM
154514], respectively.

18

The general absence of attributions in contemporary sources considerably obscures our

understanding of the genesis of the multi-voice song. Many chansons still remain anonymous
and their study is further impeded by the lack of the accompanying literary texts (as with the
majority of the chansons in VienNB Mus. 18746). It is mainly through the ascriptions provided
by the posthumous prints such as Susatos seventh book, Attaingnants Trente sixiesme livre, and
the two Le Roy & Ballard publications of 1560 and 1572 that our knowledge of the multi-voice
chanson distribution has been shaped. However, many of the attributions in the above
publications have been questioned by modern scholars and in some cases have been proven
faulty (as with the two La Rue chansons in Attaingnants print). The chronological distance of
the posthumous prints from the origins of the compositions and the lack of a continuum in the
circulation of multi-voice chansons is largely responsible for the absence of repertorial
ascriptions. As mentioned above, turn of the century print and manuscript sources offer only
scattered examples of multi-voice chanson writing. This is partly due to the accidents of
transmission, as it is possible that many of the sources containing substantial numbers of multivoice chansons are irretrievably lost. Yet it is also possible that the secular works for large forces
indeed had a limited circulation as they were far more demanding for performance.
As the present study undertakes an overall assessment of musical rhetoric in an entire
repertory, the subgenre of the multi-voice chanson in the first quarter of the sixteenth century,
issues of authenticity do not impede the analyses. In fact, such a comprehensive picture of
musico-rhetorical treatment enriches our understanding of stylistic traits across the genre and
fruitfully informs cases of problematic or conflicting attributions or anonymity (see, for example,
the discussion of the conjecturally attributed chansons to La Rue in Chapter VI).

19

Rhetorical analysis has further unveiled common compositional traits in particular groups
of chansons, suggesting chronological proximity and common provenance. In many occasions, it
has helped clarify issues of text underlay, providing alternative solutions when the text underlay
in the source is vague, problematic, or antithetical to the poetic and musical structure of the
chanson (see Moutons chansons in Chapter VII).
In some cases, multi-voice chanson settings are instrumental arrangements of well-known
pre-existent melodies (such as Josquins La Spagna). I will eliminate these from consideration,
along with the textless compositions of VienNB Mus. 18746, since they do not lend themselves
to the model of rhetorical analysis applied in this study. I have nevertheless included them in
Appendix 1.
Editorial policy
The musical examples are based on the existing modern editions. 57 Nevertheless, the
rhetorical analyses frequently bring up questions regarding the phrase structure, musica ficta, and
text underlay, in which cases I have consulted the available manuscript and primary printed
sources. Alternative readings are given in parentheses, along with those of the modern editions.
Decimal divisions of measure numbers reflect the position of a note therein, within a foursemibreves-per-measure count (e.g., m. 12.4 refers to the last semibreve of m. 12). Musical
phrases are shown in capital letters placed at the point of entrance of the structural voice, the one
that determines the phrase division. At the first appearance of a musical phrase I designate it with
the word phrase (e.g., phrase A). In subsequent repetitions of the same phrase or variations
57

For Josquin see Josquin des Prez, Werken, ed. Albert A. Smijers (Amsterdam: G. Alsbach, 1922-1969);
for La Rue see Picker, The Chansons Albums and Honey Meconi, Style and Authenticity in the Secular Music of
Pierre de la Rue (Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, 1986); for Mouton see Charles Jacobs, ed., LeRoy & Ballards
1572 Mellange de Chansons (University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1982); for Richafort see
Jean Richafort, Opera omnia, vol. 3, Magnificats and Chansons, ed. Harry Elzinga, Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae,
vol. 81 (n.p.: American Institute of Musicology, 1999). See individual references for the other chansons.

20

of it I only include the capital letter that corresponds to it (A, B, etc.). Larger sections are
marked with capital letters between brackets (e.g., [section A]) over the top staff at the
beginning of each section, while modules (specific to Moutons songs) are marked with capital
letters in parentheses. Lowercase letters are reserved to indicate rhyme schemes.
I employ the word canon not in the sixteenth-century sense of directions to produce a
second melodic line from a single notated one, but in the modern sense of close imitation
between two voices. Thus, I can distinguish between strict or true canonic writing, which
complies with the sixteenth-century use of the word, from free canonic writing, which implies
deviations from faithfully reproducing the dux.
For the poetic texts the translations provided are my own unless otherwise indicated. I
have included punctuation marks to clarify the syntactic and semantic structure of the poetry, a
crucial element for the rhetorical analysis. As Middle French orthography is an elusive and
complicated matter even for the literary specialist, I have not attempted to homogenize the
spellings in the poetic texts. 58 Instead, I have retained the orthography of the modern edition
used (for example, the different versions of the word cueur, coeur, etc.) but have
distinguished between u and v and have added the accents on and l (to avoid homographic
confusions), and final , as well as cedillas where needed. I have incorporated quotation marks
for reported speech and to distinguish the interlocutors in dialogues.

58

For an in-depth discussion of Middle French orthography and the many variants encountered therein see
Paul Zumthor, ed., Anthologie des Grands Rhtoriqueurs (Paris: Union Gnrale dEditions, 1978), 19-31.

21

CHAPTER I
RHETORIC AND HUMANISM DURING THE FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH
CENTURIES: THE IMPACT OF THE WORD
The period during which the multi-voice chanson came into being is dominated by the
humanistic precept of the affective potential of the word. According to sixteenth-century
humanists, in vocal polyphonic music this potential is magnified by musics power to stir
effectively the human emotions. Thus the relationship between rhetoric, the art of persuasive
speech, and music becomes tighter. The present chapter explores the origins and basic principles
of the rhetorical tradition and the state of classical learning in the Renaissance, to which
composers of the multi-voice song might have been exposed, in order to assess the ways such
principles found expression on compositional choices and style. Within this conceptual
framework, the chapter also examines the different facets of rhetorical thought that emerge
through the writings of late fifteenth and sixteenth-century music theorists. Central to the
discussion of oltremontani theorists of the 1530s is the notion of the composer as musical orator
and of music as a poetic art, that is, an art that can express the thoughts and emotions of the text
in an affective way. These theorists point out Josquin des Prez as the composer who most
successfully achieved a union of words and music. Since the affective power of speech is mainly
ascribed to rhetorical figures, or ornaments of language, the chapter concludes with an overview
of the figures of rhetoric, especially those that could have a musical application. Such overview
subsequently guides and informs the aspect of the analysis that investigates the extent to which
composers employed classical rhetorical gestures in secular music, as they demonstrably did in
their sacred compositions.

22

The foundations of rhetoric

The origins of rhetoric go back to property disputes in the Greek towns of Sicily between
471 and 463 B.C.E. In order to regain seized property, defenders developed verbal means of
persuasion that were soon codified into a teachable method. 1 When the Sicilian Gorgias came to
Athens to request help in 427 B.C.E, the system of Athenian politics was ripe to adopt the
principles of oratorical practice developed in Sicily. The direct involvement of Athenian citizens
with community decisions demanded the ability to speak effectively and persuasively in front of
a large jury. The origins of rhetoric are, therefore, closely related to social and political activity,
the vita activa. Isocrates was the first to establish a school of rhetoric in Athens, around 393
B.C.E. He not only delivered his speeches but he also wrote them down and polished them, thus
giving rhetoric the dimension of an academic discipline, in addition to its oral civic function.
Plato distrusted rhetoric as deceptive since it deals only with opinion, in contrast to
philosophy, which deals with truth. 2 His student Aristotle, however, viewed opinion (doxa) equal
to knowledge (episteme). Aristotles The Art of Rhetoric, written c. 335 B.C.E, is the first
surviving text on the subject and it became the model for the early Roman orators Cicero and
Quintilian. 3 From Rome, rhetoric spread into other European regions through education, public
activity, and literature, and remained important until its decline in the nineteenth century.
The most significant early Roman treatises on rhetoric comprise the anonymous
Rhetorica ad Herennium (written c. 85 B.C.E and long attributed to Cicero), seven treatises by
Cicero (dating 87-44 B.C.E), and Quintilians comprehensive Institutio oratoria (92-94 C.E). 4
1

6-7.

Brian Vickers, An Outline of Classical Rhetoric, in In Defense of Rhetoric (Oxford: Clarendon, 1988),

Plato Gorgias 452-466.

Aristotle, The Art of Rhetoric, trans. and ed. Hugh C. Lawson-Tancred (London: Penguin, 1991).
4
Modern editions: Ad C. Herennium. De ratione dicendi (Rhetoric ad Herennium), with English trans.
Harry Caplan, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1954). Among Ciceros treatises
the most influential were the early De Inventione, with English trans. Harry Mortimer Hubbell, Loeb Classical
3

23

Cicero advocated that reason (ratio) can only benefit men when it uses speech (oratio). As mans
duty is to participate in social life, the study of language and its appropriate usage should serve
the common good. Rhetoric could thus lead to moral and social improvement and altruism. The
sixteenth-century Spanish humanist Juan Luis Vives (1492-1540) poignantly stated, your
tongue is the one instrument nature gave to you for doing good. 5 Also central to the writings of
both Cicero and Quintilian is the idea that a successful oration should perfectly balance the res
(content of the argument) to the verba (proper style). Once this balance is achieved, the oration
has accomplished its threefold goal: to teach, to move, and to delightdocere, movere,
delectare.
The Roman writers followed Aristotles classification of oratory into three main genres,
the judicial, the deliberative, and the epideictic. The judicial or forensic took place in a law court
and focused on proof and disproof. The deliberative concerned politics and was about persuasion
and dissuasion. The epideictic or demonstrative was concerned with praise or blame. With the
fall of the Greco-Roman political and legal systems, the judicial and deliberative gradually
declined and the epideictic was the sole genre that remained alive in the Middle Ages and the
Renaissance. Its main characteristic, the division of the rhetorical discourse into praise and
blame, influenced much medieval and renaissance literature.

Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1949) and the mature De oratore, 2 vols., Books I and II, with
English trans. Edward W. Sutton and Harris Rackham, Book III, trans. Harris Rackham, Loeb Classical Library
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1942-48). Quintilian, Institutio oratoria, 4 vols., with English trans.
Harold E. Butler, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1920) and more recently
Institutio oratoria. The Orators Education, 5 vols., with English trans. and ed. Donald A. Russell, Loeb Classical
Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001).
5
Juan Luis Vives, De ratione dicendi 3.12; quoted in Brian Vickers, Rhetoric and Poetics, in The
Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy, ed. Charles B. Schmitt (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1988), 728.

24

Classical orators distinguished five stages in the composition of a speech: inventio

(invention), dispositio (arrangement), elocutio (expression), memoria (memory), and
pronuntiatio (delivery). Ciceros definitions in De inventione are as follows:
Invention is the discovery of valid or seemingly valid arguments to render ones
cause plausible. Arrangement is the distribution of arguments thus discovered in
the proper order. Expression is the fitting of the proper language to the invented
matter. Memory is the firm mental grasp of matter and words. Delivery is the
control of voice and body in a manner suitable to the dignity of the subject matter
and the style. 6
Of the five stages, elocutio received special emphasis in the writings of the humanists in
connection with rhetorics function to move its audience. The last two stages, memoria and
pronuntiatio, are only relevant when the speech is to be delivered orally, that is, in the cases in
which rhetoric is a performance art.
Also from Aristotle spread the idea of the division of a speech into distinct formal
sections, each with a specific persuasive function. The most common division recognized six
parts: exordium (introduction), narratio (narration), partitio (division), confirmatio (proof),
refutatio (refutation), and conclusio (conclusion). The anonymous author of Rhetorica ad
Herennium described their function as follows:
The Introduction is the beginning of the discourse, and by it the hearers mind is
prepared for attention. The Narration or Statement of Facts sets forth the events
that have occurred or might have occurred. By means of the Division we make
clear what matters are agreed upon and what contested, and announce what points
we intend to make up. Proof is the presentation of our arguments, together with
their corroboration. Refutation is the destruction of our adversaries arguments.
The Conclusion is the end of the discourse, framed in accordance with the
principles of the art. 7

6
7

Cicero De inventione 1.7.9.

Ad C. Herennium 1.3.4

25

In addition to a masterful layout, a speech must also adopt the proper type of style in
order for it to be successful. In the same treatise we find the first extant division of style into the
Grand, the Middle, and the Simple types.
The Grand type consists of a smooth and ornate arrangement of impressive words.
The Middle type consists of words of a lower, yet not of the lowest and most
colloquial, class of words. The Simple type is brought down even to the most
current idiom of standard speech. 8
Related to the concept of style is the stage of composition defined as expression or
elocutio. In his Art of Rhetoric, Aristotle advised the orator to use appropriate language so that
his audience can recognize and identify with his emotions. Aristotles statement implies that the
language that aptly expresses the feelings of the speaker has a convincing power over the
audience. Such language is successful when relying on patterns of speech, schemata lexeos,
which can express the right emotion in the most effective way. Schemata originally derive from
life, that is, they are mimetic of natural eloquence. The eloquence of the orator is thus a mimesis
and systematization of everyday speech. The lore of schemata, or rhetorical figures and tropes as
they came to be known in the Latin rhetorical tradition, implied that these had a psychological
effect on the audience. The Latin authors agreed that the form of a figure might be fixed but the
possible relationships between the resulting meaning and emotion are infinite, depending on the
content and the immediate context of the speech. According to Brian Vickers, figures have a
polysemous or polypathous nature (they can have various meanings or express various emotions,
respectively) since they contain and arouse many possible relationships between meaning and
feeling. 9

Ad C. Herennium 4.8.11
Vickers, The Expressive Function of Rhetorical Figures, in In Defense of Rhetoric (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1988), 339.
9

26

The oldest extant formal study of schemata or figures appears in Rhetorica ad

Herennium. In book IV of this treatise, the anonymous author distinguishes between Figures of
Diction, related to the fine polish of language itself, and Figures of Thought, related to the
idea behind the words. The author advises moderation in the use of figures so as not to violate
propriety. Similarly, Quintilian defines figures as deviations from normal speech and cautions
the orator to avoid excessive use in order to remain within the boundaries of propriety.
According to Quintilian, propriety or decorum is one of the main four virtues of rhetoric. 10
Quintilian further admits that different writers often assign different names to the same figure
and he, therefore, frequently refrains from labeling the figures he describes to prevent further
confusion. Like the author of Rhetorica ad Herennium, Quintilian advocates the avoidance of
pedantry and suggests that the best critic remains our senses:
The best judge of composition is the ear, which senses completeness, feels lack
when something is incomplete, is offended by unevenness, soothed by
smoothness and excited by speed; it approves stability, detects lamentness, and is
bored by redundancy or excess. The learned therefore know the principles of
composition but even the unlearned know its pleasures. 11
Quintilians suggestion echoes the belief that the orators eloquence reflects natural eloquence,
which even the unlearned can recognize.
The two basic rhetorical concepts regarding elocutio, that figures and tropes are
expressive and that rhetoric is essentially a mimesis of natural speech, persisted well into the
Middle Ages and Renaissance and occupied a central position in humanistic literature. The
pursuit of eloquence thus became one of the most important tasks of the humanist scholar.

10

The other three virtues comprise correctness (of language), lucidity, and ornament. Quintilian Institutio
8.1-3; 11.1.
11
Quintilian Institutio 9.4.

27

Classical learning in the Renaissance

The terms renaissance, humanism, and rhetoric have been the subject of much
controversy among historians of literature, philosophy, and the arts. The Renaissance is generally
understood as the period characterized by the revival of classical learning initiated in Italy during
the fourteenth century. 12 This revival was diligently pursued by the humanists: students and
teachers of the so-called studia humanitatis, which included the five disciplines then known as
grammatica (grammar), rhetorica (rhetoric), poetica (poetry), historia (history), and philosophia
moralis (moral philosophy). As the humanists studied classical literature they discovered that
rhetoric was the core and connecting thread among the five studia and the discipline that shaped
and adorned the texts they so much admired.
In order to assess the extent to which Greek and Latin rhetorical writings affected the
medieval and renaissance humanists we need to first identify the sources of classical literature
available to them. During the Middle Ages, the most widely circulated theoretical writings were
Ciceros De inventione, the Rhetorica ad Herennium, and a truncated version of Quintilians
Institutio. Some Greek sources were also accessible but had limited circulation: Aristotles The
Art of Rhetoric, the pseudo-Aristotelian Rhetorica ad Alexandrum, De elocutione attributed to
Demetrius of Phaleron, and Isocratess speech Ad Demonicum. 13 Between 1350 and 1600
western scholars visiting the East, as well as Byzantine scholars fleeing Constantinople after its
fall to the Turks in 1453, brought with them the majority of the Greek manuscripts that are today

12

For opposing views regarding the meaning of the term Renaissance and its origins in music consult
Claude V. Palisca, An Italian Renaissance in Music? in Humanism in Italian Renaissance Musical Thought (New
Haven: Yale University Press, 1985), 1-22.
13
For an account of sources available in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance see Paul O. Kristeller,
Rhetoric in Medieval and Renaissance Culture, in Renaissance Thought and the Arts (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1990), 230-232.

28

known in the West. 14 Since knowledge of Greek was never widespread, humanists took as their
task to translate the available ancient Greek literature into Latin and also to provide new
translations and commentaries for the texts that were already known through medieval Latin
translations. 15 Catering to an audience of noblemen, merchants, and craftsmen that had no
knowledge of Latin but were pursuing humanistic interests, the humanists also translated a large
body of classical literature into the various vernacular languages. Thus many Greek and Roman
authors were translated into Tuscan as early as the fifteenth century and subsequently into
French, German, English, and Spanish during the sixteenth century. 16
The discovery of the full text of Quintilians Institutio oratoria in 1416 and Ciceros De
oratore in 1422 rekindled a new interest in the ars rhetorica. 17 These two works were published
in Italy in 1470 and 1465, respectively, and were widely disseminated in the first half of the
sixteenth century. For example, Quintilians Institutio appeared in at least eighteen editions by
1500 and 130 more by 1600. 18 In 1470, the first printed edition of Ad Herennium also appeared
and would be followed by twenty-four editions before the end of the century. This treatise,
already widely circulating in manuscripts during the Middle Ages, became the basic text for
instruction in rhetoric. 19 Vickers further estimates that approximately 2,000 books on rhetoric
were published between 1400 and 1700, each edition usually circulating in press runs of 250 to
14

Paul O. Kristeller, Humanism,in The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy, 119. Among the
most important Byzantine scholars was Manuel Chrysoloras, who came to Italy as an ambassador and taught Greek
in Florence from 1396 to 1400. The most influential figure for the history of rhetoric was George of Trebizond
(1392-1472), who brought the Greek classics and the Byzantine rhetorical tradition to the West. He wrote the first
new treatise on rhetoric in the Renaissance, Rhetoricorum Libri V (1433). The standard monograph for Trebizonds
life and contributions is John Monfasani, George of Trebizond: A Biography and a Study of his Rhetoric and Logic
(Leiden: Brill, 1976).
15
For the types of ancient Greek writings that became available to the West during the Renaissance see
Kristeller, Humanism, 120.
16
Kristeller, Humanism, 121.
17
Quintilians complete text was discovered by Poggio Bracciolini in the dungeons of the monastery of
Saint Gall in Switzerland during his visit there for the Council of Constance.
18
Brian Vickers, Figures of Rhetoric/Figures of Music? Rhetorica 2, no. 1 (1984): 4.
19
Warren Kirkendale, Ciceronians versus Aristotelians: On the Ricercar as Exordium, from Bembo to
Bach, Journal of the American Musicological Society 32, no. 1 (1979): 21.

29

1,000 copies. 20 With such a proliferation of rhetorical writings it is certain that an educated man
would have been exposed to the principles of oratory; the question is how his intellectual goals
and professional obligations would have prompted him to use them. My rhetorical analyses of
the multi-voice songs aims to address this question as it relates to contemporary composers of
secular music.
To the body of classical writings, medieval and renaissance humanists usually added
commentaries rather than independent treatises; the idea of ancient authority inhibited writers
from rivaling the classical authors. However, the latter practice became increasingly popular as
the sixteenth century progressed. In addition to the literature on rhetoric, a significant body of
writings in and about other literary genres, such as the ars epistolandi, the oration, and the
sermon, further developed out of their medieval predecessors. The ars epistolandi, or
composition of letters, both for legal and administrative purposes and as private correspondence,
occupied a central position in humanistic writings. In their capacity as chancellors and
secretaries, renaissance humanists continued the medieval tradition of the ars dictaminis (the
composition of documents and letters). The second literary genre, also inherited from the Middle
Ages, is the speech or oration. Common occasions for such speeches were weddings or funerals,
welcoming ceremonies for distinguished visitors, university orations at the beginning of the
academic year, and a variety of public events. Finally, the sermon continued to occupy a central
position in the literature, only during the Renaissance secular oratory greatly influenced sacred
eloquence. Preachers viewed the sermon as embodying the technique of praise and blame, thus
aligning itself with epideictic rhetoric. The purpose of sermons in the Renaissance became to
move the congregation to ethical conduct. 21

20
21

Vickers, Renaissance Reintegration, in In Defense of Rhetoric (Oxford: Clarendon, 1988), 256.

Kristeller, Rhetoric in Medieval and Renaissance Culture, 234-242.

30

In their attempt to bring classical eloquence into their writings, humanists were not in
agreement as to which style of Latin they should adopt. They were divided into two major
camps, the Ciceronians and the anti-Ciceronians. The first group sought to imitate exactly
Ciceros language to the extreme extent that they refused to apply any word not found in
Ciceros writings. The anti-Ciceronians, supported by Erasmus, advocated a classical yet flexible
Latin style. Their disputes resulted in the publication of numerous essays that exposed their
respective views. 22
Humanism and rhetoric north of the Alps
It is generally accepted that the return to the classical sources was a hallmark of
humanistic activities throughout Europe. However, humanism was not practiced with the same
intensity or for the same reasons, nor did it emphasize the same aspects, in all European regions
at all times. Humanism in Italy originated with the writings of Petrarch (1304-1374) in the
middle of the fourteenth century. Petrarch became the leading humanist figure until modern
times and his writings include Latin poems and treatises, historical works, and private letters
which he collected, edited, and revised with admirable care. Other Italian humanists of the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries include Coluccio Salutati (1331-1406), Leonardo Bruni (c.
1370-1444), Poggio Bracciolini (1380-1459), Lorenzo Valla (1407-1457), and Angelo Poliziano
(1454-1494). From Italy humanism spread to other European countries through a variety of
channels: foreign scholars or students that resided in Italy for long periods of time and then
traveled elsewhere; Italian bankers and businessmen as well as political envoys that accompanied
royalty and nobles throughout Europe; Italian scholars that taught at foreign universities; Italian
humanists corresponding with individuals in foreign lands; and, above all, through the diffusion
22

Erasmus wrote the treatise Ciceronianus on the subject, in 1528.

31

of manuscript and printed sources of and about classical literature into public and private
libraries. 23
While France had a strong tradition of reading and interpreting Roman writers since the
ninth century, especially centered around the cathedral school of Chartres, this tradition started to
decline at the beginning of the fourteenth century. 24 At the same time humanism emerged in
Italy and was subsequently re-imported to France during the fifteenth century by the French
humanists Guillaume Fichet (1433-c. 1490) and Robert Gaguin (c. 1430-1501). It was the
leading figures of the next generation, however, that best represented the high point and main
interests of French humanism: Jacques Lefvre dEtaples (c. 1460-1536) and Guillaume Bud
(1468-1540). 25 King Francis I appointed Lefvre librarian of the Blois collection in 1526, and
during his service Lefvre finished a translation of the Bible, published in Antwerp in 1530.
Lefvre was a prolific writerover 350 editions of his works appeared during his lifetime. His
interests rested mainly with Christian literature, medieval Christian mysticism, Aristotelian
philosophy, and mathematics. He combined his own interests with that of his French patrons and
adapted Italian humanism to the educational needs and traditions of the University of Paris. 26
Both Lefvre and his younger contemporary Bud were striving to reconcile the conflict between
Christian devotion and their admiration for ancient philosophy. Bud, more historically minded
than Lefvre, perceived this paradox more clearly and advocated the study of the humanities
only as a preparation for and complement to sacred studies.
23

For a detailed discussion of the ways Italian humanism spread to other European countries see Paul O.
Kristeller, The European Diffusion of Italian Humanism, in Renaissance Thought and the Arts (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1990), 69-88.
24
Kristeller, Humanism, 128. For a detailed discussion of the study of rhetoric in medieval France see
George A. Kennedy, Classical Rhetoric and Its Christian and Secular Tradition from Ancient to Modern Times
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999), 216-219.
25
For a comprehensive discussion of the nature of humanism in France see Eugene F. Rice, Humanism in
France, in Humanism beyond Italy, vol. 2 of Renaissance Humanism: Foundations, Forms, and Legacy, ed. Albert
Rabil, Jr. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1988), 109-122.
26
Rice, Humanism in France, 112.

32

The humanist program in France acquired a different profile and served quite different
purposes than in Italy. According to Eugene Rice,
the reception in France of the studia humanitatis is closely related to the
emergence in the sixteenth century of the social group of which Bud was himself
a representative member, that elite corps of royal office-holders known to
contemporaries as the noblesse politique or noblesse civile . . . The old nobility,
the noblesse darmes et de race, asserted that true nobility is inherited, not
acquired . . . Members of the noblesse civile required an alternative idea of
nobility, an alternative vision of what living nobly could mean, one distinct from
the chivalric aspirations and mentality of the nobility of the sword and adaptable
to their conception of themselves and their own style of life, a coherent body of
cultural ideals distinct from those of the older nobility with whom they shared and
competed for power. They found it in the cultural and educational program of
humanism and in the ideal of human dignity implicit in it. A humanist education
not only taught them to speak and write persuasively, it also inculcated a selfconfident dignity independent of both office and birth and helped to bridge the
gap between legal nobility, the reward of service, and acceptance as a gentleman .
. . Humanists had long argued that true nobility was grounded on virtue and merit
rather than on birth. The dignity and quality of nobility that the noblesse de race
located in the blood and defined as honor, bravery, strength, and military brio, the
noblesse politique et civile redefined as the virtues of peace, eloquence,
scholarship, and reason . . . The true noble is the upright and cultivated man . . . A
humanist education and enlightened taste and patronage gratifyingly distinguish
him both from the merely rich and from nobles whose claims rest only on the
merits of their ancestors. 27
Thus humanist activity in France acquired a sociological agenda that aimed to bridge the gap
between the nobility and an emerging middle, yet educated class, the noblesse civile. At the same
time, humanists in France faced the problem of double imitation since they had to look for
models both in the ancient Greek and Latin authors and to the Italians, which caused a cultural
inferiority complex. 28 Thus French writers were torn between their admiration for Italian as a
third classical language to be imitated, and their desire to go beyond all three and create a new
and distinct literature in French. To overcome this obstacle, there soon developed a spirit of
27

Rice, Humanism in France, 119-120.

Sem Dresden, The Profile of the Reception of the Italian Renaissance in France, in Itinerarium
Italicum: The Profile of the Italian Renaissance in the Mirror of Its European Transformations, ed. Heiko A.
Oberman and Thomas A. Brady, Jr., Studies in Medieval and Reformation Thought, vol. 14 (Leiden: E. J. Brill,
1975), 131.
28

33

competition, of aemulatio, a desire to do just as well in ones own language and ultimately to
alter it in such a way as to be able to compete on an equal footing. The Romans had done so with
regard to Greek, the Italians with regard to Latin, and the French with regard to Greek, Latin, and
Italian. 29 The concern with the vernacular not only gave rise to a considerable body of humanist
literature in French but also triggered an interest in and appreciation of other vernacular literary
genres. This possibly explains why the popular lyric also rose in prominence and infiltrated the
courtly poetic tradition during the fifteenth century. This trait had important consequences on the
development and style of the French chanson and will be explored in the next chapter.
The French concern with elevating the national tongue to a more sophisticated level
stands in contrast to the intense cultivation of the classical languages taking place in the Low
Countries. Among the fundamental contributions of northern humanism was the
institutionalization of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. The university of Louvain established the
Collegium Trilingue in 1517, the first such institution in Europe, where the three languages were
taught in a humanistic environment. Such interest in the classical heritage is possibly due to the
international quality of humanism in Burgundian territories, made evident through the constant
exchange of scholars with other countries. Many Italian, French, German, and Spanish humanists
were active in the Low Countries, and, conversely, many northern scholars and students went
abroad to study or to enter the service of nobles. 30
Other factors, such as the influence of Erasmus and the Reformation, played a major role
in shaping transalpine humanism. The Christian orientation that characterizes the humanist
movement in France is also paramount in the Low Countries. The writings of the two pre29

Dresden, The Profile, 131.

For the international exchange of humanists among the Low Countries and other European regions see
Josef Ijsewijn, Humanism in the Low Countries, in Humanism beyond Italy, vol. 2 of Renaissance Humanism:
Foundations, Forms, and Legacy, ed. Albert Rabil, Jr. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1988),160161.
30

34

eminent northern humanists, Rudolphus Agricola (1444-1485) and Desiderius Erasmus (14691536), are imbued with Christian piety and morals. Erasmus revived Christian piety through the
study of the classics and his major contribution is an edition of the New Testament in Greek. The
confluence of classical learning with Christian teachings is mostly made evident in Erasmuss
advice to preachers to take advantage of the rhetorical expressive devices in their sermons in
order to bring the faithful closer to God. Agricola also places emphasis on the power of the ars
rhetorica to teach (docere), with the ultimate goal to speak of Christian truth. Unfortunately, the
ecclesiastical upheavals that accompanied the Reformation had a negative effect on the
development of free intellectual activities in the Low Countries. Religious fanaticism forced
northern scholars to write works acceptable to theological censors. In order to avoid unwelcome
outcomes, they often withdrew into the neutral and safer work of the purely classical
philological kind. 31
Within the framework of humanisms influence on European intellectual activities on
both sides of the Alps, it is safe to assume that early sixteenth-century composers were amply
exposed to rhetoric and its principles, either through their years of service in Italian courts or
through their training in matrises, the choirschools that served as their music training grounds.
Of the known composers of multi-voice chansons, only Josquin and Johannes de Stokem have
documented activity in Italian courts; nevertheless, all composers pursued an ecclesiastical career
to a greater or lesser extent, which implies that they were exposed to a pedagogical curriculum
most certainly imbued by the rhetorical tradition. In addition, composers acquaintance with
some aspects of rhetorical theory might also have been possible through their contacts with
contemporary poetry. For the renaissance humanist, both rhetoric and poetics applied techniques
of persuasion with the ultimate goal to morally improve the reader or the audience. Behind this
31

Ijsewijn, Humanism in the Low Countries, 164.

35

notion lies the authority of Aristotle who opened his Poetics with the aphorism every poem and
all poetic discourse is blame or praise, therefore linking poetry with epideictic oratory.
A great number of treatises on the formal aspects of poetry or seconde rhtorique (to
distinguish it from the premire rhtorique which dealt with prose writings) appeared in
fifteenth-century France. 32 These were mainly concerned with the surface details of the poetic
art, emphasizing formal properties such as rhyme systems and rhythm. 33 A change of interest
from the structural aspects of poetry to its expressive ones occurred at the turn of the sixteenth
century, and poetic treatises of the period frequently included descriptions of rhetorical figures
and their applications to poetry. Composers must have been aware, at least partly, of this new
concern with poetrys expressive function, as well as with the indebtedness of contemporary
poetic theory to the rhetorical tradition.
At the same time, theorists advocated the close relationship between poetry and music.
For Jean Molinet, for examplepoet, theorist, and historiographer at the Burgundian court from
1475 to 1507poetry is a kind of music called rhythmic. 34 Therefore, in turn of the sixteenthcentury writings, rhetoric, poetry, and music are regarded as interrelated art forms. 35 The
emergence of the multi-voice chanson during the same period can only be viewed against this
background.

32

For a detailed discussion of differing views of poetry from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance see H.
Lubienski-Bodenham, The Origins of the Fifteenth-Century View of Poetry as Seconde Rhtorique, Modern
Language Review 74 (1979): 26-38. For a brief survey of poetic treatises in the Middle Ages, consult Kennedy,
Classical Rhetoric, 220-221.
33
Chapter II discusses in detail contemporary treatises on poetic theory.
34
Jean Molinet, Art de Rhtorique, in Ernest Langlois, Receuil darts de seconde rhtorique (Paris:
Imprimerie nationale, 1902), 216.
35
The appropriation of rhetorical principles for evaluating painting, sculpture, and architecture is discussed
in Vickers, Rhetoric and the Sister Arts, in In Defense of Rhetoric (Oxford: Clarendon, 1988), 340-374.

36

Rhetoric and music

The relationship between rhetoric and music has a long history, extending back to the
ancient times. Indeed, the power of music over the emotions has its roots in the writings of Plato
and Aristotle, and this notion found expression in many different guises in the writings of later
theorists. Quintilian praised the musician and urged the orator to imitate him. In a frequently
quoted passage, Quintilian appealed: Give me the knowledge of the principles of music, which
have the power to excite or assuage the emotions of mankind, for these will provide the future
orator with all [of the] methods which are concerned firstly with gesture, secondly with the
arrangement of the words, and thirdly with the inflections of the voice, of which a great variety
are required in pleading. 36 Quintilians appeal must be seen in relation to the central notion that
music is also mimetic of nature and, therefore, music can be used as a model. Furthermore, for
Quintilian, music could stir the emotions even in the absence of a text. 37
During the Renaissance, this correspondence between music and rhetoric was reversed
and rhetoric became instead the model for music to imitate. This reversal occurred because
humanists believed that the main agent responsible for the arousal of the emotions in a musical
composition was the text. According to Conrad Peutinger, the author of the epilogue in the Liber
selectarum cantionum, one of the earliest German repositories of Josquins motets, almost all
things in all the disciplines are beholden to speech, to such an extent that every learned man
would desire, and borrow, from this very art the measures, tones, vocal inflections, mutations,
and other items of this same type, even furthermore, a well composed and elegant structure 38

36

Quintilian Institutio 1.10.22.

Quintilian Institutio 9.4.11.
38
Liber selectarum cantionum quas vulgo mutetas appellant (Augsburg: Grimm & Wyrsung,1520), fol.
271v; quoted and translated in Stephanie P. Schlagel, The Liber selectarum cantionum and the German Josquin
Renaissance, Journal of Musicology 19, no. 4 (2002): 580.
37

37

Within this word-dominated conception, music had to adjust to the demands of its literary
counterpart.
Despite the honorable position that music held in the writings of the classical authors,
musical humanists faced a fundamental problem: how to imitate the music of the ancients. The
information about ancient Greek and Roman musical practice was rather scant compared to the
knowledge of ancient literature, and very few musical examples survived. According to Claude
Palisca, by the end of the fifteenth century, humanists had recovered, read, and commented upon
the entire corpus of ancient writings on music and some of the notated examples. They became
aware that the polyphonic practice that had developed during the Middle Ages had no
relationship to Greek monody. To complicate matters, theoretical writings about ancient music
did not always allow for easy interpretations, a problem that resulted in much confusion and
differing ideas among medieval and renaissance music theorists. 39 Ironically, in their attempt to
recover the effects of ancient music, musical humanists
advocated reforms that would have deprived composers of some of their most
effective means of expression . . . The greatest irony is that under the cover of
restoring the ancient union between poetry and music many of the musical
humanists were actually trying to assert the superiority of poetry over music, to
curtail musics growing independence, to bring it under the control of texts. 40
The humanistic concern with the word gradually becomes the focus of musical theoretical
writings on both sides of the Alps.
Treatises on music from the end of the fifteenth century betray their authors exposure to
the most widely disseminated oratorical treatises. Johannes Tinctoris (c. 1435-1511) cites Cicero
as his authority and distinguishes between three styles to define the polyphonic mass, motet, and
chanson. These are the cantus magnus, mediocris, and parvus, respectively, echoing the
39

Palisca, Humanism, 23.

James Anderson Winn, Unsuspected Eloquence: A History of the Relations between Poetry and Music
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981), 176.
40

38

threefold division of oratorical style by Cicero (magna, mediocria, parva). 41 In his eighth rule of
counterpoint Tinctoris also propagated variety as important to music, invoking the Ciceronian
principle of varietas. 42
Franchino Gaffurio (1451-1522), known for his avid interest in seeking out and studying
ancient sources, places emphasis on the relationship between music and words, emphasizing the
ancient identity between the two arts. 43 In his Rules of Decorum in Singing, Gaffurio draws
from the Ciceronian principle of decorum to advise the composer to take care that words are set
in an appropriate way to music and also to select the mode of his song to fit the subject matter
of his text. 44 Quintilians division of pronuntiatio into vox and gestus (voice and gesture) also
informs Gaffurios discussion of delivery in singing. Gaffurio advises the singer to use
moderation and to avoid bellowing or excessive vibrato and refrain from a gaping, distorted
mouth and exaggerated movements of the head and hands. 45 Once again, humanists have made
oratory the model for music, contrary to Quintilians text, in which the author urged the orator to
learn from the gestures of the musician. Despite Gaffurios focus on pronuntiatio, his analogies
between rhetoric and musical style and composition are otherwise only of a general nature.
Italian music theorists of the first half of the sixteenth century were more specific in
relating musical composition to rhetoric. The idea that oratory could provide the model for all

41

Blake McDowell Wilson, Ut oratoria musica in the Writings of Renaissance Music Theorists, in Festa
Musicologica: Essays in Honor of George J. Buelow, ed. Thomas J. Mathiesen and Benito V. Rivera, Festschrift
Series, vol. 14 (Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon, 1995), 346.
42
Johannes Tinctoris, Liber de arte contrapuncti, 2 vols., ed. Albert Seay, Corpus Scriptorum de Musica,
vol. 22 (n.p.: American Institute of Musicology, 1975), 2:155. For an extensive discussion of Tinctoriss statement
and the possible range of meanings of varietas in late fifteenth-century repertories see Sean Gallagher, Models of
varietas: Studies in Style and Attribution in the Motets of Johannes Regis and His Contemporaries (Ph.D. diss.,
Harvard University, 1998).
43
Gaffurio commissioned translations of the most important Greek musical writings into Latin. See Palisca,
Gaffurio as a Humanist, in Humanism, 191-225, and idem, The Early Translators: Burana, Leoniceno, Augio,
111-132.
44
Franchino Gaffurio, Practica musicae, trans. Clement Miller, Musicological Studies and Documents, vol.
20 (n.p.: American Institute of Musicology, 1968), book III, chapter 15.
45
Gaffurio, Practica musicae, book III, chapter 15.

39

kinds of artistic expression, expounded by the Venetian Pietro Bembo (1470-1547), found fertile
ground in this city, where a number of music theorists centered their activities. 46 Pietro Aaron
(c. 1480-after 1545), Giovanni Lafranco (c. 1490-1545), and Giovanni del Lago (c. 1490-1544)
were all involved with Venetian literati and musicians. Of special concern to Lafranco and del
Lago is the proper placement of the text. Lafranco sets out specific rules for adapting notes to
syllables, and both theorists advise that melodic phrases should coordinate with the sentence
structure of the text. To this end, a composer should judiciously place his rests and cadences.
Furthermore, for del Lago, a composer should study the words before proceeding to their musical
setting and choose the mode that enhances the affective power of his music. 47
It is not until the writings of Gioseffo Zarlino (1517-1590) and Nicola Vicentino (1511c. 1576) of the 1550s, that the relationship between rhetoric and music is explicitly articulated.
The two theorists hold the orator, once again, as a model whom the singer should imitate in
performance. According to Vicentino:
The experience of the orator teaches us this, for we observe the method he adopts
in his oration, that he now speaks with force, and now soft, now a bit slower, now
a bit faster, and by this means greatly moves the listeners, and this method of
changing the pace greatly affects the spirit. And thus one should sing improvised
music in such a way as to imitate the accents and effects of the different parts of
the oration. If an orator would attempt to make a beautiful oration without
[adopting] the rules of its accents, pronunciations, words delivered now quickly or
slowly, some softly, some loudly, the effect will not move the listeners. It must be
the same in Music because if the orator is to move the listeners with the
abovementioned rules, so much better the music recited with the same rules
accompanied by well ordered harmony; it will be far more effective. 48
46

Pietro Bembo was a highly influential humanist scholar of the first half of the sixteenth century. His
praise of the Tuscan dialect and Petrarchan poetics had a substantial impact on the mid-century madrigal style of
Adrian Willaert.
47
For details on Lafrancos and del Lagos theories of text underlay see Don Harrn, Toward a
Codification of Word-Tone Relations: Lafranco, in Word-Tone Relations in Musical Thought, Musicological
Studies and Documents, vol. 40 (n.p.: American Institute of Musicology, 1986), 130-160.
48
Nicola Vicentino, Lantica musica ridotta alla moderna prattica (Rome: A. Barre, 1555), book 4, chapter
42; quoted and translated in Timothy McGee, Music, Rhetoric, and the Emperors New Clothes, in Music and
Medieval Manuscripts: Paleography and Performance. Essays Dedicated to Andrew Hughes, ed. John Haines and
Randall Rosenfeld (Hampshire: Ashgate, 2004), 253-254.

40

In the same vein Zarlino remarked:

Therefore, just as it is allowed that in reciting, according to the material that he
draws upon, an orator sometimes does not just speak, but when he would wish to
convey fear and terror he explains his concept with a loud and horrible voice,
yelling and exclaiming; and when he wishes to provoke commiseration [he
speaks] with a subdued and lowered voice. Thus is it not inappropriate for a
musician to use similar deviceshigh and low, now loud and now subdued, when
reciting his compositions? Our scholars perhaps would say, that it is one thing to
sing and another to orate or to harangue, and that it is not good for a Musician
when singing to adopt these devices that an Orator uses in his Orations. Very
well, I too have said as much above: I do not say that a singer while singing
should yell or roar, because such a thing would have neither proportion nor
dignity, but I say that it is permitted to him [when he functions] as a reciter, for
whatever is allowed to a reciter of Tragedy and Comedythus if the reciter is
permitted these things for the enjoyment of his listeners, so must the singer be
allowed to use some of them in singing. 49
These quotations reveal their writers concern mainly with pronuntiatio, the delivery or
performance techniques of a song, and not its composition. Apart from the discussion of
performance practice and abstract generalities, the affinities with rhetoric that Italian theorists
advocated were rather superficial and did not involve any discussion on the relationship of music
to rhetorical structure and figures.
It was left to German music theorists of the sixteenth century to advocate the confluence
between rhetorical principles and compositional practice. Treatises designed to serve the
practical needs of singing instruction in the Protestant Lateinschulen, musically-oriented Latin
schools instituted by Luthers education minister Philipp Melanchthon (1497-1560), betray signs
of the humanistic concern with the relationship between text and music. 50 Among them,
Nikolaus Listenius made a fundamental contribution when he introduced a new division of music
theory into musica poetica, musica theoretica, and musica practica in his Musica (1537),
reflecting the threefold Aristotelian categorization of human activities into the theoretical, the
49

Gioseffo Zarlino, Sopplimenti musicali (Venice: Sanese, 1588), chapter 11; facs. (New York: Alan R.
Liss, 1979); quoted and translated in McGee, Music, Rhetoric, 254-255.
50
For some early northern treatises on the subject see McDowell Wilson, Ut oratoria, 350.

41

practical, and the poetic. 51 Listeniuss new concept of musica poetica emphasizes the creative or
poetic aspect of musical composition, which goes beyond the successful combination of notes to
the more abstract notion of conveying the mood of the text. In this sense, poetic music is
intimately connected to rhetoric, and the concept subsequently became very influential in
Germanic lands, culminating with Joachim Burmeisters Musica poetica of 1606.
By the middle of the sixteenth century, oltremontani writers increasingly expanded on the
analogies between rhetoric and music. Musics ability to move (movere), achieved through
elegant singing and the proper relationship between the words and its musical setting, became of
central focus. In the dedication of his treatise De arte canendi (1540), Sebald Heyden invokes
the rhetorical terms coloribus (ornaments), figura, and varietas, as well as the rhetorical
commonplace that figures have the capacity to vividly place subjects before the minds eye (ob
oculos ponere). 52 It is exactly for his effective and affective coordination between the text and
the music that the Swiss humanist Henricus Glareanus praised Josquin des Prez above all
composers. In his Dodecachordon, published in 1547 but completed about ten years earlier,
around the same time with Listeniuss and Heydens treatises, Glarean provides an extensive
encomium of Josquin:
No one has expressed more effectively in songs the moods of the heart than this
symphonetes, no one has begun more successfully, no one has been able to vie
with him on an equal plane in grace and fluency of expression, just as no one of
the Romans is superior to Maro [Virgil] in the epic. For just as Maro, with the
felicity of a natural talent, was accustomed to make a poem equal to the subject
matter, as for instance, to place weighty matters before the eyes with accumulated
spondees, to express rapidity with unmixed dactyls, to use words suitable to his
every subject, in short as Flaccus said about Homer, to undertake nothing ineptly,
so also our Josquin sometimes moves with light accelerating notes where the
subject demands it, sometimes sings the songs with slow, moving tones; and, to
51

Nikolaus Listenius, Musica (Wittenberg: Georg Rhau, 1537); trans. Albert Seay, Colorado College
Music Press, vol. 6 (Colorado Springs: Colorado College, 1975).
52
Sebald Heyden, De arte canendi (Nuremberg: Johann Petreius, 1540); trans. Clement Miller,
Musicological Studies and Documents, vol. 26 (n.p.: American Institute of Musicology, 1972), 19.

42

say finally, has never brought forth anything which was not pleasant to the ears,
and which the learned did not approve as superior in talent, which in sort, even if
it should seem less erudite, would not be agreeable and acceptable to discerning
listeners. 53
With Andrianus Petit Coclico (c. 1500-c. 1563) and Hermann Finck (1527-1558) the ties
between music and language become even closer. Finck explicitly states that indeed, the
composer who wishes to write a piece must above all take the text into account, diligently
examine all its parts, considering what kind of melody can be given it which would suitably go
with it and express most properly its meaning and the affection of the individual words. 54 Both
theorists single out Josquin as the composer who best represents the new text-expressive style of
composition. A more explicitly formulated connection between music and rhetoric occurs in
Gallus Dresslers Praecepta musicae poeticae (1563). Dressler is the first writer to parallel the
division of an oration into exordium, medium, and finis with the beginning, middle, and finale of
a musical composition. 55
It was only at the turn of the seventeenth century that a full-fledged systematization of
musico-rhetorical theory came into being. The writings of Johannes Lippius (1585-1612) and
Joachim Burmeister (1564-1629) bring into musica poetica the rhetorical principles of
composition, organization, and expression. In his Synopsis musicae novae (1612), Lippius
describes in detail how the five stages that characterize the composition of a speech can serve as
a model for musical composition. Lippius focuses on the first two principles, invention and
53

Henricus Glareanus, Dodecachordon (Basel: Petri, 1547); facs. (New York: Broude Bros., 1967), 362363; trans. Clement A. Miller, Musicological Studies and Documents, vol. 6 (n.p.: American Institute of
Musicology, 1965), 264-265.
54
Hermann Finck, Practica musica (Wittenberg: Georg Rhau, 1556); quoted and translated in McDowell
Wilson, Ut oratoria, 357. Adrianus Petit Coclico, Compendium musices (Nuremberg: Berg & Neuber, 1552);
Musical Compendium, trans. Albert Seay, Colorado College Music Press, vol. 5 (Colorado Springs: Colorado
College, 1973).
55
Gallus Dressler, Praecepta musicae poeticae, MS 1563; ed. B. Engelke, in Geschichtsbltter fr Stadt
und Land Magdeburg 49-50 (1914-15), 243-248. Modern edition Gallus Dressler, Praecepta musicae poticae, ed.
and trans. Robert Forgcs, Studies in the History of Music Theory and Literature, vol. 3 (Urbana: University of
Illinois Press, 2007).

43

arrangement (inventio and dispositio), but largely ignores expression (elocutio). 56 Therefore,
rhetoric provides Lippius with the conceptual framework for the articulation of a theory of
musical form, the earliest explicit attempt towards this end.
Elocutio is the focus of Burmeisters theory exposed in his three treatises
Hypomnematum musicae poeticae (1599), Musica autoschediastike (1601), and Musica poetica
(1606). 57 Belonging to the German line of music theorists, Burmeister sought to reconcile the
compositional techniques of Franco-Flemish polyphony with the expressive ideals of oratory. In
his Musica autoschediastike, Burmeister extols music for its affective power, which is above that
of oratory:
In the art of oratory, in so far as it has power, the power resides not in the simple
collection of simple words, in the proper measuring out of periods, and although
they be plain, in their exquisite combination, which remains naked and always
even and equal. Rather it resides in those things in which charm and elegance lie
concealed in ornament and through words charged with wit, in periods enclosing
a range of emphatic words. Thus also this art [music], beyond the naked mixture
of perfect and imperfect consonances, offers to the sense through the
intermingling of dissonances a combination that similarly cannot fail to touch the
heart . . . So that these things may deserve greater confidence, a single example
may be selected from among many in the works of Orlandus in the song Deus qui
sedes for five voices. He interpreted the text Laborem et dolorem, etc so
artfully; indeed he so portrayed it that through these very contorted inflections of
intervals he put before the eyes the meaning of the thing [itself]. Certainly the
mere regular interweaving of consonances does not accomplish this feat; rather
the labor of craft and the learned syntax are swept away by the majesty of gesture
and ornament. By Hercules, not Apelles, with the most accurate skill of his art,
not Demosthenes, not Cicero by the art of persuading, deflecting, moving, and
orating, would have better placed the burden of trouble and lamentation before the
eyes, moved the ears, implanted these [feelings] in the heart than Orlandus did
with this harmonic art. 58

56

Johannes Lippius, Synopsis musicae novae (Strassburg: Kieffer, 1612); Synopsis of New Music, trans.
Benito V. Rivera, Colorado College Music Press, vol. 8 (Colorado Springs: Colorado College, 1977).
57
Joachim Burmeister, Hypomnematum musicae poeticae (Rostock: S. Myliander, 1599); Musica
autoschediastike (Rostock: C. Reusner, 1601); Musica poetica (Rostock: S. Myliander, 1606); Musical Poetics,
trans. Benito V. Rivera (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993).
58
Burmeister, Musica autoschediastike, fols. A2v-3v; translated in Claude V. Palisca, Ut oratoria musica:
The Rhetorical Basis of Musical Mannerism, in Studies in the History of Italian Music and Music Theory (Oxford:
Clarendon, 1994), 288.

44

Burmeisters emphasis on elocutio and consequently on the figures of speech, the

gestures responsible for the affective power of language, led him to produce a similar system of
figures for music. Using as models composers such as Clemens non Papa and Orlando di Lasso,
Burmeister provided a thorough exposition of musico-rhetorical figures, thus becoming the
founder of the Figurenlehre tradition. His taxonomy served both a descriptive functionand as
such it provided the foundation for musical analysis and criticismand a prescriptive one, as a
pedagogical tool for young composers and students of music.
Although Burmeister adopts Greek and Latin terminology, his use of figures is
idiosyncratic; more often than not, his terms only vaguely reflect the function of their rhetorical
counterparts or have no rhetorical precedent at all. In fact, Burmeisters figures describe purely
musical phenomena, frequently detached from a text and its meaning, and thus are not an
appropriate model for musical rhetorical analysis, in which some kind of relationship between
the text and its musical setting is asserted.
Later theorists were more successful in relating figures of speech with musical gestures.
For example, in rhetoric anadiplosis is defined as the repetition of a word that ends a clause or
sentence at the beginning of the following clause or sentence. For Burmeister anadiplosis is a
harmonic ornament consisting in the repetition of an antiphonal exchange of homorhythmic
passages between two groups of voices, while for Mauritius Vogt, writing in 1719, it is a
melodic gesture that ends a musical phrase and repeats at the beginning of the next. 59 It is
obvious that Vogts application is more faithful to its linguistic counterpart than Burmeisters.
Eventually, rhetoric provided theorists with the necessary conceptual framework and
vocabulary to describe musical gestures that do not have a linguistic equivalent but, nevertheless,

59

Mauritius Vogt, Conclave Thesauri magnae artis musicae (Prague: Vetero, 1719), 150. For Burmeisters
definition see Musical Poetics, 167.

45

derive their inspiration from the textual content. In his Musurgia Universalis (1650), written
some fifty years after Burmeisters treatises, Athanasius Kircher introduces three new musical
figures whose shape reflects a graphic representation of the text: anabasis, a rising line to reflect
textual references to ascent or high and distinguished things; catabasis, a descending line that
illustrates servitude, humility, or infernal notions; and circulatio, a circular melodic motion, that
symbolizes perfection, eternity, circular objects, or turning motions. 60 In his study CirculatioTradition, Maria Lactans, and Josquin as Musical Orator (discussed below), Warren Kirkendale
points out the presence of circulatio in Josquins compositions. The analysis of the multi-voice
chansons reveals that all of the above figures are found in nascent form in the repertory of
composers of Josquins generation.
The Figurenlehre tradition initiated by Burmeister became extremely influential for the
next two hundred years and often re-emerges in modern music criticism. This approach has not
been accepted without skepticism. The main objections come from Vickers, who questions the
ability of a non-linguistic system (music) to be adapted to a linguistic one (rhetoric). His main
concern is that in doing so contemporary theorists and musicians unavoidably transformed the
nature of the figures of speech from semantic to structural. Vickers rightly observes that
all discussions of music and rhetoric assume that notes in music behave in the
same way as do words in language. That is, since notes can be repeated, as words
can, then the effect will be similar. Insofar as we consider the shape of the
resulting figure, that may be true; yet what of the meaning of the words? How can
music be said to match the denotational or referential level of language? 61

60

Athanasius Kircher, Musurgia Universalis (Rome: Francisci Corbelletti, 1650). For a modern edition see
Athanasius Kircher, Musurgia Universalis. Mit einen Vorwort, Personen-, Orts- und Sachregister von Ulf Scharlau
(Hildesheim: G. Olms, 1970), B 145.
61
Vickers, Figures of Rhetoric, 28-29

46

For example, the rhetorical figure hyperbaton describes the dislocation of the order of words to
reflect disordered feelings. 62 The audience, drawing from personal experience, could easily
recognize the effect. Since music does not have the same laws of syntax as language, it is
impossible to achieve the same result. Linguistic figures based on semantic properties, such as
the tropes, are hardly transferable to music. For example, antimetabole repeats words in inverted
order with a specific semantic result: eat to live: do not live to eat. Although mirror shapes are
very common in music, the immediate effect of the corresponding rhetorical figure is not
possible. 63 Yet the rhetorical analysis demonstrates that the composers of multi-voice songs
successfully applied such figures with semantic intent. 64
Another obstacle in applying figures of rhetoric to music is that even within the rhetorical
tradition itself there exists great ambiguity in the definition of terms. Writers of rhetoric
textbooks often assigned different meanings to the same rhetorical figure, thereby making it
impossible to talk about a generally agreed upon system. Vickers concludes that
while the influence of rhetoric gave composers ideas about musical form and the
stages of composition, and encouraged focus on the representation and arousal of
feeling, it did not always assist the development of specifically musical resources,
and the attempt to find equivalents for verbal devices was problematic . . . The
musical application of a figure is always more limited than its rhetorical function,
and . . . it usually involves a transposition of the linguistic effect on to some other
plane. 65
Musicologists tend to agree, in general, with Vickers conclusions. Maria Rika Maniates
asserts that Music is as rhetoric whenever musicians adapted this analogy to justify, explain,
teach, perform or compose music. 66 Similarly, in his extensive investigation of the confluence
62

Vickers, Figures of Rhetoric, 29-30.

Vickers, Figures of Rhetoric, 33.
64
See, for example, the discussion of Plusieurs regretz and Si vous navez autre desir, in chapters III and
V, respectively.
65
Vickers, Figures of Rhetoric, 40-41.
66
Maria R. Maniates, Music and Rhetoric: Facets of Cultural History in the Renaissance and Baroque,
Israel Studies in Musicology 3 (1983): 68.
63

47

between musical theoretical writings involving rhetoric and actual composition, Timothy McGee
proposed that composers were guided by rhetoric only in its general preceptsby adjusting, for
example, the division of musical phrases to match the syntax of the textand did not seek to
reflect the rhetorical ornaments of the poetry they set with matching musical figures. In other
words, there is no one-to-one correspondence between the rhetoric of the text and that of the
music. 67 He further rightfully observes that Josquin overlooked several opportunities to represent
rhetorical figures present in the text. 68
The only attempt, so far, to demonstrate that there can be a tighter and multi-faceted
relationship between the rhetorical details of the text and its musical setting is Patrick Maceys
analysis of Josquins motet Miserere mei, Deus. 69 In his dissertation, Josquins Miserere mei
Deus: Context, Structure, and Influence, Macey developed a systematic model of musicorhetorical analysis by using the principles and figures of the classical orators as well as those
described by seventeenth- and eighteenth-century musical theorists, including Burmeister, to
illuminate Josquins compositional approach both in the large structural level and the surface
details. In his more recent essay Josquin and Musical Rhetoric, however, Macey restricted the
use of rhetorical figures to those derived from classical oratory only. Table 1.1 lists the most
common rhetorical figures described in Rhetorica ad Herennium and Institutio oratoria, the most
widely disseminated treatises during the Renaissance and which contemporary composers were
likely acquainted with, that could have a musical application. For example, anaphora, the
repetition of the same word(s) at the beginning of successive sentences, finds expression in

67

McGee, Music, Rhetoric, 207-259.

McGee, Music, Rhetoric, 242.
69
Patrick Macey, Josquin and Musical Rhetoric: Miserere mei, Deus and Other Motets, in The Josquin
Companion, ed. Richard Sherr (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 495-530. This essay is an excerpted and
revised version of his dissertation Josquins Miserere mei Deus: Context, Structure, and Influence (Ph.D. diss.,
University of California, Berkeley, 1985).
68

48

music as repetition of the same motif to open different musical phrases. In contrast, hypophora, a
figure of reasoning which takes the form of asking the audience or ones adversary what can be
said of the matter, cannot obviously be appropriated in any meaningful way by music and is thus
not included in the table.
Maceys analysis convincingly demonstrates that the overall musical structure of
Josquins Miserere mei, Deus follows the known formal divisions of oratory. Josquin builds the
motets structure by strategically incorporating melodic gestures that derive from rhetorical
figures. It should be noted however, that the musical figures Macey identifies do not reflect the
same figures in the text, but are rather used for their rhetorical effect: as pointers that emphasize
a syntactic or semantic detail of the text in musical terms. For example, Macey likens the
truncation of the musical phrase in the alto part of verse 19 of the psalm to the rhetorical figure
apocope, which is defined as the dropping off of the final syllable or letter of a word. Since no
such curtailing occurs in the motets text, Macey interprets this gesture as reflecting the
emotional tension of the moment. 70 Although there is no direct analogy with the linguistic figure,
the oratorical apocope provided the conceptual background that fostered Maceys meaningful
interpretation of Josquins gesture. Furthermore, Macey assigns structural significance to figures
of repetition such as anadiplosis and epanadiplosis (for their definitions see Table 1.1), as
gestures that fuse the individual verses of the psalm into larger units. 71 He thus justifies
Vickerss claim that, when transferred to music, rhetorical figures are transformed from semantic
to structural or on to some other plane. The analysis of the multi-voice chansons reveals that,
besides their structural function, such figures may also have semantic significance, unveiling
how the composer read and interpreted a particular poetic text.

70
71

Macey, Josquin and Musical Rhetoric, 515.

Macey, Josquins Miserere mei Deus, 70.

49

Warren Kirkendale has provided further confirmation of Josquins rhetorical approach in

his Circulatio-Tradition, Maria Lactans, and Josquin as Musical Orator. 72 In this study,
Kirkendale argues for the rhetorical significance of circular motives in Josquins music. As
mentioned above, circulatio or circulus has no analogy in literature, but was first identified as a
musico-rhetorical figure by Kircher (in 1650). In practice, circulatio describes a melodic motion
which includes upper and lower neighbor tones of a different central note. Kirkendale points out
that Josquin employs this circle symbolism to represent the motion of Fortunes wheel in
Fortuna dun gran tempo and to depict the Virgins breast in the motet Ave Mariabenedicta tu.
In addition to whatever rhetorical precepts or gestures it appropriates from oratory,
music, as other non-linguistic arts, has its own expressive means. Discussions about the affective
qualities of the modes, a musical property without any equivalent in rhetoric, belong to this
category. Claude Palisca has demonstrated that there exists great inconsistency in contemporary
theory about the ethical power or emotional associations of the different modes. 73 Music
theorists confused the ancient Greek system with medieval writings on modes concerning the
plainchant tradition and with their own experience hearing and composing polyphonic music. In
the mid-sixteenth century, Zarlino attempted to define the expressive potential of the modes by
relying on the musical properties of the intervallic combinations that each mode afforded. 74
However, in practice, according to Palisca, there were no objective affective profiles associated
with each mode, and different theorists could assign different affects to the same mode. The

72

Warren Kirkendale, Circulatio-Tradition, Maria Lactans, and Josquin as Musical Orator, Acta
Musicologica 56 (1984): 69-92.
73
Claude V. Palisca, Mode Ethos in the Renaissance, in Essays in Musicology: A Tribute to Alvin
Johnson, ed. Lewis Lockwood and Edward Roesner (n.p.: American Musicological Society, 1990), 126-139.
74
Palisca, Mode Ethos, 131-133.

50

concern with mode was a cultural phenomenon related to the humanistic notion of the expressive
function of music. 75
The view that manipulation of modal aspects of a composition served a rhetorical
purpose is widespread in modern scholarship. In his Rhetorical Aspects of the Renaissance
Modes, Bernhard Meier investigates whether the so-claimed affective qualities of the modes
have any objective meaning. 76 According to Meier, modes can serve as vehicles with affective
potential that can enhance the semantic interpretation and expression of the text. In an earlier,
extended essay, Meier asserted that the frequently encountered combination of Dorian and
Phrygian modes in polyphonic music of the sixteenth century served the rhetorical purpose to
express unusual states of mind. 77 Composers manipulated the modes and the audiences
expectations about them to rhetorical ends and the analysis of the multi-voice songs further
justifies such claim.
The above studies demonstrate that rhetorically informed analysis widens our
interpretative horizons and elucidates text expressive devices, which would otherwise remain
unnoticed or obscure. Acquaintance with the history and basic premises of the rhetorical tradition
and with its profile within the humanistic background of the Renaissance provides the
framework for the subsequent analysis of the multi-voice songs from a rhetorical perspective.
Such analysis is justified by the composers contact with humanistic ideals. This is especially
true for Josquin, who spent a great deal of his career in Italy before composing his multi-voice
chansons in Cond-sur-lEscaut (1504-1521).
75

Harold Powers distinguishes between mode as an emic, that is, interpretative musical concept from
tonal type, which is etic, or objectively identifiable. Harold Powers, Tonal Types and Modal Categories in
Renaissance Polyphony, Journal of the American Musicological Society 34, no. 3 (1981): 428-470.
76
Bernhard Meier, Rhetorical Aspects of the Renaissance Modes, Journal of the Royal Musical
Association 115 (1990): 182-190.
77
Bernhard Meier, The Musica Reservata of Adrianus Petit Coclico and its Relationship to Josquin,
Musica Disciplina 10 (1956): 67-105.

51

Table 1.1. Rhetorical figures and tropes in Rhetorica ad Herennium and Institutio oratoria
that can have possible applications in music.
Name of figurea
anadiplosis *

anaphora

antimetabole
antithesis
aposiopesis
articulus

climax

epanadiplosis *
epistrophe *
exclamatio

hyperbaton
hyperbole
hypotyposis

interiectio *

Definition
The word ending one
clause or sentence is
repeated at the beginning
of the next
Repetition of the same
word(s) at the beginning of
successive clauses or
sentences
Repetition of two or more
words in successive
clauses in inverted order
Juxtaposition of
contrasting words or ideas
Breaking off a sentence
out of sudden passion
Creating emphasis through
repetition and distinct
figuration usually by
joining successive phrases
without conjunctions to
accelerate the pace of the
phrase
Last word of a clause
becomes the first of the
next, through several
clauses arranged in
ascending order of
magnitude
The opening word(s) of a
clause or a sentence is
repeated at the end
Ending a series of clauses
or sentences with the same
word(s)
Expression of strong
emotions, which disturbs
the flow of speech; an
emotional exclamation
Dislocations of normal
word order reflecting
psychological disorder
Rhetorical exaggeration
The vivid presentation of
the meaning and feeling of
the text, making the words
visible
Insertion of a sentence in
the midst of another

Rhetorica ad Herenniumb
not described

Institutio oratoria
yes (not labeled)

yes (epanaphora)

yes (not labeled)

yes (commutatio)

yes

yes

yes

yes (praecisio)

yes

yes

yes (not labeled)

yes (gradatio)

yes

not described

yes (not labeled)

yes (antistrophe,
conversio)

yes (not labeled)

yes

yes

yes

yes

yes
yes (diatyposis)

yes
yes

not described

yes (not labeled)

52

isocolon *

maxim
ploke
polyptoton * (musical
application only in relation
to the same figure in the
text)
symploke

Repetition of clauses of
equal length and
corresponding structure
A short and pithy saying
drawn from life
Repetition of one or more
words for rhetorical
emphasis
Same word inflected
differently to give two
syntactically distinct
perspectives
The combination of
anaphora and epistrophe
(described above)

yes

yes

yes (sententia)

yes (gnome, sententia)

yes (also antimetathesis)

yes

yes

yes

yes

yes (not labeled)

The asterisks in this column denote figures identified by Macey in Josquins Miserere mei, Deus.

Terms in parentheses denote the alternative name employed in the specific treatise if different from the term in the
first column. If the treatise describes a figure without assigning a name to it, it is marked as not labeled. When a
figure does not appear in the specific treatise it is marked as not described.

53

CHAPTER II
LYRIC AND CHANSON VERSE IN THE LATE FIFTEENTH AND EARLY
SIXTEENTH CENTURIES
Any study on musical rhetoric of vocal compositions presupposes a relationship between
the words and the music. Deeper understanding of the poetryits context, conventions,
vocabulary, prosodic featuresmay help us trace the path from the text to its musical realization
and, vice versa, from the music to the reading of the text by the composer. As French
contemporary poetic theory reveals, the first quarter of the sixteenth centurythe period during
which the multi-voice chanson emergeswitnesses tightening connections between poetry,
rhetoric, and music. Poetry is regarded at the same time as a type of oratory (seconde rhtorique)
and a type of music (rhythmic music). Acquaintance with the classical rhetorical tradition during
the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, as explored in the previous chapter, and with the
poetry and poetic theory during the same time, the focus of the present chapter, enables a multifaceted approach towards the rhetorical analysis and interpretation of the multi-voice song.
While French poetic treatises emphasize poetrys affinities with rhetoric and frequently
include a description of the figures of speech, they also make evident that poetry has its own
rhetoric that is idiosyncratic to this art. The analyses in later chapters demonstrate that composers
of the multi-voice song were extremely sensitive to this rhetoric of the verse. In particular, poetic
theory reveals a growing concern with rhyme as the locus where meaning is intensified, and
composers prove to be very inventive in reflecting this prosodic feature in musical terms. The
frequently strong sonorous quality of the verse, evident through alliterations, assonances, verbal
puns, etc., is underscored by the expanded textures. Awareness of the contemporary penchant for

54

obscene expressions or double entendres elucidates the musical treatment of relevant moments
and reveals the composers stance to this matter. Familiarity with the prominent poetic topoi and
the related registers (courtly or popular or a mixture of both) help further discern and
interpret differing patterns of musical treatment. Finally, the play with form and convention
frequently encountered in the multi-voice song, when placed against the background of the
common poetic forms set to music, throws into relief the rhetorically-oriented approach of the
composers.
The first part of this chapter, French poetry in the fifteenth and early sixteenth
centuries, surveys the poetic traditions in both theory and practice, focusing especially on the
points of cross-fertilization between lyric and chanson verse. It further explores the relationship
between rhetoric, poetry, and music, and revisits received views on the artistic qualities of the
lyric and chanson verse in the light of recent studies in literary criticism. The second part,
Chanson verse and the multi-voice song repertory, focuses on chanson verse, particularly on
the texts of the multi-voice genre. It surveys the manuscript and printed sources containing
chanson texts and examines the features of versification and the prominent topoi and themes in
relation to the nature of the poetry set (courtly or popular).
French poetry in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries
The Middle Ages is one of the most prolific and influential periods of European
literature, in general, and French poetry, in particular. The early stages of French poetry provide
us with persistent notions about love: the literary doctrine of finamor, prominent in the songs of
the troubadours and trouvres, became the source of the romantic love tradition established in the
West ever since. The term courtly love or amour courtois, coined by Gaston Paris in 1883 to
describe the love of Lancelot and Guenevere in Chrtien de Troyess novel Conte de la

55

charrette, was attached to the corpus of love poetry produced during a span of almost 600 years
(from the eleventh to the sixteenth centuries). 1 The early medieval romances and epics have
furnished subsequent literature with a variety of heroic figures ranging from the legendary King
Arthur, Tristan, Isolt, Lancelot, and Sir Perceval, to the comic Raynard the Fox and his company.
In the later Middle Ages, allegory became the persistent mode of love literature, in which the
hero struggles with personified abstractions in his quest to encounter Love. The Roman de la
Rose, a 4,000-line poem written by Guillaume de Lorris c. 1230, describes a young mans first
experience with love within an allegorized landscape. The narrative ends with the Lover being
impeded by Jealousy, Danger, Fear, and Slander to reach the desired Rosebud, a symbolic
representation of the female Lover. The writing of the poem was interrupted by Guillaumes
death, but Jean de Meun continued the narrative c. 1275, adding approximately 18,000 lines. In
his continuation, however, the poet completely reversed the situation set out by Guillaume. De
Meun advocated outright copulation with the ultimate purpose of reproducing the species and
condemned the spiritual games of courtly love as unnatural. He thus created an anti-romance that
demystified the poetic notion of finamor. His views on the nature of women and their place in
society fuelled a number of proto-feminist controversies. 2 De Meuns version became

Gaston Paris, tudes sur les romans de la Table Ronde. Lancelot du Lac. II. Le Conte de la Charrette,
Romania 12 (1883): 459-534. For a comprehensive study of the history of controversial scholarship related to the
origins and meaning of the notion of courtly love consult Roger Boase, The Origin and Meaning of Courtly Love:
A Critical Study of European Scholarship (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1977), as well as the essays in
F. X. Newman, ed., The Meaning of Courtly Love: Papers of the First Annual Conference of the Center of Medieval
and Early Renaissance Studies, State University of New York at Binghamton, March 17-18, 1967 (Albany: State
University of New York Press, 1968).
2
Among the ardent protagonists of this controversy was the poetess Christine de Pizan. Pizan attacked the
antifeminism of de Meun and gained the support of Jean de Gerson, chancellor of the Cathedral of Notre Dame and
rector of the University of Paris.

56

particularly influential during the following centuries, immediately following Dantes Commedia
in the number of manuscript copies in which it is preserved. 3
Even within the highly allegorized space of the Roman de la Rose, the poetic tradition of
finamor relies on a number of specific topoi and conventions. In this tradition, the poetic loversinger-narrator, uttered always in a male voice, declares his admiration for the lady, who is
superior to him in both social class and virtue. 4 He adores her in a manner that one ought to
adore the Virgin Mary, and his longing is thus frequently expressed in a religious vocabulary.
Dazzled by her unsurpassed beauty, the lover attempts to convince the lady to grant him her
favors; these could range from a smile or a simple acknowledgment of his existence to an act of
sexual intimacy. The lovers advances, however, face a number of obstacles: in addition to the
gap of social class, he has to face the danger of the losengiers, the slanderers who, creeping out
from every corner, seek to harm her reputation or harm both her and her admirer by revealing
their bond to her husband. The longer the favor is not granted, the more ennobling the experience
of finamor is, throwing the lover into a condition of religious contemplative exaltation. In fact,
the pain caused by love is indistinguishable from joy. The lover is grateful to his lady because,
through her unyielding and virtuous stance, she allows him to experience a state of perpetual
desire. Finamor is ideally an end in itself, a state of perpetual courtship, which verifies the
lovers worth and nobility. However, the different guises and subtle variations in which finamor
found expression, often depending on the conventions of the genre it was called to serve, reveal
that it was a much richer and diverse notion than the above schematic description demonstrates.

Ren of Anjou, The Book of the Love-Smitten Heart (Le livre du cuers damours espris), ed. and trans.
Stephanie Viereck Gibbs and Kathryn Karczewska (New York: Routledge, 2001), xlii . More than 300 manuscripts
and a considerable amount of printed editions (published between 1481 and 1538) of the Roman de la Rose have
survived. Stephen Minta, Love Poetry in Sixteenth-Century France: A Study in Themes and Traditions (Manchester:
Manchester University Press, 1977), 108.
4
In the troubadour poetry the lady is often addressed as midons (my lord).

57

In the fourteenth century, the poetry of Guillaume de Machaut both follows and
undermines the conventions of courtly discourse. Machauts several dits amoureux preserve the
dream-like atmosphere of the Roman de la Rose, and combine historical figures with allegorical
abstractions presented as real actors. The poet-narrator of these dits, however, deviates from the
traditional rules of courtly decorum by displaying cowardice, misogyny, sloth, or inappropriate
attitude. At the same time, in musically setting some of his own shorter verses, Machaut becomes
the last major representative of a long tradition of poet-musicians. 5 After him, the gulf between
the poet and the composer increases. Poets of the fifteenth century generally did not set their
texts to music, while composers had to look at the corpus of poetry provided by these poets for
their musical settings, only occasionally penning their own verses.
It is at this point in time that French literary historians have raised a barrier between the
Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Early twentieth-century scholars regarded the poetry of the
fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries as stereotyped, excessive, and unoriginal. Such views have
largely been determined by the reproachful and dismissive comments of the Pliade, a group of
poets who dominated the French literary scene after 1550. Seeking a break with their immediate
past, the Pliade poets condemned the poetry of their predecessors and advocated a literary
rebirth based upon the imitation of antiquity. In his 1549 Deffence et illustration de la langue
franoyse, Joachim Du Bellay expressed disdain for all that old French poetry . . . like
rondeaux, ballades, virelais, chants royaux, chansons, and other such spicery, which corrupts the
taste of our language. 6 Ever since, any poetry that falls between that of Franois Villon and
5

However, some post-Machaut poets did continue to compose music. For a comprehensive study on such
poets-musicians see Nigel Wilkins, The Post-Machaut Generation of Poet-Musicians, Nottingham French Studies
12 (1968): 40-84.
6
. . . toutes ces vieilles posies Francoyses . . . comme rondeaux, ballades, vyrelaiz, chantz royaulx,
chansons, et autres telles episseries, qui corrumpent le goust de nostre Langue. Joachim Du Bellay, Deffence et
illustration de la langue franoyse, ed. Henri Chamard (Paris: Didier, 1948), 108. Unless otherwise indicated all
translations are mine.

58

Charles dOrlans (discussed below), on one hand, and that of Pierre de Ronsard (leader of the
Pliade) and Du Bellay, on the other, has been approached with skepticism or has been
altogether ignored as poetry of transition and, therefore, of secondary interest. 7 Since the
poetry of the Pliade has been linked with the idea of rebirth or renaissance, it is inevitable
that the preceding era would have to suffer from negative characterizations. Johan Huizingas
view of the French fifteenth century as a dying civilization further reinforced this attitude
towards literature. 8
Nineteenth-century scholars surveyed, edited, and published a great deal of fifteenthcentury poetry with the main purpose of bridging the gap between the period of Machaut and that
of the renewed spirit of the Pliade poets. Unfortunately, nineteenth-century aesthetic prejudices
regarding originality of form, themes, and personal expression unavoidably guided scholarship to
a perpetuation of the attacks initiated by the Pliade. 9 As C. S. Shapley would later observe the
concept of medieval impersonality and virtually anonymous craftsmanship serving as prelude
and contrast to the art-consciousness and individuality of the Renaissance encouraged these
scholars to deny the uniqueness of the work and thus blinded them to its identity. 10 After World

The early twentieth-century literary scholar Gustave Michaut referred to the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries, up to the period of the Italian wars, as a period of transition at the end of which the Middle Ages finally
came to a close. Gustave Michaut, Levolution littraire du Moyen Age franais (Paris: Croville-Mornat, 1931), 86.
Marcel Franon also titled the collection of the 601 rondeaux of the manuscript 402 de Lille as pomes de
transition. Marcel Franon, Pomes de transition (XVe-XVIe sicles): rondeaux du Ms. 402 de Lille (Paris: Droz,
1938). The manuscript will henceforth be referred to as Lille 402.
8
Johan Huizinga, The Waning of the Middle Ages: A Study of the Forms of Life, Thought and Art in France
and the Netherlands in the XIVth and XVth Centuries (New York: St. Martins Press, 1924). For a more recent
edition see Johan Huizinga, The Autumn of the Middle Ages, trans. Rodney J. Payton and Ulrich Mammitzsch
(Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1996).
9
Among these prejudiced works see Henri Guy, Histoire de la posie franaise, 2 vols. (Paris: Champion,
1910); Henri Chamard, Les origins de la posie franaise de la Renaissance (Paris, 1932); and Gustav Lanson,
Histoire de la littrature franaise (Paris: Hachette, 1916). Referring to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,
Lanson headed sections with titles such as Dcomposition du Moyen Age and Dcadence gnrale de la
littrature franaise. In his opening lecture on fifteenth-century French poetry at the Collge de France in 1885,
Gaston Paris only considered poetry from the period 1440-1480. Gaston Paris, La posie du Moyen Age, 2nd ed.
(Paris: Hachette, 1895).
10
C. S. Shapley, Studies in French Poetry of the Fifteenth Century (The Hague: Nijhoff, 1970), 171.

59

War II, however, literary historians indulged in a re-evaluation of the fifteenth century. Franco
Simones French Renaissance led the way to a more careful study of the period.11 With his
extensive monograph on the courtly lyric from Machaut to Charles dOrlans, Daniel Poirion
further contributed to the understanding and appreciation of French literature from 1300 to
1480. 12
Ironically, the poets rejected by nineteenth-century critics were highly esteemed during
their lifetimes. The early part of the fifteenth century, despite the ravaging effects of the Hundred
Years War, witnessed a significant growth of literary production. Literary creativity was
encouraged and patronized in the provincial courts of Anjou, Blois, Champagne, Flanders, and
Normandy in the North and those of Poitou, Limousin, Auvergne, Toulouse, Montpellier, and
Provence in Occitan. 13 Poets included clerics, chancellors, or other people living or affiliated
with a court, on one hand, and members of the nobility, on the other. In the first category belong
Alain Chartier (c. 1380-1430), for many the founder of the Grands Rhtoriqueurs school and the
only poet not renounced by the Pliade, 14 Cristine de Pizan (1364-1430), and Francois Villon
(1431-1463). The most notable princely poets are Charles, Duke of Orlans (1394-1465) and
Ren dAnjou (1409-1480), Count of Provence and titular King of the Two Sicilies.
The poetry of these prominent figures displays an impressive scope and range of genres.
Alongside the shorter formes fixes, the poets cultivated didactic, religious, moralizing, historical,
and satirical genres, often combining prose with verse. The length of these works vary from
11

Franco Simone, The French Renaissance: Medieval Tradition and Italian Influence in Shaping the
Renaissance in France, trans. H. Gaston Hall (London: Macmillan, 1969); originally published as Il Rinascimento
francese (Turin: Societ Editrice Internazionale, 1965).
12
Daniel Poirion, Le pote et le prince: lvolution du lyrisme courtois de Guillaume de Machaut Charles
dOrlans (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1965).
13
William Calin, In Defense of French Poetry: An Essay in Revaluation (University Park: Pennsylvania
State University Press, 1987), 135.
14
Warner F. Patterson, Three Centuries of French Poetic Theory: A Critical History of the Chief Arts of
Poetry in France (1323-1630), Language and Literature, vol. 15 (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1935),
101-104.

60

several hundreds to thousands of lines. The allegorical figures of the Roman de la Rose feature
prominently mostly in the longer works. Personified abstractions such as Dangier, Esprance,
Tristesse, Merancolye, and Desconfort act upon the main character or acteur of the poem, often
as concretized aspects of his own psyche. The last example of love allegory in the tradition of the
Roman de la Rose is Le livre du cuers damours espris (The Book of the Love-Smitten Heart), a
dream-tale of 315 prose and verse passages. 15 Written by Ren dAnjou, the last of the princely
poets, Le livre du cuers combines allegorical figures with mythological, medieval, and
contemporary heroes, mixing prose with verse to describe the ordeals during the journey of the
Lover.
Love poetry of the early fifteenth century perpetuates the crisis of courtly idealism,
already evident in the work of Machaut. Especially through their poetic disputes, debates where a
subject is held up for acceptance or rejection, both Christine de Pizan and Alain Chartier carry
the audience away from the expected paths of courtly love discourse. 16 Pizans Cit des dames
(1404-1405), Dit de Poissy (c. 1401), and Cent ballades damant et de dame (1409-1410)
emphasize the futility and misery of courtly love. With La Belle Dame sans merci (1424),
Chartier has finally undone courtly love in France. 17 This 800-line debate, influential
throughout the fifteenth century, recounts the continuous efforts of an ardent lover to gain the
sympathy and love of his object of desire. 18 The lady is adamant in her rapprochement and the
lover finally dies from grief. To the suitors advances the lady replies with practical language:

15

The book was possibly written between 1457 and 1477. Ren died in 1480. For citation see fn. 3.
Such poetic debates are anticipated in Machauts two Jugements, Le Jugement du roy de Behaingne (c.
1342) and Le Jugement du roy de Navarre (1349).
17
Douglas Kelly, Medieval Imagination: Rhetoric and the Poetry of Courtly Love (Madison: University of
Wisconsin Press, 1978), 190.
18
La Belle Dame sans merci has survived in forty-four manuscripts. See Alain Chartier, The Poetical
Works of Alain Chartier, ed. J. C. Laidlaw (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974), 328-329. According to
Leonard W. Johnson, La Belle Dame is by far the one [poem] mentioned most by contemporaries and clearly
figures as an important event in the literary consciousness of the time. Leonard W. Johnson, Poets as Players:
16

61

Beau sire, ce fou pensement

Ne vous laissera il jamais?
Ne penserez vous autrement
De donner vostre cuer paix?

Good sir, will this foolish thought

Never leave you?
Wont it ever occur to you
To give your heart some peace? 19

Chartier thus transforms the unyielding but idealized lady of the courtly discourse to an
indifferent and realistic one and effects a reversal of finamors central premise: instead of
causing joy, love is the source of grief that can even lead to death. In the even more extensive Le
Livre des quatre dames (3,531 lines), Chartier amplifies the theme of unhappiness caused by
love. In this poem, four ladies debate their views, presenting four different cases in which love is
the cause of grief, distance, uncertainty, or even shame. The notion of the cynical lady and of
love as the source of pain dominates fifteenth-century courtly literature and also enters the
shorter lyric genres, including those that could be set to music.
The alienation from the principles of idealized love also becomes prominent in Charles d
Orlanss late poetry:
Quant joy ung amant qui souspire,
A ha! dis je, vela des tours
Dont usay en mes jeunes jours.
Plus nen vueil, bien me doit souffire . . .

When I hear a lover sighing,

Aha, say I, there are some tricks
I used in my young days.
I want nothing more to do with them, enough is
enough . . . 20

Furthermore, the Dukes interest in allegory, evident already in his pre-Agincourt verse, grew
during his years of captivity in London. 21 After his release and return to Blois in 1440, Charles
d Orlans cultivated a poetic circle (the Concours de Blois) of nobility members, visiting
artists, or members of his own retinue, who engaged in friendly poetic competitions (dbats) on
Theme and Variation in Late Medieval French Poetry (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1990), 122. For modern
and contemporary views of the poem see ibid., 122-123.
19
Text and translation from John Fox, The Poetry of Fifteenth-Century France, 2 vols. (Valencia: Grant
and Cutler, 1994), 1:23.
20
Text and translation from Fox, Poetry, 1:27.
21
Charles dOrlans played an important role in the battle of Agincourt in 1415. He was left, however,
half-dead on the field and was taken prisoner at the Tower of London and elsewhere in England for twenty-five
years (1415-1440). He was released in 1440 after reconciling with Philippe le Bon, on the condition that he would
marry the Burgundian Dukes sister Marie de Clves. Charles dOrlans spent his late years in retirement at Blois.

62

subjects often provided by the Duke himself and which relied heavily on allegory. The outcome
is a long list of responses on themes such as En la forest de Longue Actente, Je meurs de soif
auprs de la fontaine, En la montaigne de Tristesse, etc. 22
Francois Villons poetry strikes a different tone. Literary historians often regard Villon as
the most modern poet of the fifteenth century. His poetic subjects range from treating the lustful
side of life, the pleasures of physical joy, youth wasted on wine, women, and song, to more
somber themes such as poverty, illness, old age, and the macabre subjects of death and decay. In
his controversial verses, Villon presents himself as a social rebel and a provoker of public
morals. However, he writes in both a conventional and an ironic, mocking tone, assuming at
times the roles of repentant sinner, disconsolate lover, loyal friend, scourge of vice, gay trickster
and shameless lecher. 23 Due to the breadth of the emotional experiences reflected in his poetry,
Villon has frequently been described as the most sincere and realistic of fifteenth-century poets:
From the depths of his poetry, Villon does not belong any more to the Middle Ages: he is
absolutely modern, the first who is sincerely and completely modern. 24 Such a stance reiterates
Romantic notions about personal and sincere expression, in which the literary persona is
identified with the actual author and his real experiences.
Treatises on poetry dating from the late fourteenth century and the first half of the
fifteenth century complement the poetic preoccupations of the period. The first comprehensive
French prose treatise on the art of poetry dates from 1392. Lart de dictier by Eustache
Deschamps (1340-1410), disciple of Machaut, provides a general theory of poetry and an

22

For an edition of these poems see Charles dOrlans, Posies, ed. P. Champion, 2 vols. (Paris: Champion,
1971) and Gaston Raynaud, Rondeaux et aultres posies du XVe sicle (Paris: Didot, 1889).
23
Calin, In Defense, 18.
24
Par le fond de sa posie, Villon nest plus du moyen age: il est tout moderne, le premier qui soit
franchement, compltement moderne. Lanson, Littrature franaise, 176-177.

63

account of the different genres of verse, along with rules for their composition. Deschamps treats
extensively the interrelationship of poetry and song, elaborating Machauts beliefs on the subject.
According to Deschamps, music can be divided into two branches: musique naturelle and
musique artificielle. Musique naturelle is poetry itself, because it cannot be taught to
anyone who does not devote himself to it, and it is a music of the mouth in that it utters words in
rhythm, in other words it requires natural gift for invention. 25 Music, strictly speaking, is called
musique artificielle because it is an art that can be learned (as can also the skill of
versification), an art called artificial because with its six notes . . . even the most rude man in
the world can learn how to sing . . . by using notes, clefs and lines. 26 Although the two
musiques can exist apart, their combination is the ideal, both gaining from this union.
To the reciprocal relationship between poetry and music, rhetoric adds a third element. In
his six-stanza double ballade on the death of Machaut, Deschamps considers the poet a
rhetorician:
Armes, Amours, Dames, Chevalerie,
Arms, Love, Ladies, Chivalry,
Clers, musiciens, faititres en franois,
Clerks, musicians, writers in French,
Toutes sophistes, toutes poterie,
All sophists, all poetry,
Tous ceuls qui ont melodieuse voix,
All those who have a melodious voice,
Ceuls qui chante en orgue aucune fois
Those who play the organ from time to time
Et qui ont chier le doux art de musique,
And who love the sweet art of music,
Demenez dueil, plourez, car cest bien drois, Mourn, weep, it is only right,
La mort Machaut, le noble rhetorique.
The death of Machaut, the noble rhetorician. 27

25

Poetry is natural music pour ce quelle ne puet estre aprinse a nul, se son proper couraige naturelement
ne si applique, et est une musique de bouche en proferant paroles metrifies. Eustache Deschamps, Lart de
dictier, vol. 7 of Oeuvres compltes, ed. Queux de Saint-Hilaire and Gaston Raynaud (Paris: Firmin-Didot, 1878;
repr. New York: Johnson Reprint Corp., 1966), 270. Deschampss definition of poetry also recalls Dantes statement
that poetry is none other than rhetorical fiction set to music (nihil aliud est quam fictio retorica musicaque poita),
Dante De vulgari eloquentia 2.4.2.
26
Music proper is appelle artificiele de son art, car par ses .VI. notes . . . len puet aprandre a chanter . . .
par figure de notes, par clefs et par lignes, le plus rude homme du monde. Deschamps, Lart de dictier, 269-270.
27
Text and translation from Philip Bennett, Troubadours, Trouvres, Potes, in Poetry in France:
Metamorphoses of a Muse, eds. Keith Aspley and Peter France (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1992), 24.

64

Deschampss apostrophe to the sophists (l. 3), the pre-Socratic orators, along with his address to
musicians, poets, and writers, implicitly connects rhetoric, poetry, and music in a general
framework that involves all that poetry sings about: Armes, Amours, Dames, Chevalerie.
Poetic treatises of the following century explicitly relate poetry to rhetoric. The
distinction between prose or the premire rhtorique and poetry, the seconde rhtorique, is an
important concern in many. Titles such as the anonymous Les rgles de la Seconde Rhtorique
(1411-32) and Le trait de lart de Rhtorique (1450?), or Bauldet Herencs Le doctrinal de la
Seconde Rhtorique (1432) betray the growing emphasis on the relationship between poetry and
rhetoric. In LArchiloge Sophie (1405), the theorist Jacques Legrand even classifies rhyme as one
of the figures of speech. Besides the description of genres and the rules on syllable count and
rhyming, the treatises frequently include rhyming dictionaries of thousands of words. 28
The concern with rhyme increases as the century progresses and it becomes the hallmark
of the group of poets who came to be known as the Grands Rhtoriqueurs. Although poets had
been likened to rhetoricians since the previous century (as in Deschampss poem above, for
example), the designation Grands Rhtoriqueurs was mainly attached to poets related to the
Burgundian court during the second half of the fifteenth and the first quarter of the sixteenth
century. However, although widely accepted by modern literary criticism, the term
Rhtoriqueur had no contemporary application, and in the sixteenth century, it had a pejorative
meaning. Pierre Jodogne has demonstrated that the designation Rhtoriqueur or Grand
Rhtoriqueur entered literary historiography as a technical term in 1861 through the writings of
the historian C.-D. dHricault. In his Histoire de la langue et de la literature franaise of 1897,

28

For a discussion of early fifteenth-century poetic treatises see Patterson, French Poetic Theory, 114-128.

65

Petit de Julleville consecrated the term, which was subsequently adopted without further
questioning. 29 De Julleville states that
under the influence of A. Chartier, a school of learned men was formed that
flourished at first at the court of Burgundy and a little later in Flanders, under the
government of Marguerite of Austria . . . Their group is known with a name that
they used among themselves like a title of honor and which well characterizes
their ways: they are the Grands Rhtoriqueurs. 30
For lack of another term, the following discussion will adopt the designation Grand
Rhtoriqueur, albeit acknowledging its historical inappropriateness.
Following the lead of Chartier, Georges Chastellain (1405-1475) was one of the most
important representatives of the Grands Rhtoriqueurs school in the mid-fifteenth century. He
held the position of indiciaire (historiographer or court chronicler) to the Duke of Burgundy and
was succeeded by the poet Jean Molinet (1435?-1507) in 1475. Serving the French court, Jean
Meschinot (1415?-1509) and Guillaume Crtin (1472?-1525) adopted the poetical language of
the Burgundian poets. To the next generation of Rhtoriqueurs belong the father of Clment
Marot, Jean Marot (1463-1527), Octovien de Saint-Gelais (1466-1502), and Jean Lemaire de
Belges (1473-1525), who became indiciaire after Molinet.
These poets, orators, historians, and chancellors were in the service of princely or royal
patrons, who compensated them with social and financial rewards, the highest being the title of
indiciaire. According to Lemaire, the duty of all chroniclers and historiographers is to

29

For a detailed discussion of the history of the term see Pierre Jodogne, Les rhtoriqueurs et
lhumanisme: problme dhistoire littraire, in Humanism in France at the End of the Middle Ages and in the Early
Renaissance, ed. A. H. T. Levi (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1970), 150-159.
30
Sous linfluence dA. Chartier il est form une cole savante qui fleurit dabord la court de Bourgogne
et un peu plus tard dans les Flandres gouvernes par Marguerite dAutriche . . . Leur group est connu sous un nom
quils staient dcern eux-mmes comme un titre dhonneur et qui caractrise bien leur manire: ce sont les
grands Rhtoriqueurs. L. Petit de Julleville, Seizime sicle, vol. 3 of Histoire de la langue et de la littrature
fanaise des origines 1900 (Paris: Colin, 1897), 85.

66

demonstrate through their writings and good reasoning, and to make known to the people, the
true and not flattering deeds and merits of their Princes, and their good and righteous wars. 31
The Rhtoriqueurs sought to emphasize the ties between their art and the art of rhetoric, a
relationship that facilitated their inclusion in humanist circles. As demonstrated in Chapter I, the
emerging class of royal office-holders (to which some of the Rhtoriqueurs belonged)
appropriated humanism in order to elevate its social status. 32 To this end, the Rhtoriqueurs
cultivated a wide range of genres in prose or verse (or a combination of both) that served the
public affairs of their nationreligious, political, or moraland its cultural and artistic needs. It
was their firm belief that the vernacular is the only appropriate means to exalt the value of their
nation. Through their fervent polemics and their insistence on using French as the language par
excellence, these writers succeeded in elevating French from a vulgar to a national tongue, equal
in status to Latin and Italian. 33 Molinet even wrote a poetic treatise titled Lart de rhtorique
vulgaire in 1493, which became the model for other early sixteenth-century treatises on poetry.
The rise of the popular lyric during the closing decades of the fifteenth century, explored
below, may be partly explained by the French humanists interest in the vernacular.
The insistence of the Rhtoriqueurs on the importance of the French language does not
imply lack of knowledge of the classical languages. Most of these writers were bilingual and
often well-acquainted with the Latin authors. 34 Their erudition found its way into their
vernacular lyrics through references to mythology and ancient history, as well as in the frequent
31

The duty of tous bons Indiciaires, Chroniqueurs et Historiographes, soit de mostrer par escritures et
raisons apparentes, et notifier la gent populaire, les vrayes, et non flateuses louenges et merites de leurs Princes, et
les bonnes et iustes quereles diceux. Jean Lemaire de Belges, Oeuvres de Jean Lemaire, ed. Jean Stecher, 4 vols.
(Louvain: Lefever, 1882-1891; repr. Geneva: Slatkine, 1969), 3:232-233.
32
Chapter I elaborates on the relationship between rhetoric and humanism in France.
33
Such a nationalistic stance is particularly evident in Lemaires La concorde des deux langages. Jean
Lemaire de Belges, La concorde des deux langages, ed. Jean Frappier (Paris: Droz, 1947).
34
The Rhtoriqueurs translated a number of classical poetical works. For example, Octovien de SaintGelais translated the Ovidian Eniade and Hroides and Jean dAuton the Metamorphosis. For more details see
Jodogne, Les rhtoriqueurs,166-167.

67

use of Latinisms and their reliance on rhetorical forms and gestures. At the same time, the
Rhtoriqueurs continued to advocate the close relationship between rhetoric, poetry, and music.
In Molinets view, poetry is une espce de musique appele richmique (a kind of music called
rhythmic), 35 a formulation which reverberates with Deschampss musique naturelle. In a
similar and frequently quoted statement, Lemaire asserts that Rhetorique [poetry], et Musique
sont une meme chose (Poetry and Music are the same thing). 36 Furthermore, in La plainte du
dsir, an extensive dploration on the death of Louis de Luxembourg-Ligny, Lemaires patron,
the personified Rhetoricque requests from poets and musicians (poetes bons, et bons
musiciens) to aid the orators to appease the grief, Pour adoulcir ce deuil qui autre passe,/Et
pour aider mes rhetoricians. 37 Such statements reveal that, in late fifteenth-century France,
rhetoric, poetry, and music were tightly interconnected, which further supports a rhetoricallyinformed analysis of the multi-voice chanson repertory.
The most outstanding characteristic of the Grands Rhtoriqueurs poetry, and the source
for many a negative criticism, is their preoccupation with rhyme. They cultivated all kinds of
difficult rhyming, above all favoring the quivoque. In this type, two words sounding or even
written the same way have different meanings. The rime quivoque thus puts emphasis on the
sonorous aspect of the prosody, while at the same time it allows for extended play with words
and their meaning. Other types of rhyme with similar effects are the rime enchaine, in which
there is identity between the last syllable(s) of a line with the beginning syllable(s) of the
following verse; the rime batele, in which the rhyme in a decasyllabic poem occurs between the

35

Jean Molinet, Art de Rhtorique, in Ernest Langlois, Receuil darts de seconde rhtorique (Paris:
Imprimerie nationale, 1902), 216.
36
Lemaire, Oeuvres, 3:197.
37
Lemaire, Oeuvres, 3:158; quoted in Michael F. Jenkins, Artful Eloquence: Jean Lemaire de Belges and
the Rhetorical Tradition, North Carolina Studies in the Romance Languages and Literatures, vol. 217 (Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, 1980), 169.

68

last syllable of a line and the fourth syllable of the next; and the rime courone, in which
repetition of the same syllables marks the end of a line (luxure sur toute noblesse blesse). In all
these different types of rhyme, the phonetic element very often overshadows the semantic, which
is thus relegated to a secondary level of importance. The following two stanzas from Molinets
Le trosne dhonneur exemplify the use of rime batele and enchaine in one poem (see the
underlined syllables) as well as the overall extreme emphasis on the sound through the use of
alliteration and equivocal words (Sons et/sonnets in l. 7):
1. Oyseaux des champs, chantans chans et deschans,
2. Changis vos chans, mus vos gargonns,
3. Les tenebres de nos coeurs annoyans
4. Noians, fondans, fendans et desplaisans:
5. Plaisans montans, rossignos, cardonns,
6. Nets sansonns, sonans sus buissons,
7. Sons et sonnets, sonns sans soneries
8. Doeul angoisseux en vos chansonneries. 38
Although such extreme examples are never encountered in the multi-voice songs, composers
appear sensitive to the sonorous aspects of the prosody, which they tend to emphasize through
the expanded texture. In addition, the contemporary pre-occupation with rhyme and its
importance for shaping the sonorous and semantic profile of the text possibly led composers
away from musically setting poetry in the formes fixes, in which rhyme is overshadowed by the
repetitive pattern of the verses. Furthermore, the high level of repetition encountered in these
forms was also incompatible with rhetorics basic premise that language should imitate everyday
38

Jean Molinet, Les faictz et dictz de Jean Molinet, ed. Noel Dupire, 3 vols. (Paris: Picard, 1936), 39. The
line Doeul angoisseux refers to Binchoiss homonymous setting of Christine de Pizans poem. Molinet frequently
incorporated verses from chansons set to music in his poetry. He himself was a musician and was on good terms
with musicians of his time. See Carol MacClintock, Molinet, Music, and Medieval Rhetoric, Musica Disciplina 13
(1959): 109-121. Molinet exchanged letters and poetry with Busnois and Compre. See Busnoiss rondeau Dictier
envoyet a monseigneur and Molinets response, Response a monseigneur maistre Anthoine Busnois, in which every
strophe ends with a line from Busnoiss rondeau. Molinet, Les faictz, 797-801. See also Molinets Lettre a maistre
Loys Compere, ibid., 779. Furthermore, Molinet wrote two laments on the death of Ockeghem, one in French, the
other in Latin, at the request of Guillaume Crtin, ibid., 831-833. For a list of chanson verses incorporated in
Molinets poetry see ibid., 1235-1241.

69

speech, where repetition is unlikely, unless it is used as ornament to emphasize a certain point.
Thus by moving away from the formes fixes, composers adopted a more rhetorical approach to
musical composition tightly connected with the rhetoric of the text.
The play with sound and meaning also found expression in the use of other linguistic
acrobatics, some inherited from the Middle Ages. Palindromes and anagrams are common in the
poetry of the Rhtoriqueurs, as well as acrostics, abcdaires (lines starting with the letters of the
alphabet in succession), words read backwards, or diagonally, etc. Some of these techniques
naturally constitute a visual code, simply shown in the visual quivoque of the following distich:
Et sans avoir par nul moyen tendu
Quun ouvrier ait moy entendu . . . 39
Extreme examples of these practices are Molinets rondeau Sept rondeaux en ce rondeau and
Meschinots notorious religious huitain, Dhonneur sentier, confort seul et parfaict, which could
be read in seven and thirty-two different ways, respectively. 40 According to Paul Zumthor, such
jongleuries disrupt the linear reading of a poem and subsequently displace meaning. 41
Besides offering the most common locus for linguistic acrobatics, rhyme also allowed the
Rhtoriqueurs to play with double entendres. Zumthor has demonstrated that obscene syllables
feature prominently as the ending points of verses, often repeated to obsessive extents. 42 In
Molinets Complainte dung gentilhomme sa dame every other rhyme, beginning with the
first, is a compound word with con(-m)- as the first syllable, and every second verse ends in a
rime quivoque using the word con plus the other word necessary to complete the rhyme. 43 In
their amorous poetry, the Rhtoriqueurs frequently deviated from the courtly mode to indulge in

39

Paul Zumthor, Le masque et la lumire: La potique des Grands Rhtoriqueurs (Paris: Seuil, 1978), 271.
Paul Zumthor, ed., Anthologie des Grands Rhtoriqueurs (Paris: Union Gnrale dEditions, 1978), 42.
41
Zumthor, Le masque, 258, 269.
42
Zumthor, Le masque, 139-140.
43
Johnson, Poets as Players, 277. The syllable con had the double meaning of both annus and vagina.
40

70

the use of implicit or explicit obscenity. 44 Molinets 281-line poetic debate Le debat du viel
gendarme et du viel amoureux, about the respective merits of love and war, abounds in both
double entendres and outright sexual language. In the beginning of the debate the knight uses a
slightly veiled language, adopting chivalric vocabulary to conceal the sexual metaphors:
Lhomme arm doibt on redoubter.
Il nest riens qui tant plaise aux dames
Que le behourt et le jouster,
Et qui veoeult en glore monter,
Cest leschielle a sauver las ames;
Rompre bois et quasser halmes
Est ung cler bruyt qui toujours dure.

The man of arms is to be feared

Theres nothing that pleases ladies so much
As tilting and jousting,
And whoever wants to gain glory,
Thats the ladder for saving souls:
Breaking lances and sundering helmets
Makes a shining reputation that lasts forever.

A little later, however, he abandons all pretense and shatters the lovers attempts to defend his
ladys reputation:
Nostre amy, vous vous abuss;
Ung gallant portant grosse mache,
Josne et radde, sans estre uss,
Jamais ne seroit refuses . . .

My friend, youre wrong;

A swain carrying a big club,
Young and erect, not worn out,
Would never be refused . . . 45

Molinets debate recycles in a humorous and even crude manner the age-old metaphor of
love and war, thus falling within the tradition of Armes, Amours, Dames, Chevalerie. Parodies
of traditional genres, such as the poetic debate just discussed, extended even to religious genres
as well. 46 Zumthor has labeled such attempts anti-structures, since their effect is mainly
possible when seen against the tradition of the original genres they tend to parody. 47 Although
the general framework of the genres and their forms might be retained, the subjects treated and
the lexicon to serve them present reversals of traditional elements and the courtly love code.
Such reversals operate as variations on the level of topos, language, voice, and metrical structure;

44

For an account of the use of obscenity and its effects particularly in Molinets poetry see Johnson,
Playing Dirty, in Poets as Players, 231-287.
45
Text and translation from Johnson, Poets as Players, 239 and 241.
46
Molinets Sermonde Billouart is explicitly obscene. See Johnson, Poets as Players, 243-244.
47
Zumthor, Le Masque, 136.

71

their ultimate purpose is to shock, amuse, or even liberate. In their exploitation of the linguistic
system, and their play with form, genre, and vocabulary, the Grands Rhtoriqueurs deconstructed the traditional poetic language, elevating to the highest position the rhetoric of irony.
While maintaining the traditional genres and forms, their language transgresses the boundaries of
the cultural milieu they are called to serve, a transgression apparently most welcome. The play
with form also emerges as a rhetorical strategy in the multi-voice chanson settings, most notably
in Josquins end-oriented structures explored in the following chapter. 48
Obscene poetry was not the invention of the Grands Rhtoriqueurs. Bawdy verse
permeates the entire fifteenth century as the different poetic anthologies of the period amply
demonstrate. Le Jardin de Plaisance, the Rohan manuscript, and the manuscripts gathered
together in Marcel Schwobs Parnasse satyrique abound in poems featuring obscene allusions
and outright scurrilous language, often within the traditional forms of the ballade and the
rondeau. 49 Villons Ballade de la grosse Margot might be the first example that comes to mind
but obscene allusions are not foreign to the poetry of Eustasche Deschamps and Charles
dOrlans. For example, both poets are concerned with the decline of sexual power with the
coming of old age, a very common theme in fifteenth-century poetry. 50
Literary historians have often described these excursions to bawdy verse as bourgeois
or popular, in contrast to the poetry in the courtly mode. With such juxtaposition, they attach
48

Jonathan Beck draws parallels between the de- and re-constructive manipulation of traditional forms by
the Rhtoriqueurs and similar compositional practices in the music of the Franco-Burgundian composers. Jonathan
Beck, Formalism and Virtuosity: Franco-Burgundian Poetry, Music, and Visual Art, 1470-1520, Critical Inquiry
10, no. 4 (1984): 644-667.
49
Modern editions in Antoine Vrard, ed., Le Jardin de Plaisance et Fleur de Rhtorique, 2 vols. (Paris:
Librairie de Firmin-Didot, 1910); Martin Lpelmann, ed., Die Liederhandschrift des Cardinals de Rohan
(Gttingen: Gesellschaft fr Romanische Literatur, 1923), henceforth referred to as the Rohan MS; and Marcel
Schwob, ed., Le Parnasse satyrique du XVe sicle (Geneva: Slatkine, 1969). The Jardin de Plaisance contains 672
heterogeneous pieces (a rhetorical treatise, debates, narrative poems, rondeaux and ballades), some dating from the
late fourteenth century. The Rohan MS contains 663 poems, some extending back to the early fourteenth century.
Schwob provides only a selection of poetry from ten different manuscripts.
50
Johnson, Poets as Players, 256-259.

72

sociological distinctions to specific kinds of literature, thus suggesting different types of

audiences for the different types of poetry. Assigning such sociological descriptors to the
different poetic registers implies that Charles dOrlans, Villon, or Molinet were aiming at
different social classes when writing in one or the other register. However, the co-existence of
bawdy verse alongside high-sounding poetry within the same anthologies testifies that the same
people read both kinds of poetry and that obscene verse was also produced by and for the
court. 51 Anecdotal evidence on the morals of dukes and noblemen confirm that they conducted
licentious lives, which undermines the notion that assigns to an aristocratic public a literature
uniquely attached to the exposition of the moral values of the chivalric code [emphasis mine]. 52
The division between popular and aristocratic poetry is thus a factitious one, according to Italo
Siciliano. 53
It is undeniable that with their poetrywhether religious, moral, or bawdythe
Rhtoriqueurs addressed the multi-faceted audience of the court. Nevertheless, the rejection of
the dichotomy between a popular and an aristocratic poetry does not negate the possibility of
exchanges between a popular culture (rural or urban) and that of the court. 54 The constant
dialogue between the two results in the frequent registral shifts of much medieval poetry. In his
study of the French lyric in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Pierre Bec has emphasized the
interfrances registrales, that mutual exchange of elements between the two main poetic

51

Stephen Minta, Love Poetry in Sixteenth-Century France (Manchester: Manchester University Press,

1977), 22.

52

Johnson, Poets as Players, 283.

Italo Siciliano, Villon et les thmes potiques du Moyen Age (Paris: Colin, 1934), 421.
54
The cultural critic Aron Gurevich has described the court culture as official, taking into account the
clerical background of the court authors. For a discussion of Gurevichs position see Ardis Butterfield, Poetry and
Music in Medieval France: From Jean Renart to Guillaume de Machaut (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2002), 126-127.
53

73

registers, the aristocratisant and the popularisant. 55 Such exchanges can take place on the level
of function, topoi, genres, structures, or vocabulary. They create a constant dialogue within a
particular text, which renders the clear-cut distinction between the constituent elements of the
poetry very often impossible. In the following discussion and the analyses of the music, I will
adopt Becs dichotomous classification since the terms aristocratisant and popularisant, despite
their original sociological underpinnings, mainly denote register and are not tinted with
qualitative judgments, frequently attached to the terms burgeois or popular. Furthermore, I
will embrace the view that both the aristocratisant and popularisant registers reflect different
facets of poetic expression that originated at court. The distinction between the two registers
greatly informs the musical analysis since it can be used as a criterion for discerning differing
patterns of musical treatment
The exchanges between the two registers notwithstanding, it is evident that in the absence
of a recorded corpus of popular poetry, it becomes particularly problematic to precisely define
which elements belong to the popular domain. At the same time, if there are any traces of
popular culture in the lyric verse of the fifteenth century, these are most likely filtered through
the point of view of the court and its writers. John Stevens has coined the term courtly-popular
for dance-songs that may have originated below, to be later taken up by courtly writers and
musicians and given the shapes we know today. 56 These courtly-popular works presented a
stylized version of life and love amongst country folk to please a courtly taste. 57 Furthermore,
in her study of courtly song in late sixteenth-century France, Jeanice Brooks views elements that
recall
55

Pierre Bec, La lyrique franaise au Moyen ge (XIIe-XIIIe sicles): Contribution une typologie des
genres potiques mdivaux, 2 vols. (Paris: Picard, 1977), 1:33-34.
56
John Stevens, Words and Music in the Middle Ages: Song, Narrative, Dance and Drama, 1050-1350
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), 162.
57
Stevens, Words and Music, 175.

74

orally transmitted repertories . . . as devices that signify the rustic . . . conceived

for audiences outside the world they purportedly represent. To admit a reading of
these songs as mediated by and for courtly and urban actors is not to deny any
contact with real peasant music. Yet while acknowledging associations with
popular or rural music, it is important to separate courtly rustic songs and their
highly constructed peasantry from any ethnographic enterprise . . . [These] songs
have been transformed by the structures of elite culture; and their uses in courtly
contexts are different from those of their models in the world of peasants and
villagers. 58
By adopting such elements, the court could savor the purportedly libertine lives of an extracourtly Other and at the same time keep its distance from it, obeying the rules of courtliness and
decorum.
Poetic theory of the second half of the fifteenth century clearly reflects the practices of
the Grands Rhtoriqueurs. Molinet himself is credited with one of the most important treatises,
Lart de rhtorique vulgaire (1493). 59 Besides defining poetry as a rhythmical music of the
words (mentioned above), Molinet provides a comprehensive list of poetic genres and elaborates
on matters of elision and masculine and feminine endings, favoring rich and complex rhymes
and, above all, the quivoque. 60
Molinets treatise apparently became the model for other treatises that appeared at the
turn of the century. The anonymous Picard writer of Lart de rhtorique pour rimer en plusieurs
sortes de rimes (1495-1500) relied heavily on Lart de rhtorique vulgaire but fashioned his
theoretical enterprise in verse, the first versified poetic treatise since Machauts Prologue. 61
LInstructif de la Seconde Rhtorique is another such treatise that precedes one of the most
important poetic anthologies of the fifteenth century, Le Jardin de Plaisance et Fleur de
58

Jeanice Brooks, Courtly Song in Late Sixteenth-Century France (Chicago: Chicago University Press,
2000), 376.
59
Scholars have questioned the attribution of the treatise to Molinet. Patterson, however, accepts Molinets
authorship. See Patterson, French Poetic Theory, 143.
60
Patterson, French Poetic Theory, 143-150.
61
Patterson, French Poetic Theory, 149-151.

75

Rhtorique, published in Paris in 1501 and repeatedly reedited during the first third of the
sixteenth century. 62 The anonymous author of the treatise, who names himself LInfortun,
defines rhetoric and its relationship with poetry, and provides an extensive exposition of figures
of speech and their uses in poetry. His definition of a figure of speech reflects the traditional
view that such gestures fall outside the norms of everyday speech:
Figure est impropriet
Licencie et aprouve
Par us et par auctorit.

A figure is impropriety
Licensed and approved
By usage and authority.

Besides a thorough exposition of rhymes and poetic forms, LInstructif is the first treatise to deal
with Middle French dramatic genres in a section that culminates with the first reference to
fureur potique (poetic inspiration)the Neoplatonic doctrine elaborated by Marcilio Ficino
some thirty years earlierto appear in French literary theory. 63
Heavily relying and expanding on LInstructif and on Molinets Lart de rhtorique
vulgaire, Pierre Fabris Le grand et vray art de pleine rhtorique (1521) is the first complete
exposition of French poetic theory of the early sixteenth century. Pierre Fabri (Pierre Le Fvre)
divides his treatise into two books, the first dealing with prose and the second with poetry or
lart de rithmer. 64 Fabri takes as modern models Chartier, Molinet, Mechninot, and Crtin. He
places particular emphasis on the rhythm of the line and treats the different types of rhyme found
in the poetry of the Grands Rhtoriqueurs, distinguishing between those for the ear and those for
the eye. He exalts above all others the rime quivoque, la plus noble et excellente rithme (the

62

For a modern edition see above fn. 49.

Patterson, French Poetic Theory, 157. Marcilio Ficinos 1469 commentary on Platos Symposium
became extremely influential during the sixteenth century. The commentary combines Platonist theology with
Plotinuss theory of the souls alienation from the divine. Ficino elaborates on the subject of the souls attempt to reunify with God, stimulated by the four Platonist furies (inspirations), one of which is the poetic fury. The latter
was extended to include the effects of music, as well as the religious, prophetic and erotic furies.
64
Pierre Fabri, Le grand et vray art de pleine rhtorique (Rouen: Simon Gruel, 1521). Modern edition in
Pierre Fabri, Le grand et vray art de pleine rhtorique, ed. A. Hamon, 3 vols. (Geneva: Slatkine, 1969).
63

76

most noble and excellent rhyme). 65 He insists on the alternation between masculine and feminine
rhymes, especially in the chant royal, a matter which also concerned Molinet and extended back
to the writings of Deschamps. Within his treatment of rhyme Fabri also introduces the use of
such rhetorical figures as anadiplosis and epanalepsis, which occur mainly at the end or
beginning of lines. According to Fabri, anadiplosis belongs to the colors of rhetoric called
gradatio, in which a line begins the way the previous ends, but it differs from rime enchaine in
that the words [involved] are not equivocal. 66 Fabri gives the following example:
Vous amoureux qui requerez le temps,
Le temps de mai pour avoir voz plaisirs,
Plaisirs et jeux daccomplir voz desires,
Desirs damours, quant serez vous contens?
Another figure of repetition is epanalepsis, in which a line begins and ends with the same word:
A lassault, gallans, a lassault!
Armez vous tost, saillez armez.
Charmez vous, soyez tous charmez.
Briffault, allez devant, Briffault. 67
Thus Fabri appropriates and adjusts rhetorical principles to the demands of the poetic art.
Although only a speculation, it is possible that composers of the multi-voice songs became
equally acquainted with rhetorical theory through their study of the classical treatises as well as
through their contacts with the poetry of their time, an art much closer to musical composition
than any type of prose writing.
To sum up, French poetry of the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries relied on a strong
poetic tradition extending back to the eleventh century. In this tradition, love, especially the

65

Patterson, French Poetic Theory, 168-169.

Anadiplosis is a couleur de retorique nommee gradation, qui recommence sa ligne par la fin de lautre,
mais a ce difere a enchainure [rime enchaine], car le terme nest point equivocque; quoted in Patterson, French
Poetic Theory, 169.
67
Patterson, French Poetic Theory, 169.
66

77

ennobling kind known as finamor or courtly love is the dominant theme. Although the lady is
the inspirer and recipient of the verses, she is rarely aloud a voice of her own. Love is mainly
seen and expressed through the mans point of view. However, the alienation from courtly
idealism, already evident in Le Roman de la Rose in the thirteenth century and Machauts poetry
in the fourteenth, towards a more realistic view of love becomes prominent in the opening
decades of the fifteenth century. Such alienation occurs on the level of themelove becomes the
cause of grief and miseryand on the level of register, as popularisant poetry, often with
obscene content, rises in prominence and infiltrates the world of the courtly lyric. Both features
also characterize the chanson verses of the multi-voice repertory, although a few texts therein do
reproduce the idealized atmosphere of finamor poetry.
The Grands Rhtoriqueurs dominate the scene during the second half of the fifteenth
century and the early part of the sixteenth centurywhen multi-voice chanson emergesand
composers at the service of the French royal court, the Burgundian ducal employ, or provincial
courts were most likely in close contact with these poets. Although the poetry of the
Rhtoriqueurs is regarded by critics as extravagant and artificial, it should be understood in
relation to their humanistic ideal of elevating French to the level of a classical language. Their
linguistic acrobatics only occasionally emerge in texts of the multi-voice chanson repertory, but
the play with form and convention at which the Rhtoriqueurs also excelled frequently finds
expression therein.
The view of poetry as a second type of rhetoric, prominent since the fourteenth century,
intensified in the course of the fifteenth century and culminated with the poetic treatises of
Molinet (1493), the anonymous author of LInstructif (1501), and Fabri (1521). In addition to
including detailed discussions on the figures of speech, theorists also elaborate on poetrys own

78

rhetorical gestures and potential. Among them, rhyme acquires a place of honor and it is even
grouped with the traditional rhetorical figures, as in Legrands 1405 LArchiloge Sophie. The
contemporary preoccupation with rhyme and its rhetorical effect possibly led composers to adopt
it as a major principle of organization for their musical compositions in the newer style.
Chanson verse and the multi-voice song repertory
From the wide and varied repertory of fifteenth-century poetry that has survived in
manuscript and printed anthologies, only a very small portion actually received musical
attention. Inversely, chanson verse may have been written for the sole purpose to be set to music
and therefore it may not have been considered worthy of appearing in a collection of poetry as
such. 68 The majority of chanson poems remains anonymous and the texts survive mainly
through the musical sources, including those for multi-voice songs. Even with collections that
only include chanson verses, such as the Parisian printed chanson anthologies that will be
considered below, the number of poems with extant musical settings is also small.
Despite the prolific production of poetry by the Grands Rhtoriqueurs, their verses (at
least the ones that circulated with ascriptions) did not attract composers for musical elaboration
except for few occasional poems, as we shall see. This situation leaves open the question of who
authored the chanson verses. Many scholars support the view that composers penned their own
texts according to their needs. Indeed, some of the simpler and shorter texts afford this
interpretation. At the same time, the bifurcation of the dual capacity of poet-musician into two
separate artistic fields had already been established in the course of the fifteenth century. This
leaves us with the possibility that composers collaborated with professional or amateur poets
residing at the courts. Indeed, a great number of courtiers practiced the art of verse-writing either
68

Margery A. Baird, Changes in the Literary Texts of the Late 15th and Early 16th Centuries, as Shown in
the Works of the Chanson Composers of the Pays-Bas Mridionaux, Musica Disciplina 15 (1961): 145.

79

as a pastime or for obtaining a favor. They often engaged in a kind of poetic game, exchanging
their lyrics in the form of envoy and responce. Manuscript Lille 402, an anthology containing
601 rondeaux and dating from the last quarter of the fifteenth century through the first quarter of
the sixteenth, contains over one hundred pairs of rondeaux meant to be read as dialogic
components. Many of these seem to have been penned by women. 69 The attributed or
attributable rondeaux in Lille 402 reveal a literary milieu related to the French royal and the
Burgundian ducal courts. The featured poets include Jean Marot, Georges Chastellain, Octovien
de Saint-Gelais, Andr de la Vigne, Jean Picard, Jean dAuton, Henri Baude, and Louis Ronsard,
all reputable poets belonging to the Grands Rhtoriqueurs school. It is possible that the same
poets, who signed works ambitious in scope and purpose such as Les lunettes des princes, also
provided composers with shorter lyric verses suitable for musical setting. 70 These lyrics rarely
found their way in poetic anthologies, possibly because they were considered as belonging to a
different domain, that of chanson verse intimately connected with music. Our main sources of
such chanson poetry are the manuscripts Paris, Bibliothque Nationale, MS fonds fr. 12744
(henceforth referred to as MS 12744), Paris, Bibliothque Nationale, MS fonds fr. 9346 (widely
known as Le Manuscript de Bayeux), 71 as well as printed editions of chanson verse that made
their initial appearance in the 1520s.
Manuscript 12744 was compiled at the end of the fifteenth century and includes
monophonic settings of 143 multi-stanza poems. The provenance of the chansons covers a wide
69

Franon, Pomes. Franon has adopted the terms envoy and response, which appear as headings in some
of the rondeaux in the manuscript.
70
Written by Jean Meschinot c. 1465, Les lunettes des princes is divided into three parts consisting of 86
twelve-line stanzas, 125 lines of prose, and 2,039 lines of verse, respectively. Les lunettes became a best-seller in the
last decade of the fifteenth century and in the early sixteenth century, going through at least thirty editions. See Fox,
Poetry, 44. Modern edition in Jean Meschinot, Les lunettes des princes, ed. Christine Martineau-Gnieys (Geneva:
Droz, 1972).
71
Modern editions in Gaston Paris and Auguste Gevaert, eds., Chansons du XVe sicle (Paris: Librairie de
Firmin-Didot, 1875); and Thodore Grold, ed., Le Manuscrit de Bayeux: Texte et musique dun recueil de chansons
du XVe sicle (Genve: Minkoff Reprint, 1979), henceforth referred to as the Bayeux manuscript.

80

range of regions: Normandy, Lyon, Picardie, Bourgogne, Savoy, Provence, Gascogne, and even
Spain. 72 With the exception of a few ballades, the vast majority of the poems reflects the
popularisant tradition. This is manifest in the variety of forms and rhyme structures (as opposed
to the fixed lyrical forms), the heterometric schemes, the topoi, the lexicon, and the presence of a
great number of pastourelles, in which Robin, Marion, and Margot act as the main protagonists.
Among the most common themes are those of the mal marie (the woman married to a much
older man who usually abuses her), the disturbing presence of the mesdisants (the jealous
slanderers who seek to spoil the lovers happiness), or the maiden abandoned by her lover. Erotic
endeavors most often take place in the garden, the prairie, or the forest, and the tone frequently
becomes licentious. The main protagonist is not the noble, unattainable lady of the courtly love
lyric, but the shepherdess, the maiden, or the beautiful brunette often addressed as belle. The
songs more often than not feature dialogue and thus the female voice has a strong presence in
this collection. The final strophe is frequently an apostrophe to the nightingale, the ally of the
lovers. Some of the poems adopt vocabulary emulating the typical courtly love discourse to
pretentiously elevate their tone. 73 Likewise, others incorporate verses from well-known chansons
seemingly to the same end. An important example is no. 73, which inserts no less than six lines
from such chansons. 74 Given Molinets tendency to incorporate chanson verses from well-known
musical settings in his longer poems, one only wonders if this song could be penned by him.
It was possibly due to the above features that Gaston Paris called the songs in MS 12744
chansons populaires anciennes. 75 The intended audience was not, however, the wide public but
72

Paris and Gevaert, Chansons du XVe sicle, x.

For example, no. 83 seems to be a parody of Chartiers Joye me fuit in its rhythmic pace and wordchoice. Paris, Chansons du XVe sicle, 81.
74
Paris, Chansons du XVe sicle, 71. The chanson verses are: Mon seul plaisir, ma doulce joye as l. 1;
Jay prins amour a ma devise as l. 6; Ma bouche rit et mon cueur pleure as l. 14; Comme femme desconforte
as l. 17; Terriblement suis fortune as l. 19; and Le souvenir de vous me tue as l. 32.
75
Paris, Chansons du XVe sicle, vi.
73

81

some aristocratic milieu. Each chanson bears a golden initial, the parchment is copiously lined,
and the strophes are separated by a blank space of one or more lines. Errors are also rare. 76
Although not pointed out by the editors, the compiler of MS 12744 groups together songs with
similar subjects or incipits. All of the above show a carefully planned collection with central
theme the erotic adventures of an extra-courtly Other for the entertainment of a noble patron.
Whether or not some of these texts originated from or are reminiscent of a popular culture is
difficult to determine.
In contrast to the rather homogeneous nature of the poetry in MS 12744 (mostly
popularisant songs), the chansons in Bayeux represent a variety of registral types. The
manuscript includes songs in the aristocratisant tradition, the popularisant tradition, and often a
mixture of both. The Bayeux manuscript was copied for the princely library of Charles de
Bourbon at the end of the fifteenth century (after 1480) and during the early years of the
sixteenth, but its poems represent different periods of the fifteenth century, some possibly dating
before 1450. 77 It contains one-hundred songs, thirty-five being concordant with MS 12744. The
provenance of the chansons is restricted to Normandy and northern France, in contrast to the
wide geographical distribution of the chansons in MS 12744. All chansons are anonymous in
both manuscripts. As in MS 12744, the first strophe of a song in Bayeux is accompanied by a
monophonic melody. Despite the lavish decoration of the manuscript, the scribe of Bayeux was
not as diligent as that of MS 12744. Although he copies the music with care, he frequently
provides only one or two strophes of the text, often omitting lines or entire stanzas and adding
others that are foreign to the poem.

76
77

Paris, Chansons du XVe sicle, vii.

Grold, Bayeux, xiv-xx.

82

In Bayeux, the chansons in the aristocratisant tradition revolve around the themes of love
complaint and grief caused by the separation of the lovers or by the interference of the jealous
slanderers (the mesdisants or envieux), all in a melancholic atmosphere. Allegorical figures are
nevertheless absent. The subjects of the chansons in the popularisant tradition are the same as
those in MS 12744 described above with the addition of a few drinking and satirical songs.
Bayeux also contains a number of songs that reflect historical events, such as the death of King
Rene dAnjou in 1480. 78 The predominant poetic form is that of the virelai; rondeaux and
ballades are an exception.
The modern editor of the manuscript, Thodore Grold, believes that the melodies in
Bayeux do not represent original monophonic songs but are voice parts extracted from vocal
polyphonic compositions or from songs for one voice with instrumental accompaniment. Grold
regards the syncopations, melismas, and repetitions of words as reflecting melodies adapted to an
ensemble. According to him, an original monophonic melody would be devoid of such gestures.
However, he acknowledges that there must have been primitive melodies (formes primitives)
that the polyphonists subsequently borrowed for elaboration. 79 Musicological scholarship has
refuted Grolds hypothesis. Gustave Reese and Theodore Karp have concluded that the
melodies in the two monophonic chansonniers are the pre-existent bases of [polyphonic
settings] rather than transcriptions arranged from them. 80 Reese and Karp have identified sixtyeight poetic texts from both manuscripts that have received 114 polyphonic settings. Their main
argument is that the vast majority of these compositions lack the close relationships between the
78

Grold, Bayeux, xxv.

Grold, Bayeux, xxxviii. Grold fails to recognize and take into account that since Bayeux contains both
aristocratisant and popularisant chansons there would be no need to speculate about the primitive origin of the
former. Nor does he differentiate between the two types of register in his account of the melodic features of the
chansons.
80
Gustave Reese and Theodore Karp, Monophony in a Group of Renaissance Chansonniers, Journal of
the American Musicological Society 5, no. 1 (1952): 15.
79

83

supposedly borrowed monophonic melody and the polyphonic settings, encountered in the
Tournai chansonnier (Tournai, Bibliothque de la Ville, MS s. n.) and Paris, Bibliothque
Nationale nouv. acq. fr. 4379, manuscripts which indeed contain melodies extracted from
polyphonic chansons. 81 According to Reese and Karp, only two monophonic melodies are
nearly equivalent to a voice-part found in the polyphonic compositions. 82 Furthermore, in the
absence of sources recording original versions of secular tunes, Grolds argument about the
unadorned nature of such music remains speculative.
Although Reese and Karp convincingly established that the melodies of the two
chansonniers are not extracted from polyphonic compositions (at least not any known ones), their
argument that the monophonic tunes are the pre-existent bases for polyphonic arrangements is
not as well supported. The widely differing readings of these tunes encountered as voice parts in
polyphonic settings indicate that such tunes were possibly transmitted orally with a number of
variants; that is, they existed in more than one version. Certainly musicians did not need to resort
to written chansonniers when they incorporated such tunes in their polyphonic songs; they could
rely on their own contacts and experiences with oral culture. At the same time, the frequent
absence of any resemblances between the monophonic melodies and the polyphonic settings of
corresponding texts implies that composers of the polyphonic songs were either freely
composing the settings or were resorting to other sources at will.
Howard Mayer Brown also accepts Reeses and Karps hypothesis that the melodies in
the two chansonniers are the pre-existent bases for polyphonic settings. Brown suggests that
these melodies were the popular tunes of their day and were intended for the entertainment of a

81

Reese and Karp, Monophony, 4-5.

Reese and Karp, Monophony, 7. The two compositions are Josquins four-voice Baiss moy and
Verbonnets Jaimeray bien mon amy.
82

84

middle class milieu. 83 According to Brown, the monophonic song of the esprit gaulois type,
which he labels chanson rustique, was almost exclusively used in the plays of the French
secular theater. Furthermore, Brown states that most of these monophonic melodies . . . were set
time and again by the most distinguished masters. 84 Yet a preliminary examination of Browns
list of secular songs for the theater 85 reveals that only thirty-six texts or melodies from his 416
entries have concordances with MS 12744 and Bayeux. From these, only twenty-five melodies
have received at least one polyphonic setting, and in many cases Brown admits that the
relationship between the cantus prius factus and its appearance in a polyphonic part is quite
distant. It remains thus unclear what the provenance of the melodies in MS 12744 and Bayeux is,
and exactly what they represent.
Helen Hewitt regards the melodies of the two chansonniers as either having a folk origin
or as monophonic tunes used on social occasions in more cultivated circles. She labels the
latter as court-tunes or court-songs. 86 However, if there is indeed some connection with
popular culture (at least in some of the chansons), what has come down to us through the sources
certainly does not faithfully reflect the original; just as the subject matter of these poems seems
to be a representation of the popular filtered through the spectacles of a court culture, the
melodies most likely represent a stylized version of tunes originated in an oral tradition. Indeed,
there is no proof that the two manuscripts present faithful transcriptions of their original material.
According to Brian Jeffery,
on the contrary, it seems probable that the two manuscripts do no give us the raw
material from which the polyphonists forged their compositions but rather
83

Howard M. Brown, The Chanson rustique: Popular Elements in the Fifteenth- and Sixteenth-Century
Chanson, Journal of the American Musicological Society 12, no. 1 (1959): 17-18.
84
Brown, The Chanson rustique, 20.
85
Howard M. Brown, Music in the French Secular Theater, 1440-1550 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press, 1963), 183-282.
86
Helen Hewitt, ed., Harmonice Musices Odhecaton A (Cambridge, MA: Mediaeval Academy of America,
1942; repr. New York: Da Capo Press, 1978), 95 (page citations are to the reprint edition).

85

material already elaborated and prepared precisely for the two manuscripts. It has
not been proven that the two manuscripts are collections of material faithfully
transcribed. This has important consequences for the texts: one has then to regard
them not as original or even folk material, but as texts that have been subject to
alterations. 87
Although Jeffery acknowledges the presence of popularisant elements in many of these texts, he
rightfully observes that it is evident that the chansons about the folk do not necessarily derive
from the folk: most of these chansons demonstrate a conscience of poetic craft that is closer to a
bourgeois or aristocratic milieu. 88 It seems more likely therefore, that the contents of MS 12744
and Bayeux served the purpose of providing their noble recipients with a written record of
fashionable poetry and music, possibly tailored according to court aesthetics, for their own
consumption.
Our understanding of the function of these poems would be much more complete had we
a comprehensive study of the relationships between the two chansonniers, the songs of the
secular theater, the first printed anthologies of chanson verse, and the major poetic anthologies of
the period such as Le Jardin de Plaisance, the Rohan MS, Lille 402, and the chansons albums of
Marguerite of Austria. The relationship between the contents of the two chansonniers and the
polyphonic chanson repertory thus requires further exploration and it is certainly not as welldefined as it is generally thought. The uncertainty about the origins of the melodies in the two
chansonniers notwithstanding, the tendency to emulate popularisant features manifest therein

87

Il semble probable que les deux mss. ne nous donnent pas, au contraire, le matriel brut dont les
polyphonistes auraient forg leurs compositions, mais plutt du matriel dj forg et prpar prcisment pour ces
deux mss. Il nest pas prouv que les deux mss. soient des recueils de matriel fidlement transcript. Cela a des
consequences importantes pour les texts: il faut donc les regarder non pas comme du matriel original ou mme
folklorique, mais comme des textes qui auraient t sujets au remaniement. Brian Jeffery, Thmatique littraire de
la chanson franaise entre 1480 et 1525, in La chanson la Renaissance: Actes du XXe colloque d tudes
humanistes du Centre dtudes suprieures de la Renaissance de lUniversit de Tours, juillet1977, ed. Jean-Michel
Vaccaro (Tours: Van de Velde, 1981), 52.
88
Il est vident que les chansons dans lesquelles il sagit du peuple ne drivent pas forcment du peuple:
plusieurs de ces chansons-l dmontrent une conscience du mtier potique qui est plutt celle des milieux
bourgeois ou aristocratiques. Jeffery, Thmatique, 57.

86

seems to have left a strong mark on musical composition. It is possibly due to popularisant
influences that the shift from melismatic writing to a more declamatory, text-oriented style
occurred toward the end of the fifteenth century. Indeed, the editors of the Mellon chansonnier,
which mainly contains repertory from the third quarter of the fifteenth century, discern a direct
connection between poetic nature and musical style in the popularisant songs of that manuscript,
which subsequently affected musical composition in the aristocratisant register: This shift,
which can be perceived in the secular polyphony cultivated in territories of French culture during
the closing decades of the fifteenth century, was due at least in part to an emulation of the
popular songs that had penetrated the courtly tradition in arrangements such as those found in the
Mellon Chansonnier. 89 As mentioned in the first part of this chapter, the humanist concern with
the vernacular and the formation of a French, national identity may have also contributed to the
growing importance of the popularisant song.
Publications of chanson verse, that is, of poetry connected with music, did not appear
until the second decade of the sixteenth century. Brian Jeffery has collected eleven printed
anthologies of chanson verse published in Paris during the period 1512-1530. These anthologies
represent two different generations of chansons. The first spans the years c. 1512-1525 but its
contents originally date from twenty or thirty years earlier. 90 An additional chanson verse print
from 1535 is demonstrably based on a source dating from the period 1515-1525. 91 In the second
generation, c. 1525-1530, the chansons are contemporaneous with their editions. The present

89

Leeman L. Perkins and Howard Garey, eds., The Mellon Chansonnier, 2 vols. (New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1979), 1:62.
90
Brian Jeffery, Chanson Verse of the Early Renaissance, 2 vols. (London: Tecla Editions, 1971-1976).
The first volume of Jefferys edition brings together chanson verse anthologies up to 1530 while the second volume
a later generation of chanson anthologies published from c. 1530 to the 1540s.
91
Jeffery, Chanson Verse, 2:127-300 (siglum 1535); Jeffery, Thmatique, 52-53.

87

discussion mainly concerns itself with the first group, which predates or is contemporary with
the multi-voice chanson settings of the first quarter of the sixteenth century.
The physical appearance of these early printed chanson collections testify to their place in
the market. In contrast to the luxurious monophonic chansonniers, these prints are small-sized
plaquettes (often only 4 leaves each) without binding, separate title page, or publication
information. All prints survive in a unique copy and all include the word chanson in their titles.
The poetry is anonymous (with the exception of one poem by Jean Marot) and the songs are
printed alongside bogus recipes and cures, popular aids to devotion and poems about the
tribulations of marriage. 92 The contents reflect both the aristocratisant and the popularisant
registers, and the subject matter ranges from love songs to drinking songs and historical poems.
Of a total of 112 poems about half have received musical settings. Thirty-seven texts are
common with MS 12744 and Bayeux. 93 Most of the chansons are strophic; with the exception of
one rondeau and two ballades the most common form representing the older formes fixes is the
virelai. 94 According to Jeffery, the function of these prints was to supply the deficiency of
nearly all the musical sources of the time, by making available the full words of chansons.
Perhaps the music printers failed to provide them for economic reasons, so that an opening
appeared for an enterprising printer to step in and print them separately. Thus, musicians who so
wished could buy them as a supplement to books which they already owned; and those who
could not afford the music books at all . . . could perhaps at least afford to buy collections of
words whose tunes they might know already. 95

92

Jeffery, Chanson Verse, 1:15.

Jeffery, Thmatique, 52-53.
94
There is a revived interest in the virelai, especially its one-stanza version known as the bergerette, in the
closing years of the fifteenth century. This is also confirmed by the contents of the Bayeux manuscript and MS
12744. In contrast, later chanson collections (1525-1530) contain only strophic songs.
95
Jeffery, Chanson Verse, 1:33.
93

88

Despite the great number of poetic texts in our main sources of chanson verse (about 281
poems shared among MS 12744, the Bayeux, and the prints of 1512-1525), the number of extant
polyphonic settings represents only one third of the surviving poetry. The number of multi-voice
chanson settings is even smaller. Of the 281 chanson texts from these sources, only seven were
set polyphonically for five or six voices. The seven settings are: Baiss moy (from Bayeux), En
douleur et tristesse, Se congi prens, and Vray Dieu, quamoureux ont de peine (from MS
12744), and Damour je suis desherite, Faulte dargent, and Vray Dieu damour, maudit soit la
journe (from the printed chanson anthologies before 1525). 96 Josquin set three of these, Mouton
two, and Bauldewyn and Richafort one each (see Appendix 1). Only the first four of the above
seven songs survive with monophonic melodies (in Bayeux and 12744) but the extent to which
the multi-voice settings reproduce the models varies widely. For example, while Baiss moy
closely follows the monophonic melody in Bayeux, the relationship of Vray Dieu, quamoureux
ont de peine by Mouton to the homonymous song in MS 12744 is weak; the two only share their
first lines of text, while their melodies are unrelated. The implication is that either polyphonic
songs related to chanson verse sources have not survived due to the accidents of transmission, or
that musicians preferred to turn to other sources of poetry (and possibly music) for their settings.
The composers of multi-voice chansons seem to have favored texts outside the realm of
the Parisian printed chanson anthologies, texts circulating in manuscript sources intended for a
more restricted and elite audience. The manuscript sources mainly include the three albums
compiled for Marguerite of Austria, namely Brussels, Bibliothque Royale, MSS 10572, 228,

96

The six-voice Baiss moy, attributed to Josquin in Susatos 1545 print [RISM 154515], adds another
canon to his four-voice homonymous setting. Vray Dieu, quamoureux ont de peine appears in both MS 12744 and
in one of the early chanson verse anthologies published in Jeffery, Chanson Verse, 1:112-113 (siglum 90(b), no. 12).
Damour je suis desherite appears in an edition belonging to the second generation of anthologies (c. 1525-1530);
Jeffery, Chanson Verse, 1:257-258 (siglum 17, no. 15).

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and 11239, 97 as well as Lille 402 and the Rohan MS. 98 Frequently, the poems therein share
common incipits and themes, as well as fragments of texts, single but characteristic words, or
identical rhymes. These intertextual resonances often reverberate with the related musical
settings. 99 Such relationships enable multi-layered interpretations of the music and in some cases
even offer alternative solutions for problematic attributions. 100
Despite the fact that the above collections provide the names of many authors (especially
Lille 402 and the Rohan MS), we rarely know them with certainty for the multi-voice chanson
texts. The only poets identified or identifiable within this repertory are those who provided the
verses for occasional poetry, mainly dplorations. Molinet is the poet of Nymphes des bois,
Josquins lament on the death of Ockeghem, and Lemaire is the possible author of Cueurs
desolez, a lament on the death of Louis de Luxembourg-Ligny. 101 Octovien de Saint-Gelais
could be the poet of Plaine de deuil, a chanson intertextually related to his Tous les regretz qui
les cueurs tourmentez, written for Marguerites departure from France after the annulment of her
betrothal to Charles VIII. 102 It is possible that these and other poets connected to the Burgundian

97

The three anthologies contain a total of 171 poems. The majority (111) are rondeaux. BrusBR 228 and
11239 are music anthologies; BrusBR 10572 contains only poetry. While BrusBR 228 and 11239 have many pieces
in common, there are no concordances with BrusBR 10572. Marcel Franon, Albums potiques de Marguerite
dAutriche (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1934), 83-84.
98
Lille 402 was compiled for a feminine milieu related to the courts of Savoy and France, of which the
main figures are Louise of Savoy, Queen Claude of France, and Marguerite dAngoulme. The Rohan MS was
compiled between 1470 and 1475 for Louis Malet de Graville. Graville, a Normandy family name, also appears as
acrostic in poems of Lille 402.
99
For example, Lille 402 has many poems in common with BrusBR 228. Intertextual references also
abound. The musical settings support the connections between the related poems in the two anthologies. See the
discussion on Deuil et ennuy and Cent mille regretz in Chapter VI.
100
See Chapter V, which deals with intertextuality in Josquins multi-voice chansons, as well as the
discussion on the suggested reattribution of Cueurs desolez/Plorans ploravit in Chapter VI.
101
For Nymphes des bois see above fn. 38. Osthoff associates Cueurs desolez with Lemaires La Plainte du
Dsir, a poem written on the death of Louis de Luxembourg-Ligny in 1503, because the phrase Cueurs desolez
appears in the prose introduction of La Plainte. Helmuth Osthoff, Josquin Desprez, 2 vols. (Tutzing: Hans
Schneider, 1962-1965), 1:65-67.
102
Octovien de Saint-Gelaiss Tous les regretz qui les cueurs tourmentez contains the phrase Pour abreger
le surplus de ma vie as its third line. The strophic Plaine de deuil features a variation of the phrase Me rendrea
toy le surplus de ma vie as the final line of every strophe. Plaine de deuil appears in BrusBR 228, one of

90

ducal and French royal courts also penned some of the multi-voice song texts in both the
aristocratisant and the popularisant register. 103
Besides occasional poems, the themes treated in the multi-voice aristocratisant chansons
include the typical laments of unrequited love as well as amorous complaints due to the
departure of the lover. The lady of the multi-voice chanson texts often expresses her feelings
directly addressing her lover, a feature unprecedented in aristocratisant love lyrics set by
composers of the previous generation. For example, in the chansons of the Mellon chansonnier
the male poems manifest a clear preference for passionate or respectful apostrophe, the female
songs of love express reflective resignation or quiet satisfaction. 104 A clear break away from
such reflective resignation occurs in the five-voice Plaine de deuil, which begins the second
stanza with the direct address Je te requires et humblement supplie. Furthermore, the
allegorical figures so prominent in the aristocratisant songs of the earliest part of the fifteenth
century are entirely absent from the multi-voice chanson texts even though the Roman de la Rose
was very influential during the years that the multi-voice chansons were composed. For example,
Molinet made a prose adaptation of Le Roman de la Rose, in which he added a commentary on
the allegory of the rose within a Christian framework. 105

Marguerites chanson albums. Osthoff has even ascribed the poem to Marguerite without, however, providing any
evidence. Osthoff, Josquin, 1:69.
103
Nineteenth-century scholars also regarded Marguerite of Austria as the possible author of many of the
texts in the poetic anthologies that belonged to her. However, only one piece can be securely attributed to her on the
basis of her handwriting and not of style. For this poem see Franon, Albums, 70. The three poetic albums were
compiled for, rather than by, Marguerite, assembling pieces from other anthologies. On early scholarship supporting
the view that Marguerite was the author of many of the poems in her chansonniers see Martin Picker, ed., The
Chansons Albums of Marguerite of Austria (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1965), 6-7. Recently, Honey
Meconi has drawn parallels between Margarets biography and aspects of presentation in BrusBR 228. Honey
Meconi, The Last Chansonnier: Brussels, Bibliotque Royal MS 228 (paper presented at the annual meeting of the
American Musicological Society, Quebec City, 1 November 2007).
104
Perkins, Mellon, 75. The bulk of the chansonnier contains works by Tinctoriss contemporaries.
However, its last two gatherings contain a repertory that goes back into the first half of the fifteenth century.
105
Molinets Roman de la Rose moralis was published in Lyons and Paris in 1503 and 1521, respectively.

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Although the subject of love and its troubles prevails, the aristocratisant multi-voice
chanson texts do not always define the cause of grief, which in many cases can be understood as
a misfortune outside the realm of love. In addition, a few poems stand out by their generalized,
public character, despite the fact that they are often uttered through a strong first-person
narrative. Such poems adopt an elevated vocabulary but their contents are almost proverbial in
nature. For example, the quatrain Quant il advient (discussed in Chapter VI) presents a universal
truth about lifes hardships in the most succinct way:
Quant il advient choses constraintes
Prendre les fault commeelles sont;
Faire comme les aultres font
Pour mieulx venir ses attaintes.

When hardships come your way

You have to take them the way they are;
Face them as everyone else does
To better come in terms with them. 106

Regardless of the poetic theme, most of the chansons in the aristocratisant register have
the structure of rondeau quatrain or cinquain refrains, that is, they are octosyllabic or
decasyllabic stanzas with abba or aabba rhymes, respectively. It remains unclear whether these
single-stanza poems were originally written as such or were extracted from full rondeau texts. 107
In the majority of the cases only the refrain survives, mainly through its musical setting. The
rhyme scheme of the rondeau refrain is also prevalent with strophic texts as well as with the
dplorations, although in the latter category the surviving texts are usually longer.
In contrast to the generally consistent prosodic features of the chansons in the
aristocratisant register, the popularisant multi-voice chansons display a wide variety of metric
and rhyming structures. The verses are usually asymmetrical in their phrase lengths and they
often incorporate narrative combined with dialogue, reflecting the pastourelle tradition. While
106

Other chansons of this type are Pour souhaitter and possibly the pair Nesse pas ung grant desplaisir
and Si vous navez autre desir.
107
Don Michael Randel has expressed the view that, already since Dufays times, composers mainly sought
to emphasize the prosodic features of the rondeau refrain even when the entire text was available. Don Michael
Randel, Dufay the Reader, in Music and Language, Studies in the History of Music, vol. 1 (New York: Broude
Brothers, 1983), 46-47.

92

the aristocratisant poems adopt an abstract and generalized form of verbal expression in which
the poetic subjects state of mind exists in a timeless universe, the popularisant chansons are
more specific in defining their space and time of action; references to jardin, bois, le
matin, la vespre, etc. are very common. The themes range from the amorous encounter of
the shepherd and the shepherdess (Le berger et la bergre) to more topical subjects such as the
lack of money and its unpleasant consequences (Faulte dargent). The chanson lyrics often
incorporate double entendres and licentious vocabulary, emphasized by the expanded texture of
the multi-voice settings. However, compared to the amount and level of profanity of the bawdy
poetry in circulation at the time, the multi-voice chanson lyrics are rather moderate and use
propriety. 108 In many cases the popularisant and the aristocratisant features mingle, making it
difficult to categorize a song according to register. For example, Josquins Je me complains de
mon amy adopts a dignified courtly atmosphere, but its rhyme scheme, metrical structure, and
vocabulary betray its popularisant origin.
Poetry of the fifteenth century was not a decadent and declining endeavor, as nineteenthcentury literary criticism holds it, but a growing and developing artistic field, culminating in the
idiomatic language of the Grands Rhtoriqueurs with its emphasis on rhyme and word-play.
Although their extravagant language only occasionally finds its way in the texts of the multivoice songs, the Rhtoriqueurs preoccupation with rhyme and form possibly inspired composers
to manipulate both to rhetorical ends. In treating the subject of love, whether in longer works or
in the shorter chanson lyrics, poets break away from the idealized courtly love discourse to a

108

Scholars have been reluctant to accept the idea that Josquin might have set obscene verses or responded
to double entendres. Osthoff, for example, hesitated to accept Allgez moy as Josquins because of the trivial nature
of the poetry, among other reasons. Osthoff, Josquin Desprez, 2:219. The musico-rhetorical analysis, however,
shows that Josquin often brought attention to double entendres inherent in the poetry. See the discussion on Allgez
moy in Chapter IV.

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more realistic view. At the same time, popularisant elements infiltrate the love poetry, widening
the gamut of themes, voices, and poetic structures. Obscene verses proliferate and they feature
alongside aristocratisant poems in manuscript sources intended for courtly milieus. The two
poetic registers offered varied opportunities for rhetorical expression and determined in many
respects the compositional strategies employed by multi-voice chanson composers. As
contemporary poetic treatises amply testify, the relationship between poetry, music, and rhetoric
strengthens during the course of the century, and the following analyses demonstrate how
composers took advantage of the expanded textures to further enhance the rhetoric of the poetry
set.

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CHAPTER III
JOSQUINS MULTI-VOICE CHANSONS ON A MELODY OF HIS OWN INVENTION
An overview of Josquins five- and six-voice chansons reveals a common compositional
approach: the composers reliance on some kind of pre-existent entity, either a melody of his
own invention treated canonically, or a cantus prius factus derived from the secular monophonic
repertory, another polyphonic song, or sacred plainchant. Only two multi-voice chansons, Je ne
me puis tenir daimer and Mi lars vous tousjours languir, are free compositions, that is, they
neither incorporate a canon nor rely on a cantus prius factus. Since the projected volumes of the
New Josquin Edition to include Josquins multi-voice chansons have not to date been published
(vols. 29 and 30), I rely upon Josquins list of works as it appears in The New Grove Dictionary
of Music and Musicians. 1 A few chansons therein are considered doubtful or have been
attributed to other composers. For example, both Cent mille regretz and Incessament mon povre
cueur are now accepted as La Rues and will be discussed in Chapter VI. Navez point veu mal
assene is possibly by Jean Le Brung and I discuss it in Chapter VII. I briefly overview other
doubtful chansons based on pre-existent models at the end of Chapter IV. I will not consider La
Spagna, an instrumental composition that falls outside the scope of this study, and the chansons
Fors seullement and Adieu mes amours (both 6), which survive incomplete.
Table 3.1 groups Josquins multi-voice chansons according to the type of precompositional entity involved. Group 1 (left column) lists all chansons based on Josquins own
melodies, that is, on melodies for which no pre-existent model has been identified. Group 2

Patrick Macey and Jeremy Noble, Josquin (Lebloitte dit) des Prez, The New Grove Dictionary of Music
and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell, vol. 13 (London: Macmillan, 2001), 240-261. For a complete list
of Josquins multi-voice chansons see Appendix 1.

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(middle column) includes chansons on a known cantus prius factus, distinguishing the canonic
from the non-canonic ones, and Group 3 (right column) shows the two free chansons. The
numbers in parentheses denote the number of voice-parts.
Table 3.1. Multi-voice chansons by Josquin according to the type of pre-compositional
material
On Josquins melodies (all canonic)
(Group 1)
Cueur langoreulx (5)
Douleur me bat (5)
Du mien amant (5)
Incessament livr suis (5)
Nesse pas ung grant desplaisir (5)
Parfons regretz (5)
Plaine de dueil (5)
Plusieurs regretz (5)
Pour souhaitter (6)
Regretz sans fin (6)
Vous larez (6)
Vous ne laurez (6)

On known cantus prius facti

(Group 2)
Canonic
Allgez moy (6)
Baiss moy (6)
Faulte dargent (5)
Je me complains (5)
Jay bien cause de lamenter (6)
Nymphes, napps/Circumdederunt
me (6)
Petite camusette (6)
Se congi prens (6)
Non-canonic
Cueurs desolez/Plorans ploravit (5)
En non saichant (5)
Lamye a tous/Je ne vis oncques (5)
Ma bouche rit (5)
Nymphes des bois/Requiem (5)
Tenez moy (6)

Free (Group 3)
Je ne me puis tenir
daimer (5)
Mi lars vous (5)

All of the chansons in Group 1 are canonic and their texts reflect the aristocratisant
tradition. The vast majority employ canons at the fifth and are mainly five-voice compositions.
Only four of the twelve chansons in this group are composed for six-voices (see also Table 3.2
below). The division of the chansons of Group 2 into canonic and non-canonic generates two
important observations. First, Josquin reserves canonic treatment mainly for the chansons based
on melodies from the secular monophonic repertory. Second, Josquin eschews canon when he
borrows from Latin plainchant (Cueurs desolez/Plorans ploravit, Nymphes des bois/Requiem) or
from a pre-existent art-song (En non saichant, Lamye a tous/Je ne vis oncques, Ma bouche rit,
and Tenez moy). Nymphes, napps/Circumdederunt me stands out as an exception to this

96

observation, as Josquin treats the cantus firmus canonically, thereby generating a six-voice
texture.
As canonic technique characterizes the vast majority of the multi-voice chansons, the
following analysis is particularly oriented towards revealing the function and rhetoric embedded
in Josquins canons. Since Group 1, that is, the chansons on Josquins own melodies, is much
more homogeneous (all canonic, all aristocratisant) compared to Group 2, I will start my
analysis with this specific category. The findings will enable me to create a matrix of rhetorical
devices against which I will compare the rest of Josquins multi-voice compositions. Table 3.2
provides details about the Group 1 chansons.
Table 3.2. Chansons based on Josquins own melodies (Group 1)
Chanson incipit
(number of voices)
Cueur langoreulx
(5)

Canonic
interval
Fifth

Canonic
voices
S/Q

Poetic subject
Male

Douleur me bat (5)

Fifth

T/Q

Male/Female

Du mien amant (5)

Incessament livr
suis (5)

Fifth
Fifth

T/Q
T/Q

Female
Male

Nesse pas ung

grant desplaisir (5)

Unison

T/Q

Male/Female

Parfons regretz (5)

Octave

Q/B

Female (?)

Plaine de dueil (5)

Fifth

S/Q

Female

Plusieurs regretz
(5)

Fifth

T/Q

Male/Female

Pour souhaitter (6)

Fifth

T/Sx

Male

97

Poetic
structure
Rondeau
cinquain
refrain
Rondeau
cinquain
refrain
Bergerette
Rondeau
cinquain
refrain
Rondeau
cinquain
refrain
Rondeau
cinquain
refrain
Strophic
Rondeau
cinquain
refrain
Rondeau
quatrain
refrain

Musical Structure
AABCDE
AABBCC+coda
AABBB CDEF
AABBC+coda
ABABBB
AABBCC+coda
AABBC+coda
possibly within a
strophic setting
AABBCC
ABCB

Regretz sans fin (6)

Fourth

T/Sx

Male/Female

Rondeau
cinquain

Vous larez (6)

Fourth

T/Sx

Male

Vous ne laurez (6)

Fifth

T/Sx

Male

Rondeau
cinquain
refrain
Rondeau
quatrain
refrain

ABA with A:
AABCD and B:
EEF
ABACDD
ABCD

General observations on the chansons of Group 1

Poetry
With the exception of Du mien amant, a bergerette, and Plaine de dueil, a strophic poem,
all of the remaining chansons of this group are rondeaux or have the structure of rondeaux
cinquains or quatrains refrains with aabba or abba rhymes, respectively. 2 The subjects reflect the
aristocratisant tradition of amorous regrets or pleas for the favor of the lover, and the texts bring
forth an air of melancholy and despair embodied in the typical courtly vocabulary. In a few
cases, the reason of the poetic subjects distress is some unspecified misfortune (Douleur me bat,
Nesse pas ung grant desplaisir, and Plusieurs regretz) although the sufferings of love should
not be excluded. Only the four-line Pour souhaitter stands out by its generalized, public voice,
expressing wishful thinking about what is most desirable in life. For many of these chansons no
text survives other than the one of the musical setting. As Margery A. Baird has succinctly
observed, the absence of chanson texts from contemporary poetic anthologies suggests that the
stanzas at hand were written for the particular purpose of setting them to music. 3

The musical structure of a bergerette is AbbaA. The refrain (A) usually follows an aabba or abba rhyme,
which often misleads scholars to identify bergerettes as rondeaux in cases in which only the refrain survives.
3
Margery A. Baird, Changes in the Literary Texts of the Late 15th and Early 16th Centuries, as Shown in
the Works of the Chanson Composers of the Pays-Bas Mridionaux, Musica Disciplina 15 (1961): 145.

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Canonic melodies
As Table 3.2 indicates, most of the canons are at the interval of the fifth and involve an
inner pair of voices. There are only three chansons in which an outer voice participates in the
canon: the Superius in Cueur langoreulx and Plaine de dueil, and the Bassus in Parfons regretz.
The canonic writing is strict although the comes frequently imitates the dux diatonically rather
than exactly. 4 Example 3.11 at the end of the present chapter presents the tonal melodies of the
canons incorporated in the twelve chansons of Group 1. 5 A brief overview clearly reveals that
the canonic melodies ensure the syllabic declamation of the text. In addition, all melodies setting
decasyllabic verses observe the poetic caesura with a rest at the fourth syllable. Exceptions to
this rule occur only when there is a syntactic or semantic imperative that demands some other
kind of division (e.g., Cueur langoreulx). Furthermore, the canonic melodies reflect the rhyme
structure in several different ways, the most common being the repetition of the same musical
phrase for similarly rhyming lines, and the choice of cadential pitches at the end of phrases that
parallel the rhyme scheme. In the case of the cinquains refrains, however, the last line (a-rhyme)
frequently receives an independent melodic phrase, which is more often than not immediately
repeated at the same pitch level or in transposition. The syllabic declamation, the hemistich
division, the cadential structure, and the repetitive scheme of the musical phrases all point to the
same conclusion: the canonic melodies were devised to reflect the structural, syntactic, and
semantic implications of each particular poem.

This mainly applies to canons at the fourth and the fifth. In exact imitation, the intervals of the comes can
be solmized with the same syllables as those of the dux. On Josquins use of diatonic or exact canon see Peter
Urquhart, Susatos Le septiesme livre (1545) and the Persistence of Exact Canon, in Tielman Susato and the Music
of His Time: Print Culture, Compositional Technique and Instrumental Music in the Renaissance, ed. Keith Polk
(Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon, 2005), 165-190.
5
The tonal melody of a canon is that which projects the main characteristics of a compositions mode, as
this is defined by the works final harmony. Obviously, both canonic voices present the tonal melody in canons at
the unison or at the octave.

99

The most outstanding feature of the canons, however, is the lack of internal repetitions,
which stands in sharp contrast to the repetitive nature of the surrounding polyphony. Text
repetition of small units (short phrases or single words) emerges in the chanson repertory at the
end of the fifteenth century. In chansons by Dufay, Binchois, and Ockeghem, text repetition
takes place mainly within the repetitive scheme of the poetic formes fixes, with whole sections of
text repeating according to the formal structure of the respective poetic genre. Otherwise,
repetition of smaller textual units is very rare in this repertory. For example, from all of
Ockeghems undisputed chansons in the collected works edition only three could possibly carry
such verbal repetitions. 6 However, as Helen Hewitt observes, with the breaking away from the
formes fixes, came a new kind of freedom, that of text repetition . . . In the new style composers
repeat not only entire refrains but single lines, phrases, or even separate words . . . In other
words, composers were learning to subordinate text to music, whereas in the older style the
music had followed the strict dictation of the poetic form. 7
The textual repetitions that characterize the chanson repertory at the turn of the sixteenthcentury may have served several different purposes. First, breaking away from the formes fixes
towards setting single stanzas of poetry resulted in a considerable shortening of the poetic texts
and, subsequently, of their musical settings. Repetition became, therefore, one way of
lengthening a piece. Second, when a canon is the structural foundation of a work, repetition in
6

Johannes Ockeghem, Collected Works, vol. 3, Motets and Chansons, ed. Richard Wexler and Dragan
Plamenac (Boston: Schirmer, 1947-92). The chansons in question are Jen ay dueil, Ques mi vida, and Ung aultre
la. The repetitions involved are brief and occur at the end of musical phrases.
7
Helen Hewitt, ed., Harmonice Musices Odhecaton A (Cambridge, MA: Mediaeval Academy of America,
1942; repr. New York: Da Capo Press, 1978), 56 (page citations are to the reprint edition). Theoretical treatises of
the late fifteenth century and the first half of the sixteenth century regard verbal repetition in plainchant as
completely inappropriate, although they do not reject it in secular compositions as long as there are enough notes to
accommodate the textual repeats. Lanfrancos Scintille di musica (Brescia, 1533) is the most important document
that contributes to our knowledge of sixteenth-century practice on text placement. Rossettis slightly earlier Libellus
de rudimentis musices (1529) regards text repetition as a defect and warns against any repetition of words and
syllables. See Don Harrn, Word-Tone Relationships in Musical Thought, Musicological Studies and Documents,
vol. 40 (n.p.: American Institute of Musicology, 1986), 115-156 passim.

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the surrounding polyphony might be necessary in order to ensure a natural pace for the canonic
melodies. Finally, with the change of melodic style from melismatic to syllabic, textual repetition
again becomes a means for lengthening the musical phrases. 8
In many instances, however, repetition came to serve the rhetorical function of
highlighting the meaning of important phrases or words. Josquins treatment of repetition in his
Group 1 multi-voice chansons reinforces such an interpretation. The extensive repetitions and
melismas over important words in the freely composed voices indicate that Josquin handles the
non-canonic voices as a commentary to the text of the canon, the function of which is to
accommodate and persuasively deliver the poetry at hand. Devoid of repetitions, the canons thus
assume the role of a declamatory straightforward oration. This interpretation is further reinforced
by the fact that it is especially with the canons on his own melodieswhere Josquin would be
free to incorporate repetitions at willthat he chooses to eschew with such treatment. Therefore,
Josquins canons have not only a structural but also en expressive function. The result is a multilayered text where direct delivery and commentary are juxtaposed, enriching the singledimensional, linear character of reciting poetry. Polyphony functions at the same time as reading
aloud and reading silently, the latter function allowing for inner thoughts to unfold
simultaneously through the freely composed voices of the polyphonic texture. Therefore, while
the canonic melody recites the poetry, the surrounding voices highlight and comment upon its
meaning. I argue that the expanded texture of the multi-voice chanson facilitates such treatment
since there are more voices available to contribute to this polyphony of readings. 9 In this
8

The change to a more syllabic style is associated with humanistic influence (see Introduction and
Chapter II).
9
I borrow Margaret Bents metaphorical application of the word polyphony to describe multiple levels
of meaning that emerge from the interaction of texts and music in the polytextual fourteenth-century motet.
Margaret Bent, Polyphony of Texts and Music in the Fourteenth-Century Motet: Tribum que non
abhorruit/Quoniam secta latronum/Merito hec patimur and Its Quotations, in Hearing the Motet: Essays on the
Motet of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, ed. Dolores Pesce (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 82-103.

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respect, Josquins treatment of canonic technique in his multi-voice chansons differs radically
from that of his contemporaries and could serve as an important index in style criticism related to
authenticity. La Rues canons more often than not incorporate internal text repetitions while
Mouton eschews canon altogether in his multi-voice chansons.
Structure
The twelve Group 1chansons represent three basic categories of musical structure. The
first includes chansons built around two musical phrases, A and B, a process possibly
reminiscent of the formes fixes, but without the repetitive scheme of the older musico-poetic
structures. Chansons of this type are Du mien amant, Nesse pas ung grant desplaisir, and Pour
souhaitter.
The second category includes chansons with an end-oriented structure, that is, chansons
that follow a repetitive scheme but also place emphasis on the last line of the text, which is
usually stated twice, e.g., AABBCC (with or without coda). 10 Josquin uses such structures to set
five rondeaux cinquains refrains: Douleur me bat, Incessament livr suis, Parfons regretz, Plaine
de dueil, and Plusieurs regretz. Although the rhyme of the last line of the rondeau cinquain
invites a return to the melody of the first part, Josquin instead composes a distinct melodic
phrase, observing the semantic content of the poem. The result is a balanced composition of
three sections of two musical phrases each, for a poetic structure of five lines. It can be argued
that Josquin observes in this treatment of the structure the three-fold division of the rhetorical
expositio into exordium, medium, and finis, a division that Gallus Dressler described in his
10

Lawrence F. Bernstein introduced the term end-oriented to describe musical structures that place
emphasis on the last line or section of a chanson through synthesis of motivic material, clarification of tonal
ambiguity, or repetition. Such strategy usually parallels the epigrammatic character of the poetry. Lawrence F.
Bernstein, A Canonic Chanson in a German Manuscript: Faulte dargent and Josquins Approach to the Chanson
for Five Voices, in Von Isaac bis Bach: Festschrift Martin Just zum 60. Geburtstag, ed. Frank Heidlberger,
Wolfgang Osthoff, and Reinhard Wiesend (Kassel: Brenreiter, 1991), 64, 66, 68, and idem, Chansons for Five and
Six Voices, in The Josquin Companion, ed. Richard Sherr (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 400, 422.

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Praecepta musicae poeticae of 1563. 11 The separate musical phrase for the fifth line of the text,
which stands out by successive repetitions and often a distinct musical texture, further intensifies
the last part. Josquin thus strengthens his musical argument in the last part of his composition,
creating a pathopoeia that captures Quintilians suggestion, it is at the close of our drama that
we must really stir the theatre. 12
The last formal category encompasses through-composed settings with a separate
melodic phrase for every line of text. Depending on the length of the poetry, they can be
described with the general scheme ABCD or ABCDE for four or five lines of text, respectively.
Nevertheless, Josquin often incorporates a return to musical phrase A at some point in the
chanson, testifying to the importance the opening musical phrase holds within these
compositions. Chansons of this type are Cueur langoreulx, Regretz sans fin, Vous larez, and
Vous ne laurez pas.
Rhetorical figures
Rhetorical figures similar to the ones pointed out by Patrick Macey in his study of
Miserere mei, Deus frequently appear in the Group 1 repertory, proving that such gestures were
not exclusively reserved for the sacred repertory. 13 Instances of musical anaphora, anadiplosis,
epanadiplosis, interiectio, etc. are common. 14 In general, however, these figures do not represent
the homonymous gesture in the poetry, but are rather used as markers that point to a syntactic or
semantic prosodic feature that demands attention. For example, Josquin frequently uses figures
11

Gallus Dressler, Praecepta musicae poeticae, ed. B. Engelke, in Geschicthsbltter fr Stadt und Land
Magdeburg 49-50 (1914-15), 243-8; quoted in Patrick Macey, Josquin and Musical Rhetoric: Miserere mei, Deus
and Other Motets, in The Josquin Companion, ed. Richard Sherr (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 521.
This essay is an excerpted and revised version of his dissertation Josquins Miserere mei Deus: Context, Structure,
and Influence (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Berkeley, 1985).
12
Quintilian Institutio oratoria 6.1.52; quoted in Macey, Josquin and Musical Rhetoric, 523.
13
Macey, Josquin and Musical Rhetoric, 495-530.
14
See the description of these figures in Chapter I.

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of repetition, such as anadiplosis and epanadiplosis, to relate phrases with parallel syntactic
construction or with similar meanings. It remains a matter of question, therefore, whether we can
assign a rhetorical nomenclature to many of these figures. I have used the oratorical terminology
to describe a gesture when it seems to be justified by the text, the importance of the position of
the gesture in relation to the text, and its effect.
Aside from figures derived from classical oratory, music can express a rhetorical gesture
inherent in the poetry by using its own expressive means. Musico-rhetorical figures that have no
literary equivalent, such as the anabasis, the catabasis, the circulatio, and the fortuna motifs,
make their appearance in many subtle ways as well. Josquin generally assigns both literary and
musico-rhetorical figures to the Superius to make them as audible as possible. Regardless of the
origins of the gestures, the music constantly provides a reading of the text, allowing us to
glimpse ways in which it was understood and interpreted by its composer.
Melodic articulation
In addition to the rhetorical figures of repetition, which Josquin applies as connectors for
textually-related phrases, he also tends to relate the two hemistichs of a decasyllabic verse or two
consecutive phrases by a characteristic descending/ascending gesture. This gesture spans the
range of the same interval in opposite directions: the descending motion marks the end of the
first hemistich or phrase while the ascending gesture the opening of the second hemistich or
following phrase. Such melodic and rhythmic links again usually appear in the Superius, the
voice that stands out, or, less often, in the canonic voices. 15

15

Teofilo Folengo, writing a few years after the publication of the Odhecaton, admitted that although the
tenor is the guide and ruler . . . the soprano is the voice to which the audience pay most attention. Quoted in Hewitt,
Odhecaton A, 95.

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In the generally syllabic framework of the multi-voice chanson, melismatic writing also
acquires rhetorical significance. Josquin reserves melismas for the non-canonic voices, mainly
over important words. The only melismatic passages that appear in the canonic melodies are
cadential in nature, and this seems to be a hallmark of Josquins style.
First person representation
Poetic identity and the tension often created between the poet-narrator and the poet-actor
has occupied an important place in recent literary criticism. 16 Such studies reveal that fifteenthcentury poets chose to project the poetic persona in complicated and subtle ways. 17 The majority
of the chanson verses set to music employ an indirect address to the poetic I. More often than
not the poet/lover uses the pronouns me, mon, moy, etc. instead of speaking directly with
Je. In a few instances, however, the poetry turns to first person speech either in the beginning
or in the middle of the poetic line. Such changes of emphasis on the poetic persona do not escape
Josquins attention. He treats such instances in an almost consistent manner, which usually
involves the manipulation of texture. Therefore, when setting a song, the composer enters into
the game of self-representation, transforming the traditional poet-lover dichotomy into a complex
triangle, that of the poet-composer-lover.
Intertextuality
Music scholarship has quite extensively explored allusive quotations in masses based on
chansons, 18 but the matter has only recently received attention within the genre of the polyphonic
16

For literature on the issue of poetic identity see Introduction, fn. 24.
See, for example, the discussion on authorial self-representation in the poetry of Pizan, Chartier, and
Meschinot in Leonard W. Johnson, Poets as Players: Theme and Variation in Late Medieval French Poetry
(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1990).
18
Some recent studies include Michael Long, Symbol and Ritual in Josquin s Missa Di Dadi, Journal of
the American Musicological Society 42, no. 1 (1989): 1-22 and Christopher A. Reynolds, The Counterpoint of
Allusion in Fifteenth-Century Masses, Journal of the American Musicological Society 45, no. 2 (1992): 228-260.
17

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song. Existing studies focus mainly on the repertories of the late fourteenth and early fifteenth
centuries (see related literature in the Introduction and Chapter V). Within the multi-voice
chanson repertory, the cross-referential nature of many of the texts serves as a conduit for
seeking musical intertextual relationships not only within the oeuvre of a single composer but
also across the genre. The poetic relationships take the form of shared texts or fragments of texts,
single words, identical rhyming, or common rhetorical topoi, and their presence often signals
musical interconnections on the level of melodic, rhythmic, or structural detail. These
intertextual connections further allow us to speculate with greater certainty on the chronological
proximity and provenance of groups of compositions, especially in the cases in which the
proposed relationships are supported by both shared compositional strategies and poetic themes.
Since intertextuality seems to occupy a particularly important place in Josquins musical
rhetoric, it will be examined separately in Chapter V.
Analysis of the chansons based on Josquins own canonic melodies
The following analyses focus on the different ways the polyphonic fabric ensures a
successful delivery of musical speech. I concentrate on a core group of five chansons from Table
3.2 that best exemplify the range of Josquins rhetorical techniques. These are, in the order they
are discussed: Cueur langoreulx, Douleur me bat, Plusieurs regretz, Incessament livr suis, and
Regretz sans fin. The remaining chansons of Table 3.2 will be considered briefly at the end of
this chapter. At the center of all analyses stands the premise that the understanding of the text
enlightens our understanding of the music and, inversely, that the musical choices elucidate our
understanding of the composers reading of his text. Consequently, I consider melodic, rhythmic,
canonic, cadential, and modal manipulation in relation to the features of the text. For every poem

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I provide the text and its English translation, the poetic sources when important to the analysis,
and a brief discussion of the prosodic features that serves as a conduit in analyzing the music.
Cueur langoreulx
Cueur langoreulx is a rare example among the multi-voice chanson settings because it
does not display the air of melancholy or despair but resolves in a happy note since the don,
the favor, will be granted finally.
1. Cueur langoreulx qui ne fais que penser,
2. Plaindre, gmir, plourer et souspirer
3. Resiouys toy! Car ta belle maistresse
4. Par sa piti te veult donner liesse,
5. Ioye et plaisir pour te reconforter.

Languishing heart that you only ponder,

Lament, bemoan, cry and sigh
Rejoice! For your fair mistress
By her mercy wishes to give you happiness,
Joy and pleasure to comfort you.19

music
A
A
BC
D
E

A very similar text is included in the anthology Jardin de Plaisance, fol. 74, fashioned as a
rondeau quatrain. The text in the Jardin de Plaisance reads:
Cueur douloureux qui ne fait que pleurer,
Plaindre, gemir et demener tristesse
Apaise toy! Car ta belle maistresse
Par sa pitie te veult reconforter.
Pense tousiours de son honneur porter
Et humblement de la servir ne cesse.
Cueur douloureux etc.
Elle te veult son seul amy clamer
Car loyaulment luy a tenu promesse.
Pource envers toy ung doulx espoir sadresse
Qui ta ioye fer a renouveller.
Cueur douloureux etc. 20
19

The translation is partly based on Jennie Lou Congleton, The Chansons of Josquin des Prez (Ph.D.
diss., Washington University, 1981), 139. Unless otherwise indicated, translations are my own.
20
The line Par souspirer, plourer, gemir et plaindre appears in Molinets Oraison a Nostre Dame, a poem
which abounds in verses derived from known chansons. Jean Molinet, Les faictz et dictz de Jean Molinet, ed. Nol
Dupire, 3 vols. (Paris: Socit des Anciens Textes Franais, 1935-39), 2:474, line 165. Dupire, the editor of
Molinets works, has identified this line as a chanson verse. A rondeau quatrain starting with Par soupirer, plorer,
gemir et plaindre appears as no. 283 in the Rohan manuscript; Martin Lpelmann, ed., Die Liederhandschrift des
Cardinals de Rohan (Gtingen: Gesellschaft fr Romanische Literatur, 1923), 199. The overall mood of this
rondeau quatrain, however, is different than that of Cueur langoreulx. The same or slightly different succession of
words appears in many poems of the time, and it was probably a conventional line, featuring the rhetorical

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The similarities of the quatrain refrain to the chanson stanza are obvious. The five-line stanza
appears to be a reworking of the above rondeau refrain, in which a fifth verse has been added and
particular features have been amplified. For example, the rhetorical figure amplificatio is
especially prominent in the chanson stanza in lines 2 (plaindre, gmir, plourer et souspirer) and
5 (liesse, ioye et plaisir). In amplificatio, similar words are placed in successive order to
intensify the emotional effect.
There is a sharp contrast between the two opening, gloomy lines and the change of tone
that occurs in the third line. This change of mood is marked not only by the words Resiouys
toy (Rejoice), but also by the syntactical division of the stanza into two units of two and a
half verses each, the second starting with Car ta belle maistresse. Both halves involve an
enjambment, which moves the emphasis from the individual lines to the two longer, syntactically
and semantically independent units.
Josquin underlines the importance of l. 3 as the breaking point that reflects the change of
mood on several different levels (see Example 3.1). First, a change of treatment occurs on the
structural level, beginning with l. 3. While the chanson opens with the repetition of phrase A for
l. 2 (possibly also reflecting the aa rhyme pattern), it changes to a through-composed form with
the words Resiouys toy. The overall phrase structure of both the canonic melodies and the
freely composed voices thus follows an AABCDE scheme (see also the music scheme next to the
translation above). Further changes occur at the same point in the treatment of the canon: l. 3 is
the only verse for which the canonic melodies have textual repetitions (Ex. 3.1, Superius and
Quinta, mm. 21-29; for better illustration see the canonic melody in Ex. 3.11). Unlike the

amplificatio (see discussion below). On the nature and dating of the anthology Jardin de Plaisance and the Rohan
manuscript see Chapter II.

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surrounding canonic phrases, the use of repetition here attracts attention to this poetic juncture,
which separates the two emotionally differentiated segments of the poetry. Josquins gesture has
a rhetorical equivalent in the figure of articulus, which aims at creating emphasis by repetition
and distinct figuration. This figure is perfectly justified by the exclamatory tone of the poetry.
Indeed, in addition to its repetitive character, the canonic melody for the text Resiouys toy is
particularly distinct when compared to all preceding and subsequent melodic phrases (Ex. 3.1,
Superius, mm. 21-25). The ascending melody contrasts with all the other phrases and reaches the
highest point in the entire composition here. In addition, Josquin introduces a lively rhythmic
figuration and abandons the syllabic style of the previous phrases for a more melismatic
utterance. The change in the treatment of the canonic melody serves, therefore, a double purpose:
a structural and semantic one, marking the change of poetic tone, and a rhetorical, almost
pictorial one, underlying the exclamatory passage.
The emotionally contrasting second segment of the stanza (second half of l. 3 through l.
5) also receives special treatment by Josquin, particularly in the canonic voices. While for ll. 1
and 2 the canon pauses at the hemistich, ll. 4 and 5 unfold as an unbroken melody. With such
treatment, the canonic melody not only observes the enjambment in the poetry but also musically
represents the tone of the poem: the lines do not break, reflecting the lovers hurry to pour out
the happy news. One would expect l. 3, which also expresses the joyous feeling, to be treated the
same way. However, l. 3 also marks the division of the whole stanza into two separate units, and
this feature is reflected in the wide distance (seven breves) that separates the two hemistichs (Ex.
3.1, Superius, mm. 26-29.2 and Quinta, mm. 30-33.2).
The freely composed voices in Cueur langoreulx exhibit many of the features that
characterize Josquins approach to multi-voice chanson composition. First, they enjoy a great

109

degree of textual repetition, common to all Josquins chansons. Second, they introduce at the
opening of the song an initial motif, a short phrase that appears only as an opening gesture and
is omitted in subsequent repetitions of the first musical phrase. In Cueur langoreulx, Josquin
introduces the initial motif in the Contratenor and the Bassus (Ex. 3.1, mm. 1-7.1 and 1-4,
respectively), while he omits it at the repetition of phrase A. 21
Another characteristic feature of the freely composed voices is that they bear most of the
melismatic passages of the chanson, contrasting with the syllabic, declamatory style of the
canon. Frequently, it is the Contratenor that bears most of the melismas. In Cueur langoreulx, the
Contratenor sings a long, ascending melisma over the word maistresse (Ex. 3.1, mm. 30-32),
briefly imitated by the Tenor (m. 35), thus paying tribute to the object of the chanson. The
melisma spans an octave with its completion (the eighth note) provided by the Superius over a
temporary dissonance (Ex. 3.1, mm. 31-32.1). The Contratenor also bears a melisma over
donner liesse, an appropriate place indeed to sing melismatically. These melismatic passages
derive their musical inspiration from the ascending motion of the canonic melody over
Resiouys toy (Ex. 3.1, Superius, mm. 21-25) and could be related to the musico-rhetorical
figure of anabasis, appropriate for the expression of high and distinguished things. 22 Although
ascending motions naturally abound in musical works and we could not label each one of them
as anabasisunless we seek a purely technical term to describe a musical featurethe

21

Other instances of initial motifs appear in the chansons Douleur me bat (Superius, Contratenor, and
Bassus for their opening three measures); Incessament livr suis (Bassus, mm. 1-3); Petite camusette (Sexta and
Bassus, mm. 1-5 and Superius and Quinta, mm. 1-6 are not replicated at the repetition of the phrase at the end of the
chanson); and Se congi prens (Superius, Contratenor, Tenor, and Bassus for their opening three measures). In some
cases the initial motif draws its features from the opening of the canonic melody, anticipating its entrance. This is
further confirmation that the canonic melody was composed before the other voices. The issue here is compositional
process rather than the unfolding of the piece in real time.
22
Anabasis is one of the three new figures introduced by Athanasius Kircher in his Musurgia Universalis
(Rome, 1650). For a facsimile edition see Athanasius Kircher, Musurgia Universalis. Mit einen Vorwort, Personen-,
Orts- und Sachregister von Ulf Scharlau (Hildesheim: G. Olms, 1970), B 145.

110

ascending gestures in the above instances seem to have a rhetorical provenance and are
particularly appropriate to express in musical terms the poetic content.
Scholars have observed Josquins technique of creating a synthesis of motivic material at
the last section or phrase of a work. 23 Cueur langoreulx is no exception. As mentioned above,
Josquin frequently connects the hemistichs of the Superius through a descending/ascending motif
that involves the same notes in reverse order. The first phrase of the Superius in Cueur
langoreulx, which also is a canonic voice, is fashioned this way (Ex. 3.1, motif x, mm. 2-3 and 45). This motif, along with the cadential semitone of the first phrase (motif z) and the initial motif
of the Bassus, a descending sixth (y), are combined to form the canonic phrases C, D, and E and
to create compositional unity. Phrases C and D (Superius) end and begin respectively with motif
x, while phrase D combines in one long gesture motifs x and y (Ex. 3.1, mm. 37-43). Phrase E
starts the same way as phrase D, immediately followed by motif z. In addition to being a
compositional strategy that brings together material heard earlier in the chanson, this motivic
synthesis also serves a rhetorical function: it forges relationships between the phrases, much like
in an oration, where the reiteration of some words in strategic parts of sentences creates a
persuasive impression on the listener. To this end, phrases C and D are related through the
descending/ascending gesture, while phrases D and E with an instance of anaphora. In rhetoric,
anaphora is the repetition of the same word(s) at the beginning of successive sentences. The
motivic relationship among phrases C, D, and E could further reflect the enjambment that
characterizes the second segment of the poetry. Finally, motifs x, y, and z, originally associated
with notions of languish and suffering, are now transformed to express joye et plaisir. That

23

For example, Bernstein emphasizes this point, particularly with reference to Faulte dargent, in his
Chansons for Five and Six Voices, 399-400.

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phrases D and E start with the ascending instead of the descending x motif might be an indication
of this reversal of mood.
As in the majority of Josquins chansons, the last line receives special attention through
repetitions in both the canonic and the non-canonic voices. Although Josquin usually repeats the
last phrase in its entirety, in Cueur langoreulx he focuses only on the second hemistich, pour te
reconforter. In its first utterance, this half line appears in a homorhythmic texture (Ex. 3.1, mm.
48-49) by four out of the five voices (the Quinta being silent at this point), with the syllable con- occurring on the downbeat and given to a breve. In all subsequent repetitions (see the
dashed lines), the same syllable always falls on the downbeat, thus acquiring a punctuating
effect. The Superius, one of the two canonic voices, is unusually silent for ten whole measures
while the other voices sing the same segment repeatedly, apparently to stress the joyful feeling of
the lover. The emphasis on the syllable -con- could actually hide a double entendre, especially
since the favor to be granted often involves some kind of sexual intimacy. 24 Although scholars
have been reluctant to accept that Josquin would respond to such poetic features, we should
always remember that sexual innuendos were very much part of the game of social interaction. 25
Double entendres abound in the poetry of the period and poets and courtiers alike seem to have
enjoyed and approved of them. 26 We should not be hindered by our times prejudices about
propriety. A sexual innuendo might even have been regarded as a form of compliment.

24

For literature on the double meanings of such syllables see Chapter II, especially fnn. 42, 43, 44, and 46.
The word reconforter receives similar treatment in another five-voice chanson, Plaine de dueil. See the discussion
of this chanson below.
25
Osthoff, for example, has been reluctant to accept Allgez moy as Josquins because of the bawdy nature
of the poetry, among other reasons. Helmuth Osthoff, Josquin Desprez, 2 vols. (Tutzing: Hans Schneider, 19621965), 2:219.
26
See the discussion about the presence and function of double entendres in Chapter II.

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Example 3.1. Josquin, Cueur langoreulx

113

114

115

116

117

118

Cueur langoreulx is a representative example of Josquins interpretation of his poetic

text. His musical choices reflect both conventional and innovative treatments of the poetic
features. The canon follows the syntactic and semantic structure of the text, and acquires a
rhetorical function by delivering a comprehensive and direct version of the poem. The division
of the canonic melody (or lack thereof) into hemistichs reflects the internal rhythmic pace of the
text and underlines in musical terms the semantic implications of the syntactical structure of the
poem. With the unexpected repetition of the first hemistich of l. 3, the canonic melody
demarcates the two poetic sections and emphasizes through a rhetorical figure (articulus) the
importance of the particular passage. The surrounding polyphony enriches the musical texture
and provides commentaries, reinforcing with additional gestures the reading of the poem by
Josquin.
In contrast to the joyful character of the poetry in Cueur langoreulx, the chansons
Douleur me bat, Plusieurs regretz, and Incessament livr suis are settings of rondeaux cinquains
refrains on somber themes. All three incorporate canons at the fifth between the Tenor and
Quinta parts, embedded in similar, end-oriented structures. The rhetorical analysis further
suggests that they comprise a network of compositions, composed in close chronological
proximity and possibly for the same patron.

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Douleur me bat
Douleur me bat is one of the most affective poems set by Josquin. Unlike the typical
aristocratisant poems on amorous regrets, the desperate tone of Douleur me bat seems to be
derived from a misfortune other than unrequited love, although this possibility cannot be denied.
1. Douleur me bat et tristesse mafolle,
2. Amour me nuyt et malheur me consolle,
3. Vouloir me suit mais aider ne me peult,
4. Jouyr ne puis dung grant bien quon me veult.

Grief strikes me and sorrow maddens me,

Love annoys me and misfortune comforts me,
Desire follows me but cannot help me,
I cannot enjoy the great good that [she] wishes
me,
From such a life, for Gods sake, may I be
released! 27

5. De vivre ainsi, pour dieu, quon me dcolle!

The poem unfolds as a series of independent sentences, the first three of which share
parallel construction (two main clauses connected by the conjunctions et or mais). The
syntactic structure of the stanza and the appearance of personified abstractions such as
Douleur, Tristesse, and Malheur have deep roots in the fifteenth-century poetic tradition.
In fact, Douleur me bat recalls Alain Chartiers Joye me fuit et desespoir me chasse, 28 which
provided the inspiration for Busnoiss setting Joye me fuit et doleur me ceurt seure. 29
The musical form of Douleur me bat is AABBCC and coda for all voice parts. 30 This
scheme partly reflects the rhyming of the stanza (the aabb rhyme of the first four lines) and
partly the semantic content of the poem (the importance of the final verse). By assigning two
musical phrases to the last line of the text, Josquin creates a balanced ternary structure of
27

The translation is partly based on Congleton, The Chansons of Josquin des Prez, 141. I have replaced
harms me with annoys me in l. 2 and aid me with help me in l. 3.
28
For Chartiers poem see Martin Lpelmann, ed., Die Liederhandschrift des Cardinals de Rohan
(Gttingen: Gesellschaft fr Romanische Literatur, 1923), no. 152. The technique of parallel construction of verses
is common with Chartier. Another example, albeit projecting a completely antithetical atmosphere than that of Joye
me fuit, can be found in Le debat des deux Fortuns damour: Desir le maine et Espoir le conforte/Et Plaisance le
soustient et supporte. Alain Chartier, The Poetical Works of Alain Chartier, ed., J. C. Laidlaw (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1974), 170.
29
For Busnoiss text see Leeman L. Perkins and Howard Garey, eds., The Mellon Chansonnier, 2 vols.
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979), 2:307-311.
30
Patrick Macey describes the form as AABBCC and coda, but I believe the initial motif obscures the
structure and prevents him from seeing the repetition of phrase A as an exact replication of its first appearance.
Parick Macey, An Expressive Detail in Josquins Nimphes, napps, Early Music 31, no. 3 (2003): 407.

120

approximately equal lengths. This structure places emphasis on the last verse, the culminating
point of the poem.
The prosodic features determined many of the musical decisions. Josquin matches the
syntactic independence of the lines and the steady rhythmic pacea poetic caesura occurs at the
fourth syllable of every line and there is no enjambmentin the melodic articulation of his
canonic melody. Indeed, every phrase of the canon pauses at the hemistich, and the declamation
is extremely syllabic, with one note singing each syllable. In addition, Lawrence Bernstein has
noted that the canonic melody reflects the syntactic independence of the individual verses by
ending every phrase on the same pitch (E). 31 As in Cueur langoreulx, the canon unfolds as a
straightforward oration without text repetitions until the final line. Possibly to underscore the
solemn character of the text, the Superius and Bassus also eschew repetition (except for the
verbal repetition over the initial motif), perhaps competing with the function of the canonic
melodies, a very unusual treatment among the multi-voice chansons. In Douleur me bat, only the
Contratenor incorporates verbal repetitions.
As the main bearers of the text, the canonic voices reflect the syntactic structure of the
chanson also on the level of melodic articulation. Josquin constructs the Tenor part (and
subsequently the Quinta, since they move in canon at the fifth) in such a way so that its
beginning is identical to its ending (Ex. 3.2, Tenor, mm. 5-12, motif a). The same feature also
characterizes the Superius. Following the initial motif (which is not repeated with the second
statement of the phrase), phrase A begins and ends with a melodic cadence on A (Ex. 3.2,
Superius, mm. 4-11, motif b). Thus Josquin forges a motivic link between poetic lines 1 and 2, as
phrase A is immediately repeated. Such procedure recalls the rhetorical figure of repetition
known as epanadiplosis. In epanadiplosis, the opening word(s) of a phrase is repeated at the end,
31

Bernstein, A Canonic Chanson, 66-67.

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following the scheme xx/ xx. By repeating the first musical phrase, Josquin manipulates the
(intended) similarity of beginning and ending to relate, through the gesture of epanadiplosis, two
phrases of similar structure, rhyming, and expressive tone (Douleur . . . et . . . mafolle/ Amour
. . . et . . . console).
Free from the restrictions of a pre-existent melody Josquin constructs his individual parts
with an eye toward the expressive content of his text. Josquin chooses the Phrygian mode to
express this doleful song. The Superius, Tenor, Bassus, and Quinta open with the mournful
semitone E-F-E (B-C-B in the Quinta) over Douleur me bat (Ex. 3.2, mm. 1-9). To reinforce
the affective power, a cadential gesture on A (motif b in Superius and Bassus) follows
immediately after the inflected semitone. In studies on the rhetorical aspects of the modes in the
Renaissance, E mode, and especially the plagal, are considered extremely mournful and this is
definitely the affect here. 32 Zarlino, writing some fifty years later, said of the third mode:
If the third mode were not mixed with the ninth mode [the Aeolian on A], and
were heard by itself, its harmony would be somewhat hard, but because it is
tempered by the diapente of the ninth mode [A-E] and by the cadence made on a,
which is very much in use in it, some have been of the opinion that the third mode
moves one to weeping. Hence they have accommodated to it words which are
tearful and full of laments. 33
Zarlinos description finds a perfect application in the opening measures of the Bassus in
Douleur me bat. The semitone E-F-E is followed by a cadence on A and then by the diapente AE, clearly establishing the tone of the chanson.

32

Bernhard Meier, Rhetorical Aspects of the Renaissance Modes, Journal of the Royal Musical
Association 115, no. 2 (1990): 182-190.
33
Gioseffo Zarlino, Le institutioni harmoniche (Venice: Franceschi, 1558); trans. of Part IV as On the
Modes by Vered Cohen, ed. with an introduction by Claude V. Palisca (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983),
64.

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Example 3.2. Josquin, Douleur me bat

123

124

125

126

127

In contrast to the canonic melody, which constantly underscores the Phrygian character
of the piece by ending on E for all of its musical phrases, the surrounding polyphony displays a
much differentiated tonal design. Cadences involving the free-composed voices occur on A (mm.
10-11 and 19-20 between S/CT), G (mm. 22-23 between CT/B), D (m. 54-55 between CT/T),
and E (mm. 15-16 between CT/T and 27-28, 34-35, and 58-59 between S/T). The only clausula
vera occurs late in the chanson (mm. 56-57 between S/Q) and falls on A. The most striking
moment of this varied tonal agenda occurs at the very important point of the transition from
section B to C, where Josquin introduces a new and distinct musical motif (Ex. 3.2, Superius,
mm. 37-39, motif c). This motif stands out by reaching the highest pitch of the entire
composition and its melismatic character contrasts the preceding syllabic style of the musical
phrases (Ex. 3.2, Superius, mm. 37-39; the highest pitch is marked with an asterisk). The
moment is underlined by the introduction of B-flat in the Tenor (m. 38), which not only forces
the Superius to also sing a B-flat (to avoid both the cross-relationship and the melodic tritone)
but also creates a pungent, albeit brief dissonance, contrasting G, B-flat, and A (Ex. 3.2, m.
38.4). 34 The introduction of B-flat, the repeated D in the Contratenor (mm. 38-39), and the G in
the Bassus, followed by the characteristic diapente G-D of the G-Dorian mode (Ex. 3.2, mm. 3739) introduce an instance of commixtio (the blending of Phrygian and Dorian modes). This
striking moment of modal varietas attracts the listeners attention before the climactic repetitions
of the concluding C section. 35

34

The two earliest sources of Douleur me bat, Vienna, sterreichische Nationalbibliothek,

Musiksammlung, MS Mus. 18746 (olim A.N.35.H.14), henceforth referred to as VienNB Mus. 18746, and Le
septiesme livre contenant vingt & quatre chansons a cincq et a six parties (Antwerp: Tylman Susato, 1545) [RISM
154515], do not include a B-flat in the Superius at this point.
35
Johannes Tinctoris emphasized the importance of variety in music in his last rule of counterpoint:
Wherefore, according to the opinion of Tullius [Cicero], as variety in the art of speaking most delights the hearer,
so also in music a diversity of harmonies vehemently provokes the souls of listeners into delight. Johannes
Tinctoris, The Art of Counterpoint, trans Albert Seay, Musicological Studies and Documents, vol. 5 (n.p.: American
Institute of Musicology, 1961), 139.

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The combination of the Phrygian and the Dorian modes is rather common within
Josquins oeuvre. Bernhard Meier has identified a number of Josquins motets (Dulces exuviae,
Miserere mei, Deus, Domine, in furore tuo) featuring such commixtio. 36 Meier regards the
combination of the two modes in a single work as one of Josquins techniques to enhance the
expressive power of his music, and, therefore, as tightly connected to the content of the text.
Specifically for the motet Domine, in furore tuo, Meier sees this technique as finely suited to the
representation of unusual occurrences or states of mind. 37 Douleur me bat is certainly a
chanson in which such a state of mind is projected by the poetry (tristesse mafolle), further
justifying Meiers claim, albeit for a work outside the sacred repertory.
The point of transition from section B to C offers the perfect example to demonstrate how
rhetorical analysis can illuminate decisions on text underlay. In his edition of Douleur me bat,
Smijers omits the text under motif c and instead begins the fifth line in the Superius at m. 39,
while the other voices enter with the text from m. 37. 38 In Susatos 1545 edition, the first
occurrence of this melisma is textless (motif c), whereas its second appearance (mm. 45-47)
bears the words me dcolle. 39 Such a reading treats motif c in two different ways: in its first
appearance, as marking the end of section B, while in its second as belonging to C. In addition,
Susatos text underlay for mm. 45-47 does not fit nicely under the available notes. I have
included the text in parenthesis under the Superius (mm. 45-47) although I concur with Smijerss
vocalized interpretation. Furthermore, a comparison between the beginning of section C (m. 37)
with its repetition (beginning m. 45) reveals that in Smijerss edition the repetition of the
36

Bernhard Meier, The Musica Reservata of Adrianus Petit Coclico and its Relationship to Josquin,
Musica Disciplina 10 (1956): 67-105.
37
Meier, The Musica Reservata, 104.
38
Josquin des Prez, Werken: Wereldlijke Werken, ed. Albert A. Smijers (Amsterdam: G. Alsbach, 19221969), no. 18.
39
Le septiesme livre [RISM 154515].

129

Contratenor seems to be misplaced, starting one measure earlier. Smijers follows Susatos
edition at this point, but the Contratenor in VienNB Mus. 18746, the earliest source for Douleur
me bat, provides a different reading (Ex. 3.3). In VienNB Mus. 18746, the Contratenor maintains
a space of four breves before repeating phrase C. Both the Susato and the VienNB Mus. 18746
readings work contrapuntally but pose different problems: in Susatos edition, the Contratenor
deviates from the repetitive scheme of the harmonic structure, which has been remarkably
consistent until this point (all voices follow the AABBCC form). In VienNB Mus. 18746, the
spacing maintains the repetition of the harmonic structure but disrupts the horizontal symmetry
of the Contratenor, who presents a truncated melody at the repetition of phrase C (in Ex. 3.3,
mm. 44-45 do not repeat with the next statement of phrase C). My proposed reading, maintains
the harmonic structure because it appears to be more important than the Contratenors melodic
deviation, from a musico-rhetorical point of view.

Example 3.3. Josquin, VienNB Mus. 18746, Douleur me bat, Contratenor, mm. 38-53

The last musical section of Douleur me bat, which carries the affective load of the stanza,
stands out not only by the brief deviation to a different mode (G-Dorian) but also by introducing

130

a homorhythmic passage, which punctuates the repetitive epikleisis for relief of the last line
(pour dieu, quon me dcolle). Such homorhythmic writing at the last section of the chanson,
along with the non-repetitive nature of the canon, and the motivic links between phrases all
become hallmarks of Josquins musical rhetoric in the service of a heightened form of musical
expression.
Douleur me bat stands out as a highly rhetorical work in which formal design, melodic
rhetorical gestures, and modal manipulations are all combined in effective ways to project and
enhance the affective character of the poem. It shows how musical means can have an endless
expressive potential, matching or even surpassing the power of words.
Plusieurs regretz
Plusieurs regretz is a decasyllabic rondeau cinquain refrain, constructed of two main
syntactical units (ll. 1-3 and 4-5). As in Douleur me bat, the poetry brings forth a doleful,
desperate tone.
1. Plusieurs regretz qui sur la terre sont
2. Et les douleurs quhommes et femmes ont
3. Nest que plaisir envers ceulx que je porte;
4. Me tourmentant de si piteusse sorte
5. Que mes espris ne schavent plus quilz font.

The many sorrows that exist on earth

And the sufferings that men and women endure
Are nothing but pleasure compared to those I bear;
They torment me in such a woeful manner
That my spirits dont know how to go on. 40

The complete rondeau text, extant in a manuscript that belonged to Marguerite of Austria, is as
follows:
Tous les regretz qui sur la terre sont
Et les doulleurs que hommes et femmes ont
Nest que plaisir envers ceulx que je porte;
Me tourmentant de si piteuse sorte
Que mes esperitz ne scevent plus quilz font.

40

Translation from Macey, An Expressive Detail, 407.

131

Craincte, plaisir et honneur me osteront

Car pour le veul ilz men emporteront.
Venez a moy, je vous ouvre la porte.
Tous les regretz.
Puisque je pers celle par qui seront
En moy sans fin leur demeure y feront.
Amour le veult et aussi my enorte
Et que de sens et raison me deporte.
Conlusion: ilz me demeureront.
Tous les regretz. 41

Plusieurs regretz has an end-oriented structure, AABBCC for all five parts, and the
canonic melodies (Quinta and Tenor at the fifth) bear no verbal repetitions until the full reprise
of the last line by all voices. 42 In addition, the six musical phrases of the Tenor (the tonal canonic
voice) end on the degrees DDEEDD, thus reflecting both the rhyming of the poetry (the aabba
rhyme pattern) and the symmetrical lay-out of the chanson (the AABBCC form). Unlike Douleur
me bat, the freely composed voices bear extensive text repetitions, whose repetitive patterns
seem also to reflect the rhyme scheme of the text: the Superius repeats the first hemistich for the
two a-rhymes, the second hemistich for the two b-rhymes, and the whole line for the final arhyme, thus projecting the rhyme scheme in yet a different way. 43 This process reinforces the
argument that the individual voices assume different rhetorical functions that complement,
reinforce, or undermine the rhetoric of the canonic voices. 44 Josquins treatment in Plusieurs
regretz shows us that there are indeed endless possibilities to achieve this aim.

41

Marcel Franon, Albums potiques de Marguerite dAutriche (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press, 1934), 271.
42
With the exception of the Contratenor all voices observe the hemistich division with a rest after the
fourth syllable.
43
A similar process takes place in the Contratenor of Incessament livr suis a martire. Here, the
Contratenor repeats the second hemistich for lines 1 and 2, the first hemistich for lines 3 and 4, and both hemistichs
for line 5.
44
The tight correspondence among rhyme, cadential pitches, musical form, and repetitive pattern indicates
that Plusieurs regretz is a carefully planned and balanced chanson. Thus I have altered Smijerss editorial underlay
in the last phrase of the Contratenor from ne schavent plus quilz font to que mes esprits (Ex. 3.4, Contratenor,
mm. 51-54). This change maintains the symmetrical character of the AABBCC form for this voice as well.

132

The melancholic tone of this chanson becomes immediately apparent in the opening
descending melodies of the non-canonic voices. The Superius, Contratenor, and Bassus outline
consecutive descending tetrachords, setting the mood of the poem (Ex. 3.4, mm. 1-8). Although
abandoned in section B, this descending gesture returns in the canonic melodies of section C, this
time outlining a descending minor sixth (Ex. 3.4, Tenor, mm. 46-49 and Quinta, mm. 48-51) and
a full descending octave (Ex. 3.4, Bassus, mm. 56-58).
The emphasis on the last line is one of the characteristic features of the end-oriented
chansons. In Cueur langoreulx and Douleur me bat, Josquin emphasized the last verse by
extensive text repetitions, and by introducing a contrasting homorhythmic passage. In Plusieurs
regretz the effect is achieved by introducing a triple division of the beat (Ex. 3.4, Bassus, m. 49
and Contratenor, mm. 57-58 over the words ne schavent plus quilz font), which creates a
sense of disturbance to the rhythmic flow. As a feature outside the norm it could be described
with the rhetorical term hyperbaton. As mentioned in Chapter I, hyperbaton is a figure that
describes dislocations of normal word order. It has a psychological effect reflecting a disorder of
the psyche. The dislocation of the regular division of the beat seems to be perfectly fitting a text
in which the spirits dont know how to go on.
Josquins most important technique, however, to attract the audiences attention to the
last line is by anticipating it. In Douleur me bat, Josquin disrupts the textural and formal
structure of the chanson at exactly the point of transition from B to C section. A similar process
takes place in Plusieurs regretz, although here the disruption occurs immediately before the
repetition of phrase B (l. 4), that is, before the entrance of the second syntactical unit of the
refrain, and affects the repetitive scheme of the musical phrases. When one expects an exact
repetition of all melodic partsaccording to the exact repetition of phrase A previouslythe

133

Bassus deviates, imitating the cadential passage of the Superius, thereby reinforcing a cadence
on A (Ex. 3.4, Bassus, mm. 34-36, figure x). After this unexpected passage, the Bassus continues
by repeating phrase B as was initially expected (B1 and B2 are the two phrases separated by
figure x). Several questions arise regarding the interpretation of this deviation. First, it poses a
problem for text underlay. Although the text in Susatos edition clearly reads me tourmentant
under this cadential gesture, it is not evident musically whether figure x is an extension of phrase
B1 or it belongs to the beginning of B2. Even though there are not enough notes to accommodate
the second hemistich of the third poetic line, the motif could perfectly fit the fragment que je
porte. Since the insertion also imitates the cadential gesture of the Superius over the same words
(mm. 32-34) it seems more reasonable to adopt the latter version of text underlay.
Regardless of which reading proves to be correct, the insertion of figure x has an
equivalent in the rhetorical gesture interiectio. In literary rhetoric, interiectio is the insertion of a
sentence in the midst of another. In Plusieurs regretz, this insertion emphasizes the high point of
the text by interrupting the expected pattern of repetition in the middle section of the chanson. As
a figure outside the norm, a property of all rhetorical gestures, it calls attention to itself and
serves as a preparation for the climactic character of the upcoming last line. Finally, this
insertion signals a musical allusion, which will be explored in Chapter V.

134

Example 3.4. Josquin, Plusieurs regretz

135

136

137

138

139

Incessament livr suis martire

Belonging to the network of multi-voice chansons with an end-oriented structure,
Incessament livr suis displays many of the features we have encountered in Douleur me bat and
Plusieurs regretz. The structure is AABBC and coda and it differs from the above two chansons
in that it does not repeat the last line of the poetry.
1. Incessament livr suis martire,
2. Triste et pensif tousiours mon mal empire,
3. Ainsi dolent me conduit desplaisir,
4. Celle qui peult ne me veult secourir,
5. Mon malheur est de tous aultres le pire.

I am incessantly delivered to martyrdom,

Sad and pensive my suffering ever worsens,
Thus grieving sorrow leads me,
She who can, does not want to help me,
My misfortune is worse than any other. 45

Lawrence Bernstein suggests that Josquin reflects the syntactic independence of the
individual lines of the poem by closing the lines of the canonic melodies on the same cadential
degree, save for the very last verse (EEEEA and D for the coda). 46 This process clearly recalls
Douleur me bat. In addition to the independence of the verses, I argue that it is also the rhyming
homogeneity that invites such treatment: in fact, all poetic lines end on the similarly sounding
syllables -ire or -ir. Ending each line on the same cadential degree brings out the verbal pun
on the word ire (suffering, sadness), which reinforces the sorrowful content of the stanza.
As in Douleur me bat and Plusieurs regretz, the canonic voices in Incessament do not
bear text repetitions. The syllabic character of the canon is disrupted only at the end of the two
middle phrases, BB, with the melismatic motif z. This gesture spans a descending fourth and it
appears at the end of musical phrases in a number of Josquins multi-voice chansons. It forms the
end of the first and second phrases of the canonic melody in Plusieurs regretz and marks the
ending of all voices except for the Contratenor in the first two phrases in Cueur langoreulx. It
also reappears in the beginning of Du mien amant, Parfons regretz, and Nesse pas ung grant

45
46

The translation is partly based on Congleton, The Chansons of Josquin des Prez, 168.
Bernstein, A Canonic Chanson, 66.

140

desplaisir (see Ex.3.11). Although it seems like a conventional gesture to end a musical line, the
frequency of its appearance in Josquins multi-voice chanson settings turns it into a hallmark of
his style. 47
It is around this descending tetrachord that Josquin creates another instance of
epanadiplosis similar to the one encountered in Douleur me bat. In Incessament, epanadiplosis
serves to relate the two middle phrases of the chanson, which are further demarcated by changing
the texture from contrapuntal to homorhythmic (over the words Ainsi dolent and Celle qui
peult). 48 Josquin fashions phrase B of the canonic melodies and the Superius so that their
beginnings are similar to their endings (Ex. 3.5, figures z and z in the canonic voices and y in the
Superius). It should be noted that the similarity between the opening and closing figures
concerns the melodic content and not the rhythmic profile. This is expected since they
correspond to different poetic segments with different numbers of syllables (the first hemistich
comprising four syllables, while the second six). With the repetition of phrase B, Josquin creates
an audible link between the two B phrases, while he further emphasizes this moment with
another striking gesture.
Although the Superius, Tenor, and Quinta repeat their phrases exactly, the Bassus and
Contratenor deviate from this scheme by introducing a gesture outside the melodic profile of
phrase B (Ex. 3.5, Contratenor, mm. 39-41 and Bassus, mm. 38-40). More specifically, the

47

Patrick Macey has noted the use of ascending and descending cascading figures in Josquins motets and
used them as a criterion to determine the chronological proximity of compositions. The descending figure of the
multi-voice chansons is one of the various cascading figures that can be found in many of Josquins motets such as
Absolve, quaesumus, Alma Redemptoris mater, Illibata Dei virgo nutrix, Misericordias Domini, Pater noster, qui es
in caelis, and Vultum tuum deprecabuntur. Patrick Macey, Josquin, Good King Ren, and O bone et dulcissime
Jesu, in Hearing the Motet: Essays on the Motet of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, ed. Dolores Pesce
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), 213-242. The only difference is that in Josquins motets this figure occurs
frequently in the middle of a musical phrase, while in the chansons it is invariably a cadential gesture.
48
A homorhythmic texture also characterizes the last line of the poetry, especially at the words de tous
aultres le pire (Ex. 3.5, mm. 55-59), but this is expected as homorhythm features in most last sections of Josquins
multi-voice chansons.

141

deviation in the Bassus is a melodic interjection between the two B phrases. It recalls the
interiectio encountered by the same voice and in the same structural position in Plusieurs
regretz. Although it could be considered as merely a harmonic filler, its positioning, along with
the deviation in the Contratenor, affirm its rhetorical significance. The disruption of the formal
and textural expectations occurs at the point where the reason for the poetic personas
misfortunes is finally revealed. Indeed, in both voices, the deviating passage occurs over the
words Celle qui peult.
Incessament livr suis bears an intriguing modal profile. The tension among E, A, and D
dominates the melodic and harmonic landscape of this chanson. As mentioned above, the
cadential notes for the canonic melodies are the same for the first four musical phrases. For the
Quinta, the tonal canonic melody, this note is E. However, for the last line and the repetition of
its second half, the final notes in the Quinta are A and D, respectively. This tension is also
obvious from the outset. The Quinta opens with a motif that outlines a falling fifth from A to D
imitated by the Contratenor, while the Superius, Tenor, and Bassus imitate the same gesture a
fourth lower, singing a descending fifth from E to A. In the Superius and Bassus, furthermore,
this fifth is immediately followed by the diapente A-D, thus presenting in succession both fifths,
E-A and A-D (Ex. 3.5, mm. 1-13). This highly imitative texture, in addition to reflecting in
musical terms the word Incessament, defines the modal landscape of the entire composition.
The emphasis on triads based on A and E for the first four musical phrases (Ex. 3.5, mm. 14, 27,
35, and 49), as well as numerous melodic cadential gestures on A reinforce a Phrygian modal
profile. As we have seen in Douleur me bat, the combination of the third mode with cadences on
A and the melodic diapente A-E was considered particularly effective in conveying a mournful
tone. In Incessament, the combination of all of the above features is most striking in measures

142

45-51, where the diapente E-A-E (mm. 45-46) in the Bassus is followed by the inflected
semitone E-F-E (mm. 49-51) and the cadence on A in the Superius (mm. 49-52). In fact, this
passage directly recalls the opening of Douleur me bat, where all of these features appear as
well.
While the tension between the Phrygian and the Dorian modes is evident throughout the
chanson, the change of modal focus to D-Dorian, the final sonority of the chanson, is only
clearly effected at m. 53 with the introduction of B-flat in the Bassus. The insertion of a flat at
this point seems inevitable to avoid the harmonic tritone between Quinta and Bassus. Josquin
further reinforces the upcoming modal change by switching from a contrapuntal to a
homorhythmic texture (Ex. 3.5, mm. 55-59) and seals the chanson with a clausula vera on D.
The rhetorical analysis of Douleur me bat, Plusieurs regretz, and Incessament livr suis
reveals that the three chansons share common compositional strategies, an indication that they
were possibly composed in close chronological proximity. In addition to incorporating canons at
the fifth between the Tenor and Quinta parts, they are all end-oriented structures and they all
include a deviation at the transition from the middle to the last section. They have somber themes
expressed through the co-mingling of the Dorian and the Phrygian modes. The canons in
Plusieurs regretz and Incessament feature a descending cascading figure, and in Douleur me bat
and Incessament they end on the same cadential degree to reflect the syntactic independence of
the lines and the homogenous rhyming features. Finally, Douleur me bat and Plusieurs regretz
are directly connected through an identical musical passage, a feature which will be explored in
Chapter V.

143

Example 3.5. Josquin, Incessament livr suis

144

145

146

147

148

Regretz sans fin

This rondeau cinquain is one of the few formes fixes set by Josquin. The most salient
feature is the way the poetic voice differentiates itself between the refrain and the stanza: the
indirect representation of the poetic voice (me) in the refrain changes to direct speech (ie) at
the opening of the stanza.
1. Regretz sans fin il me fault endurer
2. Et en grant dueil mes doulans iours user.
3. Par ung rapport meschant dont fuz servie
4. Mieulx me vouldroit de brief finner ma vie
5. Quainsi sans cesse telle douleur muer.

Endless regrets I must endure

And live out my sad days in great mourning.
Because of a wicked report which I was served
It would be better for me to end my life quickly
Than to suffer incessantly from such pain.

6. Tout plaisir doncqs ie veulx habandonner,

7. Plus nulx soulas ie ne requirs donner
8. Puis quil me fault souffrir par seulle envie.
Regretz san fin...

I wish therefore to abandon all pleasure,

Neither do I seek to give solace
Since I must suffer from envy alone.
Endless regrets 49

music
A
A
B
C
D
E
E
F

Josquin does not treat the rondeau in the traditional way but instead creates a ternary
ABA macro-form. Section A comprises the refrain and section B the stanza. As Josquin repeats
the refrain at the end, Regretz sans fin becomes one of the longest multi-voice chansons,
spanning 130 measures. In contrast to the closed form of the macro-structure, the individual
sections are through-composed. After a varied repetition of its first phrase, the canonic melody
unfolds with the through-composed scheme AABCD, for part A, and EEF, for part B (see also
the structure next to the translation above and in Table 3.2). Within this varied scheme, however,
Josquin strategically positions several melodic links to ensure the meaningful transition between
sections, or to connect syntactically- and semantically-related verses.
The six-voice setting incorporates a canon at the fourth between the Sexta pars and the
Tenor, but the canonic voices infrequently overlap, thus allowing for a thinner texture of four to
five melodic voices. Canons at the fourth are rare among Josquins multi-voice output but they
49

The translation is partly based on Congleton, The Chansons of Josquin des Prez, 223.

149

abound in his four-voice chansons. 50 As in the chansons already examined, the canon in Regretz
sans fin carries no text repetition, and the cadential degrees of the canonic melody follow the
rhyme scheme of the poetry. Thus for the refrain the tonal canonic melody ends its five musical
phrases on AAGGA, observing the aabba rhyme of the poetry, while the three lines of the stanza
end on the notes AAD, corresponding to the aab rhyme.
Josquin reflects the various prosodic features with different musical means. In the refrain,
ll. 3 and 4 exhibit a kind of internal enjambment, a carrying-over of the meaning of the verses
towards the end of their respective poetic lines, a feature which renders the typical pause at the
fourth syllable impossible. Josquin responds to this poetic feature by fashioning the first two
phrases (A and A) of the canonic lines with a pause of six breves at the point of the poetic
caesura, while the phrases for ll. 3 and 4 (B and C) unfold without interruption. To strengthen the
effect of the enjambment, all voices state l. 3 without pausing, while they follow the weaker
enjambment of l. 4 with varying degrees of faithfulness to this prosodic feature (Superius and
Tenor unfold uninterruptedly, while Contratenor and Bassus pause at the fourth syllable).
Moreover, ll. 3 and 4 are each clearly demarcated from the rest of the poetry by a full cadence on
G. The fact that the last line of the refrain (phrase D) returns to the structure of the first two lines,
incorporating a pause at the fourth syllable, reinforces this interpretation.
The three-line stanza that comprises section B contrasts sharply with the refrain. In the
poetry, there is a clear change of focus from an indirect representation of the poetic subject in the
refrain to a direct speech emphasizing the poetic I. The change to a clear declamatory style
with one syllable per note fits the self-reflective character of section B and contrasts the looser

50

Josquins multi-voice chansons with canons at the fourth are Je me complains, Regretz sans fin, and Vous
larez. The four-voice chansons that incorporate canons at the fourth are Adieu mes amours, Baiss moy (double
canon at the fourth), En lombre dung buissonnet (double canon at the fourth), Se congi prens (double canon at the
fourth), Una musque de Buscgaya, and Vive le Roy.

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and, at times, slightly melismatic melodies of section A. Complete absence of text repetition and
of the pause at the fourth syllable for both canonic and non-canonic voices, along with the
declamatory style, create an instance of verisimilitude so much sought for by the composers of
the early Baroque Italian vocal genres. 51 In addition, the tessitura becomes lower and the texture
is divided into three pairs of voices: Superius/Sexta, Contratenor/Tenor, and Quinta/Bassus. 52
This dramatic change in the musical texture emphasizes the direct authorial utterance that
characterizes the opening lines of the stanza. Josquin dramatizes the change to a more direct,
internal expression of thoughts and emotions through the homophonic presentation of ll. 6 and 7
by the two highest pairs of voices (Ex. 3.6, mm. 56-69). In addition, he reflects the similar
syntactic structure of these two verses in the melodic proximity of the individual melodic lines.
Besides the replication of the musical texture, all melodic lines of phrase E are repeated with
subtle variations in phrase E. The similarity is more apparent when one compares the second
hemistichs of the individual melodic phrases.
Closer examination of the individual melodies for l. 6, Tout plaisir doncqs ie veulx
habandonner, and l. 7, Plus nulx soulas ie ne requirs donner, reveals that the note over the
word ie [je] in each individual voice-part is the same for both lines. For example, the Superius
for both ll. 6 and 7 sings an E over ie, the Sexta a C, the Contratenor a B, and so forth.
Furthermore, the melodic lines of the two upper pairs open and end with the same note.
Reflecting the position of the word ie in the middle of the poetic line (it is the fifth syllable of
the decasyllabic verse), Josquin creates mirror melodic structures in which the word I serves as
an axis of symmetry, with the second half of every melody being a retrograde of the first half
51

The absence of text repetition, the syllabic declamation, and the short melodic range of the passage bring
forth a recitative-like quality of singing.
52
One could argue that we are dealing with two pairs of three voices each since Contratenor, Tenor, and
Bassus introduce sections E, E, and F and Superius, Sexta, and Quinta follow. However, the individual features of
the two lowest voices lead me to regard them as a separate pair.

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(albeit a slightly inexact one). This is especially evident in the Superius, Sexta, Contratenor, and
Tenor of phrase E. The treatment of l. 8 (phrase F) reinforces this interpretation: once the poetic
I resumes to an indirect representation (l. 8 reads Puis quil me fault souffrir) many of the
above features vanish. The homophony dissolves gradually, the symmetry disappears, and the
declamatory style gives way to a more melismatic writing, amply punctuated by the long oldfashioned melisma of the Contratenor before the return to the refrain (Ex. 3.6, Contratenor, mm.
72-76).
Despite these contrasting features between phrases E and F (that is, ll. 7 and 8), Josquin
relates the two through an instance of anaphora in the canonic melodies. The beginning of
phrase F is the same melodically as the beginning of phrase E (this holds true for both Sexta and
Tenor), although the rhythms are not as exact (compare mm. 65-67 and 72-73 of the Sexta in Ex.
3.6). The connecting gesture between the two canonic phrases ensures in musical terms the
continuity of thought that runs through the two poetic lines: Plus nulx soulas ie ne requires
donner, puis quil me fault souffrir par seulle envie.
The treatment of the canonic voices in Regretz sans fin further testifies that they are the
ones mainly responsible for carrying the syntactic and semantic features of the poetry. The
construction of the canonic melody to ensure the continuity of speech and to subtly reflect
prominent prosodic features, such as the direct self-representation of the stanza, demonstrate the
varied ways in which a composer could read his text and project its individual features. Regretz
sans fin offers yet another example of the multiplicity of ways that this could be accomplished.

152

Example 3.6. Josquin, Regretz sans fin, section B

153

154

The analyses of the remaining chansons from Group 1 further illustrate and complement the
picture of Josquins musical rhetoric in his secular multi-voice compositions. As the songs N'esse
pas ung grant desplaisir, Vous larez and Vous ne laurez pas will be discussed in Chapter V on
intertextuality, the following discussion will concentrate on Plaine de dueil, Parfons regretz, Du
mien amant, and Pour souhaitter.
Plaine de dueil and Parfons regretz belong to the group of chansons with end-oriented
structures along with Douleur me bat, Plusieurs regretz, and Incessament livr suis (see also
Table 3.2). Despite the fact that Plaine de dueil and Parfons regretz share multiple common
features with the above three end-oriented chansons, I consider them separately since they
incorporate canons that involve the outer voices, and because they also share strategies other
than the ones encountered in Douleur, Plusieurs, and Incessament.

155

Plaine de dueil
Plaine de dueil survives in BrusBR 228, one of the poetic albums of Marguerite of
Austria, with two additional five-line stanzas, indicating that a strophic setting is possible. 53
Although the fourth line of the second stanza is missing in the manuscript, it is obvious that the
three stanzas have very similar semantic content and that their last lines are almost identical,
which facilitates a strophic setting without discrepancies between music and text.
1. Plaine de dueil et de mlancolye,
2. Voyant mon mal qui tousiours multiplye
3. Et quen la fin plus ne le puis porter,
4. Contraincte suis pour moy reconforter
5. Me rendre toy le surplus de ma vie.

Full of grief and melancholy

Seeing my pain, which ever multiplies
And which, in the end, I can no longer bear,
I am compelled, in order to comfort myself,
To render myself unto thee for the rest of my
life.

6. Je te requires et humblement supplie

7. Pour les douleurs de quoy je suis ramplie
8. Ne me vouloir jamais habandonner
9. [lacking]
10. Puisqu vous suis la reste de ma vie

I ask of you and humbly implore

For the sorrows that I have suffered
Do not ever wish to abandon me
As I render myself unto thee for the rest of my
life.

11. Il ne me chault quy quy en pleure ou rie

12. A vous je suis besoing nest que le nie
13. Plus nest possible a moy dissimuler
14. Parquoy je dis en parlant de cueur cler
15. Qu vous me rens la reste de ma vie

I do not care who cries or laughs about it,

I need you and I cannot deny it.
It is not possible to hide it any more,
Thus I say it speaking with a clear heart
That I render myself unto thee for the rest of my
life.

The musical setting incorporates a canon at the fifth between the Superius and Quinta,
and, according to Josquins practice, there is no internal repetition in the canonic voices. Typical
also is the hemistich division with pauses in almost all voices. In contrast, however, to the other
end-oriented chansons, in Plaine de dueil the repetitions of phrases A and B are not exact but
transpositions of the preceding phrases: phrase A transposes phrase A a fifth higher, while
phrase B transposes phrase B a fifth lower. 54 Also, unlike the other end-oriented chansons,
53

Franon, Albums potiques, 239.

Other multi-voice chansons in which Josquin generates musical phrases by transposition are Nesse pas
ung grant desplaisir and Du mien amant.
54

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Josquin places the canon in the two highest voices, and creates contrast between a thick fivevoice texture for the first hemistich of each line and a thin three-voice texture for the repetition
of the second hemistich by the three lowest voices. Both gestures are unusual within the
chansons of Group 1 and possibly serve as registral markers to denote the female voice. 55
Bernstein has noted Josquins sensitivity to both the surface details of the poetry and to
its semantic content. 56 Although the end-oriented structure of the chanson runs contrary to the
return to the a-rhyme for the final verse, Josquin mitigates this discrepancy by bringing material
presented earlier in the chanson at the songs closure. In addition, he demarcates the first three
lines, a syntactic unit that expresses grief and melancholy, from the final two expressing comfort,
by a clear cadence on A at the end of l. 3. This cadence becomes even more prominent by the
outdated under-third gesture and the fauxbourdon passage that precedes it (Ex. 3.7, mm. 2931). 57 The archaic treatment of the cadence at the end of l. 3 is possibly reminiscent of the
medial cadences occurring at the same point (the third line) in five-line stanzas of the older
formes fixes. However, while Josquin delineates the two units antithetical in sentiment with the
cadence, the transposition of phrase B a fifth higher for the fourth line (phrase B) ensures the
continuity of thought within the text.
The second part of the strophe, after the medial cadence, is strongly punctuated by the
presence of the syllable -con- both in the opening (contraincte) and closing of the fourth line
(reconforter). The music audibly reinforces this syllable through the successive entrances of

55

There is some speculation that Plaine de dueil was composed by Marguerite of Austria herself, although
there is no substantial evidence for such a claim. Osthoff, Josquin des Prez, 1:69 and 2:210. See also the discussion
about Marguerites chansonniers in Chapter II.
56
Bernstein, Chansons for Five and Six Voices, 400-405.
57
I believe that the word surplus of the last line of the first stanza resonates with older meanings of the
word found in troubadour repertory, denoting the ultimate favor to be granted by the lady. Notably, only the first
stanza uses this word, the other two displaying a different word choice. Compare Me rendre toy le surplus de ma
vie (last line of first stanza) to Puisqu vous suis la reste de ma vie (last line of second stanza) to Qu vous me
rens la reste de ma vie (last line of third stanza).

157

the word contraincte (Ex. 3.7, mm. 31-34), and by subsequently placing it on the downbeat
within a homorhythmic passage that further underscores the individual syllables (mm. 35-41).
The emphasis on such a syllable in the text and its musical treatment by Josquin, similar to the
one that occurred over the same word (reconforter) in Cueur langoreulx, invite an obscene
interpretation of the passage. The dignified character of Plaine de dueil, however, is antithetical
to such an interpretation. We might as well negate the assumption that Josquin had a double
entendre in mind when setting this line. However, I am inclined to accept the latter assumption
even for a solemn chanson like Plaine de dueil. The association would not have escaped the
audiences attention, especially with the punctuating effect that the syllable -con- acquires in
the musical setting. 58

58

The agglomeration of obscene syllables frequently occurs in the poetry of the period. For example, Jean
Molinet fashioned the seventy-six line Complainte dung gentilhomme sa dame (Faictz, 2:731) so that every
rhyme uses the syllable -con(-m)- either in a compound word or as part of a rime quivoque. For a detailed
presentation of Molinets play with rhyme and obscene meaning see Johnson, Poets as Players, 231-287.

158

Example 3.7. Josquin, Plaine de dueil

159

160

161

162

163

164

Parfons regretz
Parfons regretz incorporates a canon at the octave between Quinta and Bassus. Both the
imitation interval and the deployment of the canonic melody by an outer voice are unusual
among the multi-voice chansons. The engagement of the lowest voice in the canon possibly
serves the rhetoric of the opening line (Profound regrets). The vocabulary and imagery of the
poem reveal its courtly provenance by evoking the old topos of hiding to avoid the mensongiers,
the personification of heart that drowns in a sea of tears, and the almost Petrarchan oxymoron of
lamentable joye.
1. Parfons regretz et lamentable ioye
2. Venez moy, quelque part que ie soye.
3. Et vous hastez sans point dissimuler,
4. Pour promptement mon cueur executer
5. Affin quen dueil et larmes il se noye.

Profound regrets and lamentable joy

Come to me wherever I might be.
And hasten without delay [from hiding],
To promptly execute my heart
So that it finally drowns in [a sea of] tears and pain.

Parfons regretz displays many of the features already encountered in the Group 1
chansons (the canonic chansons based on his own melodies). The straightforward character of
the canonic melodies, the initial motif that is not replicated at the repetition of the A phrase (for
Superius, Contratenor, and Tenor, that is, the freely composed voices), and the
descending/ascending motif that ties the first hemistich of the opening phrase to the second (Ex.
3.8, Superius, Quinta, and Bassus, mm. 5-16) are typical of Josquins treatment. Furthermore, the
cascading motif that characterizes Cueur langoreulx, Du mien amant, Incessament livrs suis,
N'esse pas ung grant desplaisir, and Plusieurs regretz also forms the ending of the canonic
voices in phrase B of Parfons regretz (Ex. 3.8, Quinta, mm. 34-36 and Bassus, mm. 31-33).
As in the other multi-voice chansons explored so far, there is a close relationship between
the structure and meaning of the poetry and the musical treatment. For example, while the music
observes the hemistich division with a rest between the two halves of the first two lines, it does
not follow the same pattern for the last three lines of the poetry, at least in the canonic voices.
165

The syntax and the meaning of these lines justify such treatment. Not only the situation described
appears urgent (And hasten without delay), but also ll. 4 and 5 do not easily avail themselves
to a poetic caesura (notice, for example, the internal enjambment of l. 5) and the music does
away with it as well. Although l. 3 could incorporate a rest at the hemistich, the inciting character
of the prosody possibly guided Josquin to eschew with the caesura at this point; indeed, it would
have been awkward to incorporate a rest after the words et vous hastez (and hasten). Such
treatment clearly recalls the uninterrupted canonic melodies in the final two lines of Cueur
langoreulx.
While Parfons regretz is one of the end-oriented chansons, the treatment of its last line
differs from the others. Instead of exactly repeating phrase C, Josquin generates the repetition by
transposing phrase C a fifth lower (see phrases C and C in Ex. 3.8 and also in Ex. 3.11). This
type of phrase repetition by transposition also occurs in Plaine de dueil (where phrase A is a
transposition a fifth higher of phrase A and phrase B starts off like phrase B only a fifth lower)
and finds its most extreme expression in N'esse pas ung grant desplaisir (discussed in Chapter
V). The transposition of the last phrase in Parfons regretz graphically reflects the meaning of the
desperate final line. The melody sinks a fifth lower, just like the heart drowns in a sea of pain
and tears. Josquin does not miss the opportunity to further portray in musical terms the
metaphorical depiction of the heart. The ascending/descending melisma over the word noye in
the Superius (Ex. 3.8, mm. 59-60) recalls the musico-rhetorical figure of circulatio. Athanasius
Kircher was the first music theorist to describe circulatio as a motion that includes upper and
lower neighbor tones of a different central note in order to express a circular action or notion. 59
Warren Kirkendale has demonstrated that composers used the circulatio figure to represent ideas

59

Kircher, Musurgia, B 145.

166

such as the royal crown, eternity, waves, etc. Here, it particularly fits the metaphorical
representation of a heart floating amidst tears.60
What is most unusual in Josquins last section, however, is the extension of the canonic
melody by the Bassus in the coda, which is not imitated by the Quinta pars (Ex. 3.8, mm. 60-67).
The continuation of the canonic melody by only one member of the canonic pair at the closing of
a composition was typical in late fifteenth-century chansons, but unique within Josquins multivoice song settings. Most of the canonic chansons in Odhecaton A, such as Adieu mes amours,
one of Josquins earliest settings of monophonic songs, Mon mignault, Cela sans plus non sufi
pas, and Ung franc archier, feature such extensions. 61 The presence of the same feature in
Parfons regretz possibly points to an early date of composition for this five-voice chanson, and
demonstrates how rhetorical analysis across a genre can inform the relative chronology of
compositions.

60

Warren Kirkendale, Circulatio-Tradition, Maria Lactans, and Josquin as Musical Orator, Acta
Musicologica 56 (1984): 69-92.
61
Adieu mes amours survives in Florence, Biblioteca Riccardiana, MS 2794 (FlorR 2794), a manuscript
copied during the 1480s at the French royal court.

167

Example 3.8. Josquin, Parfons regretz

168

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170

171

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173

Du mien amant
Du mien amant is one of the two chansons of Group 1 that are not settings of rondeaux,
or rondeaux refrains (the other being the strophic Plaine de dueil). The poetry of Du mien amant
has the overall structure of a bergerette. It consists of a five-line refrain with rhyme scheme
aabba, two four-line couplets (each rhyming cddc), and the strophe or tierce (aabba). The
musical form is AbbaA, where A represents the music for the refrain, b the music for the couplet,
and a the music for the tierce.
1. Du mien amant le depart mest si grief
2. Que de la mort certaine suis en brief.
3. Mon cueur en est le vray pronosticqueur
4. Car la prison damoureuse licqueur
5. Sans nul respite me cause ce mischief.

The departure of my lover is so painful

That death is most certainly near.
My heart is the true prognosticator
For the prison of amorous liquor
Causes me without respite this misfortune.

6. Or au facteur de toute creature

7. Je rendz mon ameet la mectz en ses mains;
8. Touchant ce corps mortel, cest bien du moins
9. Quil ailleenterreattendre pourriture.

To the maker of every creature

I render my soul and place it in his hands;
Touching this mortal body, it is at least good
That it will go in earth to be purified.

10. Mais quant au cueur ieslis sa sepulture

11. Avecq celluy que entre tous humains
12. Jay mieulx aym, selon le dict de maintz,
13. Dont en douleur je fais fin nature.

But when I choose for my heart to be buried

With him whom among all humans
I have most loved, according to many,
Then in pain I finish my days.

14. En moy ny a ny resort ny relief.

15. Adieu amy, adieu seigneur et chief,
16. Fort triumphant et illustre vaincqueur.
17. Par testament ie te laisse mon cueur
18. Et vois morir et adieu derechief.

Within me there is neither succor nor relief.

Farewell friend, farewell lord and ruler,
Strong triumphant and illustrious conqueror.
I declare that I leave you my heart
And I am going to die and farewell again.

Du mien amant, etc. 62

The imagery and lexicon of this chanson betray the flamboyant writing of a Grand
Rhtoriqueur. The description of love as the prison of amorous liquor (l. 4), and the dense
alliterations emphasizing the letter -m- (l. 7), and -t- and -r- (l. 9) all point to such an origin. In
addition, the words creature and sepulture, frequently encountered in the poetry of Jean
Molinet, could point to the author of the poem.
62

The translation is partly based on Congleton, The Chansons of Josquin des Prez,145.

174

In Du mien amant, the music does not parallel the rhyming but follows an independent
plan. The non-repetitive canonic melody (there is a canon at the fifth between Quinta and Tenor)
consists mainly of two musical phrases for the refrain (A and B), following the scheme AABBB
(where B transposes the first and the second hemistichs of B a tone and a fourth lower,
respectively; see also Ex. 3.11). The couplet unfolds as a through-composed structure of four
independent phrases (CDEF). Typical of Josquins treatment are the pauses at the poetic caesura
in the decasyllabic verses of the refrain, culminating with the by now recognizable descending
cascading figure (Ex. 3.9, mm. 5-7, 8-10, 11-13). Also typical is the way the Superius establishes
melodic relationships among the different musical phrases. Josquin constructs the Superius of
phrase A so that its opening spans the same intervals as its ending, moving in opposite directions.
Thus, with the repetition of phrase A, the composer melodically relates two similarly rhyming
verses (Ex. 3.9, Superius, G-D, mm. 9-11, D-G, mm. 11-12). A little later, Josquin changes the
ending of the second A phrase to create yet another link with the upcoming B phrase (compare
mm. 20-22 to mm. 25-27 of the Superius). However, the B phrase and its two varied repetitions
contrast sharply with the character of the A phrases. The contrast is made evident in the change
of texture which becomes homorhythmic, dividing the polyphonic web into groups of two to
three voices that alternate antiphonally their musical phrases (a treatment that recalls Regretz
sans fin). The use of similar melodic and rhythmic material (BBB), as well as the consistency in
the treatment of texture, reflects the syntactic unity of the last three lines of the refrain, effected
by the enjambment that runs across them.
In contrast to the text of the refrain, the couplet displays an air of humility. As the poetry
changes to address the maker of every creature, the music assumes a slower moving pace
assigning longer notes to all voice parts. The individual voices stretch in long melodies lines

175

without any pauses, revealing a plainchant-like quality. Josquin emphasizes the rich alliterations
of ll. 7 and 9 by distributing the respective syllables among the voices so that they sound either
simultaneously or in close succession (see the boldfaced syllables in mm. 69-72 and 88-91 of Ex.
3.9).
Du mien amant displays many of the features encountered in Josquins other multi-voice
chanson settings in different guises. On the one hand, typical are the non-repetitive canonic
melody, the descending cascading gestures, and the melodic links of the Superius. On the other
hand, transposing a musical phrase (phrase B) and manipulating the polyphonic texture to create
a unit that reflects the syntactic structure of ll. 3 to 5 is an innovative yet not unprecedented way
to respond to the poetry. Transpositions of musical phrases to the same end also occur in Plaine
de dueil, Parfons regretz, and Nesse pas ung grant desplaisir. Antiphonal treatment of the
texture also characterized the six-voice Regretz sans fin to project the differentiated authorial
voice of the three-line stanza. The treatment of Du mien amant shows us the wealth of resources
that a composer had in his disposal to express the subtle nuances of the poetry in musical terms.

176

Example 3.9. Josquin, Du mien amant

177

178

179

180

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183

Pour souhaitter
The poetic theme of Pour souhaitter stands in sharp to contrast to the melancholic and
amorous subjects of the other chansons of Group 1. 63 The optimistic quatrain features the poetic
personas point of view about what is desirable in life:
1. Pour souhaitter ie ne demande mieulx
2. Quavoir sant et vivre longuement;
3. Tousiours ioyeulx et des biens largement
4. Et en la fin le royaulme des cieulx.

music
To wish for I demand nothing more
A
Than having good health and to live a long life; B
Always happy and with great wealth
C
And in the end the kingdom of heaven.
BDB

In the six-voice Pour souhaitter, we encounter a different type of an end-oriented

structure. The canonic melody corresponds to the four lines of the poetry with the structure
ABCBDB, where BDB reflects the three-fold repetition of the last line that is thus expanded to
match the length of the preceding three lines. With this treatment, Josquin relies on previous
63

The subject of Pour souhaitter and its intertextual significance will be explored in Chapter V on
intertextuality.

184

material for the final verse, yet places emphasis on it with extensive repetition and the
interjection of a new phrase, phrase D. Although I have marked phrase C, the music for l. 3, as a
distinct phrase, in actuality it is constructed from the material of phrases A and B. Its first half is
a transposition a fifth higher of the first half of phrase A (figure A), while its second half a
variation of the second half of phrase B (figure B). 64 The similarity with phrase B is particularly
evident in the last four notes, which correspond to the similarly sounding and rhyming words
longuement and largement of ll. 2 and 3, respectively. Therefore, with the exception of the
brief interjection labeled as phrase D, Pour souhaitter mainly consists of two melodic phrases, A
and B, a feature that reveals Josquins penchant for economy of material, also encountered in
other multi-voice chansons of Group 1. In addition, the construction of the second half of phrase
C from the second half of phrase B also serves a rhetorical purpose: it connects the two middle
rhyming words, longuement and largement, thus emphasizing their centrality in the meaning
and structure of the poetry.
Other musical features underscore the importance of the two b-rhyming words. The
canon at the fifth between the Tenor and Sexta unfolds in a straightforward manner, observing
the hemistich division at the fourth syllable. However, an internal repetition occurs over
the text et vivre longuement, possibly an audible extension to represent the poetic content. To
reinforce the notion of longevity the Superius breaks off twice with a melisma over
longuement (Ex. 3.10, mm.15-17 and 18-20). At this point, and while all voices are still
singing the second line, the Contratenor interrupts with the third line of text, Tousiours ioyeulx
et des biens largement. Although interpenetration of poetic lines is not an unusual phenomenon
in this repertory, the extent to which this feature is carried out here is peculiar and it serves a
64

I consider that phrase B ends with figure B and not by the extension of mm. 16-18 because this is how it
concludes in its twofold reappearances for the last line of poetry. The extension of mm. 16-18 serves a different
purpose which is explored below.

185

rhetorical function. The Contratenor is paced so that its ending on the word largement is placed
against the word longuement, thus emphasizing the audible and conceptual similarity of the
two words. Positioned right after the animated triplets of m. 17, the long note values that
graphically represent the word largement reinforce the poetic effect even further.
The treatment of the Contratenor and the Superius at this point demonstrates how the
surrounding polyphony assumes a multifaceted rhetorical function that runs parallel to the
straightforward oration of the canonic voices. The Superius emphasizes the word longuement
by its melisma while the Contratenor provides a juxtaposition with the similarly sounding word
largement of the third phrase. The freely composed polyphony, therefore, not only provides a
musical embellishment of important words, but also generates a subtext by engaging ll. 2 and 3
in direct competition.
The appearance of similar sounding words in close proximity is an established gesture in
classical oratory. Through the rhetorical figure known as polyptoton, the orator would
manipulate different inflections of the same word to present two syntactically distinct
perspectives. The conceptual and audible common ground that the words longuement and
largement share, facilitates their juxtaposition, which almost takes the shape of a rhetorical
question in musical terms: one cannot but be tempted to compare the relative merits of the two
versions of wishful thinking, simultaneously presented by the music. What is indeed more
desirable? Being healthy and living a long life, or always being happy and enjoying great
wealth? If we take the Contratenors three-fold repetition of the entire third line seriously, it is
obvious that the latter option was more appealing to the composer.
The circular motif in the Superius of the final verse also serves an expressive end.
Josquin underlines the words le royaulme des cieulx with an instance of circulatio, particularly

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fitting to express perfect notions such as kingdom and heaven (or the skies) with a pictorial
representation that features the circle (Ex. 3.10, Superius, mm. 33-34). With such treatment, the
melodic figure of circulatio becomes very closely associated with the oratorical figures
belonging to the category of hypotyposis, the function of which was to make the meaning of the
text come alive before ones eyes. 65 Although Kirkendale was able to identify only two instances
of circulatio combined with appropriate words in Josquins works, the present analysis has
demonstrated that other instances exist within Josquins oeuvre. It is thus possible that the
application of circulatio was far more widespread than previously suspected. 66

Example 3.10. Josquin, Pour souhaitter

65

For the figure of hypotyposis and the tradition of writings that refer to making the oration come alive
before ones eyes, see Chapter I.
66
Kirkendale, Circulatio-Tradition, 83. For another instance of circulatio, see also the additional
discussion of Pour souhaitter in Chapter V on intertextuality.

187

188

189

190

191

The chansons examined in this chapter comprise a distinct group with specific
characteristics. They are all canonic chansons for which, in the lack of any contrary evidence,
Josquin invented his own melody to generate a five- or six-voice texture. In addition, their texts
adopt the language and imagery of the courtly poetic tradition that indulged in the expression of
the old topos of unrequited love, or of melancholic sentiments caused by the misfortunes of life.
Even Pour souhaitter, in its highly wishful thinking and anything but modest expectations,
escapes the realm of public domain and becomes another artifact to express the aspirations of the
court and its members. None of these chansons sets a text that betrays the more popular kind of
entertainment that the court enjoyed in verses like Allgez moy or Petite camusette, even if in
some cases we detect a tendency to flirt with the obscene. The settings of poetry in the
popularisant tradition, all based on pre-existing melodies, is the focus of the following chapter.

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Example 3.11. Canonic melodies of Josquin's own invention (Group 1 chansons), including
the non-canonic Je ne me puis tenir d'aimer

193

194

195

196

197

198

199

200

201

202

203

204

205

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CHAPTER IV
JOSQUINS MULTI-VOICE CHANSONS ON A CANTUS PRIUS FACTUS
The present chapter will explore Josquins multi-voice chansons based on a cantus prius
factus. In contrast to the homogeneous character of the chansons on Josquins own melodies (all
are canonic and all belong to the aristocratisant tradition; see Chapter III), the chansons on a
cantus prius factus display a wide range of compositional structural techniques and poetic
registers. Eight of the fourteen chansons in this group, henceforth referred to as Group 2, treat
the borrowed melody canonically. Whereas the chansons of Group 1 are all amorous or
melancholic, the ones based on a cantus prius factus bring forth a variety of emotions and
themes. In addition to chansons in the aristocratisant tradition, Josquin also sets texts in the
popular register and, in a few occasions, texts in which the two registers mix. Table 4.1 presents
Josquins chansons on a known cantus prius factus divided into two sections: the top section lists
the canonic chansons and the bottom section the non-canonic ones. In addition, the table includes
the two free multi-voice chansons, Je ne me puis tenir daimer and Mi lars vous, for which no
cantus prius factus has been identified. However, the Tenor of Je ne me puis tenir daimer
behaves as a cantus prius factus, while Mi lars vous is built around a different precompositional device, the solmization syllables mi la re. Table 4.1 provides the chanson incipit
and number of parts, the provenance of the borrowed material, the poetic structure, the nature of
the poetic subject and the poetic register, the musical structure, and the canonic interval and
voices for the canonic chansons.

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Table 4.1. Chansons on a known cantus prius factus (Group 2) showing the provenance of
the borrowed material (cpf stands for cantus prius factus; mixed poetic register denotes a
mixture of aristocratisant and popularisant elements)
Chanson incipit
(number of
voices)

Borrowed
melody

Allgez moy (6)

Secular cpf (also

survives as
monophonic
tune)
Secular cpf (also
survives as
monophonic
tune)
Secular cpf

Baiss moy (6)

Faulte dargent
(5)
Je me complains
(5)
Jay bien cause
de lamenter
Nymphes,
napps/
Circumdederunt
me (6)
Petite camusette
(6)

Si congi prens
(6)

Cueurs
desolez/Plorans
ploravit (5)
En non saichant
(5)
Lamye a
tous/Je ne vis
oncques (5)
Ma bouche rit
(6)

Poetic structure

Poetic subject/
register

Musical
structure

Canonic
interval

Canonic
voices

Canonic chansons
Asymmetrical 5- Male/
line stanza
popularisant

ABA

Octave

S/CT

Asymmetrical 7line stanza

Male-Female
dialogue/
popularisant

Intro ABAB
+ coda

Triple
canon at
fourth

S/CT,
T/B,
Sx/Q

Rondeau
quatrain refrain
Two 3-line
stanzas and a
final couplet

Public/
popularisant
Female/ mixed

ABCA + coda

Fifth

T/Q

ABCABCC

Fourth

S/Q

Rondeau
quatrain refrain

Female/
aristocratisant

Throughcomposed

S/CT

Latin plainchant
in Q

Rondeau
quatrain refrain

Male/Female/
aristocratisant

Throughcomposed

Unison
(not
strict
canon)
Fifth

CT of
Ockeghems
Selle
mamera/Petite
camusette
Secular cpf (also
survives as
monophonic
tune)

4-line stanza
with 2-line
refrain

Male/
popularisant

ABA

unison

T/CT

1st strophe of
ballade

Male/
aristocratisant

ABAB
CDAB + coda

Fifth

Q/Sx

Throughcomposed

N/A

N/A

Male/
aristocratisant

Throughcomposed

N/A

N/A

Male/ mixed

Throughcomposed

N/A

N/A

aristocratisant

Throughcomposed

N/A

N/A

On the secular
cpf La tricote
est par matin
leve
S from
Pietrequins
Mais que ce fust

Latin plainchant
in Q
S of anonymous
four-part setting
on same text
T of Dufays Je
ne vis oncques
S of
Ockeghems Ma
bouche rit

Non-canonic chansons
Rondeau
Public/
cinquain
aristocratisant
6-line stanza
with ababab
rhyme
Rondeau
cinquain
refrain/rondeau
quatrain refrain
Manifold
repetition of 1
line of poetry

208

Q/Sx

Chanson incipit
(number of
voices)
Nymphes des
bois/Requiem
(5)
Tenez moy (6)

Borrowed
melody

Poetic structure

Poetic subject/
register

Latin plainchant
in T

3-stanza lament
by Molinet

Public/
aristocratisant

Secular cpf (also

survives in two
three-voice
homonymous
settings)

5-line stanza,
with 3-line
refrain

Female/
popularisant

Je ne me puis
tenir daimer (5)

None identified

Mi lars vous
(5)

None identified;
opening mi la re
motif

Free chansons
Two 4-line
Male/
stanzas;
aristocratisant
heterometric
Rondeau
Male/Female/
quatrain refrain
aristocratisant

Musical
structure

Canonic
interval

Canonic
voices

Throughcomposed

N/A

N/A

ABA macrostructure

N/A

N/A

ABAB
CDCE +
coda
Throughcomposed

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

General observations on the chansons of Group 2

As Table 4.1 demonstrates, Josquin derives his melodies from monophonic secular tunes,
Latin plainchants, or an individual voice from polyphonic chansons by other composers. The
musical treatment depends both on the nature of the poetry and the provenance of the borrowed
melody. The four canonic chansons in the popularisant tradition (Allgez moy, Baiss moy,
Faulte dargent, and Petite camusette) have possible ties to the monophonic repertory and are
the only humorous chansons in Josquins multi-voice output. 1 In all four, the polyphonic setting
maintains the form of the original tune. In addition, Josquin treats the two six-voice chansons
similarly: Allgez moy incorporates a canon at the unison and Petite camusette a canon at the
octave, and both chansons maintain the original closed tripartite form. The canonic Se congi
prens is also based on a monophonic tune but the serious nature of the poetry prompted Josquin
to treat it in the manner of the chansons of Group 1, as we shall see below. The idiosyncratic Je
me complains de mon amy on the popular tune La tricote est par matin leve mixes the courtly
1

As explained in Chapter II, it is not always clear whether a melody incorporated in a polyphonic setting
started life as a monophonic tune or was extracted from another polyphonic work to serve as a cantus prius factus.
For the four canonic popularisant chansons see the individual discussions below.

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and the popular registers, but the unusual treatment of the borrowed melody better avails itself
for exploration in the following chapter on intertextuality.
Three compositions are motet-chansons, combining a French text, usually in a fixed
form, with Latin plainchant placed in an inner voice. 2 All three are laments mourning the death
of an important person. In Nymphes, napps/Circumdederunt me ( 6), Josquin treats the
plainchant canonically, while Cueurs desolez/Plorans ploravit (if by Josquin) and Nymphes des
bois/Requiem, both five-voice works, are free of canon. 3
In five instances Josquin extracted a melodic line from a polyphonic setting by another
composer: En non saichant, Jay bien cause de lamenter, Lamye a tous/Je ne vis onques, Ma
bouche rit, and Tenez moy en voz bras (see Table 4.1 for the provenance of the borrowed
material). In four of these, Josquin eschews canon altogether. Jay bien cause de lamenter uses
the Superius of Pietrequins Mais que ce fust secretement in canon at the unison. However, the
free treatment of the canon (not strict, reverses the canonic order, etc.) and the weak source of
attribution speak against Josquins authorship. 4
It is apparent that when Josquin composed chansons on a melody of his own invention
(Group 1) he invariably favored the use of canon, whereas when relying on borrowed material
(Group 2) he proceeded with a variety of compositional strategies. Furthermore, in the chansons
of Group 1, Josquin exclusively applied the use of strict, straightforward canons, devoid of
internal repetitions. In contrast, in the eight Group 2 canonic chansons, Josquin experiments

For an overview of the motet-chanson in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries see Honey Meconi,
Ockeghem and the Motet-Chanson in Fifteenth-Century France, in Johannes Ockeghem: Actes du XLe colloque
international dtudes humanistes, Tours, 3-8 fvrier 1997, ed. Philippe Vendrix (Paris: Klincksieck, 1998), 381402.
3
On the attribution of Cueurs desolez/Plorans ploravit to Josquin see Chapter VI, where I examine the
chanson in connection to Cueurs desolez/Dies illa, possibly by Pierre de La Rue.
4
Jay bien cause de lamenter is attributed to Josquin in Selectissimae necnon familiarissimae cantiones
(Augsburg: M. Kriesstein, 1540) [RISM 15407], a rather unreliable source for Josquins chansons. See also the
discussion of this print in the Introduction.

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more freely, incorporating often extensive internal text repetitions in the canonic voices. Since
most of the canonic chansons of Group 2 are of a humorous or lighter character (exceptions are
Je me complains, Nymphes, napps, and Se congi prens), it appears that the internal repetitions
in the canons fulfill a rhetorical function put in the service of comical effect. This interpretation
is reinforced by the fact that the most restricted use of internal repetition occurs in Je me
complains de mon amy and Se congi prens, both of which partly belong to the discursive world
of courtly love poetry. In Je me complains (discussed in Chapter V), the canon at the fourth
proceeds in a straightforward and strict manner throughout the work. In Se congi prens, Josquin
restricts text repetition in the canonic voices only for the end of ll. 2 and 4. The limited degree of
repetition recalls Josquins practice in the chansons of Group 1 and affirms the supposition that it
was to a great extent the nature of the poetry that defined the behavior of the canon in terms of
internal repetitions.
The chansons of Group 2 feature a variety of musical forms, many of which are throughcomposed (see Table 4.1). The poetic structure is often the defining factor in shaping the musical
form, whether or not a canon exists. Melodic links between adjacent musical phrases and
rhetorical figures, such as the ones encountered in the chansons of Group 1, occur only rarely in
the Group 2 chansons. The only pronounced instance of such treatment occurs in Se congi
prens, which, as mentioned above, is related both poetically and musically to the canonic
chansons on Josquins own melodies.
The rich palette of themes, poetic registers, and poetic structures of the borrowed material
in the chansons of Group 2 inspired a wide range of compositional techniques. In the following
analyses, I will explore Josquins responses to the textual and musical features of his models by
sampling his rhetorical treatment in the different subgroups of Group 2. The discussion will

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mainly focus on the canonic popularisant chansons, which form the largest sub-category, and
subsequently on Josquins treatment of the borrowed material in both the courtly and the popular
registers, with or without a canon. Thus, I examine Faulte dargent, Allgez moy, and Petite
camusette, three canonic, popularisant chansons on a monophonic melody; Se congi prens, a
canonic, aristocratisant chanson on a monophonic melody; Tenez moy en voz bras, a noncanonic chanson on a cantus prius factus extracted from another polyphonic setting; and Je ne
me puis tenir daimer, a free chanson whose musical treatment shares various common
features with other chansons of Group 2. The rhetorical treatment of the motet-chansons is
explored in Chapters V and VI, in relation to their intertextual content.
Faulte dargent, Allgez moy, Petite camusette
Faulte dargent, Allgez moy, and Petite camusette appear in some of the earliest sources
containing multi-voice chansons by Josquin. The five-voice Faulte dargent is attributed to
Josquin in AugsS 142a (compiled between 1505 and 1514), the earliest attribution of any multivoice chanson to the composer. 5 It is also ascribed to Josquin in FlorC 2442 (c. 1508 to1527),
where it appears as the opening piece in an anthology possibly prepared for the Florentine banker
Filippo Strozzi. 6 Petite camusette appears anonymously in VatP 1980-1 (c. 1518-23) 7 but is
attributed to Josquin in a contrafact in BolC R142 (c. 1530-1550), 8 a manuscript particularly
reliable in ascribing works to Josquin. 9 Allgez moy has the weakest record of attribution. The
earliest source is Kriesstein 15407, in which the name of Antoine Barb appears over the music

Augsburg, Staats- und Stadtbibliothek, MS 20 142a (olim Cim. 43 ; = SchlettKK #18).

Florence, Biblioteca del Conservatorio di Musica Luigi Cherubini, MS Basevi 2442 (Strozzi
Chansonnier).
7
Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MSS Palatini Latini 1980-1981.
8
Bologna, Civico Museo Bibliografico Musicale, MS R142.
9
Lawrence F. Bernstein, Chansons for Five and Six Voices, in The Josquin Companion, ed. Richard
Sherr (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 405.
6

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but the piece is assigned to Jean Le Brung in the contents. 10 The 1572 Mellange de chansons
further confuses the picture: it attributes the song to Josquin over the music but to Willaert in the
contents. 11
The following discussion will start with Faulte dargent, most securely attributed to
Josquin, and will proceed to the songs with weaker attributions. This strategy will enable the
comparison of the compositional techniques in Faulte dargent with those of the other chansons,
and the evaluation of their similarities and differences in order to define the stylistic traits of this
subcategory.
Josquins five-voice Faulte dargent is a humorous complaint on financial worries:
1. Faulte dargent, cest douleur non pareille.
2. Se ie le dis, las, ie say bien pourquoy:
3. Sans de quibus il se fault tenir quoy;
4. Femme qui dort pour argent se resveille.

Lack of money is sorrow unequalled.

If a say this, alas, I well know why:
Without money, one must remain silent;
A woman who sleeps will awake for money. 12

This quatrain refrain enjoyed a long literary tradition. The earliest appearance of the line Faulte
dargent, cest douleur non pareille in literary sources seems to be the ballade Faulte dargent,
la douleur nonpareille, in MS. fr. 5727, fol. 1 (c. 1483). 13 The ballade consists of six eight-line
stanzas which account for the miseries one has to face from the lack of money. Besides the
opening lines, the ballade has two more elements in common with the above quatrain. Line 34
reads Si de quibus ne vient prouchenement, and l. 45 Cest le soucy qui par nuyt me reveille.
The use of the Latin word quibus for money cannot have been a coincidence, nor could the
idea that financial worries can wake someone up in the middle of the night. In addition, a seven-

10

Selectissimae necnon familiarissimae cantiones.

Mellange de chansons tant des vieux autheurs que des modernes, a cinq, six, sept, et huict parties (Paris:
Le Roy & Ballard, 1572) [RISM 15722].
12
The translation is by Bernstein, Chansons for Five and Six Voices, 397. I have only altered the
punctuation to better represent the syntax and meaning of the poem.
13
Marcel M. Schwob, ed., Le parnasse satyrique du quinzime sicle: anthologie des pices libres (Paris:
H. Welter, 1905; repr. Geneva: Slatkine, 1969), 302. Schwobs edition is a selection of poems derived from ten
different manuscripts, MS fr. 5727 being one of them.
11

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stanza chanson in one of the earliest printed chanson anthologies, dating from c. 1515-1520,
incorporates the quatrain as its third stanza. The text set by Josquin (as it survives in the earliest
texted source, FlorC 2442) consists of ll. 1-3 from the first stanza of the printed chanson and a
reworking of the last three verses of stanza three as its final line. 14 Furthermore, the ballade and
the seven-stanza poem in the chanson anthology share an additional common element: the half
line ce nest pas merveille appears as l. 14 in the former and in ll. 8 and 26 in the latter. It is
possible that the ballade served as a model for both the seven-stanza chanson and the quatrain.
Of course the subject of lack of money was not new in literature. Faulte dargent was a
common personification in literary works and poets frequently included references to the pain
one has to endure due to the lack of money. 15
Pierre Gringores sottie titled Le jeu du Prince des Sotz, performed in Paris on February
24, 1512, also included the song Faulte dargent, cest douleur non pareille. 16 It is important to
note that the earliest musical sources containing a polyphonic setting of Faulte dargent, cest
douleur nonpareille (c. 1505-1515), as well as the earliest printed edition of the chanson text
(1515-1520) and the performance of the sottie (1512) coincide admirably, a point hitherto

14

For the seven-stanza poem see Brian Jeffery, ed., Chanson Verse of the Early Renaissance, 2 vols.
(London: Tecla, 1971-76), 1:55-57. The anthology was titled Sensuivent plusieurs belles chansons nouvelles but
has no indication of printer, date, or place. See Jeffery, Chanson Verse, 1:39-40. Later editions of the same poem
reappeared in 1535, 1537, 1538, and 1543. See Howard M. Brown, Music in the French Secular Theater, 1440-1550
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963), 218 no. 131c and Jeffery, Chanson Verse, 2:282 for the
subsequent editions. For a discussion of the early printed chanson anthologies see Chapter II.
15
See, for example, the fifteenth-century farce Faulte dargent, Bon temps, et les troys gallans in Gustave
Cohen, ed., Receuil de farces franaises indites du XVe sicle (Cambridge, MA: The Mediaeval Academy of
America, 1949), 379-384, in which Faulte dargent is a personified character. For poetic references to the subject
see John Fox, The Poetry of Fifteenth-Century France, 2 vols. (Valencia: Grant and Cutler, 1994), 1:38-39. For
Michault Taillevent, for example, Povret est pire que Mort (poverty is worse than death). Ibid, 39.
16
One of the two printed sources of the sottie situates its performance on Mardi gras of 1511: Le ieu du
prince des sotz et mere sotte. Ioue aux halles de paris le mardy gras. Lan mil cinq cens et vnze [Paris, 1512]. With
the modern calendar the performance took place in 1512.

214

unnoticed in the literature. 17 This coincidence is testimony to the popularity that the theme and
the tune must have held in Paris at the time.
The historical record provides further support for such a hypothesis. The period 15101512 was the climax of the confrontation between Louis XII and Pope Julius II. Following the
Treaty of Cambray in 1508, the allied forces of the French King (Louis XII), the King of Naples
(Ferdinand of Aragon), the Roman Emperor (Maximilian), and the pontiff (Pope Julius II)
formed a league to invade Venice, a threat to all involved. However, the pope reconciled with
Venice the following year and replaced the League of Cambray with a Holy League, this time
against France. The subsequent confrontation between the French King and the pope attuned the
French middle classes to the economic consequences of an impending Italian war. Pierre
Gringores above-mentioned sottie aimed to support the Kings war against the pope and, at the
same time, provide a satire of the monarchs deafness to his subjects needs. In her study of the
political dimension in the works of the Rhtoriqueurs, Cynthia Brown concludes that
in the Sottie du Jeu du Prince des Sotz, Gringore seeks not only to justify the
point of view of the French king and his allies in their fight with the Roman
pontiff but to provide a forum for the voice of the people whose concerns and
interests are not always coincident with those of the French monarch. The opinion
of the French Estate, which has rarely been expressed at length in other
Rhtoriqueur compositions, is here given an equal airing with that of the king. 18
17

The manuscript sources are AugsS 142a, dated 1505-14, and FlorC 2442, also known as the Strozzi
Chansonnier. The dating of the latter is still in question. Howard M. Brown dates the manuscript between 1518 and
1528, probably c. 1527 in The Music of the Strozzi Chansonnier, Acta Musicologica 40, no. 2-3 (1968), 115-129.
More recently, Joshua Rifkin suggested an earlier date, c. 1510-5, and denied the Florentine origin proposed by
Brown. Joshua Rifkin, Scribal Concordances for Some Renaissance Manuscripts in Florentine Libraries, Journal
of the American Musicological Society 26, no. 2 (1973): 305-326. In his recent edition of Josquins four-voice
chansons, David Fallows accepts the earlier dating for the Florence manuscript. Josquin des Prez, The Collected
Works of Josquin des Prez, vol. 28, Secular Works for Four Voices, ed. David Fallows (Utrecht: Koninklijke
Vereniging voor Nederlandse Musiekgeschiedenis, 2005), xiv. FlorC 2442 contains two Faulte dargent settings:
Josquins five-voice chanson that opens the manuscript and Nicolas de Beauvoyss four-voice arrangement. For a
musical discussion of the latter see Jacques Barbier, Faulte dargent: Modles polyphoniques et parodies au XVIe
sicle, Revue de Musicologie 73, no. 2 (1987): 183. The appearance of the two Faulte dargent settings in FlorC
2442 seems to further justify Rifkins dating of the manuscript and its connection with a French venue instead of a
Florentine one. This interpretation is aligned with the possible Faulte dargent vogue in Paris proposed here.
18
Cynthia J. Brown, The Shaping of History and Poetry in Late Medieval France: Propaganda and Artistic
Expression in the Works of the Rhtoriqueurs (Birmingham, AL: Summa Publications, 1985), 113.

215

It is evident that within such a crisis in the political and economical affairs, the subject of lack of
money was a central one, thus justifying the presence of the poem and its related musical settings
in poetic and musical anthologies produced during this time period.
It is possible that the performance of the sottie triggered the inclusion of Faulte
dargent in the poetic anthology mentioned above. Brian Jeffery dates this print c. 1515-1520.
Its last poem, no. 40, hints at the Battle of Ravenna, which took place on Easter Sunday (April
11) of 1512. 19 In combination with the inclusion of Faulte dargent, it appears that this printed
anthology boasts an excellent record in reflecting the most recent events in the social and
political life of Paris. This interpretation has important implications for the creation of the
various polyphonic settings of Faulte dargent and for the dating of their earliest sources. If
indeed the music and the performance of the sottie were inspired from the same cultural and
political eventsand the absence of other polyphonic settings prior to this time period reinforces
this suppositionthen the years 1510-1512 would serve as a terminum post quem for both the
Augsburg and the Florence manuscripts. This hypothesis also suggests that, at least during this
time period, Josquin must have been well aware of the social, political, and musical events taking
place in Paris.
Lawrence Bernstein formulated a similar hypothesis in his 1996 essay Josquins
Chansons as Generic Paradigms. In this study, Bernstein connects the genesis of the five-voice
chanson with the French royal court and emphasizes Josquins contribution to the diverse
character of secular polyphony at the court of Louis XII. Indeed, two of the earliest surviving
five-voice chansons, Jean Richaforts Damour je suis desherite and Johannes Prioriss Entr je
suis en grant pense (known also as Par vous je suis), stem from the orbit of the French royal
19

See Jeffery, Chanson Verse, 1:40, 96. The Battle of Ravenna was the last victory of the French forces,
after which they were chased out of Italy by the Holy League.

216

chapel (see Chapter VII for a discussion of the two chansons). Richaforts setting is the only
five-voice chanson in CambriP 1760, 20 compiled between 1509 and 1514, and, according to
Bernstein, the only five-voice chanson to survive in a source linked to the royal chapel from
that time. 21 Prioriss Entr je suis is preserved in FlorC 2439, compiled between 1505 and1508,
and during a period when he was known to have served at the royal chapel. 22 It is thus possible,
that another five-voice chanson, Faulte dargent, could have originated from the same milieu. In
this context, it is intriguing to note that Fvins three-voice Faulte dargent, which Bernstein
believes is modeled on Josquins homonymous chanson, is also included in CambriP 1760, and
thus may have been written during the same time period as Josquins version. Taking into
consideration that Fvin died in late 1511 or early 1512, and that he was in the service of the
royal court from 1507 until his death makes the connection even tighter. Could Fvin have
composed his Faulte dargent in response to the current vogue in Paris as was possibly the case
with Josquin? Or did he model his work on the most recent accomplishment of an established
master, engaging in a kind of friendly competition, albeit in a different medium, the popular
three-voice arrangement? In any case, Fvin could not have composed his work later than 1512
and it is possible that he attended or heard about the performance of the sottie in February of
1512, shortly before his death (if we accept the death date of early 1512).
Amidst this accumulation of facts and hypotheses, one thing becomes clear: that the
popular monophonic melody known as Faulte dargent either originated or was revived at the
French royal court of Louis XII. Since no tune or polyphonic setting survives from earlier than
this period, it can only be suggested that one of the two composers (Josquin or Fvin) either
20

Cambridge, Magdalene College, Pepys Library, MS 1760.

Lawrence F. Bernstein, Josquins Chansons as Generic Paradigms, in Music in Renaissance Cities and
Courts: Studies in Honor of Lewis Lockwood, ed. Jessie A. Owens and Anthony M. Cummings, Detroit Monographs
in Musicology, vol. 18 (Warren, MI: Harmonie Park Press, 1997), 47.
22
Florence, Biblioteca del Conservatorio di Musica Luigi Cherubini, MS Basevi 2439 (Basevi Codex).
21

217

invented the melody on which the subsequent polyphonic settings, timbres, nels, and chansons
spirituelles were based, or revived an older ditty by arranging it polyphonically and, thereby,
created a tradition that persisted well into the seventeenth century. The absence of musical
sources from before c. 1500 recording a Faulte dargent tune does not necessary preclude the
possibility that it existed in oral tradition before then. However, the rich concentration of
testimonies from the first two decades of the sixteenth centuryespecially when considering the
scarcity of French sources from this time periodsuggests that this topos became particularly
popular around this time, prompting a vast array of musical and literary responses, which were
related with varying degrees of faithfulness (and playfulness) to the original tune and its text. 23
In his five-voice Faulte dargent, Josquin places the cantus prius factus in canon at the
fifth between the Tenor and the Quinta parts. 24 The musical structure, ABCA with coda, retains
the closed design of the pre-existing melody. However, Bernstein has argued that its closed form
clashes with the epigrammatic character of the text, bringing back previously heard music
(phrase A) for the last line, the high point of the quatrain. According to Bernstein, Josquin
responds to the end-oriented emphasis of the poem by initiating a tonal ambiguity in the A
section, which he does not clarify until the last phrase of the chanson. 25 Josquin thus mirrors the
form of the poetry in an end-oriented musical scheme that emanates from the manipulation of the
tonal design. This emphasis on the last, epigrammatic line is further punctuated by a synthesis of
previously presented motives in the close proximity of the last musical phrase. 26

23

For a comprehensive account of chansons related to Faulte dargent see Jacques Barbier, Faulte
dargent: Fortune dun thme littraire et musical la Renaissance, 3 vols. (Thse et Doctorat, Universit de Tours,
1985).
24
For how Susatos edition mixes the voices see Bonnie Blackburn, Josquins Chansons: Ignored and Lost
Sources, Journal of the American Musicological Society 29, no. 1 (1976): 50.
25
Bernstein, Chansons for Five and Six Voices, 398.
26
Bernstein, Chansons for Five and Six Voices, 396-400.

218

Example 4.1. Josquin, Faulte d'argent

219

220

221

222

223

224

Preference for end-oriented structures is a general characteristic in Josquins multi-voice

chansons and Bernstein likens the compositional strategy of Faulte dargent with that of Plaine
de dueil (discussed in Chapter III). The use of a strict canon also complies with Josquins
treatment of canon in general. In contrast, however, to the chansons examined in Chapter III, in
Faulte dargent Josquin incorporates extensive internal repetitions both in the canonic voices and
the surrounding polyphony, a trait responsible for the relatively great length of this chanson. 27
The repetitions are particularly prominent in the opening and closing sections of the composition.
While it is not unusual for a closing section to incorporate extensive repetitions, this treatment of
an opening line is unique in Josquins multi-voice chansons. It can be explained, however, when
one considers the lexicon and expressive tone of the text. While the vocabulary of the first line
clearly evokes the discourse of courtly love poetry (cest douleur non pareille), the constant
reiteration of the same words gradually dilutes the serious tone, infusing the composition with a
humorous element. The scaffolding of entrances for the second hemistich, from lower to higher
registers and back to low (Ex. 4.1, mm. 12-24), further reinforces this effect. The first section
finally culminates with a series of passing dissonances produced by cadential suspensions (Ex.
4.1, mm. 22-24) to the same expressive end: the excessive succession of dissonances and
resolutions, a feature otherwise very uncommon with Josquin, to depict a sorrow unequalled
creates a comico-dramatic effect.
With the change to first-person speech in the second line, Se ie le dis, las ie scay bien
pourquoy, Josquin divides the texture into pairs of voices that alternate the first hemistich,
producing an antiphonal effect (Ex. 4.1, Tenor and Contratenor, mm. 24-27; Quinta and Bassus,
mm. 27-30). The division of the choir into pairs of voices is common in places where poetry
27

While Josquins setting spans 73 measures, Fvins three-voice arrangement lasts only 25, almost one
third of Josquins. This is due to the virtual absence of any text repetition in Fvins chanson with the exception of
the full reprise of the final line.

225

turns to first-person representation, as the discussion of Regretz sans fin in Chapter III has
shown. Such division has the potential of a semi-dramatized performance with possible roots in
the French theatrical tradition. According to Howard Mayer Brown, a Faulte dargent song was
performed in plays of the French secular theater. 28 In Faulte dargent, the I does not represent
the view of a single author, but a common experience about the sufferings caused by the lack of
money. 29
A similar division of the choir into two groups that alternate their line antiphonally occurs
in Allgez moy, another chanson based on a pre-existent monophonic melody. In this song,
Josquin places the cantus prius factus in the Superius and in canon at the octave with the
Contratenor. As in Faulte dargent, the canon incorporates internal textual repetitions. The text is
of a humorous nature with obscene allusions, spotlighting the beauty of a pleasant brunette and,
therefore, by implication, not of a noble lady, who is almost always fair.
music

1. Allgez moy, doulce plaisant brunette,

2. Dessoubz la boudinette.
3. Allgez moy de toutes mes douleurs.
4. Vostre beault me tient en amourette,
5. Dessoubz la boudinette.

Relieve me sweet, pleasant brunette,

Under the belly-button.
Relieve me of all my pains.
Your beauty keeps me enamored,
Under the belly-button.

A
B
C
A
B

The opening of the chanson features successive entrances of the individual voices from
low to high, similar to the ones encountered in Faulte dargent, which culminate with the
entrance of the Superius carrying the borrowed melody. The chanson retains the closed ternary
structure of the original tune. More precisely, the structure can be described as ABCAB, where
A and B represent the sub-phrases for ll. 1-2 and 4-5 (see also structure next to the translation
above).
28

Brown, Music in the French Secular Theater, 116-118, 125, 218-19.

In the performance of the Jeu du Prince des Sotz, the song Faulte dargent, cest douleur non pareille
was sung by the chorus, representing a public view. See mile Picot, Recueil general des sotties, 3 vols. (Paris:
Firmin-Didot, 1904), 2:152.
29

226

Example 4.2. Josquin, Allgez moy

227

228

229

230

231

Bernstein expressed reservations about Josquins authorship of Allgez moy. He

considered both the undifferentiated character of the harmony and the opening obsessive
repetition of a single motif in the two lowest voices as uncharacteristic of Josquins style: It
[Allgez moy] opens with a blatant, almost obsessive repetition of a single motif. The flagrantly
conspicuous nature of its phraseological articulation actually obscures the canonic structure of
the counterpoint. And its harmonic language is remarkably undifferentiated. 30 Although
Bernstein is sensitive to issues of poetic syntax and articulation, he largely bypasses the impact
that poetic themes and registerssuch as the use of a popularisant theme and tunecould have
on the compositional decisions and style of a chanson. In the case of Allgez moy, he confronts
with skepticism the repetitive opening gesture, without taking into account the obscene nature of
the verses and the rhetorical comic effect that such a repetition could produce. 31

30

Bernstein, Chansons for Five and Six Voices, 411.

Multi-voice chansons of the first quarter of the sixteenth century frequently employ ostinato motifs. As
will be discussed in Chapter VII, part II, this device is common with the multi-voice settings of Le Brung to whom
31

232

The compositional planning of the opening lines of Allgez moy reflects Josquins
humorous reading of the text. The Bassus, Sexta, Tenor, Quinta, and Superius enter in imitation
of the opening motif of the borrowed melody at the distance of two breves (Ex. 4.2, mm. 1-5). In
addition, the Bassus and Sexta proceed in canon at the unison until the end of the first line, with
the reiteration of a melodic cadential motif (mm. 3-12). The imitative counterpoint of the
opening is, however, wholly abandoned for a homophonic texture with the entrance of the refrain
Dessoubz la boudinette. The opening scaffolding entrances, the presence of the canon, and the
ostinato-like repetitions in the two lowest voices serve to foreshadow the obscene rhetoric of the
chanson.
While the poem starts with the learned style of a courtly love song, the word brunette at
the end of the first line signals that something different is at stake. It is only at the second line,
which functions as a refrain, that the poem reveals its true identity. The music, similarly, imitates
the learned style of the text by the successive imitative entrances, mentioned above, until the
refrain reveals the obscene nature of the poem. The repetitive motif of the two lowest voices
undermines the sophisticated opening, providing an ironic commentary and preparing the
audience for the moment of revelation. It is not a coincidence that such gesture is entrusted to the
two lowest voices. Although such a comparison is anachronistic, one is here reminded of the
buffo bass, with his frequent pattering, in comic opera. A similar pattering effect in the lowest
voices also characterizes the closing gesture of Je me complains de mon amy, an ironic chanson
on a popular borrowed melody, which will be discussed extensively in Chapter V. 32

Allgez moy is ascribed in Kriesstein 15407. Nevertheless, the overall contrapuntal treatment and the rhetorical
function of the ostinato pattern in Allgez moy complies better with Josquins style than Le Brungs.
32
The two chansons further share the same mode and a common motif (compare the Superius of Allgez
moy, mm. 8-10 and that of Je me complains, mm. 19-22). This motif features an ascending minor sixth that unfolds
through two interlocking ascending minor thirds and resolves at the fifth above the starting pitch. Such melodic
gestures might have been common stock in popular melodies of the time.

233

Josquin takes advantage of the common alliterative qualities of the first two lines of
Allgez moy to ensure a canny transition from the courtly-gallant to the purely obscene. Both
lines feature the same consonants in almost identical positions within the syllables of their
component words, marked in bold typeface:
Allgez moy, Doulce plaisant brunette
Dessoubz la boudinette
In fact, dessoubz is the phonetic palindrome of doulce, which allows for a subtle interplay of
sound and sense. Josquin seizes the opportunity offered by the sonorous qualities of the two lines
and introduces the second verse in the Superius while the other five parts still sing doulce
plaisant brunette. The two lines mingle inconspicuously, undermining momentarily but only
for the attentive listenerthe apparently serious tone of the poem, before its identity is explicitly
unmasked by the antiphonal passages that deliver the refrain.
It is exactly at this point that the polyphony is divided into two choirs that alternate the
refrain in a plain and crystal clear declamatory and homophonic fashion (Ex. 4.2, mm. 13-19).
With its repeated note (G), and the rhythmic prolongation of the accented syllables (dotted
semibreve over -soubz and breve over -net-), the borrowed melody imposes a recitative-like
utterance (Superius, mm. 11-13) imitated by almost all voice parts. As in Faulte dargent, one
could easily imagine a semi-dramatized performance where the singers would possibly further
enhance the comic effect with some theatrical telling gesture. 33
Antiphonal effects are not absent from the chansons of Group 1, as demonstrated in
Chapter III, but the rhythms and textural differentiation are not as succinct as in these
popularisant chansons. Furthermore, whereas canons at the unison or at the octave occur only
twice in the twelve chansons of Group 1, they account for two of the four humorous or light33

Allgez moy was also associated with the French secular theater. Brown, Music in the French Secular
Theater, 185.

234

character chansons based on a borrowed melody. Although there are not enough chansons with
these qualities to allow for generalizations, it seems that Josquin preferred canons primarily at
the fifth and secondarily at the fourth when dealing with serious and melancholic subject matters,
and canons at the unison or octave when dealing with lighter ones. Petite camusette, the third
chanson in this latter group, also incorporates a canon at the unison and shares other common
features with Allgez moy and Faulte dargent.
The canon in the six-voice Petite camusette unfolds between the Tenor and the
Contratenor, an unusual combination of structural voices (see Table 4.1). The chanson is based
on Ockeghems Selle mamera/Petite camusette, a four-voice combinative chanson, in which
the Superius presents the rondeau cinquain Selle mamera je ne say and the Tenor a chanson
rustique with the text Petite camusette. However, no such popular tune predating Ockeghems
setting has survived, and thus we cannot exclude the possibility that Ockeghem composed what
eventually became a popular melody that inspired many subsequent polyphonic settings. 34
1. Petite camusette,
2. la mort mavez mis.
3. Robin et Marion
4. Sen vont au bois ioly,
5. Ilz sen vont bras bras,
6. Ilz se sont endormis.
7. Petite camusette,
8. la mort mavez mis.

Little snubnose,
You have brought me to deaths door.
Robin and Marion
Are going to the greenwood,
They are going off arm in arm,
They have fallen asleep.
Little snubnose,
You have brought me to deaths door. 35

According to the most commonly held view, Josquin derives his material from
Ockeghems Tenor. Bernstein states: the same melody that appears in the Tenor of Ockeghems
combinative chanson . . . supplies motifs for Josquins chanson. 36 Although this may be true to

34

The editor of Ockeghems chanson states that the Tenor presents what is probably [emphasis mine] a
chanson rustique, a popular melody of the day, the text of which begins Petite camusette. Johannes Ockeghem,
Collected Works, vol. 3, Motets and Chansons, ed. Richard Wexler and Dragan Plamenac (Boston: Schirmer, 194792), xcviii.
35
Translation from Ockeghem, Motets and Chansons, xcvi-xcvii.
36
Bernstein, Chansons for Five and Six Voices, 407-408.

235

a certain extent, it seems that Ockeghems Contratenor is a more definitive source of material for
Josquins reworking. Better acquaintance with the model will thus enable us to better understand
Josquins six-part arrangement.
Close examination of Ockeghems chanson reveals that the most important part is the
Contratenor, for a number of reasons. First, this part sings the entirety of the text Petite
camusette while the Tenor skips the phrase sen vont au bois joly. Second, both the Superius,
which carries the rondeau text, and the Bassus imitate the music of the Contratenor not only
during the opening phrase (Ex. 4.3, Superius, mm. 1-4, Bassus, mm. 7-16) but at various other
points. The editor of Ockeghems chansons has noted: One interesting touch is the repetition of
the melodic material of the Superius (mm. 7-9) that occurs at the conclusions of the contra (mm.
44-45). 37 Furthermore, the Bassus in mm. 30-34 imitates the Contratenor phrase of mm. 29-33.
Thus the polyphonic voices imitate or interact more with the Contratenor than the Tenor. Since
the Contratenor carries the most important thematic material of the Petite camusette melody, it
is more likely the direct source for the borrowed material in Josquins setting. The fact that
Josquin sets the canon at the unison at the same pitch with Ockeghems Contratenor supports this
hypothesis. 38

37

Ockeghem, Motets and Chansons, xcviii. Despite their obvious rhythmic differentiation, the Superius
melody that carries the rondeau text in Ockeghems chanson is not independent from the Petite camusette melody.
In fact, it seems that Ockeghem either composed the rondeau melody to bear resemblances to the pre-existing
popularisant tune or, in the case he composed both, he ensured that they share melodic material. It is possibly due to
the musical affinity among all polyphonic voices, that Ockeghems chanson was transmitted only with the text
Petite camusette in later sources.
38
Josquins Petite camusette is among the very few multi-voice chansons that end on A, which prompted
Helmuth Osthoff to call it an aeolian work. There is an anachronism in Osthoffs assignment of the chanson to the
aeolian mode and its dating c. 1500, when very few pieces could have been composed in such a mode around this
time. Helmuth Osthoff, Josquin Desprez, 2 vols. (Tutzing: Hans Schneider, 1962-1965), 2:219. Other chansons that
end on A are Je ne me puis tenir daimer and Nesse pas ung grant desplaisir.

236

Example 4.3. Ockeghem, S'elle m'amera/Petite camusette

237

238

Example 4.4. Josquin, Petite camusette

239

240

241

In contrast to Faulte dargent and Allgez moy, the canonic voices in Petite camusette
bear limited repetitions (only the second line is repeated twice). This is possibly an indication
that when Josquin borrowed from another art-song he restricted repetition to a minimum, as he
did with the chansons based on his own melodies. Such treatment of the canon reinforces the
hypothesis that the Petite camusette melody was newly composed by Ockeghem. In all other
chansons based on polyphonic settings by other composers (En non saichant, Jay bien cause de
lamenter, Lamye a tous/Je ne vis onques, Ma bouche rit, and Tenez moy en voz bras), Josquin
treats the cantus prius factus similarly: he maintains the melodic features of the borrowed part
and restricts repetition to a minimum.
As in Allgez moy, Josquin adds a second, free canon at the unison, which similarly stops
after the statement of the first line (Ex. 4.4, Superius and Quinta, mm. 1-9). In addition, he
incorporates a third one at the same interval between the Sexta and Bassus. For this low pair the
free canon continues throughout the work. As we have seen in other chansons, Josquin opens

242

Petite camusette with initial motifs (see Ex. 4.4, Sexta, mm. 4-5 and Bassus, mm. 1-5).
Particularly striking are the triplet rhythms in the middle part of the song (Ex. 4.4, Quinta, m. 14,
Sexta and Bassus, mm. 17-21). Although these rhythms occur from time to time in other Josquin
multi-voice chansons, they are especially prominent in this work and Bernstein compares them
with similar gestures in the six-voice Se congi prens. 39 With the triple division of the beat and
the almost hocket-like treatment of the word Robin (Ex. 4.4, mm. 15-16), Josquin gives an
archaic patina to this middle section, possibly to invoke older settings related to the famous pair
of Robin and Marion and their amorous endeavors. 40
The analyses of the above canonic, popularisant chansons reveal Josquins varied
approaches when borrowing material from the secular monophonic repertory. Thus, in both
Faulte dargent and Allgez moy he incorporated extensive text repetitions in the canonic voices,
unlike the chansons on his own melodies. These repetitions combined with successive imitative
entrances underscore a particular poetic moment, in this case, with a humorous intent. The
manipulation of texture also serves to punctuate a poetic juncture, either a moment of selfreflection or a comic/obscene allusion. Josquin seizes the opportunity to amplify the phonetic
features inherent in the poetry by their projection through the polyphonic fabric, as an additional
means of playing with sound and meaning. Poetic references to antiquated themes or vocabulary
invite similar old-fashioned musical techniques, such as the pervasive use of triplets and hocket

39

Bernstein, Chansons for Five and Six Voices, 408.

Paul Newton relates this chanson to the play Le jeu de Robin et de Marion of Adam de la Halle. See Paul
G. Newton, Florence, Biblioteca del Conservatorio di Musica Luigi Cherubini, Manuscript Basevi 2439: Critical
Edition and Commentary (Ph.D. diss., North Texas State University, 1960), 1:103-108. There is no evidence that
Josquin knew of Adams play but it is almost certain that he would have been acquainted with the age-old literary
topos of Robin and Marion. For a view of the tune Petite camusette as a sort of dance-game song, lending itself to
pantomime see Leeman L. Perkins and Howard Garey, eds., The Mellon Chansonnier, 2 vols. (New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1979), 2:202-203.
40

243

in the middle section of Petite camusette. 41 The differentiated poetic registers and the varied
origins of the borrowed material in the second subcategory of chansons from Group 2 reveals an
even wider array of compositional rhetorical strategies.
Se congi prens
Despite its existence as a monophonic melody, the aristocratisant character of the poetry
in Se congi prens prompted a much different treatment compared to that of Faulte dargent,
Allgez moy, and Petite camusette. The borrowed melody and text survive in Paris, Bibliothque
Nationale, MS fonds fr. 12744, one of the most important sources of monophonic songs. 42 The
original poem is a four-strophe ballade without envoy and the text has the stately melancholy of a
typical departing song. The play with rhyme and the equivocal use of the words tant laymer,
tan amer, and entamer in ll. 5 and 7 of the first strophe betray the style of a Grand
Rhtoriqueur.
1. Se congi prens de mes belles amours,
2. Vray amoureulx, ne men veuillez blasmer.
3. Jen ay souffert de plus griefves douleurs
4. Que ne font ceulx qui naigent en la mer;
5. Car tant laymer mest tousiours tant amer
6. Quavoir ne puis delleung tout seul regard
7. Fors que rigueur pour mon cueur entamer;
8. Si prens congi avant quil soit plus tard.

If I take leave of my fair love,

True lovers, please do not malign me.
I have suffered from it the most grave sorrows
Not endured even by those who sail in the sea;
For loving her so has always given me such grief
That I cannot get even a single glance from her
Except for cruelty that daunts my heart;
So I take leave before it is too late. 43

Josquin places the borrowed melody in the Sexta pars, imitated by the Quinta a fifth
above and at the distance of four breves. He retains the closed form of the original melody,
ABABCDAB, but structures the surrounding polyphony, especially the Superius, to underline
the individual prosodic features. As in the other chansons on a cantus prius factus, there is some
41

Another example of outdated musical techniques occurs in Plaine de deuil, discussed in Chapter III.
For a discussion of this source, henceforth referred to as Paris 12744, see Chapter II. For a modern
edition of the song see Gaston Paris and Auguste Gevaert, eds., Chansons du XVe sicle (Paris: Librairie de FirminDidot, 1875), no. 52.
43
The translation is partly based on that of David Fallows in Josquin des Prez, New Josquin Edition, vol.
28, Critical Commentary, 392.
42

244

text repetition in the canonic voices. In Se congi prens, the repetitions are restricted only to the
second hemistichs of ll. 2 and 4, possibly an index of differentiation with ll. 5 and 7, which
rhyme similarly but not identically (see the difference between blasmer/la mer and tant
amer/entamer). Also, as in Allgez moy and Petite camusette, the two lowest voices unfold in
free-canon until the end of the first line (Ex. 4.5, mm. 5-14). Initial motifs are also present here
in the Contratenor, Tenor, and Bassus (see the opening of Ex. 4.5). Unlike the other chansons of
Group 2, however, Se congi prens adheres more closely to the features of the chansons of
Group 1, possibly due to its poetic theme and character.
Despite the fact that the borrowed melody determines to a great extent the general
structure of the polyphonic design, Josquin manipulates the Superius to create links between
related phrases, such as the ones encountered in the chansons of Group 1. 44 In two cases the
Superius melody connects two consecutive lines with the descending/ascending gesture. The first
instance occurs in mm. 14-15, where l. 1 ends with a descending fifth (A to D) over the words
belles amours, while l. 2 starts with an ascending fifth (mm. 16-17) over Vray amoureulx.
This gesture further reinforces the sonic relationship between the words amours and
amoureulx. Thus through the descending/ascending fifth, the polyptoton figure in the poetry
also finds expression in the music. 45 The second such instance connects ll. 3 and 4, which are
poetically related by an enjambment (Ex. 4.5, Superius, mm. 37-38 and 39-40). Such connecting
gestures are also present in the borrowed melody: the words amours and amoureulx are
thereby related with an instance of anadiplosis (see, for example, the Quinta, in mm. 12-14 and

44

Bernstein considers Se congi prens an early attempt to six-voice composition because the replication of
the closed form of the borrowed melody betrays a lack of sophistication in melodic design. Bernstein, Chansons for
Five and Six Voices, 407. Without explicitly stating it, Bernstein here compares the treatment of the closed form of
Se congi prens with that of Faulte dargent and finds it inferior.
45
In polyptoton, the same word is inflected differently to give two syntactically distinct perspectives.

245

17-20). Josquin was possibly inspired by this gesture in the pre-existent material to melodically
connect ll. 1 and 2 in the Superius.
Another instance of a melodic bond, albeit absent from the borrowed melody, connects
the first half of the strophe with the beginning of the second half. Applying once more the
principle of the oratorical figure anadiplosis, Josquin starts l. 5 with the same melodic gesture
with which he ended l. 4 (Ex. 4.5, Superius, mm. 45-47 and 51-53, motif x). Such a gesture is
particularly fitting in this instance, since the second half of the strophe starts with cara
common conjunction in lyric versescreating a sentence of logical progression that greatly
depends on the preceding phrase. Furthermore, the ending of l. 4 and the beginning of l. 5 share a
very similar sonorous quality between the words la mer/laymer, further emphasized by the
common motif x. As with Allgez moy, here Josquin takes advantage of the phonetic relationship
and the expanded polyphonic texture to blend the two common-sounding words vertically. This
blending underscores the metaphorical similarity between the sea, as the locus of grief for
sailors, and love, as the source of the poets suffering.

246

Example 4.5. Josquin, Se congi prens

247

248

249

250

251

252

253

254

255

256

Tenez moy en voz bras

While in the six-voice chansons explored so far (Allgez moy, Petite camusette, and Se
congi prens), Josquin generates the expanded texture by incorporating a canon, he builds the
six-part Tenez moy en vos bras around a single voice that carries the cantus prius factus. In
addition to Josquins six-part arrangement, two different three-voice settings of the tune Tenez
moy also survive: one that places the melody in the Superius and another one that places the
melody in the Tenor. 46
The melancholic chanson consists of a four-line refrain and a two-line stanza, possibly an
excerpt from a strophic poem that has not survived. 47
music

1. Tenez moy en voz bras,

2. Mon amy, ie suis malade.
3. Tenez moy en voz bras,
4. Vostreamour me gurira.

Hold me in your arms,

My beloved, I am sick.
Hold me in your arms,
Your love will cure me.

A
B
A
C

5. Cest Paris ou par del,

6. Une clre fontainey a.

In Paris or beyond,
There is a clear fountain.

D
E

7. Tenez moy en voz bras,

8. Mon amy, ie suis malade.
9. Tenez moy en voz bras,
10. Vostreamour me gurira.

Hold me in your arms,

My beloved, I am sick.
Hold me in your arms,
Your love will cure me. 48

A
B
A
C

The image of the fountain is a common one in medieval narrative and lyric poetry as the locus of
poetic or amorous happiness. The fountains usually possess special powers and in this context
the relationship between the refrain and the two-line stanza in Tenez moy, although at first glance

46

For the different settings see David Fallows, A Catalogue of Polyphonic Songs, 1415-1485 (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1999), 384.
47
Brian Jeffery, The Literary Texts of Josquins Chansons, in Josquin des Prez: Proceedings of the
International Josquin Festival-Conference Held at The Juilliard School at Lincoln Center in New York City, 21-25
June 1971, ed. Edward E. Lowinsky with the collaboration of Bonnie J. Blackburn (London: Oxford University
Press, 1976), 420.
48
Translation from Martin Picker, ed. Josquin des Prez: Parody Chansons (Hackensack, NJ: Jerona Music
Corporation, 1980), 7.

257

not directly obvious, acquires a new meaning. 49 The poem evokes a dream-like atmosphere in
which the female lover, possibly sick from love, imagines the clear waters of the fountain,
craving the effect of their healing powers. 50 Reflecting the poetic structure, the tune has a closed
ternary macro-form, in which the musical phrases of the three individual main sections follow
the scheme ABAC DE ABAC (see structure above).
In Josquins six-voice setting the borrowed melody is sung by the Tenor in a syllabic,
straightforward manner devoid of text repetitions. The Superius also completely eschews text
repetition but is differentiated by its highly melismatic character, quite unusual for Josquins
multi-voice chansons. 51 The range of the Superius further contrasts with the generally low
tessitura of the other voices. 52 Although composers do not generally use high tessitura to denote
the female voice, the markedly differentiated character of the Superius, both in the three- and the
six-voice settings, serves this purpose. The melismatic nature of the Superius, its straightforward
delivery of the text, without text repetitions, and its positioning against five low-range voices
identifies the Superius with the female poetic voice of the text. A closer look at the melodic
phrases of the upper part further reveals that it follows the phrases of the borrowed melody in
their outline, sequence, and cadential notes (Ex. 4.6).

49

The six-voice version also appears as a contrafact with the text Vidi speciosam in BolC R142, where it
is attributed to Josquin. It is probably not a coincidence that the sacred text refers to water, thereby tightening its
relationship to Tenez moy, which refers to the clear waters of the fountain. I have seen the fair one ascending above
streams of water and her (sweet) odor was as of snow upon her vestments; the flowers of roses and lilies of the
valley surrounded her as the days of spring (Vidi speciosam ascendentem desuper rivos aquarum, cuius odor erat
nivis in vestimentis eius; sicut dies verni circumdabant eam flores rosarum et lilium convallium). I am grateful to
Dr. Edward Nowacki for the English translation.
50
For notions of lovesickness in the Middle Ages see Mary F. Wack, Lovesickness in the Middle Ages: the
Viaticum and Its Commentaries (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990), 41, 46.
51
The melismatic Superius is also characteristic of the three-voice setting, attributed to Josquin by Van
Benthem. Jaap van Benthem, Zur Struktur und Authentizitt der Chansons 5 & 6 von Josquin des Prez,
Tijdschrift van de Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis 21, no. 3 (1970): 185.
52
In a variant reading of the latter version, the Superius reaches a high g, which also features as the
cadential pitch of the entire chanson. This version survives in Gdnsk (Danzig), Biblioteki Polskiej Akademii Nauk
(Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences), MS 4003 (olim Mus. q.20), copied between 1554 and 1563. See
Picker, Parody Chansons, 7.

258

Example 4.6. Josquin, Tenez moy en vos bras. Superius/Tenor phrase structure

259

The melismatic utterance, however, conceals the direct resemblance to the borrowed melody,
transforming a disembodied melodic line to a highly charged dramatization of the female voice.

260

The close resemblance of the Superius to the Tenor line, the borrowed melody, and the
alternating delivery of their corresponding phrases suggest a conception of this chanson as a
dialogue. Superius and Tenor exchange the lines Tenez moy en voz bras and Mon amy ie suis
malade in an erotic dialogue, conjoining forces only at the end of the refrain. Deviation from
this pattern comes only in the middle section, section B, where the direct address of the refrain
gives way to a narrative, descriptive utterance referring to the clear fountain. During this section
the two voices sing simultaneously, with the Tenor always syllabic, while the Superius is always
melismatic. Moreover, all the cadences in this chanson are formed between the Superius and the
Tenor, reflecting their close relationship and the character of the work as a dialogue.
The semi-dramatic nature of this chanson is indicated by yet another feature. Unlike any
other multi-voice chanson by Josquin, here the individual voices do not sing the entirety of the
text from beginning to end but omit some of their phrases. These omissions appear to have both
expressive and purely musical purposes. The Superius skips the third line of the refrain, the
repetition of Tenez moy en voz bras, in both the opening and the closing sections. This
treatment ensures the directness of delivery (after all, repetition is not natural in everyday
speech), and also serves a musical purpose. Since Superius and Tenor alternate their phrases,
repetition of this line by the upper part would pedantically prolong the first and last sections and
weaken the effect of the dialogue between the two voices. Furthermore, in the transition from the
B to the closing A section, both the Quinta and Bassus interpolate a short musical phrase absent
in the opening (see Ex. 4.7, Quinta, mm. 44.4-46 and Bassus, mm. 45-47.1). This gesture creates
an accumulation of Tenez moy en voz bras phrases within a short span of time. The emphasis
on this phrase characterizes the entire chanson and functions almost as an ide fixe, a recurring
theme that haunts the interlocutors of the song. On purely musical grounds there is no apparent

261

reason why Quinta and Bassus should deviate from the original opening, other than to ensure that
more syllables would be available to sing the recurring phrase.
Omission of text also occurs in the Sexta pars, which skips portion of the second line
(mon amy). One has to note, however, the discrepancies in text underlay in the earliest texted
source of this chanson, Susatos 1545 edition. 53 For example, the Contratenor in mm. 10-14
sings l. 2, while in the corresponding measures of the reprise, mm. 55-59, he sings Tenez moy
en voz bras. The same discrepancy occurs in the Quinta pars in mm. 19-24 and 64-69,
respectively. It is difficult to assert whether these anomalies reflect carelessness on the part of the
typesetter, or a planned deviation on the part of the composer. However, the irregularities in the
distribution of the text within and among the individual voices distinguish this chanson from the
rest of Josquins multi-voice secular works. The unusual treatment of the text could be pointing
to a text-generated interpretation: the depiction of a disconcerted person at the verge of real (or
erotic) sickness.

53

Le septiesme livre contenant vingt & quatre chansons (Antwerp: Tylman Susato, 1545) [RISM 154515].

262

Example 4.7. Josquin, Tenez moy en voz bras

263

264

265

266

267

268

Osthoff believed that Tenez moy en voz bras marks a high point in Josquins career. 54 We
could explain the above irregularities as reflecting Josquins style from a different time period, a
particularly late one. First, the straightforward delivery of the text in the most important voices,
the Tenor and the Superius, complies with Josquins treatment of the main voicesthe canonic
melodiesin the other melancholic chansons (see Chapter III). In Tenez moy, the
Superius/Tenor duet, which carries the semantic load of the poetry, replaces the canonic pairs in
the chansons of Group 1. The individual melodic characteristics of the two structural but, at the
same time, differentiated voices of this chanson point to a new technique in Josquins writing for
secular compositions. While the cantus prius factus proceeds in a declamatory style, the derived
voice (Superius) imitates the borrowed melody in its melodic contour but differs from it with its
melismatic declamation and the omission of one poetic line (the repetition of the refrains third
line). Therefore, whereas in the canonic chansons, with or without repetitions, the canon
54

Osthoff, Josquin Desprez, 2:217.

269

proceeds in a strict fashionthere are no melodic deviations in the derived part, except for
hexachordal adjustments in the case of canons at the fifth or fourth in Tenez moy, the structural
voices have markedly different melodic profiles. Josquin thus generates a six-voice texture from
a cantus prius factus without resorting to the use of strict canon. Tenez moy en voz bras is unique
in this respect. All the other six-voice chansons are canonic in structure and all other instances of
non-canonic chansons on a cantus prius factus are five-voice works. 55 The treatment of the
structural voice in Tenez moy recalls that of Je ne me puis tenir daimer, one of the two free
multi-voice chansons attributed to Josquin.
Je ne me puis tenir daimer
In the five-voice Je ne me puis tenir daimer, the principal melodic line is sung by the
Tenor, who proceeds with syllabic, stepwise melodic motion and carries the least repetition. The
syllabic declamation and the fact that it is the last voice to enter imprint on the Tenor part the
characteristics of a cantus prius factus, but no such melody has survived. Although the first two
lines of the poetry appear in the fifth stanza of Pleust a Dieu quil fust dit, a poem in Paris 12744,
the monophonic tune associated with it bears no relationship to Josquins song. 56 Je ne me puis
tenir daimer incorporates neither a canon nor a known cantus prius factus and is thus
considered a free composition. 57

55

The only exception is the six-voice Ma bouche rit. However, recent scholarship has demonstrated that the
sixth part was a later addition, possibly a si placet part incorporated to underline the main motif of the cantus prius
factus. Bernstein denies the authorship of the five-voice version by Josquin. Bernstein, Chansons for Five and Six
Voices, 407, 411.
56
Paris and Gevaert, Chansons du XVe sicle, no. 102. Two other five-voice settings of Je ne me puis
survive and they, too, bear no resemblance to the melody in Paris 12744. One version is by Benedictus Appenzeller
and was included in Susatos Le cinquiesme livre contenant trente et deux chansons a cinq et a six parties (Antwerp:
Susato 1544) [RISM 154413], fol. 13v. The other is by Derick Gerarde in British Library, MSS Roy. App. 31-35, fol.
31v. For these two settings see Blackburn, Josquins Chansons, 40-41.
57
Blackburn has noted that until about 1515 polyphonic compositions for five voices were considered
either as four-voice works with the addition of a cantus firmus or as four voices generating five through the use of
canon. Blackburn, Josquins Chansons, 38.

270

The poem belongs to the courtly love discourse and reflects the traditional plea of the
lover to his sovereign lady. Instead of the typical octosyllabic or decasyllabic rondeau refrain,
however, Je ne me puis consists of two four-line stanzas of different meters and rhyming
schemes. The first stanza alternates octosyllabic with heptasyllabic verses while the second
alternates heptasyllables with hexasyllables. The rhyme scheme is abac cdcd, with the fourth line
providing a rhyming and metric link to the second stanza.
rhyme

line length

1. Je ne me puis tenir daimer

2. Celle qui point ne maime;
3. Je me doibz bien desconforter
4. Car j perdu ma peine.

I cannot continue loving

The one who does not love me at all;
I am right to be disconsolate
For I have waisted my efforts.

a
b
a
c

8
7
8
7

5. Madame souveraine,
6. Recepvez vostre amy
7. Par vostre bont pleine,
8. Ou mort est demy.

Sovereign lady,
Receive your friend
Through your great goodness,
Or death is half-way here for him.

c
d
c
d

7
6
7
6

Bonnie Blackburn suggests that, because of the heterogeneous nature of the two stanzas,
Je ne me puis likely consists of two different poems that somehow got mixed together. 58 Even if
we accept Blackburns hypothesis, it is obvious that the choice was not haphazard; on the
contrary, the two poems were carefully selected so that the last line of the first stanza would have
the same number of syllables and rhyme with the first line of the second stanza. This allows for a
smooth and meaningful transition from personal speech (first stanza) to a vocative construction
(second stanza) that depicts the last effort of the desperate lover to move a disinterested lady.
This poetic juncture is emphasized through various musical means. During the first
section, the Tenor enters with the two main sentences (ll. 1-2 and 3-4) after all the other voices
have come to a cadence (Ex. 4.8, m. 12 and 28, respectively). In contrast, during the second
stanza, the Tenor participates equally with the other voices in the polyphony. This treatment
creates a marked contrast in the texture of the two sections. Whereas the first section is
58

Blackburn, Josquins Chansons, 40.

271

characterized by a thin, mostly three-voice texture, the second section stands out with its dense
counterpoint, which becomes busier as the piece advances towards its end (especially mm. 59
onwards). Moreover, antiphonal passages further differentiate the second section: three voices
are set against three others for l. 5 and, later, four against four for l. 7. Lines 5 and 7 both concern
the lady, either by direct address (madame souveraine) or by referring to her grace (par vostre
bont pleine), and are thus musically related by the similar antiphonal treatment. Such textural
differentiation for moments of change in speech is not unusual in Josquins works. We have
encountered them in the chansons Regretz sans fin and Faulte dargent at the moment of change
to first-person declaration.
The first and second sections are further differentiated in a number of other ways. The
cadential notes for the Tenor alternate between E and D for the first stanza and between E and A
for the second (possibly partly reflecting the rhyme scheme). Furthermore, the Tenor bears no
repetitions during the first stanza, with the exception of the end of the fourth line. In contrast, the
Tenor in the second section repeats entire lines, which is especially prominent in l. 6, recepvez
vostre amy (Ex. 4.8, mm. 50-59). This line is the culmination of the entire poem, the last cry of
the lover to reach the heart of the indifferent lady. All voice parts feature descending melodic
lines, a technique of which Josquin was very fond, as Blackburn has noted. 59 However, she
failed to notice that these long descending phrases, besides being a common stylistic feature in
Josquins music, coincide with this high point of the poetry, where the lover invokes a sense of
humility. Within this poetic context, the descending lines acquire rhetorical significance as
instances of catabasis, descending melodic gestures frequently applied to depict not only flowing

59

Blackburn, Josquins Chansons, 39

272

motions but also prayer, humility, and servitude. 60 Both the constant internal repetitions and the
descending melodic lines symbolically represent the meaning of the poetry. Through the
repetitions the composer impresses the urgency of the plea, while through the descending lines
he depicts in musical terms the air of humility appropriate for the situation.
In addition to projecting the semantic properties of the poetry in musical terms, the Tenor
also reflects the syntactic features of the text. In the first stanza, the Tenor states ll. 1-2 and 3-4
without any interruption of the melodic flow. In the first case, such treatment reflects the
enjambment between ll. 1 and 2; in the second case (ll. 3 and 4), the continuous melodic flow
depicts the construction of logical discourse, initiated by the word car. In fact, it is at this point
where a brief pause could be introduced in speech and this is exactly what happens in the music
with the rest of a breve (Ex. 4.8, m. 32.3). The treatment of the Tenor as a cantus firmus that
carries both the syntactic and the semantic content of the poetry in a straightforward, syllabic
declamation is typical of Josquin, as we have seen in the chansons of Group 1.
Je ne me puis tenir daimer also exhibits a characteristic economy of material, another
hallmark of Josquins style. The melodic structure of the Tenor shows a reiteration of motivic
ideas. The melodic phrases that correspond to the individual lines of the text are ABAB
CDCE, where B is a transposition a fifth higher of B (see also Ex. 3.11). Furthermore, phrase C
is indebted to the opening of phrase A (see motif x in mm. 13-15.1 and 41-42), and the phrases of
the four non-structural voice-parts often derive their melodic and rhythmic details from the
Tenor phrases (compare, for example, the Bassus in mm. 26-28 with phrase C of the Tenor, and
the Superius, mm. 15-16 with the opening of phrase B of the Tenor, mm. 17-18).

60

Catabasis is one of the three new figures introduced by Athanasius Kircher in his Musurgia Universalis
(Rome, 1650). For a facsimile edition see Athanasius Kircher, Musurgia Universalis. Mit einen Vorwort, Personen-,
Orts- und Sachregister von Ulf Scharlau (Hildesheim: G. Olms, 1970), B 145.

273

Example 4.8. Josquin, Je ne me puis tenir d'aimer

274

275

276

277

278

279

The structure of the Tenor suggests that Josquin assigns closely related phrases to verses
with the same rhyme, as in the end-oriented chansons studied in Chapter III. Blackburn observes,
nevertheless, a lack of sectional repetition, unusual for a Josquin chanson, which she attributes
to the individuality of the text (its unusual poetic structure and rhyme). 61 However, sectional
repetition is not absent from this work; it is simply hidden in the subtle variations that occur in
the repetitions of the individual melodic parts. The Superius and Bassus of ll. 1-2 and 3-4 feature
extensive repetitions of the melodic material, skillfully disguised to avoid wholeheartedly
replications such as the ones in the end-oriented chansons of Group 1. The melodic variations of
the Superius recall the treatment of the upper part in Tenez moy, where this voice presents a
melismatic version of the cantus prius factus.
The close relationship between words and music finds another expression in the
successive dissonances encountered in mm. 23-24 and 27-28. These dissonances result from the

61

Blackburn, Josquins Chansons, 39.

280

suspensions over the word desconforter (disconsolate). This is obviously a moment of wordpainting that audibly depicts the discomfort expressed in the poetry. Such word-painting is
generally rare in Josquins multi-voice chansons, a counter-indication of the works authenticity
or an indication that Je ne me puis is a late work. The extensive plagal cadence at the end of this
chanson, with its madrigalesque quality, further contributes to the categorization of this chanson
as either a late work by Josquin or the effort of a member of a younger generation. Both Osthoff
and Blackburn consider Je ne me puis a mature work in Josquins output, despite of the
chansons weak record of attributions. 62 Blackburn finds that in the suppleness and economy of
the melodies, the precise relationship of word and tone, the integration of the five voices, and
above all in the harmonic movement, Je ne me puis tenir daimer surpasses all of Josquins fiveand six-part chansons. 63 Although Blackburn does not offer specific examples from Je ne me
puis to demonstrate her points, the above analysis has shown that there is indeed a tight
relationship between the music and the text, both on the level of surface details and semantic
interpretation of the poetry. The subtle orchestration of the individual melodic, structural, and
contrapuntal polyphonic features to coordinate with the various poetic elements indeed points to
Josquins authorship and a late date of composition for Je ne me puis tenir daimer.
The rhetorical analysis of the second subcategory from Group 2 demonstrates that
Josquin generates a six-voice texture either through the presence of strict canon (with the
addition of a second free one for the entirety or part of the song, as in Allgez moy, Petite
camusette, and Se congi prens) or by incorporating a cantus prius factus and deriving a second
62

Osthoff, Josquin Desprez, 2:213; Blackburn, Josquins Chansons, 31. The chanson is attributed in the
Trente sixiesme livre contenant trente chansons tres musicales, a quatre, cinq et six parties . . . de feu Iosquin des
prez (Paris: Pierre Attaingnant, 1549) [RISM J681], as well as in the Livre de meslanges, contenant six vingtz
chansons (Paris: Le Roy & Ballard, 1560) [not in RISM] and the 1572 Mellange de chansons [RISM 15722], both of
which were probably copied from Attaingnants print.
63
Blackburn, Josquins Chansons, 41.

281

melodic line from it (as in Tenez moy). In the free, five-voice Je ne me puis tenir daimer, the
newly composed Tenor behaves as a pre-existent melody and becomes the source of much of the
material for the other voice parts. In all cases, the structural voice(s) bears a minimum of text
repetition, as in the chansons of Group 1. While rhetorical gestures are absent from the
popularisant chansons examined in the first part of this chapter, they are prominent in the second
group, especially in Se congi prens and Je ne me puis tenir daimer, the two chansons most
clearly related to the aristocratisant poetic tradition. It is thus evident that the poetic register
determines the presence of literary rhetorical figures and the behavior of the structural voice(s) in
terms of internal textual repetitions.
Certain features are common to both Group 2 subcategories, the popularisant and the
aristocratisant chansons. Josquin reserves textural differentiation (pervasive imitation or
antiphonal passages) for moments that are poetically distinct and, in the case of Tenez moy, to
audibly dramatize an erotic dialogue. While dissonances are highly controlled, their appearances
stand as instances of word painting, as illustrated in both Faulte dargent and Je ne me puis tenir
daimer. Prominent phonetic features are amplified by their simultaneous projection through the
extended polyphonic web, in ways that both enhance the sonic relationship between words and
project the interplay of sound and meaning frequently inherent in the poetry.
The compositional traits encountered in the above two sub-groups can serve as a conduit
for drawing comparisons with the other chansons of Group 2, some of which are considered
doubtful (see Appendix 1). Nevertheless, their examination expands our understanding of early
sixteenth-century compositional practices in the secular domain. The non-canonic Ma bouche rit
does not avail itself to rhetorical analysis, since the poetic text consists of the manifold repetition

282

of a single poetic line. 64 The free Mi lars vous, built around the solmization syllables mi la re,
a reference to its title, is uncharacteristic in many respects and is considered doubtful. The
extensive text repetitions and the absence of a voice that bears the characteristics of a structural
part, even if newly composed, speak against Josquins authorship. 65
The six-voice Baisz moy, modeled on a pre-existing monophonic tune, unfolds as a
triple canon at the fourth. 66 The six-voice version adds a third canon to the 4 double canon
attributed to Josquin, but its authenticity has been questioned. 67 The popularisant text of this
song features a dialogue between two lovers and thus belongs to the pastourelle tradition.
Although the musical phrases of the borrowed melody do not indicate, by some distinct musical
feature, the exchange of lines between the two interlocutors, the composer manages to musically
depict their dialogue by textural differentiation, a practice also applied in Tenez moy. As in many
other chansons from both Groups 1 and 2, the change to first-person speech (Se ie faisoie) is
marked by antiphonal passages shared by the two lowest pairs of voices. In addition, the negative
response of the female lover to the mans advances is initiated by the Bassus followed by
successive (non-imitative) entrances to the highest voice. The engagement of the bass part to
open the womans speech could again produce a comic effect, similar to the one in Allgez moy.
In contrast, the six-voice Jay bien cause de lamenter displays none of the features of
either the Group 1 or the Group 2 chansons. The two upper voices, based on motifs from
64

For the original conception of this chanson as a five-part arrangement see fn. 55. Bernstein rejects the
authorship of both versions. Bernstein, Ma bouche rit et mon cueur pleure: A Chanson a 5 Attributed to Josquin
des Prez, Journal of Musicology 12, no. 3 (1994): 253-286 and idem, Chansons for Five and Six Voices, 411412. Jaap van Benthem accepts the chanson as Josquins. Jaap van Benthem, The Scoring of Josquins Secular
Music, Tijdschrift van de Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis 35, no. 1-2 (1985): 75, 81-85.
65
Mi lars vous is briefly discussed in Chapter VII. It survives solely in the unreliable Kriesstein 1540
edition [RISM 15407]. Van Benthem questions Josquins authorship of this chanson. Van Benthem, Zur Struktur,
171.
66
The monophonic tune appears in the Bayeux manuscript, one of the two main depositories of
monophonic songs from the fifteenth century. For a discussion of this source see Chapter II. Modern edition in
Thodore Grold, ed., Le Manuscrit de Bayeux: Texte et musique dun recueil de chansons du XVe sicle
(Strasbourg: Commission des publications de la Facult des lettres, 1921; repr. Genve: Minkoff, 1979), no. 20.
67
Bernstein, Chansons for Five and Six Voices, 412, especially fn. 42.

283

Pietrequins Mais que ce fust secretement (an explicitly obscene poem), unfold in a free canon,
which not only changes the interval of imitation but also reverses the order of dux and comes
entries, a trait very uncharacteristic of Josquins canonic writing in his other multi-voice
chansons. As a result, despite the songs reliance on a borrowed melody, no individual melodic
line appears to be the principal one and all voices bear extensive repetitions, despite the solemn
nature of the text. Both the source record and the individual stylistic traits of Jay bien cause
speak against Josquins authorship. 68
Another chanson with problematic attributions is the five-voice En non saichant, based
on the Superius of a homonymous four-part version. Although its authenticity has been
questioned by van Benthem and Bernstein, Blackburn believes that En non saichant is a genuine
composition by Josquin. 69 Indeed, in contrast to Jay bien cause, the treatment of the borrowed
part in En non saichant complies with Josquins practices when borrowing from other
polyphonic settings in its straightforward, non-repetitive deployment. In addition, the upper part
incorporates an instance of anadiplosis that connects the first to the second self-contained poetic
lines, in the manner Josquin connects the first two similar lines in Douleur me bat, discussed in
Chapter III. The turn to a homophonic, antiphonal texture at the point of self-representation (Je
languis) also bespeaks Josquins writing.
The double-texted Lamye a tous/Je ne vis oncques is unusual in its combination of two
poems in the courtly register, Dufays Je ne vis oncques la pareille and Lamye a tous. Although
the lexicon of the latter clearly evokes the courtly love discourse, the fact that the poetic subject

68

Jay bien cause de lamenter survives solely in Kriessteins 1540 print [RISM 15407]. Osthoff and, more
recently, van Benthem also doubted the chansons authenticity. Osthoff, Josquin Desprez, 2:226-227; Van Benthem,
The Scoring, 84-85. See also the discussion of this chanson in Chapter VII.
69
Benthem, Zur Struktur, 171-172; Bernstein, Ma bouche rit, 254; Blackburn, Josquins Chansons,
44-50.

284

therein addresses the lady with tu instead of vous undermines its courtly register. 70 The
melodically independent lines of the individual freely composed parts do not comply with
Josquins writing, in general. However, there are other features that strongly recall his style. The
chanson is written in tempus imperfectum, a mensuration outmoded in the early sixteenth
century. Its unusual presence in Lamye a tous/Je ne vis oncques is possibly inspired by the
presence of Dufays melody and recalls Josquins antiquated techniques in other chansons with
archaic references (Plaine de deuil, Petite camusette). In addition, we also encounter here
Josquins practice of vertically juxtaposing phrases with similarly sounding words; thus the end
of Dufays second line, ma gracieuse dame, coincides with the words si grand dame of the
Lamye a tous text, sung by the Superius, Contratenor, and Tenor.
Josquins most celebrated motet-chanson on the death of Johannes Ockeghem, Nymphes
des bois/Requiem, displays many of the composers compositional rhetorical strategies. This
five-voice composition is built around the Introit and Post communion from the Mass for the
Dead, placed in the Tenor. Unusual in many respects (absence of clefs, black notation, mainly
homophonic texture), Nymphes des bois complements our picture of Josquins rhetorical
approach in his multi-voice chansons. 71 In addition to the structural voice, Josquin entrusts the
most important melodic material to the Superius, a common technique with other multi-voice
chansons explored so far. The syntactic pace of the individual poetic lines is closely followed by

70

Lamye a tous et qui nesconduit ame/La plus commune pour une si grand dame/Qui ung seul as ton
amour donne/Et cueur et corps du tout habandone/Pense tu point en recepvoir le blasme.
71
The literature on this chanson is quite extensive. See among others Edward E. Lowinsky, ed., The Medici
Codex of 1518: A Choirbook of Motets Dedicated to Lorenzo de Medici, Duke of Urbino, 3 vols., Monuments of
Renaissance Music, vols. 3-5 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1968), 1:66-68, 2:213-217; Willem Elders,
Symbolic Scores: Studies in the Music of the Renaissance (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1994), 135-139; Honey Meconi,
Ockeghem and the Motet-Chanson, 381-383, 391-392, 396; and Jaap van Benthem, La magie des cris trenchantz:
comment le vray trsorier de musique chappe la trappe du trs terrible satrappe, in Thorie et analyse musicales
1450-1650: Actes du colloque international Louvain-la-Neuve, 23-25 septembre 1999, ed. Anne-Emmanuelle
Ceulemans and Bonnie J. Blackburn (Louvain-la-Neuve: Dpartement dhistoire de lart darchologie, 2001), 119147.

285

the melodic phrases. The most important feature is the complete lack of any textual repetition.
As mentioned above, it is mainly the poetic register that determines the degree of internal textual
repetition. The extremely somber theme of Nymphes des bois apparently obviated any repetition.
A striking musical moment occurs when the poet, Jean Molinet, exhorts Josquin, Brumel,
Pirchon, and Compre to mourn the death of their father, Ockeghem. Josquin employs a
sequence based on descending thirds over the names of the above composers. The audible effect
of the sequencethere is no aural differentiation among its constituent partspossibly reflects
in musical terms the equality among the artistic merits of each composer. However, its
descending direction, with the highest note corresponding to Josquins name, might be a musical
pun that works against the above statement and projects Josquins representation of self-esteem.
Josquins penchant for the subtle and intricate reflection of the semantic features of the poetry
becomes fully appreciated with the exploration of intertextual relationships in the following
chapter.

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CHAPTER V
ASPECTS OF INTERTEXTUALITY IN JOSQUINS MULTI-VOICE
CHANSONS
This chapter will explore manifestations of intertextual relationships that have emerged
from the musico-rhetorical analysis of Josquins five- and six-voice chansons in chapters III and
IV. The extent and multi-faceted nature of these manifestations demand separate treatment in
order for them to be fully explored and comprehended. Here, intertextuality is not considered in
the narrow sense of pointing out instances of melodic or contrapuntal similarities between
chansons. Rather, it is used as a tool to describe, interpret, and apprehend instances in which
concepts, traditions, ideas, and poetic and musical practices mingle to produce a web of explicit
or implicit connections between chansons that appear otherwise unrelated.
The analysis investigates a wide range of intertextual references. First, it isolates
instances in which common compositional strategies and underlying poetic correspondences
bring forth a polyphony of texts and music, 1 as among the chansons Douleur me bat, Plusieurs
regretz, and Nymphes, napps. Second, it examines the implications that a borrowed melody and
its text can have on the understanding of the derived work, best exemplified in Josquins fivevoice Je me complains de mon amy. The analysis further shows that deeper understanding of the
imagery and topoi of medieval texts help us untangle the seemingly compositional anomalies of
works such as Pour souhaitter, and provide nuanced interpretations that are based on internal
1

In her seminal study A Polyphony of Texts and Music, Margaret Bent demonstrated that the careful
planning of verbal and musical correspondences in the fourteenth-century polytextual motet had intertextual
significance, which informed listeners could possibly recover. Margaret Bent, Polyphony of Texts and Music in the
Fourteenth-Century Motet: Tribum que non abhorruit/Quoniam secta latronum/Merito hec patimur and Its
Quotations, in Hearing the Motet: Essays on the Motet of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, ed. Dolores Pesce
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 82-103. My analysis points to similar conclusions, albeit mainly for the
single-texted secular repertory of the early sixteenth century.

287

textual and musical evidence. Finally, it demonstrates how better knowledge of the literary
tradition of envoy and responce yields important musical connections between chansons that
have been considered hitherto related only in terms of their poetic texts. In this latter category, I
examine the pairs Vous larez, sil vous plaist/Vous ne laurez pas and Nesse pas ung grant
desplaisir/Si vous navez aultre desir, revealing some of the possible avenues through which the
discursive practice of envoy and responce found expression into the world of music.
The chapter starts with an overview of the concept of intertextuality and its applications
to studies of repertories from the late medieval period. It then describes my methodology for
locating and unveiling intertextual relationships before proceeding to the discussion and
interpretation of the individual chansons. These analyses not only widen our knowledge and
understanding of the compositional practices of Josquin, but, most importantly, open up a new
window towards approaching and interpreting the secular repertory of this period.
Since its first appearance in the works of Julia Kristeva and Roland Barthes in the late
1960s and early 70s, the concept of intertextuality has gained widespread appeal in literary
criticism and has expanded to include a wide gamut of relationships among literary texts. 2
Theories of intertextuality consider a work as a text, in other words as a semiotic system,
whose meaning emerges from its location within a network of potentially infinite other texts. In
2

The term intertextualit was coined by Julia Kristeva in her essays, The Bounded Text and Word,
Dialogue, Novel, in Desire in Language: A Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art, ed. Leon S. Roudiez and
trans. Thomas Gora, Alice Jardine, and Leon S. Roudiez (New York: Columbia University Press, 1980), 36-63 and
64-91. This is the English translation of Julia Kristeva, Smeiotik: recherches pour une smanalyse (Paris, 1969).
Roland Barthess articulations of the concept of intertextuality can be traced in several of his writings: S/Z, trans.
Richard Howard (New York: Hill and Wang, 1974); ImageMusicText, trans. Stephen Heath (London: Fontana,
1977); Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes, trans. Richard Howard (New York: Hill and Wang, 1977). For a
comprehensive account of theories of intertextuality from its origins to the present day, consult Graham Allen,
Intertextuality (London: Routledge, 2000). An early attempt at constructing a methodological tool involving
intertextuality that could be applicable to musical works is Robert Hattens The Place of Intertextuality in Music
Studies, The American Journal of Semiotics 3, no. 4 (1985): 69-82. The recently published monograph by Michael
L. Klein, Intertextuality in Western Art Music (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005) brings together
theories of intertextuality and how they apply directly or indirectly to studies of music theory and musicology.

288

Kristevas words any text is constructed as a mosaic of quotations; any text is the absorption
and transformation of another. 3 In musicological studies the concept of intertextuality has
gained favor over the past twenty years and has proven particularly useful for revealing the
intricate network of relationships that characterize the repertories of the late medieval period. As
a flexible, all-encompassing concept, intertextuality allows us to describe all types of
interconnections between musical works, providing a useful analytical tool for their semiotic
interpretation. 4
The concept of intertextuality also entails notions of influence, but literary critics of the
latter part of the twentieth century, disinterested in tracing sources and proving influence,
articulated a distinction between the two: influence implies authorial intent, thereby situating a
text in a particular historical moment, while intertextuality operates as an author-dissociated
discourse which allows for the multi-directional crossing of texts across time and cultures. 5 In
musicological studies of the late medieval and renaissance periods, however, in which
biographical evidence and issues of chronology are ever vexing problems, the intertwining of
intertextuality with influence can provide important clues for contemporary musical practices, as
well as for the dating of compositions.
Musicological studies of repertory from this period have mainly applied intertextual
analysis in order to understand the function of chanson quotations and Latin cantus firmi in

Kristeva, Word, Dialogue, and Novel, in Desire in Language, 66.

For a review of recent studies related to the concepts of imitation and intertextuality in early music see
John Milsom, Imitatio, Intertextuality, and Early Music, in Citation and Authority in Medieval and
Renaissance Musical Culture: Learning from the Learned, ed. Suzannah Clark and Elizabeth E. Leach (Rochester:
Boydell, 2005), 141-151.
5
For an account of recent views on influence and intertextuality in literary criticism see Jay Clayton and
Eric Rothstein, Figures in the Corpus: Theories of Influence and Intertextuality, in Influence and Intertextuality in
Literary History, ed. Jay Clayton and Eric Rothstein (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1991), 3-36.
4

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polyphonic masses and motets. 6 Recently, the concept of intertextuality has also been applied to
the chanson repertories of the fourteenth and the early fifteenth centuries. Such studies have
revealed families of chansons connected not only through shared texts and musical allusions but
also via related rhetorical topoi that prompted musical intertextual relationships even in the
absence of explicit textual references in their respective verses. 7 For example, Paula Higgins and
David Fallows have pointed out the network of musical connections that characterize an everexpanding group of chansons related to Dufays Le serviteur hault guerdonn. 8 The relationships
involve not only chansons with direct verbal correspondences to the serviteur text but also
chansons connected through a string of implicit poetic topoi. Despite some differences in
interpretation, both scholars ultimately agree that these intertextual allusions were indeed
deliberate and meant to be recognized at least in part by their audiences, whether reading,
hearing, or performing the music. 9

Some recent studies include Michael Long, Symbol and Ritual in Josquin s Missa Di Dadi, Journal of
the American Musicological Society 42, no. 1 (1989): 1-22; Christopher A. Reynolds, The Counterpoint of Allusion
in Fifteenth-Century Masses, Journal of the American Musicological Society 45, no. 2 (1992): 228-260; Murray
Steib, Ockeghem and Intertextuality: A Composer Interprets Himself, in Early Musical Borrowing, ed. Honey
Meconi (New York: Routledge, 2004). The studies by Long and Reynolds cited here refer to intertextuality only in
passing (p. 17 in Long and p. 237 in Reynolds) although the concept lies at the heart of their analyses.
7
Studies focusing on intertextuality in chanson repertories of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries include
Yolanda Plumley, Citation and Allusion in the Late Ars Nova: The Case of Esperance and the En attendant songs,
Early Music History 18 (1999): 287-363; idem, Intertextuality in the Fourteenth-Century Chanson, Music and
Letters 84, no. 3 (2003): 346-377; idem, Playing the Citation Game in the Late Fourteenth-Century Chanson,
Early Music 31, no. 1 (2003): 21-39; Elizabeth E. Leach, Fortunes Demesne: The Interrelations of Text and Music
in Machauts Il mest avis (B22), De fortune (B23) and Two Related Anonymous Balades, Early Music History 19
(2000): 47-79; Paula Higgins, Servants, Mistresses and the Fortunes of Their Families: Influence and
Intertextuality in the Fifteenth-Century Song, in Hauptreferate, Symposien, Kolloquien, vol. 1 of Musik als Text:
Bericht ber den Internationalen Kongress der Gesellschaft fr Musikforschung Freiburg in Breisgau 1993, ed.
Hermann Danuser and Tobias Plebuch (Kassel: Brenreiter, 1998), 346-357; and David Fallows, Le serviteur of
Several Masters, in Hauptreferate, Symposien, Kolloquien, 336-345.
8
Higgins, Servants, Mistresses and the Fortunes of Their Families; Fallows, Le serviteur.
9
Although Fallows accepts that composers in many cases made purposeful choices to further an allusion,
he also believes that in the choice of a pre-existent model as a basis for the creation of a new work composers did
nothing more than simply seek somewhere to start. Fallows, Le serviteur, 337. On the other hand, Higgins
insists that even this starting point was not an innocent decision from the part of the composer, but an act of
interpretation that would serve and enhance his creative purpose. Higgins, Servants, Mistresses and the Fortunes of
Their Families, 349.

290

Applying a perspective of intertextuality that embraces author-based notions of

intertextual allusions, that is, of intentionality of references, the present study will bring to light
representative examples of poetic and musical relationships that occur within the five- and sixvoice chanson repertory of Josquin des Prez, and which have gone hitherto unnoticed. As the
following discussion will demonstrate, the great extent of textual and musical interconnections
encountered in Josquins five- and six-voice chansons indicates that intertextuality features as a
major element of his musical rhetoric. By locating the intertextual relationships and establishing
their nature, we can gain a better glimpse into Josquins compositional practices and,
furthermore, speculate with greater certainty on the chronological proximity and provenance of
groups of compositions, especially in the cases in which the proposed relationships are supported
by both shared compositional strategies and poetic themes. Finally, the results of this study
suggest that the practice of intertextual references not only extended to composers of the postMachaut generation, as Yolanda Plumley and others have shown, but that it remained alive and
current throughout the fifteenth century to Josquins generation and beyond. 10
In order to locate intertextual relationships in the absence of contemporary testimony we
need to rely on a variety of textual and musical clues. First, the common practice of deriving a
polyphonic voice from chant, a monophonic tune, or another polyphonic work provided rich
opportunities for intertextual play. Second, shared texts, fragments of texts, or even single words
often yield musical intertextual allusions, as the work of Higgins and Fallows mentioned above
has shown. Furthermore, anomalous or unusual musical features within a genres accepted
conventions or a particular composers style can often mark a deliberate reference to another
10

Ursula Gnther has proposed that musical citation and allusion was common among composers of the
immediate post-Machaut generation but fell out of use with composers of the Ars Subtilior. Ursula Gnther, Zitate
in franzsischen Liedstzen der Ars Nova and Ars Subtilior, Musica disciplina 26 (1972): 53-68. Plumleys more
recent study, however, has demonstrated that the tradition was very much alive with the Ars subtilior composers.
Plumley, Intertextuality.

291

discourse, be it a particular musical passage, a topos, or a compositional device in another work,

to name just a few possibilities. Finally, settings that can be identified as responces often hide
musical connections that correspond to both the prosodic and the individual musical features of
the envoy. These concealed relationships indicate that contemporary musicians operated in a
semiotically charged environment that appreciated and encouraged such intertextual play.
In his chansons for five and six voices, Josquins almost exclusive reliance on some
discernible pre-compositional entity such as a cantus prius factus or a melody of his own
invention provides a good starting point in seeking intertextual allusions. Within this repertory a
group of five five-voice chansons share multiple common features that could suggest they were
composed in close chronological proximity. These chansons are Douleur me bat, Incessament
livr suis, Parfons regretz, Plaine de deuil, and Plusieurs regretz. As shown in Chapter III, all
five are settings of decasyllabic rondeau cinquains refrains based on canonic melodies of
Josquins invention. The texts express melancholic themes derived from amorous regrets or
some unspecified misfortune, and their vocabulary situates the poems in the discursive world of
the courtly lyric. Finally, the settings are all end-oriented structures, that is, structures that show
some kind of repetitive scheme but also place particular emphasis on the final line of the text by
assigning it to a new musical phrase. To the typical five-line aabba rhyme of the poetry, the
musical structure corresponds with a six-part AABBCC scheme (with or without coda), in which
each musical phrase sets an individual line of the text (see, for example, the Douleur me bat text
below). This structure reflects partly the poetic rhyme and partly the semantic content of the
poem. The music does not return to the opening phrase, as the rhyme demands, but introduces a
new melody, phrase C, which is immediately repeated, thus emphasizing the semantic
importance of the last verse. A note of caution is needed here, however, regarding the way the

292

structure of these works is described in the literature. In a canonic work, the structure is often
defined primarily by the canonic voices and secondarily by the scheme of the Superius (if freely
composed) and the rest of the polyphonic fabric. In three of the five end-oriented chansons
mentioned here, Douleur me bat, Incessament livr suis, and Plusieurs regretz, these two
deciding factors coincide to an admirable extent: the canonic and freely composed voices follow
the exact same structural scheme, another feature that ties these three works chronologically.
The common compositional strategies encountered in the group of end-oriented chansons
can function as a conduit for revealing more subtle connections with intertextual significance.
Patrick Macey has already demonstrated that the structure of these five chansons, as well as the
lament Nymphes, napps, is further punctuated by the use of a single cross-relationship placed
before the final C section. 11 This feature, combined with several other compositional rhetorical
devices that Josquin employs in order to attract attention to the last verse of the poetry or some
other important poetic juncture, reveals a string of implicit references that relates Douleur me
bat, Plusieurs regretz, and Nymphes, napps and sheds light on their intertextual connection.
One of the most pronounced instances of such rhetorical treatment occurs in Douleur me
bat, a chanson in the Phrygian mode. Although the text and translation were provided in Chapter
III, I reproduce them here for easy reference.

11

Parick Macey, An Expressive Detail in Josquins Nimphes, napps, Early Music 31, no. 3 (2003): 407.

293

rhyme music
1. Douleur me bat et tristesse mafolle,
2. Amour me nuyt et malheur me consolle,
3. Vouloir me suit mais aider ne me peult,
4. Jouyr ne puis dung grant bien quon me veult.
5. De vivre ainsi, pour dieu, quon me dcolle!

a
a
b
b
a

A
A
B
B
CC

1. Grief strikes me and sorrow maddens me,

2. Love annoys me and misfortune comforts me,
3. Desire follows me but cannot help me,
4. I cannot enjoy the great good that [she] wishes me,
5. From such a life, for Gods sake, may I be released! 12

A cross-relation between B-natural and B-flat occurs at the point of transition to the final
and most affective line of the poetry (Ex. 5.1, m. 38) but this is not the only feature that
highlights this poetic juncture. As shown in Chapter III, this cross-relationship occurs in a
passage in which the Superius reaches the highest point in the entire composition (m. 37, marked
with asterisk), introducing through an unusual melisma the last line of the poetry (mm. 37-39).
The occurrence of B-flat itself in the next measure (Tenor, m. 38) further challenges the
intervallic properties of the Phrygian mode. The individual melodic characteristics of the
surrounding polyphony (the repeated D in the Contratenor, mm. 38-39, and the G in the Bassus,
followed by the characteristic diapente G-D of the G-Dorian mode, mm. 37-39) suggest a
moment, albeit brief, of modal co-mixture that calls attention to the up-coming exclamatory final
verse.

12

The translation is partly based on Jennie L. Congleton, The Chansons of Josquin des Prez (Ph.D. diss.,
Washington University, 1981), 141. I have replaced harms me with annoys me in l. 2 and aid me with help
me in l. 3. Unless otherwise indicated, the translations are my own.

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Example 5.1. Josquin, Douleur me bat, mm. 34-40

Similar striking gestures to the same rhetorical end occur in two other chansons of the
same group, Plusieurs regretz and Incessament livr suis. Here the deviations occur not as tonal
excursions (as in Douleur me bat) but as disruptions of the repetitive scheme of the musical
form. The text of Plusieurs regretz reads:
rhyme
a
a
b
b
a

1. Plusieurs regretz qui sur la terre sont

2. Et les douleurs quhommes et femmes ont
3. Nest que plaisir envers ceulx que je porte;
4. Me tourmentant de si piteusse sorte
5. Que mes espris ne schavent plus quilz font.
1. The many sorrows that exist on earth
2. And the sufferings that men and women endure
3. Are nothing but pleasure compared to those I bear;
4. They torment me in such a woeful manner
5. That my spirits dont know how to go on. 13

13

Translation in Macey, An Expressive Detail, 407.

295

music
A
A
B
B
CC

ending notes of Tenor phrases

D
D
E
E
DD

In this chanson, the disruption takes place between the two B phrases, that is, between ll.
3 and 4, as a melodic interpolation in the Bassus (Ex. 5.2, Bassus, mm. 34-36, marked with
dashed brackets). 14 This interpolation features a melodic cadence on A and is particularly
striking since, until this point, all voices have been repeating their preceding phrases exactly,
according to the AABBCC scheme. After this deviation, the Bassus continues by repeating
phrase B as was initially expected. The interruption of the repetitive scheme occurs between the
two B phrases, dividing the six-part structure of the chanson into two equal halves (AABinterpolation-BCC). Margaret Bent has pointed to the midpoint of a composition as an important
locus for the occurrence of musical allusions, and this is exactly what happens with Plusieurs
regretz, as we shall see momentarily. 15
The deviation from the established pattern occurs over the words me tourmentant,
which mark the beginning of the second section of the refrain and its most affective point. The
participle form of the verb used (me tourmentant instead of me tourmentent) refers us back
to regretz and douleurs as the main subjects of this poem. In fact, the interlocking of the two
B phrases in the Superius, the only such instance in this chanson, unveils the semantic continuity
that runs through the poem and the dependence of l. 4 on the content of the preceding phrase.
The interpolated passage thus highlights the syntactic and semantic implications of the poetry
and attracts attention upon itself.
The lexicon and imagery of this chanson, which focuses on the metaphorical
representation of grief (douleur) as a tormenting force recalls the opening words of Douleur
me bat. This textual connection reveals that a musical quotation is also in process (see Exx. 5.2
and 5.3, especially the bracketed phrases). The same cadential passage that forms the deviation
14

The disruption occurs at the same point in Incessament, only there it involves both the Bassus and the
Contratenor. See the discussion of this chanson in Chapter III.
15
Bent, Polyphony, 98.

296

in Plusieurs regretz occurs in the opening phrase of the Bassus in Douleur me bat, after the
introductory semitone E-F-E. Both phrases continue rhythmically and melodically the same way
for the next measure (Ex. 5.2, mm. 34-38 and Ex. 5.3, mm. 6-10, respectively). Furthermore, the
Tenor of the B section of Plusieurs regretz is the same as the Tenor at the opening of Douleur
me bat. Since in both chansons there is a canon at the fifth between Tenor and Quinta the
similarity applies to the latter voice as well. Finally, the opening gesture of the Contratenor is
identical in both chansons and the Superius sings the same melodic cadence on A. The
synchronization of temporal entrances for all voices is also identical in both passages. The
question now becomes whether we are dealing with a similarity imposed by conventional
cadential considerations of the Phrygian mode or with an intended allusion.
Several factors suggest a purposeful intertextual relationship between the two pieces.
Howard Mayer Brown has succinctly pointed out:
Before asserting positively that such allusions were a part of the composers
conscious intent, we should attempt to demonstrate that the relationship between
the model and the imitation is significant, that is, that a prominent theme in the
model appears in a conspicuous place in the imitation, that the thematic material
is individual enough for it to be recognized in a new context, that the two poems
are related in some way to one another, or that some other reason exists to support
a claim of a significant relationship. 16
Leeman Perkins provided similar criteria, though without taking the textual considerations into
account. According to Perkins, in order to determine whether a deliberate reference occurs one
must use the following criteria: 1) identity of pitch (or, when transposition is involved, of
intervallic sequence); 2) identity of rhythm and/or notational detail; 3) the prominence of the
material borrowed both in the compositional model and in the work based in some sense upon

16

Howard M. Brown, Emulation, Competition, and Homage: Imitation and Theories of Imitation in the
Renaissance, Journal of the American Musicological Society 35, no. 1 (1982): 14.

297

it. 17 Furthermore, in his study The Counterpoint of Allusion in Fifteenth-Century Masses

Christopher Reynolds proposed the length and distinctive profile of a quotation and the
degree of a match between texts as two of the most important factors for the identification of an
allusive quotation. 18
Measuring the two passages against these criteria, it is obvious that there is identity of
pitch and rhythm in the Bassus, Tenor, Quinta and Contratenor. Moreover, the passage appears
in the beginning of one chanson, that is, Douleur me bat, and in a prominent place in the other, at
the transition to the last phrase in Plusieurs regretz. 19 Even more significant is that, while
Plusieurs regretz is a chanson in the Dorian mode, Josquin oriented its middle section to bear the
characteristics of the Phrygian, possibly to make the allusion to Douleur me bat more apparent.
The notes ending the six canonic Tenor phrases in Plusieurs are D, D, E, E, D, and D, reflecting
the rhyme scheme, and also underlining the modal re-orientation of the chansons middle section
(see the scheme next to the translation above). The Phrygian character of the B phrase of
Plusieurs regretz is thus made evident by the choice of E as the cadential note of the canonic
melody, as well as by its opening with the inflected semitone E-F-E (Ex. 5.2, mm. 24-26 and 3335). The harmonic and melodic cadence on A further reinforces this modal twist, which, for the
astute listener, would make the passage even more striking and the allusion clearly audible.
In addition to the musical quotation, the two chansons are further connected in terms of
their poetic texts. Both have the structure of a rondeau cinquain refrain and use the courtly
vocabulary. They both carry an air of despair without, however, making clear whether the
17

Leeman L. Perkins, The Lhomme arm Masses of Busnoys and Ockeghem: A Comparison, Journal of
Musicology 3, no. 4 (1984): 381-382.
18
Reynolds, The Counterpoint of Allusion, 247. In the same passage, Reynolds also offers two additional
criteria: the popularity of the source and the chronological proximity of the composers, both of which do not apply
in this case since we are dealing with works by the same composer.
19
Reynolds offers two other examples in which an important relationship exists between the opening of one
chanson and the beginning of the second part of another. Reynolds, The Counterpoint of Allusion, 230-231, fn. 5
and Example 2b.

298

misfortunes of love are the reason behind it. In fact, no further text survives for Douleur me bat
and in its five lines there is no direct reference to love as the reason for the desperate tone,
although we should not exclude the possibility. Plusieurs regretz does survive as a complete
rondeau starting with the text Tous les regretz, and the last stanza reveals that the sufferings of
the poetic persona are due to an unrequited love. 20 However, if we accept that Josquin chose to
set the lines at hand and not the entire rondeauand the musical structure of the two chansons
affirms this suppositionthe thematic similarity between Douleur and Plusieurs becomes
prominent. 21 They are both about misfortunes that may or may not relate to love, and have
references to madness from sadness: tristesse mafolle in Douleur me bat and mes espritz ne
schavent plus quils font in Plusieurs regretz. They both use strong affective vocabulary, and
one cannot deny the metaphorical similarity between the phrases Douleur me bat and les
douleurs . . . me tourmentant. In fact, it is around these metaphors that the musical similarity
takes place.
These verbal reminiscences, the centrality of the idea of douleur as a tormenting,
whipping force, and the common compositional strategy all work together to create and draw
attention to the textual and musical allusions. The two pieces thus may have been composed in
close chronological proximity and possibly performed in succession, with Douleur me bat first,
providing its opening measures as a point of reference, and Plusieurs regretz immediately
afterwards. 22

20

For the complete text see Chapter III.

Don Michael Randel has noted that even composers of Dufays generation, when setting a rondeau,
oriented their music primarily to the syntax and meaning of the refrain and secondarily to that of the strophes. Don
M. Randel, Dufay the Reader, in Music and Language, Studies in the History of Music, vol. 1 (New York: Broude
Brothers, 1983), 45-47.
22
This could also be a meaningful order in a modern performance of the two chansons.
21

299

Example 5.2. Josquin, Plusieurs regretz, mm. 31-43

300

Example 5.3. Josquin, Douleur me bat, mm. 3-15

301

If Douleur me bat served as a model for Plusieurs regretz, the latter seems to have been
related to another celebrated composition by Josquin, the motet-chanson Nymphes, napps. This
six-voice lament for an unknown recipient incorporates a canon on the cantus firmus
Circumdederunt me, which is combined with a rondeau quatrain.
1. Nymphes, napps, nridriades, driades,
2. Venez plorez ma desolation.
3. Car je languis en telle affliction
4. Que mes espris sont plus mort que malades.
Circumedederunt me gemitus mortis,
Dolores inferni circumdederunt me.

Nymphs of woodland, sea and stream and tree,

Come and weep for my grief;
For I languish in such affliction
That my spirits are more dead than ill.
Encircling me are the sighs of death;
The sorrows of Hell encircle me. 23

It is the cantus firmus text, Circumdederunt me, that allows us to characterize the
chanson as a lament, for the French text only indirectly implies that we are dealing with the
subject of death. Despite its short spanonly four lines of poetrythe text of Nymphes, napps
develops an emotional tension that culminates in the last poetic line Que mes espris sont plus
mort que malades. The verbal echo of the last line of Plusieurs regretz, Que mes espris ne
schavent plus quilz font, invites the musical comparison of the two chansons. Examples 5.4a
and 5.4b show the last line in Plusieurs regretz and Nymphes, napps, respectively.
Example 5.4a. Josquin, Plusieurs regretz, Tenor, mm. 43-49

23

This translation is given in Macey, An Expressive Detail, 401 and 406. I have substituted grief for
sadness in l. 2. I have highlighted the last line of the French text for the purposes of the following discussion.

302

Example 5.4b. Josquin, Nymphes, napps, mm. 35-49

303

The Tenor, the canonic voice in Plusieurs regretz, and the Superius, Tenor, and Bassus, the
freely composed voices in Nymphes, napps, share a stepwise falling motif for the first hemistich
over the words que mes espris (marked as motif x), and a descending minor sixth for the
second hemistich (marked as motif y). Furthermore, motif y is punctuated rhythmically by the
presence of a dotted breve as the highest note of the descending sixth in both chansons. Although
in its first appearance in the Superius of Nymphes, napps motif y descends an octave and is,
therefore, labeled as y, the two subsequent repetitions both feature the descending minor sixth.
Textual identity for the first hemistichs, motivic identity for both hemistichs, rhythmic
detail, and the positioning of the two passages in the same conspicuous place for both
chansonstheir last sectionall point to a case of a deliberate reference. If Plusieurs regretz
can be considered as a plaint outside the amorous sphere (since there is no direct reference to the
cause of such despair), then the relationship between the two chansons is not as distant as it may
seem at first glance. A chanson on an unspecified misfortune could well be interpreted as related
to the loss of an important person, expressed in the form of a lament such as Nymphes, napps.
The intertextual allusions, the common compositional strategies, and the poetic affinities suggest
that Douleur me bat, Plusieurs regretz, and Nymphes, napps belong to a network of
compositions, and that Douleur me bat is the earliest chanson in the group.

304

Intertextual analysis can also bring forth a rich palette of meaningful interpretations for
one of the most enigmatic of Josquins chansons, the five-voice Je me complains de mon amy.
This chanson has raised questions regarding the function and meaning of its puzzling final
couplet, La tricoton, la tricoton,/La belle tricote. 24
rhyme
a
b
c

music
A
B
C

But now its prime and almost noon

And I have no news of him,
The evening comes on.

a
b
c

A
B
C

La tricoton, la tricoton,
La belle tricote. 25

d
c

1. Je me complains de mon amy

2. Qui me souloit tant venir veoir
3. La fresche matine.

I complain because of my lover,

Who used to come and see me
In the fresh morning time.

4. Or est il primeet sest midi

5. Et si noy nouvelle de luy,
6. Saproche la vespre.
7. La tricoton, la tricoton,
8. La belle tricote.

The amorous, sorrowful tone of the first two stanzas is shattered by an interpolation from
the popular domain for the final two lines. Understanding of this insertion is further complicated
by the word tricoton or the verb tricoter since it escapes precise definition. In his study of
this chanson, Alan Curtis provided the euphemism faire lamour for the verb tricoter, 26
while the recently published Dictionaire rotique of the French Middle Ages and the
Renaissance defines tricotage as the commerce amoureux. 27 Moreover, in the late sixteenth
century the nouns trichoterie or tricotterie meant cheating. 28 We cannot ascertain this
usage for the period in question, but this interpretation could be particularly fitting, as we shall
see momentarily.

24

For an extensive analysis of this chanson see my Readings of PoetryReadings of Music:

Intertextuality in Josquins Je me complains de mon amy, Early Music 36, no. 1(2008): 67-80.
25
I have maintained a uniform spelling of the second syllable of the words tricote, tricoton, etc. with a
c instead of a qu, which frequently appears in the sources.
26
Alan Curtis, Josquin and La belle Tricote, in Essays in Musicology in Honor of Dragan Plamenac
on His 70th Birthday, ed. Gustave Reese and Robert J. Snow (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1969), 3.
27
Rose M. Bidler, Dictionnaire rotique: anien franais, moyen franais, Renaissance (Montreal:
ditions Ceres, 2002), 607.
28
Algirdas J. Greimas and Teresa M. Keane, Dictionnaire du moyen franais: la Renaissance (Paris:
Larousse, 1992), 634.

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In his seminal study of music in the French secular theater, Brown identified the Superius
of the final line of Je me complains with the last phrase of the tune La tricote est par matin
leve, shown in Ex. 5.5. 29 This melody forms the Tenor of an anonymous triple-texted chanson
from the early fifteenth century, which is combined with the rondeau text Belle tens moy la
promesse in the Superius and the incipit La tricote in the Contratenor. 30 The melody and text
of La tricote est par matin leve are repeated twice in order to accommodate the longer
rondeau melody.
Example 5.5. Tenor of Belle tens moy la promesse/La tricote est par matin leve/La tricote
(after Brown 1963)

The full text of La tricote est par matin leve refers to the popular theme of the girl, in
this case la belle tricote, who gets up early in the morning and goes to the woods or to the
garden all by herself. For the contemporary listener this was a topos with rich associations to
other poems, ideas, and possibly tunes. The garden or the forest was the locus of erotic

29

Howard M. Brown, Music in the French Secular Theater, 1440-1550 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press, 1963), 251.
30
For a modern edition of this chanson see Howard M. Brown, ed., Theatrical Chansons of the Fifteenth
and Early Sixteenth Centuries (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963), no. 5.

306

endeavors, where the maid meets her lover or the knight encounters the lonely bergre. The
Tenor text reads:
La tricote est par matin leve.
Sapris sa harpe, au bois sen est alle
La tricoton, la tricoton, la belle tricote.

The knitter woke up in the early morning,

She got her harp and went to the woods.
La tricoton, la tricoton, la belle tricote.

The Superius text, Belle tens moy la promesse, is the plea of the lover to his lady to
keep her promise. In exchange, the lover promises always to be faithful:
Belle, tens moy la promesse
Que vous me feistes pieca;
Car jamais mon cuer ne fera
Nouvelleamour nautre maitresse.

Beautiful one, keep the promise

That you made to me a long time ago;
Because my heart will never take on
A new love or another lover. 31

There is an inherent irony in this chanson, often encountered in the combinative chanson
repertory. The plea of the lover is combined with the text La tricote est par matin leve,
which subverts the heightened, faithful tone of the rondeau text of the Superius. The interaction
of the two poems could be interpreted as revealing the lovers inner thoughts, undermining,
therefore, the sincerity of his plea, or revealing the reason of the lovers anxiety: that his belle
has already broken her promise and availed her favors to another lover. This irony is not lost on
Josquin, who combines the tricote melody with a text that hints at the infidelity of the lover,
this time from a females perspective.
Although the direct reference to the borrowed tune is explicitly stated only at the end of
Je me complains, the musical features of the entire composition rely heavily upon it. First, the
large-scale structure of Je me complains is highly inspired by that of La tricote est par matin
leve. Its Superius and Quinta unfold in a strict canon at the fourth and the phrase structure of
the canonic voices is ABCABCC, in which C represents the actual quotation of the tricote
fragment (see phrase structure in Ex. 5.6, as well as next to the translation of Je me complains
31

Although the rondeau text maintains a heightened tone, the opening address, belle, reveals that the lady
is not a noble one. For the complete text of the rondeau see Brown, Theatrical chansons, no.5.

307

above). 32 The following table demonstrates the parallel motivic content of each phrase in La
tricote est par matin leve and Je me complains de mon amy.
Table 5.1. Motivic content of the individual phrases in La tricote est par matin leve
and Je me complains de mon amy (in the canonic voices)
Text

La tricote est par matin

leve (Ex. 5.5)
Stepwise descending fourth
(motif x)
Outlines descending minor
sixth (motif z descending)
Ascending/descending minor
thirds (motif y) followed by
ascending minor sixth (motif z
ascending)

l.1
l.2
ll.3-4

Phrase Text
A

l.1

l.2

l.3

Je me complains de mon amy

(Superius and Quinta) (Ex. 5.6)
Stepwise descending fourth (motif
x) imitated by all voices
Outlines descending minor sixth
(motif z descending)
Ascending/descending minor thirds
(motif y) followed by ascending
minor sixth (motif z ascending)
(see also Exx. 5.7a-c below)

There is a clear one-to-one correspondence of the motivic content between the individual phrases
of the tricote tune and the canonic voices in Je me complains. In both the model and the
derived work, this scheme is repeated twice; Je me complains then concludes with the overt
reference to the borrowed material as its final statement. The free-composed voices unfold
independently of this structure.

32

The Quinta drops out of the canon and continues with a sustained note through the end of the chanson
before the entrance of the final quotation (Ex. 5.6, mm. 48-57).

308

Example 5.6. Josquin, Je me complains de mon amy (after Susato 154515)

309

310

311

312

313

The most obvious connection to the borrowed material occurs, however, in the last line of
each stanza. Josquin derives the music for lines 3, la fresche matine, and 6, saproche la
vespre, directly from the borrowed melody. It is not a coincidence that these two poetic lines
have the same length and rhyme as the borrowed verse (Exx. 5.7a, 7b, and 7c show the music for
lines 3, 6, and the final couplet, respectively; compare them with ex. 5.5, up-beat to m. 9-m. 12).

314

Example 5.7a. Josquin, Je me complains, mm. 19-22

Example 5.7b. Josquin, Je me complains, mm. 41-51

Example 5.7c. Josquin, Je me complains, mm. 51-57

As the music progresses through each stanza the reference to the borrowed melody becomes
more prominentsee for example the repetitions over saproche la vespre in Ex. 5.7bonly
to reveal its true identity in the last lines of the chanson. This compositional strategy matches the
poetic process. The borrowed material gradually infiltrates the chanson the same way the poetry
gradually reveals the reason for the ladys complaint pronounced in the first line. Thus the
melody associated with the tricote text is here treated as a signifier operative even when the
actual text is absent. While the poem leaves us with a sense of ambiguity as to the true reason
behind the complaint, the borrowed tune shatters the ambiguity with an ironic comment that

315

seals the chanson. This intricate relationship between the music, the poetry, and the borrowed
material suggests that Je me complains was fashioned entirely by Josquin, poetry and music,
since there seems to be simultaneous prosodic and musical planning. By constructing the ladys
complaint around the main features of the tricote tune, Josquin anticipates the resolution of
the emotional ambiguity and maintains the irony from beginning to end.
Je me complains de mon amy is an intriguing example of intertextuality of a poetic,
musical, and conceptual nature. The reading I propose reveals Josquins reliance not only on the
final brief quotation but on the full verbal and musical text of la belle tricote and the social
and cultural overtones with which the related tune resonates. The associative meanings brought
up through the word tricote were certainly intentional and recognizable. Through the
interaction of the two discourses, the complaint of the lover and the tricote topos, Josquin
generated an ironic meaning embodied in the compositional strategy that he put into effect.

316

While Je me complains de mon amy explicitly spells out its intertextuality for its
audience, there are instances when the reference to another work or discourse is more implicit
and requires a greater level of intertextual competence in order for it to be recognized. The
unusual scalar passages in the beginning of the six-voice Pour souhaitter prompted Helmuth
Osthoff to express skepticism about the authenticity of this chanson. 33 Indeed, if we regard them
as technical features per se, they are largely incompatible with Josquins writing in any other
multi-voice chanson. They are extensive, spanning the range of an octave, and are engaged in
imitation among three of the voice parts, Superius, Contratenor, and Quinta. Bearing in mind,
however, that Pour souhaitter is a poem that expresses a generalized, public view about what is
most desirable in life can put these scalar passages into perspective. The optimistic quatrain
reads as follows:
1. Pour souhaitter ie ne demande mieulx
2. Quavoir sant et vivre longuement;
3. Tousiours ioyeulx et des biens largement,
4. Et en la fin le royaulme des cieulx.

To wish for I demand nothing more

Than having good health and to live a long life;
Always happy and with great wealth,
And in the end the kingdom of heaven.

The fact that the scalar passages occur over the opening words of the poem, Pour souhaitter,
only to be abandoned altogether for the rest of the chanson, guides us towards an interpretation
that is text-related and focuses on this particular verbal moment. Pour souhaitter expresses
wishful thinking and could be connected to musical settings in which similar optimistic
expressions are presented. In her study Servants, Mistresses and the Fortunes of Their
Families, Higgins has demonstrated that Dufays Le serviteur hault guerdon is related to the
anonymous Le serviteur infortun, which expresses an antithetical emotion, through a striking
intertext that concerns the role of fortune in determining the fate of the lover in the two

33

Helmuth Osthoff, Josquin Desprez, 2 vols. (Tutzing: Hans Schneider, 1962-1965), 2:225-226.

317

poems. 34 Higgins suggests that other settings with seemingly unrelated texts exhibit musical
correspondences with the above two chansons, correspondences that derive their meaning
through contemporary notions of the importance of fortuna (fate) in life. As fortuna is
considered responsible for both happy and unhappy situations, it is reasonable to speculate that
settings expressing desire for fortunate outcomes, such as Pour souhaitter, might be equally
well related to the same topos.
Edward Lowinsky has summarized the importance that Goddess Fortuna holds in the
thought of the late medieval period. 35 More specifically, he traced the ways the notion of fortuna
finds expression in musical works c. 1500, with particular emphasis on Josquins Fortuna dun
gran tempo. Lowinsky provides transcriptions of many such works, as well as a reconstructed
version of what appears to be a cantus prius factus for the text Fortuna dun gran tempo. 36 This
monophonic tune features an opening descending pentachord, present in all settings that
Lowinsky discusses. An important feature of these settings is the way they represent through
various musical means the instability that characterizes the doings of the Goddess Fortuna.
Among such devices we find the changing of tonality effected by the mixing of the three
hexachords, as well as upward and downward melodic movement that symbolizes the turning of
fortunes wheel, capable of changing situations from high to low and vice versa. What Lowinsky
does not discuss, however, is that aside from the descending pentachord all of the musical
settings he examines involve the presence of a rapidly ascending octave that usually follows the
characteristic descending fifth. Very often the ascending octave is followed by a gesture in a

34

Higgins, Servants, Mistresses and the Fortunes of Their Families, 350.

Edward E. Lowinsky, The Goddess Fortuna in Music with a Special Study of Josquins Fortuna dun
gran tempo, Musical Quarterly 29, no. 1 (1943): 45-77.
36
Helen Hewitt reconstructed the monophonic tune in her edition of the Odhecaton. Helen Hewitt, ed.,
Harmonice Musices Odhecaton A (Cambridge, MA: Mediaeval Academy of America, 1942; repr. New York: Da
Capo Press, 1978), 78. Lowinsky reproduced it in The Goddess, 54.
35

318

counterbalancing motion, a descending octave or a descending fifth, which is not necessarily

scalar (Exx. 5.8a-c, marked with dashed brackets). The use of the ascending octave seems to
have been common stock in settings related to the fortuna topos, since it appears also in the
chansons discussed by Higgins in the above-mentioned study. 37
Example 5.8a. Josquin, Fortuna dun gran tempo, mm. 1-10

37

Higgins, Servants, Mistresses and the Fortunes of Their Families, 352-353. The settings for which
Higgins points out the octave similarity are the anonymous Le serviteur infortun and Vincenets Fortune par ta
cruault, both much earlier works than Pour souhaitter.

319

Example 5.8b. De Vigne, Franc coeur qu'as tu/Fortuna dun gran tempo, mm. 10-14

Example 5.8c. Anon., Le serviteur infortun, mm. 32-34

The scalar passages in the beginning of Pour souhaitter are closely related to the octave
passages in all of the above settings. The Contratenor, Quinta, and Superius (Ex. 5.9, mm. 3-4, 56, and 7-8, respectively) sing an ascending octave that is constructed by means of two
interlocking ascending fifths (A-E, D-A), possibly a pictorial representation of the wheels
turning motion. 38 This gesture provides a link to the Fortuna tradition despite the fact that the

38

The same gesture occurs in Josquins three-voice Fortuna dun gran tempo, Tenor, mm. 30-33. The
interlocking fifths there are C-G, F-C. Josquin des Prez, The Collected Works of Josquin des Prez, vol. 27, Secular

320

characteristic descending pentachord of the Fortuna melody is altogether absent from this
chanson. The fact that the ascending octave is not an isolated melodic gesture but it is shared by
three voices in imitation suggests that Josquin meant to attract attention to this particular moment
in order to underline the allusion. In the context of this interpretation, the descending melody of
the Superius over the word demande, in m. 5, acquires new meaning: it represent the poetic
personas humility and weakness in front of the powerful Goddess. It recalls the catabasis
gesture in Je ne me puis tenir daimer, discussed in Chapter IV.
The opening canonic motif, imitated by all voices except for the Contratenor, provides
further indication of the chansons association with the fortuna topos. It features a semi-circular
ascending/descending gesture that could represent the fortunes wheel as well (see the bracketed
motifs in Ex. 5.9). Warren Kirkendale has shown that this half-circular figure, known as
semicirculus, is often encountered in musical works related to circle symbolism. 39 The fact that
Josquin used only the ascending motion of the circle might be another indication of the
expression of wishful thinking (marked also by the ascending octaves), exorcizing, in a sense,
the descending blows of Fortuna.
With the above analysis I have interpreted what appears to be an anomalous or idiomatic
technical device as a subtle intertextual reference to other fortuna representations in music.
Although the word fortuna is not explicitly mentioned in the poetic text, the nature of the poem
may have prompted the composer to associate its content with the fortuna symbolism, through
the ascending scalar octaves and the semi-closed nature of the opening motif, thus investing
Pour souhaitter with an additional layer of meaning.
Works for Three Voices, ed. Willem Elders, Jaap van Benthem, and Howard M. Brown (Utrecht: Vereniging voor
Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis, 1987), no.12.
39
Warren Kirkendale, Circulatio-tradition, Maria Lactans, and Josquin as Musical Orator, Acta
Musicologica 56 (1984): 89. Kirkendale also points out the ascending/descending octave in Josquins Fortuna dun
gran tempo, and explains its erratic rhythm as a pictorial representation of Fortunas instability. Ibid., 83-84.

321

Example 5.9. Josquin, Pour souhaitter, mm. 1-9

322

Different facets of intertextuality emerge from exploring settings of poems originally

written as envoy and responce. The practice of envoy and responce had enjoyed a long tradition
in poetic circles but the extent and nature of its application in music has not yet been fully
explored. 40 In prosody, a response most often uses the incipit of the model, duplicates the rhyme
scheme, and usually reverses the mood of the envoy. In Josquins multi-voice chanson output
two such pairs of settings exist: Vous larez, sil vous plaist/Vous ne laurez pas and Nesse pas
ung grant desplaisir/Si vous navez aultre desir.
In Vous larez, sil vous plaist/Vous ne laurez pas, the poetic reference is made obvious
in the incipits of their respective texts but no one, to my knowledge, has so far pointed out
whether a musical relationship connects them beyond the realm of poetic correspondence. For
both pieces the earliest source is Susatos 1545 edition devoted to Josquin, where the two
chansons curiously are not placed in proximity but widely apart from each other: Vous ne laurez
is the second piece, while Vous larez the thirteenth. 41
The two poems differ structurally, one being a rondeau cinquain the other a rondeau
quatrain refrain, but they are nevertheless thematically related. Vous larez is the typical plaint of
the lover requesting his ladys favor, while Vous ne laurez is the ladys denial of the plea:
1. Vous larez, sil vous plaist, ma dame
2. Mon cueur, mon corps, mon bien, mon ame.
3. Vous larez vostre habandon
4. Sil vous plaist me faire le don
5. De ce qui est plus doulx que basme.

music
You will have them, if it pleases you, my lady A
My heart, my body, my wealth, my soul.
B
You will have them at your will
A
If you deign to give me the gift
C
Of what is sweeter than balm.
DD

40

Paula Higgins states that . . . the musical replique-response pairs . . . became especially popular in the
mid-sixteenth century. Paula M. Higgins, Antoine Busnois and Musical Culture in Late-Fifteenth-Century France
and Burgundy (Ph.D. diss., Princeton University, 1987), 146.
41
Le septiesme livre contenant vingt & quatre chansons a cincq et a six parties (Antwerp: Tylman Susato,
1545) [RISM 154515]. However, in the alphabetical Table of Contents the two chansons are adjacent.

323

1. Vous ne laurez pas si ie puis

2. Ce que mavez requis davoir.
3. Et eussies vous austant davoir
4. Quil en porroit dedens ung puis.

You will not have it if I can [help it]

What you have requested of me.
Even if you had as much wealth
That could fit inside a well. 42

A
B
C
D

Since the thematic intertextual connection is obvious, the two chansons form a particularly
inviting pair of works in which to seek deliberate musical references.
Both chansons are six-voice works with a canon between the Tenor and Sexta parts. Vous
larez employs a canon at the fourth while Vous ne laurez a canon at the fifth. The reversal of
the canonic interval in Vous ne laurez possibly reflects the reversal of tone articulated in the
denial of the plea. In both works the canonic voices are widely separated in temporal distance so
there is no overlapping between them. This feature helps to maintain a steady pace of delivery
and at the same time regulates the musical texture. Osthoff has been reluctant to accept the two
chansons as Josquins, mainly because neither the canonic melodies nor their through-composed
structures reflect in any way the repetitions in the rhyme scheme. He speculated that they were
possibly the efforts of some student or admirer of Josquins music. 43 Accepting Osthoffs
justification, however, would be accepting a view that requires a composer, any composer, to
read all of his texts in the same way. Although the rhyme scheme and the syntactical form of the
poem are very often the deciding factors for fashioning the canonic melody or the general formal
layout of a piece, they are by no means the only factors available. Accepting these as the main
criteria for shaping musical works would be denying their composers different and innovative
ways of reading their texts.
Within the through-composed form of Vous larez, the canonic melodies unfold with the
phrase structure ABACDD, the last phrase being a transposition a tone lower of musical phrase
D (see also the structure next to the translation above). Undoubtedly, the almost through42
43

Both translations are partly based on Congleton, The Chansons of Josquin des Prez, 244.
Osthoff, Josquin, 2:223-225.

324

composed nature of the canonic melody does not reflect the aabba rhyme of the poetry. In fact, it
works against it, since a return to phrase A for l. 3 of the poetry clashes with the change to the brhyme that occurs at the same line. If we look closely enough, however, we can find an
explanation for this deviation in the wording of the poem, instead of its rhyming features. Both
lines 1 and 3 begin with the same words, Vous larez, and the choice of the same melody for
the same direct address to the lady seems well justified (Example 5.10a). Josquin observes the
anaphora in the poetry and responds with a similar musical gesture.
Example 5.10a. Josquin, Vous l'arez, Tenor, ll. 1 and 3

The canonic melody of Vous ne laurez is a through-composed ABCD structure, in which

the canonic entrances rarely overlap, thus maintaining a thin three-voice texture for almost the
entire chanson. The energetic rhythmic motifs result in a fast-paced chanson that lacks the
nobility of Vous larez, revealing instead the cynical face of the cruel lady. Apart from the
rhythmic differentiation, the music of Vous ne laurez is otherwise in direct correspondence with
the most important features of Vous larez. The opening descending-ascending fifth motif of
Vous larez also characterizes the opening of Vous ne laurez, introducing an audible and
semantic link for the words arez/aurez (Exx. 5.10b and 5.11, motif x). The opening phrase of
the canonic voices, Tenor and Sexta, outlines a descending fourth in both chansons. In fact, the

325

Sexta of Vous larez provides the Tenor of Vous ne laurez, with only slight changes to reflect
the different rhythmic pace of the first lines syllables (Exx. 5.10b and 5.11, motif y). 44 In
addition, for the comes of each canon, the opening note is the confinal of each chansons
respective mode (G-Dorian for Vous larez and D-Dorian for Vous ne laurez). In combination
with the descending-ascending fifth motif, the opening of the canonic melody immediately
highlights the characteristic diapente of each mode (Exx. 5.10b, Tenor, mm. 1-5 and 5.11, Tenor,
mm. 6-9). Furthermore, the opening phrase of the Quinta pars in both chansons spans a
descending octave, beginning and ending with the confinal (mm. 1-5 in Exx. 5.10b and 5.11).
The extensive similarities between the opening phrases of the two chansons reflect the obvious
verbal correspondence of their first lines, and reveal the indebtedness of the response to the
characteristic features of the envoy.

44

Both poems are octasyllables but the line Vous larez, sil vous plaist, madame has a different rhythmic
distribution of syllables than Vous ne laurez pas si ie puis (3+3+2 vs. 5+3, respectively).

326

Example 5.10b. Josquin, Vous l'arez, mm. 1-9

327

Example 5.11. Josquin, Vous ne l'aurez pas

328

329

330

331

The main narrative that runs through Vous larez and Vous ne laurez is the request and
denial of the don (gift), the ultimate favor granted by the lady. When it comes to the
description of the nature of the ladys favors, both texts refer to them with the vague word ce, a
common, non-explicit way to refer to the sexual act or some kind of sexual intimacy in the
literature of the time. 45 In Vous larez, the reference to the favor forms the last line of the refrain,
De ce qui est plus doulz que basme, and receives musical attention through extensive
repetition. 46 For this verse the non-canonic voices engage in a reiteration of the words de ce qui
est set to three repeated semibreves followed by a breve in an ascending motion (Ex. 5.12, motif
z). This rhythmic figure, although very conventional in the music of the period, makes its first
45

Bidler, Dictionnaire rotique, 110-111.

Although this line appears to be a conventional courtly expression for the much-desired favor, the only
other place where I have encountered such reference is in the long narrative poem written by Ren of Anjou, The
Book of the Love-Smitten Heart (Le livre du cuers damours espris), ed. and trans. Stephanie Viereck Gibbs and
Kathryn Karczewska (New York: Routledge, 2001), p. 226, section 258, verse 9. There, it appears with the wording
De beau parler loygnant, qui est plus doulx que basme. Since Josquin is known to have served at the court of
Good King Ren before the latters death in 1480, this poetic coincidence provides an intriguing case for speculating
about the provenance and chronology of this chanson.
46

332

appearance in this piece at exactly this point, and it is apparently a diminution of the first four
notes of the canonic melody over the same phrase (see Ex. 5.12, Tenor, mm. 33-35).
In the relevant place in Vous ne laurez, that is, at the reference to the requested favor
ce que mavez requis davoirthe Superius, Contratenor and Quinta parts introduce the same
motif, which permeates the texture until the end of the chanson, serving almost as an obsessive
ide fixe, presented in endless combinations (Ex. 5.11, mm. 13ff.). The first appearance of this
motif in Vous ne laurez is further punctuated by a cadence on G, which allows the Bassus to
contribute to this passage with the same melodic gesture as in Vous larez (compare the Bassus,
Ex. 5.12, mm. 34-35 to 5.11, mm. 13-14). This gesture highlights the ascending fifth of both
chansons opening phrases and, at the same time, reinforces the motivic connection between the
two passages. At this point of poetic juncture, the Superius, Contratenor, and Bassus share not
only their rhythmic but also their melodic content, making the case of deliberate reference even
stronger (see the dashed brackets in Exx. 5.11 and 5.12).

333

Example 5.12. Josquin, Vous l'arez, mm. 33-43

334

Regardless of the doubts raised about their authorship, the two pieces presented here
reveal that the poetic practice of model and responce also found expression into the world of
music. Despite the fact that in Susatos anthology the two chansons do not appear in consecutive
or some other meaningful order, obscuring, therefore, their interconnection, we can trace the
musical relationship through the textual reference and knowledge of the poetic practice. On one
hand, the chansons placements in the 1545 print may indicate that the relationship between the
two was lost by that time, and that they were probably copied from different exemplars. On the
other hand, it is documented that the practice of model and responce was well-known to and
favored by Susato. Cutler Silliman and Kristine Forney have demonstrated that Susato was a
pioneer in promoting this kind of repertory in his double capacity as a publisher and a
composer. 47 According to Forney, from 1543 to 1552 Susatos printing company published
seventy-eight such chansons, twenty-nine of which Susato composed himself. In fact, in Le
septiesme livre, Susato designated Jean Le Brungs six-voice Si vous navez aultre desir as a
responce and placed it immediately following Josquins five-voice Nesse pas ung grant
desplaisir. 48 For this second pair of chansons, therefore, we are dealing with the rare case in
which contemporary testimony points to a possible interrelationship between two musical works.
Although the incipits of the two poems do not immediately reveal their relationship, a
study of the features of the individual lines shows that indeed the poem set by Le Brung
corresponds line by line to Nesse pas ung grant desplaisir.
47

Cutler A. Silliman, Response and Replicque in Chansons Published by Tylman Susato, 1543-1550,
Revue de Musicologie 16 (1962): 30-42; Kristine K. Forney, New Insights into the Career and Musical
Contributions of Tielman Susato, in Tielman Susato and the Music of His Time: Print Culture, Compositional
Technique and Instrumental Music in the Renaissance, ed. Keith Polk (Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon, 2005), 1-44.
48
Biographical information for Jean Le Brung, a younger contemporary of Josquin, is scant. He was
possibly a bass singer in the chapel of Louis XII for some time before 1510. Interestingly, three multi-voice
chansons are attributed to Le Brung in the sources, making him one of the most important exponents of this
repertory, following Pierre de La Rue and Jean Mouton. The three chansons are: Dung aultre aymer/Cela sans plus,
Navs point veu mal assene (also attributed to Josquin), and Si vous navez aultre desir. His music will be
explored in Chapter VII.

335

1. Nesse pas ung grant desplaisir

2. Quant je nose pour mon plaisir,
3. Pour mon bien et pour ma sant,
4. Faire du mien ma volent
5. Et si nay point daultre desir?

Isnt it a great displeasure

When I dare notfor my delight,
For my well-being, and for my health
Do as I wish with my own
And that I have no other desire? 49

1. Si vous navez aultre desir,

2. Sans en avoir nul desplaisir,
2. Puisquen avez la volunt
4. Et que cest pour vostre sant,
5. Faire en povez vostre plaisir.

If you do not have any other desire,

Without having any displeasure,
Because you do have the will
And since it is for your health,
You should do what pleases you.

Careful examination of the two poems reveals not only the rhyming similarity (both
aabba stanzas with the same rhyme) but that the rhyming words of the response are identical to
the rhyming words of Nesse pas, only in a different order (see the underlined words). By
changing the order of the models words, the author of the response alters their semantic
potential and reverses the tone of its content. Thus the insecure, pessimistic tone of Nesse pas,
uttered in the form of a fragile, rhetorical question is answered with an affirmative poem that
uses the imperative voice in an optimistic, reassuring, and inciting way: If you have no other
desire . . . You should do what pleases you. Moreover, Le Brung responded to Josquins Nesse
pas ung grant desplaisir not only on the level of prosody, but also on that of compositional
strategy and musical detail.
The strong prosodic features of Nesse pas definitely shaped the structural layout of the
polyphony. Lawrence Bernstein has noted how Josquin observes the enjambment that links the
second to the fourth poetic line in Nesse pas by sequentially replicating the musical phrase for l.
3 in phrase four, transposing phrase three a third lower (Ex. 5.13, mm. 20-25 and 25-30). 50
Although a cadence on A at the end of l. 3 (m. 25) seems to run contrary to the syntactical
continuity of the poetry, the sequential treatment corrects this seeming anomaly in a very

49

Translation in Lawrence F. Bernstein, Chansons for Five and Six Voices, in The Josquin Companion,
ed. Richard Sherr (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 418.
50
Bernstein, Chansons for Five and Six Voices, 420-421.

336

subtle way. This interpretation satisfactorily justifies the compositional structure of the chanson,
although it does not explain the fact that the canonic voices continue the sequence for the final
line of the poem, Et si nay point dautre desir, while all the other voices have broken away
from the pattern once the enjambment is complete (Ex. 5.13, Tenor and Quinta, mm. 30-35). It is
obvious, nevertheless, that the meaning of the stanza is complete only once the final line is
uttered. The continuation of the sequence by the canonic voices reflects the on-going train of
thought in the poetry.
Example 5.13. Josquin, N'esse pas ung grant desplaisir

337

338

339

340

341

In support of Bernsteins interpretation I would add that the continuous syntactical flow
of the poem provides the perfect opportunity for Josquin to exercise his penchant for economy of
material. The entire chanson is basically constructed of two musical phrases, A and B, presented
at the opening of the work and involving the entire polyphonic fabric. Phrase A presents the
opening line of the poetry and phrase B its repetition. The clear articulation of the first poetic line
as two distinct musical phrases, A and B, provides all the necessary motivic material for the
unfolding of the chanson as sequential transpositions of phrase B, which in turn reflect the
unremitting syntactic current of this poem. 51 The last line returns to a variation of phrase A to
close the chanson (phrase A). Table 5.2a, second column, maps out the phrase structure of the
canon in Susatos edition of Nesse pas.

51

Bernstein, Chansons for Five and Six Voices, 420.

342

Table 5.2a. Comparison of the Susato 154515 phrase structure of the canonic melodies in Josquins
Nesse pas ung grant desplaisir with Le Brungs Si vous navez aultre desir
Josquin

Le Brung

1. Nesse pas ung grant desplaisir

1. Si vous navez aultre desir,

1. Nesse pas ung grant desplaisir

2. Quant je nose pour mon plaisir,

2. Sans en avoir nul desplaisir,

A = A a tone lower

3. Pour mon bien et pour ma sant,

B (medial cadence)

3. Puisquen avez la volunt

4. Faire du mien ma volent

B = B a third lower

4. Et que cest pour vostre sant,

B = B a fourth higher

5. Et si nay point daultre desir?

B= B a third lower

5. Faire en povez vostre plaisir.

B = retrograde of B

5. Et si nay point daultre desir?

A = simplified version of A

5. Faire en povez vostre plaisir.

B = retrograde of B

Table 5.2b. Comparison of the Mellange15722 phrase structure of the canonic melodies in Josquins
Nesse pas ung grant desplaisir with Le Brungs Si vous navez aultre desir
Josquin

Le Brung

1. Nesse pas ung grant desplaisir

1. Si vous navez aultre desir,

2. Quant je nose pour mon plaisir,

2. Sans en avoir nul desplaisir,

A = A a tone lower

3. Pour mon bien et pour ma sant,

3. Puisquen avez la volunt

4. Faire du mien ma volent

B (medial cadence)

4. Et que cest pour vostre sant,

B = B a fourth higher

4. Faire du mien ma volent

B = B a third lower

5. Et si nay point daultre desir?

B= B a third lower

5. Faire en povez vostre plaisir.

B = retrograde of B

5. Et si nay point daultre desir?

A = simplified version of A

5. Faire en povez vostre plaisir.

B = retrograde of B

343

Repetition of an entire poetic line in the canonic voices, like the one at the opening of
Nesse pas, is an unusual feature in Josquins multi-voice chansons not based on pre-existent
material. In this repertory, Josquins canons generally proceed straightforward without internal
text repetition (except for the final section) unless some strong prosodic feature demands such
treatment, a pre-requisite that the first line of Nesse pas certainly does not fulfill. 52 It is possible
that Susato misread his source, as Jaap van Benthem kindly mentioned to me. 53 In fact, the much
later edition of Nesse pas in the 1572 Mellange de chansons provides evidence to support such a
hypothesis. 54 In this edition, the music proceeds without musical repetition of the first poetic line
and assigns the repetition instead to l. 4 of the poetry (Table 5.2b, first column, maps out the text
structure according to the 1572 edition; Ex. 5.14 provides the text underlay as it appears in both
Susato and the Mellange). The Mellange text underlay solves many of the problems that result
from Susatos edition. First, it is more consistent with Josquins treatment of repetition in his
canonic melodies. Semantically, l. 4 is a more likely candidate to receive emphasis through
repetition than l. 1. Second, the Mellange reading is more faithful to the syntactical implications
of the poetry. The medial cadence falls at the end of l. 4, that is, at the end of the first syntactic
unit of the stanza, thus eliminating the discrepancy between cadential closure and poetic
structure pointed out by Bernstein.

52

See Chapter III.

An expanded version of this analysis was presented at the Medieval and Renaissance Music Conference,
Vienna, 10 August 2007, and at the annual meeting of the American Musicological Society 2007, Quebec City, 1
November 2007 with the title Le Brungs Six-Voice Si vous navez aultre desir: A Musical Response to a Poetic
Practice. Jaap van Benthems comment was offered at the Vienna meeting
54
Mellange de chansons tant des vieux autheurs que des modernes, a cinq, six, sept, et huict parties (Paris:
Le Roy & Ballard, 1572) [RISM 15722].
53

344

Example 5.14. Phrase structure of canon in N'esse pas ung grant desplaisir, according to
Susato (S) and the Mellange (M)

345

Example 5.15. Phrase structure of canon in Si vous n'avez aultre desir

346

Le Brungs six-voice setting, aside from the thematic and prosodic similarities mentioned
above, appears at first glance to have no musical relationship to the five-voice chanson that
prompted its reply. However, both chansons incorporate a canon at the unison and the opening of
the canon in Le Brungs song could be indebted rhythmically to the opening of Josquins canonic
melody (see for example the opening gesture in Exx. 5.14 and 5.15). In fact, Le Brung maintains
the same rhythmic pattern for every musical phrase but the final one. Closer examination of Le
Brungs structural melody reveals other important similarities.
First, just as Le Brungs text picks up the final line of Nesse pas to form its opening
address, the last melodic phrase of the model appears to have inspired the musical response
(compare Ex. 5.14, mm. 35-38 to Ex. 5.15, mm 4-8). It is immediately apparent that, although
the melodic contour is somewhat different, both phrases open on D and conclude with motif x,
featuring a descending third followed by a descending whole step over the notes D-B-A, which
coincide with the words autre desir in both chansons.
Second, Le Brung also responds to Josquins economy of means by likewise relying on
transposition for his own setting. The musical phrase that corresponds to l. 2, marked A, is a
sequential replication a whole step lower of the first phrase, A. Later on, the music for l. 4,
marked B, unfolds as a transposition a fourth higher of the previous phrase, marked B. The
melody for l. 5 and its repetition (mm. 32-42 in Example 5.15) is a retrograde of the two
previous phrases B and B, respectively (see also the last column in Tables 5.2a and 5.2b)
The grouping of phrase one with two and three with four through transposition of their respective
melodies could, of course, simply be reflecting the rhyming of the text (the aabb structure). But it
is possible to interpret Le Brungs strategy in a different way, one that sheds further light in the
grouping of the two chansons in Susatos edition.

347

By forging a canonic melody that relies heavily on sequential repetition, Le Brung

responds to Josquins reliance on sequence for his own setting. Le Brung, too, constructs the
entire chanson out of two melodic phrases, A and B, from which he generates the subsequent
melodic material by transposition and retrograde motion. The retrograde treatment occurs exactly
when the text reads Faire en povez vostre plaisir (You should do what pleases you), which is
the final statement and crux of Le Brungs text. It represents in musical terms the reversal of
thought and tone that characterizes the response, thus subverting, totally and conclusively, the
hesitating and pessimistic tone of Josquins setting.
It is in cases such as the ones under consideration here that the concept of intertextuality
reveals its true potential. It gives us fresh ways to look at the music and new glimpses into the
many possible ways that contemporary composers might have read and interpreted their texts. It
allows us to move within a network of concepts, traditions, and ideas, and create meaningful
links between artifacts that might otherwise seem loosely related. That these links sometimes
seem far-fetched or carefully disguised should not surprise us. The art of concealment was a
central mode of the element of play in contemporary society and poets and composers took pride
in displaying their mastery of this technique. Closing our eyes to these multi-faceted
relationships would impoverish our understanding not only of Josquins music but that of a
whole era, and would deprive us from the very same intellectual satisfaction that contemporary
musicians and audiences seemed to cherish so much: the art of decoding.

348

CHAPTER VI
PIERRE DE LA RUES MULTI-VOICE CHANSONS
Pierre de La Rue is the most important composer of multi-voice chansons after Josquin.
Unlike the more widespread dissemination of Josquins music, La Rues output in this genre is
mainly preserved in the manuscripts of the Habsburg-Burgundian court, especially BrusBR 228
and VienNB Mus. 18746. 1 Also unlike Josquins music, which is preserved primarily in
posthumous sources, the majority of the multi-voice chansons related to La Rue derive from
contemporary sources that were compiled within the composers orbit of activity. Tables 6.1 and
6.2 present the multi-voice chansons that are possibly penned by La Rue. Table 6.1 shows the
four chansons that are attributed to La Rue in contemporary sources and Table 6.2 the chansons
that are only conjecturally attributed to La Rue. 2

Brussels, Bibliothque Royale, MS 228; Vienna, sterreichische Nationalbibliothek, Musiksammlung,

MS Mus. 18746 (olim A.N.35.H.14).
2
See Honey Meconi, La Rue, Pierre de, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley
Sadie and John Tyrrell, vol. 14 (London: Macmillan, 2001), 287-288.

349

Table 6.1. Multi-voice chansons attributed to Pierre de La Rue in contemporary sourcesa

Title

Earliest
source
VatP 1982
(c. 1513-23)

Cantus prius
factus
None
identified

Dung aultre
aymer (5)

VienNB Mus.
18746 (1523),
unicum

Ockeghems
T transposed
down a fourth

No

Rondeau
quatrain,
decasyllable

Female

Fors
seullement (5)

VienNB Mus.
18746 (1523),
unicum

Ockeghems
S

Q/B @ 5

Rondeau
cinquain,
decasyllable

Female

Rondeau

Incessament
mon povre
cueur (5)

VatP 1980-1
(c. 1518-23)

None
identified

Q/B @ 4

Rondeau
cinquain,
decasyllable

Female

AABCDD for
the 5 lines of
text

Cent mille
regretz (5)

Canon
Q/B @ 4

Poetic
structure
Rondeau
cinquain
refrain,
decasyllable

Poetic subject
Male/Female

Musical
structure
Throughcomposed,
ABCCDE for
the 5 lines of
text
Throughcomposed,
ABCD

Table 6.2. Multi-voice chansons conjecturally attributed to Pierre de La Rue

Title

Earliest
source
VienNB Mus.
18746 (1523),
unicum
BrusBR 228
(1508-1516),
unicum
BrusBR 228
(1508-1516)

Cantus prius
factus
None identified

Canon

Poetic structure

Poetic subject

Q/B @ 4

No text survives

N/A since no
text survives

Dies illa in Q

No

Public voice

Rondeau

None identified

T/Q @ 5

Male/Female

Il fault morir
(6)

RegBC120
(c. 1518-19),
unicum

No

Throughcomposed,
ABCDEE
Throughcomposed

Je nay regretz
(5)

VienNB Mus.
18746 (1523),
unicum
BrusBR 228
(1508-16),
unicum
BrusBR 228
(1508-16),
unicum
VatV 11953
(c. 1515-16)

T of Compres
Tant ay
dennuy/O vos
omnes
None identified

Rondeau
cinquain,
enneasyllable
Rondeau
cinquain,
decasyllable
No text survives

T/B @ 5

No text survives

N/A since no
text survives

ABCDB

None identified

ABCA

Public voice

None identified

Q/B @ 4

Rondeau
quatrain refrain,
decasyllable
Rondeau
quatrain refrain,
octasyllable
No text survives

Male/Female

None identified

3 double
canons
@4
T/Q @ 5

Throughcomposed,
ABCD
Throughcomposed
ABCDE

Adieu
comment (5)
Cueurs
desolez/Dies
illa (5)
Deuil et ennuy
(5)

Je ne dis mot
(6)
Quant il
advient (5)
Saills avant
(5)
a

For full manuscript citations see Appendix 2.

350

N/A since no
text survives

N/A since no
text survives

Musical
structure
ABCA

As the two tables demonstrate, La Rue mainly favored five-part writing. Only two chansons for
six voices survive: Je ne dis mot and Il fault morir, both only conjecturally attributed to La Rue. 3
The same is true for La Rues masses and motets; only one mass and two motets for six voices
survive. 4
The only multi-voice chansons attributed to La Rue in court manuscripts are Dung aultre
aymer and Fors seullement (both in VienNB Mus. 18746). In addition, Cent mille regretz and
Fors seullement are assigned a place of distinction in the same manuscript, representing its
opening and closing pair. With the exception of Incessament mon povre cueur, which enjoyed a
wide dissemination throughout the sixteenth century, the majority of the chansons are unica
(eight of the twelve). 5 Deuil et ennuy and Saills avant are preserved in two sources each
(VienNB Mus. 18746 and BrusBR 228 and VienNB Mus. 18746 and VatV 11953, respectively),
while Cent mille regretz survives in three (VatP 1982, VienNB Mus.18746, and Attaingnants
Trente sixiesme livre). 6

Meconi doubts the authenticity of Il fault morir on stylistic grounds. Meconi, La Rue, 288. Its rhetorical
analysis is not possible due to the lack of text. The same applies to the other textless chansons of Table 6.2.
4
The six-part motets are Ave sanctissima Maria (based on three two-voice canons like Je ne dis mot) and
Pater de coelis deus. The six-voice mass is Missa Ave sanctissima Maria and is based on the homonymous motet
(which is only conjecturally attributed to La Rue).
5
Incessament mon povre cueur survives in four manuscript and four printed sources. See Lawrence F.
Bernstein, Chansons Attributed to Both Josquin des Prez and Pierre de la Rue: A Problem in Establishing
Authenticity, in Proceedings of the International Josquin Symposium Utrecht 1986, ed. Willem Elders (Utrecht:
Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis, 1991), 125. The chanson was frequently arranged and
transcribed throughout the sixteenth century. J. Evan Kreider traced its various appearances in his Pierre de la
Rues Incessament and Its Musical Descendents, in From Ciconia to Sweelinck: Donum natalicium Willem Elders,
ed. Albert Clement and Eric Jas (Atlanta, GA: Rodopi, 1994), 167-178.
6
Trente sixiesme livre contenant trente chansons tres musicales (Paris: Pierre Attaingnant, 1549) [RISM
J681]. For a chronological arrangement of La Rues chansons see Honey Meconi, Pierre de la Rue and Musical Life
at the Habsburg-Burgundian Court (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 136-137. For source distribution of his
secular music see Honey Meconi, Style and Authenticity in the Secular Music of Pierre de la Rue (Ph.D. diss.,
Harvard University, 1986), 153-200.

351

The four chansons of Table 6.1 comprise a foundation of securely attributed

compositions against which the rest of the multi-voice chansons of Table 6.2 can be compared. 7
The following discussion will assess the musico-rhetorical resources of this repertory against the
background of musical rhetoric in Josquins chansons, described in chapters III, IV, and V. As
Table 6.1 shows, the four securely attributed chansons, Cent mille regretz, Dung aultre aymer,
Incessament mon povre cueur, and Fors seullement, display a variety of compositional structural
techniques. Two involve a strict canon at the fourth (Cent mille regretz and Incessament), one is
built on a cantus prius factus (Dung aultre aymer), and the fourth (Fors seullement) is based
both on a canon and a cantus prius factus. In all three canonic chansons the canons involve the
two lowest voices. Furthermore, Fors seullement distinguishes itself as unique among the genre
as its simultaneous use of a canon and a cantus prius factus does not generate a six-voice texture
despite the fact that the pre-existent melody is not incorporated in the canonic pair. The only
other instance of fusing both structural devices in one chansonwithin the context of the multivoice chanson repertory as a wholeis Josquins Nymphes, napps/Circumdederunt me.
However, in this chanson Josquin incorporates the cantus prius factus in the canonic pair and
thus generates a six-voice texture out of five voices.
In an attempt to assess the stylistic profile of La Rues multi-voice chansons with the
purpose of providing criteria to establish the authenticity of the chansons in Table 6.2, Lawrence
Bernstein has identified the following distinctive compositional processes in the attributed works
(that is, the four chansons of Table 6.1). First, whenever there is a canon involved, La Rue
7

Cent mille regretz and Incessament mon povre cueur were incorrectly attributed to Josquin in
Attaingnants Trente sixiesme livre. They were subsequently included in Smijerss edition of Josquins works. Both
the Livre de meslanges, contenant six vingtz chansons (Paris: Le Roy & Ballard, 1560) [not in RISM] and the
Mellange de chansons tant des vieux autheurs que des modernes (Paris: Le Roy & Ballard, 1572) [RISM 15722]
maintained the attribution to La Rue. For a discussion of the literature regarding the re-attribution of the two
chansons to La Rue see Bernstein, Chansons Attributed to Both Josquin des Prez and Pierre de la Rue, 125-126,
131-134.

352

assigns it to the two lowest voices, with the original melody presented in the next to lowest part.
This process impedes the Bass part from realizing the harmonic implications of the original tune,
since it is restrained through its fixed melodic relationship to the other member of the canonic
pair. La Rue compensates for this lack of flexibility by incorporating a great number of leadingtone cadences in his upper melodic parts at the points of formal juncture of his canonic melody.
Second, La Rues melodic lines exhibit a high degree of variety manifest in the frequent changes
of melodic direction, rhythmic differentiation, and levels of strength with which the poetic
caesuras are projected musically. Finally, La Rues approach to coordinating musical form with
prosodic features, both structural and surface, involves a wide gamut of subtle interconnections
between the disparate elements of music (motivic articulation of melodies, rhythmic
differentiation, cadential articulation) and those of the poetry. 8
Furthermore, Honey Meconi points out the following major stylistic traits in her
assessment of La Rues secular music. 9 La Rue was one of the few composers of the early part of
the sixteenth century that had not abandoned the formes fixes; he set eleven poems in rondeau
form, two of which belong to the multi-voice repertory. 10 There is a constant sense of modal
ambiguity, since neither the opening of a work nor the internal cadences suggest the eventual
mode of a piece. La Rue further employs a variety of cadential pitches, often involving the
Contratenor part. He favors the continuity of texture by pseudo-cadential motions, which
undercut the sense of closure. There is considerable lack of proportional phrasing for the

Bernstein, Chansons Attributed to Both Josquin des Prez and Pierre de la Rue, 125-152.
Meconi, Pierre de la Rue, 134-168 and idem, French Print Chansons and Pierre de la Rue: A Case Study
in Authenticity, in Music in Renaissance Cities and Courts: Studies in Honor of Lewis Lockwood, ed. Jessie Ann
Owens and Anthony M. Cummings, Detroit Monographs in Musicology, vol. 18 (Warren, MI: Harmonie Park,
1997), 198-207.
10
The eleven chansons in rondeau form are: A vous non aultre, Aprez regretz, Ce mest tout ung, Ce nest
pas jeu, Cest ma fortune, De loeil de la fille du roy, Pour ce que je suis, Pourquoy tant, Tous les regretz. The
multi-voice songs are Cueurs desolez/Dies illa and Fors seullement. Of these, four chansons are only conjecturally
attributed to La Rue (Aprez regretz, Ce mest tout ung, Cest ma fortune, and Cueurs desolez/Dies illa).
9

353

different lines of the poetry, and the last line of the text rarely gets the extensive treatment that
we encounter in Josquins chansons. In addition, his melodic lines demonstrate considerable
variety in phrase length and motivic reshaping, which results in a constant change of texture. 11
The interval of the fourth plays a central role in shaping the motivic material of La Rues
chansons. 12 Unlike Josquins highly controlled sense of dissonance, La Rue does not avoid
frequent dissonances and there are occasional parallel fifths. Compared to Josquins secular
music, La Rues features a lesser degree of syllabic text setting, exact repetition, and balanced
phrasing. 13
The following discussion will demonstrate how musico-rhetorical analysis can help
expand our view of compositional processes in La Rue music, assess his individual rhetorical
gestures, and compare and contrast them to those of Josquin des Prez. The analysis will focus
first on the interactions between poetry and music in the four chansons of Table 6.1 as a group
and subsequently describe the rhetorical expressions in the chansons of Table 6.2. An overview
of the poetry in Tables 6.1 and 6.2 reveals that, unlike Josquins tendency to set poetry of both
the courtly and popular registers, La Rues multi-voice chansons belong exclusively to the
aristocratisant tradition. In addition, the majority of the chansons are based on a canonic
foundation. Only three out of the twelve chansons from both tables do not incorporate a canon.
These three chansons are constructed around a cantus prius factus, further affirmation that fivevoice texture was mainly considered as 4+1 or 4 generating 5 through the use of canon. 14

11

Meconi, French Print Chansons, 198-200.

This feature has also been pointed out in Bernstein Chansons Attributed to Both Josquin des Prez and
Pierre de la Rue, 125-152 passim, and J. Evan Kreider, Works Attributed in the Sixteenth Century to Both Josquin
des Prez and Pierre de la Rue, in Proceedings, 106.
13
Meconi, French Print Chansons, 198-200.
14
Bonnie Blackburn, Josquins Chansons: Ignored and Lost Sources, Journal of the American
Musicological Society 29, no. 1 (1976): 38. This is also true of Josquins repertory: of the twenty-eight chansons
examined only eight do not incorporate a canon; two of these are free compositions and the six remaining ones are
built around a cantus prius factus.
12

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Dung aultre aymer and Fors seullement, the two chansons of Table 6.1 that employ a
cantus prius factus, both rely on Ockeghems settings for their borrowed material. Although in
its only source (VienNB Mus. 18746) Dung aultre aymer survives without the poetry, the text
underlay can be easily reconstructed, especially for the Superius and the Tenor part that carries
the borrowed melody. The poem, the refrain of a full rondeau quatrain, reads as follows:
1. Dung aultre aymer mon coeur sabesseroit;
2. Il ne fault pas penser que je lestrange.

To love another my heart would be debased;

Dont think that I would estrange myself from
him.
Nothing would bend me from this resolve
Because my honor would be diminished. 15

3. Ne que pour rien de ce propos me change

4. Car mon honneur en appetisseroit.

La Rue places Ockeghems Tenor in the next to lowest voice, retaining the low register of
the original tune. 16 He maintains Ockeghems melody, with only minor melodic deviations (Ex.
6.1, mm. 12.4 and 20.1-2), but introduces rests at two points: between ll. 2 and 3 of the poetry,
that is, at the point of medial cadence in a quatrain setting; and in the middle of l. 4, possibly to
allow enough time for one more repetition of the last hemistich in the freely composed voices. In
addition to employing a famous melody in an inner voice of his five-part setting, La Rue assigns
the most important melodic material to the Superius. The melodic phrases of the Superius not
only clearly delineate the lines of the text but also observe the hemistich division within each
poetic line by introducing rests after the fourth syllable. However, La Rue violates this
articulation in the second line of the poem; here the caesura can only take placeand only
briefly so as not to disrupt the continuity of the syntaxat the sixth syllable: il ne fault pas
penser/que je lestrange. Although such articulation cannot be discerned amidst the continuous
melodic flow of Ockeghems melody, La Rues Superius succinctly underscores this semantic
and structural poetic feature. Therefore, while ll. 1, 3, and 4 are divided by a rest after the fourth
15

The translation is partly based on Claude V. Palisca, ed., Norton Anthology of Western Music, 2nd ed.,
vol. 1, Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque (New York: Norton, 1980, 1988), 223.
16
La Rues borrowed voice is marked with the canon Indyatessaron descen[dit] with a signum over the
first note, indicating a transposition at the fourth of the original tune.

355

syllable, l. 2 maintains the melodic flow, with the insertion of a brief pause (with the duration of
a semibreve) after the sixth syllable (Ex. 6.1, mm. 16-19). 17 Such treatment reveals La Rues
sensitivity to the semantic and structural implications of the poetry, a feature he is not often
given credit for. It further unveils a particular compositional process that is a hallmark of his
multi-voice chanson treatment: La Rue assigns important melodic material to a voice other than
the one that carries the pre-existent melody. This voice, in turn, works together or in competition
with the cantus prius factus. This process features even more prominently in Fors seullement (to
be discussed below) and brings forth La Rues penchant for posing compositional challenges.
Meconi has argued that the cantus prius factus in Dung aultre aymer plays little role in
the framework of the piece forming very few cadences and that it does influence the piece in
that all the voices start imitatively with the head motif of the tune. 18 The main cadence in which
the cantus prius factus participates is actually at the point of the medial cadence, that is, between
sections A and B of the refrain. La Rue forms a cadence on A between the Contratenor and the
Second Tenor, but immediately reorients the music tonally by introducing another cadence on G,
the final sonority of the work. The cadence on G now involves the Contratenor and the Superius
(m. 26), creating an instance in which the borrowed melody and the upper part stand in
competition. La Rue further marks the medial juncture by introducing a rest in the cantus prius
factus where there was none in Ockeghems melody. This gesture puts emphasis on the entrance
of the third line of the borrowed melody (section B of the refrain), which is then immediately
imitated by the Superius. At the same time, the rest facilitates the singing of the minor sixth that
separates the two sections (Ex. 6.1, Second Tenor, mm. 24-27). By tonally reorienting the music

17

A different text underlay is also possible, one that fits only the first four syllables by the semibreve rest.
Nevertheless, the more continuous melodic flow of this phrase reflects the syntactical continuity of l. 2.
18
Meconi, Style and Authenticity, 139.

356

and by deviating from the original melody, through the insertion of a rest at the point of medial
cadence, La Rue underscores the formal structure of his chanson.
Besides the opening head motif, the cantus prius factus offers more fodder for La Rue
than Meconi states. The long descending octave of Ockeghems Tenor over the words
sabesseroit (Ex. 6.1, Second Tenor, mm. 10-13) provides the impetus for La Rue to further
project the meaning of the text with two repeated instances of catabasis in the Superius part.
Two stepwise descending sevenths accompany the words sabesseroit (would be debased)
and its repetition (Ex. 6.1, mm. 7-14). These two phrases are separated by a melodic leap of a
seventh (Superius, mm. 9-10). It is possible that the prominent place of this interval at this point
in the poetry could reflect the dual meaning of the word abesseroit as both debased and
disgraced. Finally, La Rue takes advantage of the potential of l. 4 for musical depiction,
switching mainly to semibreves and minims for the representation of the word appetisseroit
(diminish) in truly musical terms (Ex. 6.1, mm. 48-54).

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Example 6.1. La Rue, D'ung aultre aymer, Superius and Tenor (after VienNB Mus. 18746)

358

The compositional processes in Dung aultre aymer appear intensified in the five-voice
Fors seullement. In this chanson, La Rue places the Superius of Ockeghems model in the upper
part of his own setting without any alterations of the pitch level and rhythmic values. As in
Dung aultre aymer, La Rue poses a compositional challenge not only by including two other
voices in a strict canonic relationship at the fifth, but also by placing the canon in the two lowest
voices (Bassus and Second Tenor). This structure restricts the melodic freedom of the Bassus

359

and thus interferes with the modal implications of the cantus prius factus, which is placed in the
Superius. As in Dung aultre aymer, La Rue contrasts the main melodic lines in Fors seullement
by way of register, high versus low (in Dung aultre aymer, Superius versus the cantus prius
factus in the Second Tenor and in Fors seullement, the cantus prius factus in the Superius versus
the canonic melody in the two lowest parts). Compared to Josquins handling of canons and
cantus prius facti in his multi-voice chansons, La Rues approach appears more daring and
experimental. There is no instance in which Josquin engages both structural techniques in
competition. Whenever Josquin uses a cantus prius factus in a canonic chanson, the cantus prius
factus is a member of the canonic pair.
In Fors seullement, the model inspires most of the material. The opening descending
tetrachord permeates the original melody, providing a very early instance in which this figure
becomes a true harbinger of grief. 19 The descending fourth constitutes an important melodic
and structural motif throughout La Rues setting. The characteristic on-going motivic process,
in which the interval of the fourth plays the central role is practically indebted to the inherent
properties of his borrowed melody. 20 It is possible that La Rues preference for the interval of the
fourth, manifested in a great number of compositions related to his name, was the guiding factor
in choosing these particular models. 21
In Fors seullement we witness some of the various and subtle ways through which La
Rue reflects the prosodic features of the poetry in musical means. The rondeau cinquain survives
complete in a large number of musical and literary sources and its refrain reads as follows:
19

Alan Curtis labeled the opening descending tetrachord in Josquins Je me complains de mon amy as such,
thus crediting Josquin as the initiator of this rhetorical gesture. Alan Curtis, Josquin and La belle Tricote, in
Essays in Musicology in Honor of Dragan Plamenac on His 70th Birthday, ed. Gustave Reese and Robert J. Snow
(Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1969), 1.
20
Bernstein, Chansons Attributed to Both Josquin des Prez and Pierre de la Rue, 132.
21
Both Dung aultre aymer and Fors seullement melodies make extended use of ascending and descending
melodic fourths.

360

1. Fors seullement lattente que je meure,

2. En mon las cueur nul espoir ne demeure,
3. Car mon malheur si tresfort me tourmente
4. Quil nest douleur que par vous je ne sente

Except waiting for death,

There dwells in my faint heart no hope,
For my misfortune torments me so greatly
That there is no pain I do not feel on your
account
Because I am quite certain to loose you. 22

5. Pource que suis de vous perdre bien seure.

Beyond the typical aabba rhyme, the underlined words reveal an internal rhyme at the fourth
syllable for ll. 2-4 (las cueur/malheur/douleur), as well as the rimes bateles between the first
and second, and second and third lines (meure/cueur and demeure/malheur). 23 The musical
treatment reveals the following: first, La Rues first and second canonic phrases revolve around
the tetrachord A-E (in the Second Tenor), which is the opening gesture of the borrowed melody.
Both canonic phrases also cadence similarly to reflect the aa rich rhyme of the first two lines,
meure/demeure (compare mm. 9-13 to 25-29 in Ex. 6.2). Second, through a descending/
ascending gesture, possibly inspired by the borrowed melody, La Rue relates the second and
third canonic phrases that are connected in the text through the rime batele. Phrase two of the
borrowed melody ends with a descending fourth, F-C, while phrase three starts with an
ascending fourth, C-F, and a similar device also occurs in the canonic melodies (see the dashed
brackets in Ex. 6.2, mm. 25-32). Third, the Tenor in the beginning of phrase two (Tenor 1, mm.
14-15) anticipates the opening motif for the canonic entrances of phrase three (Tenor 2 and
Bassus, mm. 29-31). La Rues treatment thus stresses the internal rhyme of ll. 2 and 3, En mon
las cueur/Car mon malheur, in a very subtle and concealed way. Finally, the phonetic proximity
of the opening syllables in ll. 1 and 5 (Fors seu-/Pour ce) possibly inspired the similar
melodic gesture in Ockeghems melody (Ex. 6.2, Superius, mm. 10-13 and 58-61). The
polyphonic reading by La Rue affirms this supposition. La Rues Contratenor in l. 5 begins with
22

Translation from Martin Picker, ed., Fors seulement: Thirty Compositions for Three to Five Voices or
Instruments from the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries, Recent Researches in the Music of the Middle Ages and
Early Renaissance, vol. 14 (Madison, WI: A-R Editions, 1981), xxviii.
23
The rime batele occurs when the last syllable of one line rhymes with the fourth syllable of the next in a
decasyllabic verse.

361

a rhythmic gesture that involves the repetition of the same note followed by a descending fourth.
This is also the opening motif of Tenor 1 over the words Fors seullement (Ex. 6.2, Tenor 1,
mm. 1-3 and Contratenor, mm. 61-62). The fact that these are the only two instances in which
this motif makes its appearance reinforces the hypothesis that both Ockeghem and La Rue
responded to this sonic manifestation in the poetry in a similar way. Whereas Josquin would
possibly repeat a phrase to reflect the common prosodic features between the lines of the text, La
Rue achieves this by involving smaller motivic gestures in more complicated and hidden
interrelationships.
Example 6.2. La Rue, Fors seullement (after Picker 1981)

362

363

364

365

366

367

The treatment of the five-voice chansons Cent mille regretz and Incessament mon povre
cueur further contributes to our understanding of La Rues varied rhetorical approach. Both
chansons are constructed around a canon in the two lowest voices and do not incorporate a
cantus prius factus. 24 Cent mille regretz is a through-composed form with an individual musical
phrase for every line of the text. With the complete repetition of l. 3, the musical structure of the
canonic voices can be described as ABCCDE. The decasyllabic cinquain refrain reads:
music
One hundred thousand regrets pursue me
A
without ceasing,
Pain governs me and pleasure forsakes me; B
And fortune so unkindly charts my course CC
That my grief is worse than sudden death
D
Since I am thus forced to leave you. 25
E

1. Cent mille regretz me poursuivent sans cesse,

2. Dueil me conduict et plaisir me delaisse;
3. Et fortune si tres mal me promene
4. Que ma langueur vault pis que mort soudaine
5. Puisquil est force quainsi je vous delaisse.

The refrain is characterized by the long enjambment that runs between ll. 3 and 5 and
creates a closed semantic unit. While La Rue clearly divides the first and second hemistichs of ll.
1 and 2 with a rest (see, for example, Tenor, mm. 7 and 18, respectively in Ex. 6.3), he creates an
uninterrupted flow of melodic phrases in all voice parts for the remaining lines of the text, thus
reflecting the continuity of the prosody. Although the five different phrases (A, B, C, D, E) have
their own individual character, phrases C, D, and E are more closely related through motivic
interconnections. Phrases C and D open with the same sequential motif transposed up a fourth in
the freely composed parts and up a fifth in the canonic voices (compare, for example, the Tenor
of phrase C, mm. 25-28 to the Superius, mm. 40-43, Tenor, mm. 40-42, and Quinta and Bassus,
mm. 42-48 of phrase D, in Ex. 6.3). In addition to their semantic interdependence, phrases C and
D correspond to the b-rhyming lines and the above-mentioned motivic relationship also reflects
this common element. Phrases D and E overlap to an unusual degree (shortly after the canonic
24

Incessament has another part inserted between the two canonic voices.
The translation is based on Meconi, Style and Authenticity, 209. In l. 2 I have replaced grief with
pain; in l. 4 debility with grief; and in l. 5 leave for forsake.
25

368

voices of phrase D enter, the remaining voice parts start with the last line of the text) and there is
also some motivic connection between the two (Ex. 6.3, Bassus, mm. 46-47 and 53-54).
Bernstein has also noted how La Rue achieves contrast by emphasizing the final (D) for ll. 1, 2,
and 5 and C, F, G, and A for ll. 3 and 4. 26 In fact, such a contrast not only ensures modal variety
but also differentiates between the a- and b-rhyming verses, unveiling some of La Rues
resources to reflect the surface details of the poetry. Whereas Josquin most often relies on
repetition to underline the rhyming lines, La Rue draws attention to such rhymes through
similarbut not identicalcadential gestures. 27
The individual prosodic features of the refrain provided La Rue with many opportunities
for their rhetorical expression. The opening of the Superius features an instance of circulatio
over the phrase cent mille (Ex. 6.3, Superius, mm. 1-2). This number, a multiple of ten or a
hundred, is a symbolic representation of perfection, depicted in Cent mille regretz through a
musical circle. With the reference to fortune (and fortune so unkindly charts my course) in l. 3,
La Rue intensifies the musical symbolism. All voices engage in imitation, opening with an
identical rhythmic gesture and continuing with an ascending/descending rapid motif, which is
then abandoned for the rest of the chanson. 28 Such motif is related to the fortuna symbolism
discussed in Chapter V and represents the ascending and descending motion of fortunes wheel.
La Rue further emphasizes this line by the complete repetition of all voice parts.

26

Bernstein, Chansons Attributed to Both Josquin des Prez and Pierre de la Rue, 132.
Another device Josquin employs to reflect the aabba or the abba rhyme, is to end the canonic phrases
with the same note for similarly rhyming lines of the text. See for example Douleur me bat and Plusieurs regretz,
discussed in Chapter III. La Rues approach, although similar, is more varied.
28
In Josquins Pour souhaitter, the opening ascending octaves are likewise abandoned for the remainder of
the chanson.
27

369

Example 6.3. La Rue, Cent mille regretz (after Smijers)

370

371

372

373

374

La Rue is no less indifferent to the sonorous quality of his text. The rich alliteration of the
first two verses (Cent mille regretz me poursuivent sans cesse and Dueil me conduict et
plaisir me delaisse) is projected and emphasized through the polyphonic fabric by placing
similarly sounding syllables in simultaneous or consecutive presentation (see the connecting
dashed lines in mm. 9-25). Such effect would have been less apparent in the typical four-voice
texture, as fewer voices would have been available for the projection of the phonetic features of
the text. La Rue, like Josquin, takes advantage of the rhetorical possibilities of the expanded
textures to intensify a prosodic element. 29 The potential of multi-voice music to project both
linearly and vertically the semantic, structural, and phonetic features of the poetry must have
certainly surprised and pleased contemporary audiences and the composers seized the
opportunities to this end.
Musico-rhetorical analysis guides us to read La Rues interpretation of the poetry of
Incessament mon povre cueur with greater depth and clarity.
1. Incessament mon povre cueur lamente;
2. Sans nul repos souvenir me tourmente.
3. Ayant ennui sans aulcun amandement
4. Banny je suis de tout esbatement
5. Et si languis pres de mort vehemente.

Incessantly my poor heart laments;

Without pause memory torments me.
Bearing pain without any improvement
I am banished from every pleasure
And thus I grieve before a violent death.

music
A
A
B
C
DD

Bernstein has noted that the rhyme scheme, aabba, is underlined by the central position of the
descending fifth in ll. 1, 2, and 5, that is, the a-rhymes. He remarks that its first two lines are
joined by the rhyme scheme (lamente/tourmente), a linkage that is echoed musically by the
distinct motivic parallelism in the respective openings of the two lines. 30 Furthermore, by
making the first three lines a closed unit that begins and ends on the final G, La Rue represents

29

See Chapters III and IV for instances in which Josquin emphasizes the sonic elements of the poetry as in
the chansons Cueur langoreulx, Plaine de deuil, Pour souhaitter, and Allgez moy.
30
Bernstein, Chansons Attributed to Both Josquin des Prez and Pierre de la Rue, 128.

375

the syntactic integrity of his poetry for the first broad syntactic unit of the text goes beyond the
paired rhyme of the first two verses to incorporate the third line, too. 31 Yet Bernstein fails to
discern that the first two phrases are transpositions of one another, with only a cadential
deviation at the end of the second phrase, resulting in the overall structural scheme AABCDD
(see structure above, next to the translation). 32 This structure does not alter Bernsteins
observation that the rhyme of the first two lines is reflected in musical terms. However, it reorients the reading of the poem for, I believe, the function of the transposition is to connect
together the first two verses in one unit and thus demarcate them from the remaining verses. In
addition to their rhyming similarity these two lines are variations of one another, expressing in
different words the same emotion. The idea of continuing grief is central to both: incessantly in
the first, without pause in the second.
I thus argue that La Rue interpreted the poetic structure as being formed by three
syntactical units in the scheme 2+2+1 (involving verses 1-2, 3-4, and 5, respectively) instead of
3+2 as Bernstein proposes. A slightly different version of the rondeau, found in the poetic
albums of Marguerite of Austria, La Rues patron, further supports this syntactic division. The
refrain in this version reads as follows:
Incessament mon pouvre cueur lamente;
Sans nul repos souvenir me tourmente.
Ayant au cueur ennuyt et griefz tourment,
Bannye suis de tout desbatement
Et si languis pres de mort vehemente. 33

31

Bernsteins translation reads: My unhappy heart laments constantly;/With no hope, memory torments
me,/Having had one without any improvement. Bernstein, Chansons Attributed to Both Josquin des Prez and
Pierre de la Rue, 128.
32
Bernstein proposes the structural scheme ABCDE1E2. Bernstein, Chansons Attributed to Both Josquin
des Prez and Pierre de la Rue, 127.
33
Marcel Franon, Albums potiques de Marguerite dAutriche (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press, 1934), 126.

376

The three-fold textual scheme is clearly articulated in the canonic voices by the long
pauses that separate the three units (Ex. 6.4, mm. 20-24 and 35-40). Furthermore, La Rue creates
links that tie together the phrases of each syntactical unit. In addition to connecting the first two
lines by transposition, La Rue relates phrases B and C (that is, the phrases that correspond to ll. 3
and 4) through identical opening and closing rhythmic motifs (see the dashed brackets over
phrases B and C in Ex. 6.4). Finally, he underscores the intensity of the last line with a varied
repetition of the entire phrase. La Rue thus generates a balanced structure of six musical phrases
to set five poetic lines, much in the way Josquin structures his end-oriented chansons.
In addition to the parallelism with Josquins musical structures, Incessament mon povre
cueur shares other common features with Josquins multi-voice chansons. For example, while
transposition of a whole melodic phrase frequently occurs in Josquins decasyllabic rondeau
cinquain settings (see Chapter III), it is rare in the multi-voice chansons related to La Rue.
Furthermore, the canon in Incessament mon povre cueur (as well as in Cent mille regretz) is set
syllabically and does not exhibit the variety in rhythm and direction that characterizes La Rues
melodies. All of the above features (the musical structure, the transposition of a phrase, and the
syllabic, unvaried nature of the canonic melodies) possibly contributed to the confusion in the
early attribution of Incessament mon povre cueur to Josquin (see fn. 7).

377

Example 6.4. La Rue, Incessament mon povre cueur, Quinta (after Smijers)

In support to the recent reattribution of both Cent mille regretz and Incessament mon
povre cueur to La Rue, I would add two more arguments based on musico-rhetorical

378

compositional procedures. 34 First, the canons in Josquins aristocratisant chansons on his own
melodies (Group 1, explored in Chapter III) contain no internal text repetitions. In contrast, La
Rues canons in all three canonic chansons of Table 6.1 (Fors seullement, Cent mille regretz, and
Incessament) invariably incorporate repetitions of both internal motives and complete phrases.
Second, while Josquin assigns extensive repetitions to the last line of the poetry, thus creating a
long last section, La Rues setting of the final verse is generally brief despite its importance for
expressing the poetic personas distress or revealing the reason for his or her misfortune.
From the compositions of Table 6.2, scholars have never doubted the authenticity of the
motet-chanson Cueurs desolez/Dies illa. The French poem, a complete enneasyllabic rondeau
cinquain, has survived with variations in many literary sources. The unicum musical setting in
BrusBR 228 presents a reading in which the final stanza forms the acrostic VILLE. Martin
Picker has suggested that the chanson was composed for the death of Jean de Luxemburg,
Seigneur de Ville and counselor to Philippe the Fair and Marguerite of Austria, in 1508. This
date is then a terminus post quem for Cueurs desolez/Dies illa. Another version of the rondeau
with a different last stanza lamenting the death of a female patron is preserved in MS Lille 402. 35
La Rues five-voice setting is built around the cantus firmus Dies illa, the third verse of
the responsory Libera me of the Burial Service. 36 The refrain of the rondeau reads as follows:
1. Cueurs desolez par toutes nations,
2. Deul assamblez et lamentations.
3. Plus ne querez larmonieuse lyre
4. DeOrpheus pour vostre joyeeslyre,
5. Ains vous plongez en desolations.

Devastated hearts of all nations,

Gather your mourning and lamentations.
Do not seek the harmonious lyre
of Orpheus to rejoice any more,
But sink yourselves into grief.

34

Meconi has demonstrated that the source tradition for Incessament favors the attribution to La Rue.
Meconi, Style and Authenticity, 141-142. Bernstein reinforced this suggestion on the basis of stylistic analysis.
Bernstein, Chansons Attributed to Both Josquin des Prez and Pierre de la Rue, 126-131.
35
Marcel Franon, Pomes de transition (XVe-XVIe sicles): rondeaux du Ms. 402 de Lille (Paris: Droz,
1938), no. 76. The last stanza reads: Laisse nous a en grant afflicions/Celle qui a par ces perfections/Aquis ung los
ou ny a que redire./Elle sen va. Dieu la veuille conduire!/Dictes amen pour retribusions.
36
Martin Picker, ed., The Chansons Albums of Marguerite of Austria (Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1965), 136.

379

The music has the structure of a rondeau setting with a medial cadence at the end of the third
line, over the word lyre (Ex. 6.5, m. 52). Although this is indeed the locus for a typical medial
cadence, La Rue ignores the enjambment between ll. 3 and 4, thereby introducing a cadence
amidst an unfolding sentence, Plus ne querez larmonieuse lyre deOrpheus pour vostre
joyeeslyre. Moreover, the final sonority for the first section (m. 53) is built on a first-inversion
triad, which makes the pause at this point even more awkward.
Although La Rue frequently introduces passing dissonances in all of the chansons
attributed to him, Cueurs desolez/Dies illa carries such treatment to the extreme. The chanson is
saturated by successive passing dissonances and dissonant clusters in which up to four minor
seconds are heard simultaneously (Ex. 6.5 m. 74.4 and m. 86.2 where G, A, Bb, C and G, A, Bb,
C, D, respectively, are heard simultaneously). While the interval of the fourth plays a central role
in this chanson, melodic leaps of seventh also feature prominently, particularly in l. 3 (Ex. 6.5,
Contratenor, mm.36-37, 53-54, Tenor, 53-54).

380

Example 6.5. La Rue (?), Cueurs desolez/Dies illa (after Picker 1965)

381

382

383

384

385

386

387

La Rues lament shares multiple common features with another five-voice setting of the
same text, Cueurs desolez/Plorans ploravit, attributed to Josquin in Attaingnants Trente
sixiesme livre. Although the text in this setting seems to be slightly corrupt, the music nicely
matches this version, suggesting that this was the text at hand. 37
1. Cueurs desolez par toute nation
2. Assemblez dueil et lamentation.
3. Ne cherchez plus larmoniance
4. Lyre dOrpheus pour voz resiouyssance,
5. Mais plongez vous en desolation.

Josquins chanson is built around verse 1:2 from the Lamentations of Jeremiah:
Plorans ploravit in nocte
Et lacrymae eius in maxilis eius;
Non est qui consoletur eam
Ex omnibus caris eius.

Weeping she hath wept in the night

And her tears are on her cheeks;
There is none to comfort her
Among all them that were dear to her. 38

37

See, for example, the melisma over the word lyre in the Superius 2 of Ex. 6.6, a musical depiction of
the sound of lyre. Also the rests in Superius 1, Superius 2, and Bassus between the end of l. 2, larmoniance, and
the beginning of l. 3, lyre dOrpheus, reflect the demarcation of the verses.
38
Translation in Willem Elders, Symbolic Scores: Studies in the Music of the Renaissance (Leiden: E. J.
Brill, 1994), 138.

388

Example 6.6. La Rue (?), Cueurs desolez/Plorans ploravit (after Smijers)

389

390

391

392

393

The Quinta bears the Latin plainchant, as in La Rues setting. The disposition of the
voices in this chanson is quite unusual for Josquin: two high voices against three low ones. Also
unusual is the high level of dissonance. While Josquin regularly keeps dissonant treatment to a
minimum, in Cueurs desolez/Plorans ploravit dissonances are abundant. This is apparent from
the very opening of the work; m. 6 provides the first instance of successive dissonances over the
word nation while the repetition of the same word a few measures later, provides the second
such striking instance. A conflict between E and E-flat (Ex. 6.6, Superius 2, mm. 4-6) warns us
that something unusual is at stake. A comparison with La Rues chanson reveals that the first
dissonance takes place over the same word (Ex. 6.5, mm. 7-8), while a conflict between B and Bflat occurs in the Contratenor in mm. 11-12. The opening of l. 2 in Josquins setting, Assemblez
deuil et lamentation, is constructed in such a way that a harmonic or a melodic augmented
fourth cannot be avoided (see Ex. 6.6, mm. 11-13, dashed lines). At the same point in La Rues
setting we encounter a series of successive, albeit passing, dissonances (Ex. 6.5, mm. 16-18,
marked with asterisks), while the word lamentations features extensive repetitions in both
chansons. These repetitions unfold as a series of sequential or semi-sequential motifs in the
Superius, Tenor, and Bassus of both settings (compare mm. 19-29 in Cueurs desolez/Dies illa to
mm. 14-20 in Cueurs desolez/Plorans ploravit).
The next instance of intense dissonant treatment in both chansons occurs in ll. 3 and 4
at the reference to Orpheuss lyrean unexpected point for such treatment. The biting
dissonances at the words lyre dOrpheus and resiouysance (Ex. 6.6, mm. 29-32) present a
case of an oxymoron to make the call for grief even more urgent. Moreover, as the poet
demands, the harmonious sounds of Orpheuss lyre should be abandoned, and this is exactly
what happens with the music at this point. And while La Rue represents the last word of l. 3,

394

lyre, with a sixth sonority, Josquin sets the same word with a second inversion triad (Ex. 6.5,
m. 53 and Ex. 6.6, m. 29.1, respectively). The final line of the poetry features long descending
melodies in both chansons, emphasizing mainly the intervals of fifth and octave, a suitable
depiction of the word plongez (dive, sink).
The similar, almost identical, compositional strategies of the two settings of Cueurs
desolez raise several questions. Could one setting be regarded as a tribute to the other or are we
dealing with two versions emanating from the same pen? And if the latter is true, who is the
composer? La Rue, Josquin, or somebody else? Finally, if Cueurs desolez/Dies illa was
composed for Jean de Luxemburg, for whom was Cueurs desolez/Plorans ploravit composed?
It is very unlikely that Josquin composed a piece of such high level of dissonance, for he
generally keeps dissonances on a local level and does not apply them as an overarching principle
for the representation of grief. In his two other multi-voice motet-chansons, Nymphes des
bois/Requiem and Nymphes, napps/Circumdederunt me, dissonant treatment is very restricted.
Moreover, the frequent changes of direction in the melodic lines as well as the melodic leaps
speak against Josquins authorship of Cueurs desolez/Plorans ploravit. Finally, the attribution to
Josquin occurs in Attaingnants 1549 print, which contains other problematic ascriptions. It is the
same print that assigns both Cent mille regretz and Incessament mon povre cueur to Josquin. 39 In
fact, these two chansons along with Cueurs desolez/Plorans ploravit appear in the same group of
compositions in the final section of the edition. The last six chansons in Attaingnant print are:
25. Cent mille regretz
26. Incessament mon povre cueur
27. Je ne me puis tenir daimer
28. Cueurs desolez/Plorans ploravit
29. Plus nestes ma maitresse
30. Plus nulz regretz
39

The same print also includes Le Brungs Si vous navez autre desir without assigning it to the composer.

395

However, as Daniel Heartz points out, in three of the five part-books (Contratenor, Tenor, and
Bassus), the last four pieces are printed in the sequence 28, 30, 29, 27, which leaves us with the
following reconstructed list:
25. Cent mille regretz
26. Incessament mon povre cueur
27. Cueurs desolez/Plorans ploravit
28. Plus nulz regretz
29. Plus nestes ma maitresse
30. Je ne me puis tenir daimer 40
According to this sequence, Cent mille regretz, Incessament mon povre cueur, and Cueurs
desolez/Plorans ploravit appear as a group, which suggests that they were possibly copied from
the same exemplar that contained chansons by La Rue. I thus suggest that Cueurs
desolez/Plorans ploravit should be removed from Josquins canon and be reattributed to La Rue.
The incompatibility of the chansons idiosyncrasies with Josquins style, its placement together
with Cent mille regretz and Incessament mon povre cueur (both securely attributed to La Rue),
and the prints unreliable record of ascriptions speak against the attribution to Josquin. At the
same time, Cueurs desolez/Dies illa survives anonymous in its sole source, BrusBR 228, but the
compositional strategies, the melodic treatment, and the proximity of the source to the
composers site of activity favor the attribution to La Rue.
The two Cueurs desolez settings must have been penned by the same composer, who
reworked the second setting in memory of another patron. Such re-dedication was not only
acceptable but also appreciated in sixteenth-century courts.41 The question remains open as to
who is the recipient of the Plorans ploravit setting. Helmuth Osthoff has suggested that Josquin
composed the chanson in response to Jean Lemaire de Belgess La Plainte du Dsir, a poem
40

Daniel Heartz, Pierre Attaingnant: Royal Printer of Music; A Historical Study and Bibliographical
Catalogue (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969), 366.
41
Eric Jas, The Repertory of the Manuscripts, in The Treasury of Petrus Alamire: Music and Art in
Flemish Court Manuscripts 1500-1535, ed. Herbert Kellman (Amsterdam: Ludion, 1999), 32.

396

written on the death of Louis de Luxembourg-Ligny, in 1503. 42 Osthoff associates Lemaires

poem with the setting Cueurs desolez/Plorans ploravit because the phrase Cueurs desolez
appears in the prose introduction of Lemaires work and because the poet indicates Jeremiahs
Lamentations as a suitable basis for a newly-composed lament. In the light of the above reattribution, it is plausible that it was La Rue who composed Cueurs desolez/Plorans ploravit for
Louis de Luxembourg, and a few years later reworked the chanson to commemorate another
deceased member of the same family, Jean de Luxembourg. Yet the absence of Cueurs
desolez/Plorans ploravit from both BrusBR 228 and VienNB Mus. 18746 problematizes this
supposition. The cantus firmus text provides another possible clue for the dedicatee of Cueurs
desolez/Plorans ploravit. The verse refers to a female who is weeping alone, as there is none to
comfort her from those who were dear to her. The text could be alluding to Juana of Spain, the
widow of Philip the Fair who died in 1506. After Philips death, La Rue remained in Spain for
another two years and served as Juanas chapel master. A few years earlier Juana had lost her
brother, Juan of Spain (in 1497) and her mother, Isabella of Castile (in 1504). The text of the
Latin plainchant resonates, therefore, with the recent events in Juanas life. This suggestion
complies better with the absence of the chanson in court manuscripts and also points to an earlier
date of composition for the Plorans ploravit version.
Musico-rhetorical analysis enables us to address issues of authorship with greater
certainty. The attribution of the anonymous Deuil et ennuy, Quant il advient, and Je ne dis mot
has elicited different opinions. Their exclusive appearance in court manuscripts (see Table 6.2)
as well as the presence of strict canon render La Rue and Josquin the two main candidates for the
42

Helmuth Osthoff, Josquin Desprez, 2 vols. (Tutzing: Hans Schneider, 1962-1965), 1:65-67. Louis de
Luxembourg, Comte de Ligny was Lemaires patron. In the 1503 manuscript, Lemaire invited the French composer
Hilaire to compose a lament for the deceased, while in the 1509 print the poet changed the name to Josquin. He also
changed the dedicatee from Anne of Brittany to Margaret of Austria.

397

question of authorship. Meconi and John Milsom consider all three to be by La Rue, although
Meconi seems less certain for Quant il advient. 43 Martin Picker also believes that both Deuil et
ennuy and Je ne dis mot derive from La Rues pen, while he excludes both La Rue and Josquin
as possible authors of Quant il advient. 44 Bernstein discusses only Deuil et ennuy, which he
assigns to La Rue. 45
Deuil et ennuy and Quant il advient merit discussion as a pair since they share multiple
common features. Both are based on strict canons at the fifth between the Quinta and the Tenor
and in both chansons the canonic voices do not incorporate internal text repetitions. Both are
through-composed structures: ABCDEE for Deuil et ennuy and ABCD for Quant il advient.
While the treatment of the canons complies better with Josquins style, the through-composed
structures speak against Josquins authorship. 46
Deuil et ennuy is an aristocratisant rondeau cinquain refrain.
1. Deuil et ennuy me persecutent tant
2. Que mon esprit comporter sestent
3. Tous les regretz que lon scaroit penser;
4. Et nest vivant qui en sceut dispenser
5. Car en mon cas personne riens nentend.

Pain and grief persecute me in such a way

That my spirit seems to be composed from
All the regrets that one could think of;
And there is no living person that knows how to
dispense with them
Since in my case there is no hope.

Despite the typical decasyllabic pace, neither the canonic nor the freely composed voices observe
the caesura at the fourth syllable. Such treatment matches better La Rues loose attitude towards
hemistich division than Josquins consistent approach in clearly dividing the decasyllabic verses
with rests at the fourth syllable. Furthermore, a clausula vera in the middle of phrase two (Ex.

43

Meconi, La Rue, 288 and idem, Pierre de la Rue, 164. For Milsoms view see John Milsom, review of
Pierre de La Rue, Opera omnia, vols. 2-3, ed. Nigel St. John Davison, J. Evan Kreider, and T. Herman Keahey,
Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae, vol. 97 (Neuhausen-Stuttgart: American Institute of Musicology/Hnssler Verlag,
1992), in Early Music 21 (1993): 482.
44
Picker, The Chansons Albums, 76-77.
45
Bernstein, Chansons Attributed to Both Josquin des Prez and Pierre de la Rue, 140.
46
As shown in Tables 3.2 and 4.1, Josquins structures in his canonic chansons frequently incorporate
phrase repetitions.

398

6.7, mm. 16-17) runs contrary to Josquins cadential treatment, but matches La Rues tendency
to introduce melodic cadences amidst phrases, especially in the chansons in which the two
lowest voices present the canon.
A striking moment occurs in the music at the beginning of the third line; the closely
imitative writing gives way to a homorhythmic passage over the words tous les regretz. The
moment is further emphasized by the fact that the canonic voices silence after this phrase only to
resume with the entrance of the fourth line of the text (Ex. 6.7, mm. 31ff). 47 This gesture could
be regarded as the musical equivalent of the rhetorical figure aposiopesis, in which the speaker
interrupts a sentence and leaves it unfinished out of sudden passion. 48 In this chanson, the
canonic voices have the function of delivering the text in a straightforward manner, without
repetition and, therefore, the rhetorical interruption of the flow of discourse is better suited for
these voices. The stasis created by the change of texture to homorhythm must certainly have
attracted the attention of its audience.
The phrase tous les regretz was associated with a large number of poetic texts and
musical settings and I suspect that La Rue chose to emphasize this particular moment for its
intertextual significance. 49 I have not been able to identify another musical setting that La Rue
clearly alludes to musically. However, the text of Deuil et ennuy bears affinities with Cent mille

47

In none of Josquins canonic multi-voice chansons do the canons omit textual phrases.
Ad C. Herennium (Rhetorica ad Herennium) 4.30.41; trans. Harry Caplan (Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press, 1954), 331.
49
Both BrusBR 228 and BrusBR 11239, the chanson albums related to Marguerite of Austria, start off with
a series of regretz chansons. Apparently, the subject was of special importance to this patroness. For a discussion
of regretz settings in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries see Martin Picker, More Regret Chansons
for Marguerite dAutriche, Le Moyen Franais 5 (1979): 81-101, and Mary Beth W. Marvin, Regrets in French
Chanson Texts of the Late Fifteenth Century, Fifteenth-Century Studies 1 (1978): 193-217. VienNB Mus. 18746
also starts out with a series of regretz chansons, a feature that seems to have gone unnoticed in the literature. The
chansons are Cent mille regretz, Plusieurs regretz, Deuil et ennuy (which is related to Cent mille regretz as shown in
the above analysis), and Je nay regretz.
48

399

regretz, which in turn, resonates intertextually with another rondeau cinquain with the incipit
Deuil et ennuy found in Lille 402. 50 I juxtapose the three texts:
(a) BrusBR 228

(b)

Deuil et ennuy me persecutent tant

Que mon esprit comporter sestent
Tous les regretz que lon scaroit penser;
Et nest vivant qui en sceut dispenser
Car en mon cas personne riens nentend.

Cent mille regretz me poursuivent sans cesse,

Dueil me conduict et plaisir me delaisse;
Et fortune si tres mal me promene
Que ma langueur vault pis que mort soudaine
Puisquil est force quainsi je vous delaisse.

(c) Lille 402

Deuil et ennuy, soucy, regret et paine
Ont eslong ma plaisance mondaine,
Dont a par moy je me plains et tormente,
Et en espoir nay plus ung brin dattente:
Vela comment Fortune me promaine.
Je nay pense qui joye me ramaine;
Ma fantaisie est de desplaisir plaine,
Car a toute heure devant moy se presente
Deuil et ennuy.
Cest[e] langueur vault pis que mort soudaine,
Puis quen moy na sang, cher, os, nerf ne vaine
Qui rudiment et tresfort ne sen sente.
Pour abreger, sans quen riens je vous mente,
Jay sans cesser, qui ma vie a fin maine,
Deuil et ennuy.
The first line of Deuil et ennuy in (a), Deuil et ennuy me persecutent tant, carries a
semantic connection to the first line of Cent mille regretz, Cent mille regretz me poursuivent
sans cesse, in (b). In the same pair of chansons, the phrase tous les regretz resonates with
Cent mille regretz. Finally, an intertextual relationship connects Deuil et ennuy in Lille 402 (c)
and Cent mille regretz. The boldface phrases indicate the cross-references between the two texts
(b and c).

50

Lille 402, no. 42. See also fn. 35.

400

Example 6.7. Deuil et ennuy, mm. 12-35 (after Picker 1965)

401

402

These intertextual relationships among the two versions of Deuil et ennuy and Cent mille
regretz create a web of associations that reverberate in the musical settings. For example, the
rapid Contratenor gesture at the point of stasis in Deuil et ennuy (Ex. 6.7, mm. 22-23) recalls the
same motif in the third line of Cent mille regretz, Et fortune si tres mal me promene (Ex. 6.3,
mm. 28-39), a phrase which is, in turn, intertextually related to l. 5 in the Lille 402 Deuil et
ennuy rondeau (Vela comment Fortune me promaine). This is the motif associated with the
fortuna topos, which thus becomes a common thread that connects the musical settings of Deuil
et ennuy and Cent mille regretz in a subtle way.
The same topos features prominently in Quant il advient, a quatrain of a proverbial
character, much like the four-line Pour souhaitter set by Josquin (see Chapter V).
1. Quant il advient choses constraintes
2. Prendre les fault commeelles sont;
3. Faire comme les aultres font
4. Pour mieulx venir ses attaintes.

When hardships come your way

You have to take them the way they are;
Face them as everyone else does
To better come in terms with them.

403

The through-composed structure (ABCD), the central role of the interval of the fourth, and the
falling fifths at the ends of phrases are typical of the multi-voice chansons securely attributed to
La Rue. The lack of internal cadences, which ensures a continuous flow of music, also complies
with La Rues style. 51 At the same time, the subject of the texta persons attitude towards the
misfortunes of lifeis closely related to the fortuna topos, even though the word fortuna is not
explicitly stated in the poetry. As in Josquins Pour souhaitter, fortuna symbolism is also present
in this chanson. The opening of the Bassus features a stepwise ascending octave, a gesture
commonly associated with fortuna settings, as was demonstrated in Chapter V. Two more
melodic octaves appear in the same voice, in mm. 32-34 and 40-42 (Ex. 6.8). Furthermore, two
descending fifths follow the opening octave (mm. 5-11), in the manner of Josquins Fortuna dun
gran tempo or De Vignes Franc coeur quas tu/Fortuna dun gran tempo discussed in Chapter
V. In the canonic melodies, the opening ascending motion is counterbalanced by a descending
melodic seventh over the word constraintes, possibly depicting the hardships of life. 52 A
similar gesture based on the interval of an ascending seventh features in the Superius over the
same word (Ex. 6.8, mm. 15-17) and later on, in mm. 29-30. The chanson receives
straightforward treatment with minimal word repetition, resulting in one of the shortest multivoice settings in general (92 breves). While phrase repetition would have lengthened the song, its
composer chose not to. He possibly adhered to the rhetorical figure of thought known as maxim,
a saying drawn from life, the charm of which emanates from the brevity of its statement. 53 The
music imitates the economical presentation of the poetic subject matter and eschews repetition in
order to bring forth in the most succinct way its message.
51

phrases.

Only two-voice cadences occur in this chanson. There are no clausulae verae to demarcate the musical

52

This gesture recalls La Rues treatment over the word abesseroit in Dung aultre aymer as well as the
extensive use of sevenths in Cueurs desolez/Dies illa.
53
Ad C. Herennium 4.17.24; trans. Harry Caplan, 289.

404

Example 6.8. Quant il advient (after Picker 1965)

405

406

407

408

The last chanson conjecturally attributed to La Rue is the triple canon Je ne dis mot. In its
sole source, BrusBR 228, Je ne dis mot is scored for three voices in strict canon at the fourth.
Like Quant il advient, Je ne dis mot is a quatrain that presents the poetic personas attitude
towards the hardships of life and is also set in an economical fashion (it is only 84 breves long).
1. Je ne dis mot, il convient que jendure.
2. Et endurant espoir veura mon cueur.
3. Haye je suis, helas, et mon honneur
4. A toute place ma povreaventure.

I do not say a word, I must endure.

And by enduring hope will come to my heart.
I am trapped, alas, and my honor
Is at stake in my poor adventure.

Phrase repetition is restricted to the opening and conclusion. Despite its brevity, Je ne dis mot is
a highly rhetorical work. The structure of each canonic pair is ABCA, reflecting partly the abba
rhyme of the poetry. Although the middle phrases B and C, that is, the phrases that correspond to
the b-rhyming lines, seem at first glance unrelated, careful examination reveals that there are
subtle interconnections between them and that these are individual for every canonic pair. For
the upper canonic pair, phrases B and C are variations of one another; phrase C starts with the
same ascending fourth as phrase B, transposed up a second, while its second hemistich is a
variation of the second hemistich of phrase B (Ex. 6.9, upper canon, mm. 10-25). The middle
canon relates phrases B and C through an instance of anadiplosis: phrase C opens the same way
that phrase B concludes (Ex. 6.9, middle canon, mm. 16-22). Finally, the low canon concludes
both phrases B and C with a similar cadential gesture (Ex. 6.9, low canon, Quinta, mm. 15-16
and 24-25).
The composer further takes advantage of the polyptoton (the repetition of a word in a
different form) between ll. 1 and 2 (endure/endurant) and reflects this prosodic feature in
musical terms. The upper canon sings a descending fourth, B-flat-F (F-C in Superius 2), over the
word endure, and an ascending fourth, F-B-flat (C-F in Superius 2), over the word endurant.
This gesture recalls Josquins treatment in Si congi prens, discussed in Chapter IV. There, ll. 1

409

and 2 were connected with a similar instance of polyptoton: Si congi prens de mes belles
amours/Vray amoureulx, ne men veuillez blasmer. Josquin assigned a descending fifth in the
Superius over the word amours, followed by an ascending fifth over the word amoureulx.
The identical compositional strategy to reflect the same prosodic manifestation possibly
points to the authorship of Je ne dis mot by Josquin. Je ne dis mot displays other features that
favor the attribution to Josquin. First, the closed structure, ABCA, better belongs with Josquins
repetitive structural schemes than with La Rues through-composed forms. Second, the extensive
repetitions of the last verse (threefold repetition of its second hemistich) recall Josquins endoriented schemes and contrast with La Rues brief presentation of his final lines. Third, the
economical treatment of the material (e.g., phrases B and C are variations of one another and the
second hemistich of phrases A, C, and A is based on the same rhythmic motif) perfectly
matches Josquins penchant for economy, as was demonstrated in Chapters III and IV. Finally,
the syllabic, stepwise nature of the melodic lines in Je ne dis mot stands in contrast to La Rues
varied melodies, featuring leaps and frequent changes of direction.

410

Example 6.9. Je ne dis mot (after Picker 1965)

411

412

413

Musico-rhetorical analysis sheds further light on questions of authorship. The obvious

intertextual relationship of the two Cueurs desolez texts and the common compositional
strategies suggest that the two works were penned by the same composer. The unusual stasis in
Deuil et ennuy over the words tous les regretz unveiled the concealed intertextual relationship
between Deuil et ennuy and Cent mille regretz, adding thus another argument for the attribution
of Deuil et ennuy to La Rue. Finally, the compositional planning and individual melodic details
bespeak La Rues authorship of Quant il advient, whereas the rhetorical analysis of Je ne dis mot
revealed closer affinities with Josquins style than with La Rues.
The musico-rhetorical analysis of the chansons of Tables 6.1 and 6.2 demonstrates that
La Rue was far from indifferent to the structural, phonetic, and semantic implications of the
poetry he set. However, he responded in different and varied ways to the prosodic features

414

compared to Josquin. La Rues musico-rhetorical approach could be described as a broad one, in

which varied musical elements are combined in complicated and often concealed ways to reflect,
interpret, and enhance the poetic characteristics. In addition to the stylistic profile drawn by
Meconi and Bernstein, my rhetorical analysis further demonstrates La Rues preference for
through-composed structures (even within his rondeaux settings) and for posing compositional
challenges by assigning significant melodic material to a voice other than the structural one(s).
The competition that results from the simultaneous need of the structural voices to fulfill their
harmonic and melodic implications creates constant tension and reveals La Rues more
experimental attitude towards multi-voice composition. Finally, in contrast to Josquins
straightforward manner of canonic writing in the aristocratisant chansons, La Rues canons
incorporate extensive repetitions of both small textual segments and of complete phrases.
The employment of classical rhetorical principles in order to attract attention or represent
a textual point is also widespread with La Rue, as the application of the figures of catabasis,
anadiplosis, aposiopesis, and the prominent presence of the fortuna motifs in the above chansons
testify. The extensive use of rhetorical figures in chansons both securely and conjecturally
attributed to La Rue demonstrates that these techniques are common not only in Josquins multivoice chanson writing but that they constitute an important tool in the expressive apparatus of
other Franco-Flemish composers active in the first quarter of the sixteenth century.

415

CHAPTER VII
MULTI-VOICE CHANSONS BY JEAN MOUTON AND OTHER CONTEMPORARY
COMPOSERS
The five- and six-voice chansons by Josquin des Prez and Pierre de La Rue comprise
approximately half of the extant multi-voice secular repertory. The remaining multi-voice
chansons that fall within the scope of the present study (songs that survive with their texts) are
penned by various composersincluding many anonymous compositionsand demonstrate a
wide range of compositional techniques. The present chapter explores the different facets of
musical rhetoric in the chansons by Mouton (part I), whose output in the subgenre of the multivoice song is substantial, and then samples the rhetorical treatment by other contemporary
composers (part II).
I. Multi-voice chansons by Jean Mouton
Immediately following Josquin and La Rue, Jean Mouton is one of the most important
multi-voice chanson composers of the early sixteenth century. His secular output comprises
approximately twenty five chansons, six of which are multi-voice compositions. Of these only
one has a six-part texture while the remainder are for five voices. Like Josquins music,
Moutons multi-voice chansons are mainly preserved in posthumous sources. The 1572 Mellange
de chansons as well as the earlier 1560 Livre de meslanges are the most important sources of this

416

repertory. 1 Only one of Moutons multi-voice chansons, the five-voice Du bon du coeur,
survives in contemporary sources. 2
Moutons approach to multi-voice song composition markedly differs from that of his
most famous contemporaries, Josquin and La Rue. First, Mouton avoids canonic writing and
prefers to build his five- and six-voice songs around a known cantus prius factus or a melody of
his own invention, which he usually places in the Superius. Howard Mayer Brown has suggested
that, in all of his songs for expanded textures, Mouton incorporates a borrowed melody as his
upper part. However, Browns remark remains speculative since no such melodies have been
identified, with the possible exception of La rouse du moy de may. 3 Second, Mouton develops
his songs around a few melodic modules, which he constantly transforms and projects both
linearly and vertically. Third, unlike La Rue, who avoids altogether poetry of a popular nature,
Moutons chansons represent both the courtly and the popular registers. Also, unlike Josquin and
La Rue, Mouton did not rely on the traditional poetic forms. Even in the chansons in the
aristocratisant tradition, the poetry exhibits unconventional metric and structural features.
Although octosyllabic and decasyllabic verses are common, none of the multi-voice chansons is
a setting of a rondeau refrain. Table 7.1 presents the multi-voice chansons by Mouton according
to the nature of the poetry set. The chansons of Group 1 are settings of courtly love poetry, while
those of Group 2 represent the popularisant tradition.
1

Mellange de chansons tant des vieux autheurs que des modernes (Paris: Le Roy & Ballard, 1572) [RISM
1572 ], and Livre de meslanges, contenant six vingtz chansons (Paris: Le Roy & Ballard, 1560) [not in RISM].
2
In Vienna, sterreichische Nationalbibliothek, Musiksammlung, MS Mus. 18746 (olim A.N.35.H.14),
henceforth referred to as VienNB Mus. 18746.
3
Howard M. Brown, Genesis of a Style: The Parisian Chanson, 1500-1530, in Chanson and Madrigal
1480-1530: Studies in Comparison and Contrast, ed. James Haar, Isham Library Papers II (Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, 1964), 27. Only two of the chansons from Table 7.1, La rouse du moy de may and Vray
Dieu, quamoureux, appear in Browns inventory of theatrical chansons. While there seems to be a common model
for the different settings of La rouse du moy de may, no such model can be reconstructed for Vray Dieu,
quamoureux. For both chansons, Brown acknowledges that we may [emphasis mine] be dealing with a cantus prius
factus. Howard M. Brown, Music in the French Secular Theater, 1440-1550 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press, 1963), 198-199, 281-282.
2

417

Table 7.1. Multi-voice chansons by Mouton, divided according to the nature of the poetry
Title
Du bon du coeur
(5)
Vray Dieu
damours (5)
Vray Dieu,
quamoureux (6)
Ce que mon coeur
pense (5)
La rouse du mois
de may (5)
Le berger et la
bergre (5)

Cantus prius
Poetic structure
factus
Group 1 (Aristocratisant tradition)
None
abbba ab, octosyllable
identified
None
abab cb, decasyllable except for l.5
identified
(c-rhyme) which is hexasyllable
None
abab bab, octosyllable
identified
Group 2 (Popularisant tradition)
None
ab cbdb ab, pentasyllable (only the
identified
even-numbered verses rhyme)
Possibly
ab aaab ab, a-rhymes
heptasyllables, b-rhymes
octosyllables
None
ababb cbb, a- and c-rhymes
identified
octosyllables, b-rhymes
heptasyllables

Musical structure
through-composed, ABCDEF
[A1A2]B[A1A2]B CB
(structure reflects rhyme)
AB1AB2 C B2B1 (partly
reflects rhyme)
AB CAB AB (partly reflects
rhyme)
AB CCAB AB (reflects
rhyme)
Text-based

Since the presence or absence of canon cannot be used as a criterion for differentiating
compositional techniques, as was the case with Josquin, the analysis distinguishes between the
individual chansons according to the nature of their poetry, as defined in the above table. Thus, I
first examine the chansons of Group 1 and then those of Group 2. In the absence of an overall
assessment of Moutons style, Rebecca Stewarts and Browns preliminary investigation of
Moutons motets can provide a good starting point for an analytical discussion of Moutons
secular music style.
In her study of Moutons stylistic profile in motet composition, Stewart concluded that
Moutons compositional techniques not only differ fundamentally from those of Josquin, but
they appear so evenly spread throughout his works, that they can be used as criteria in assessing
the identity of the composer . . . 4 According to Stewart, Moutons approach to motet writing is

Rebecca Stewart, Jean Mouton: Man and Musician. Motets Attributed to Both Josquin and Mouton, in
Proceedings of the International Josquin Symposium Utrecht 1986, ed. Willem Elders (Utrecht: Vereniging voor

418

mainly characterized by its motivic orientation. This feature springs from Moutons view of his
texts as small-scale groupings of words that stimulate the creation of precise melodic and
rhythmic patterns. These patterns, usually of limited length, become motives and are
subsequently . . . subjected to one of Moutons ingenious contrapuntal techniques: in addition
to normal imitation, these include melodic inversion and paraphrase, as well as rhythmic
augmentation, diminution and variation. As a consequence of this approach . . . Mouton often
repeats, either exactly or in paraphrased form, a word, phrase or, at important points, a clause in
all voices. 5 Mouton places these varied units in close proximity with endless combinations, thus
creating the motivic contrast characteristic of his writing.
Furthermore, in his study of Moutons six-voice motets, Brown pointed out that the
composer does not usually assign a particular textual phrase to a single melody, but tends instead
to associate it with several. 6 As a result, Mouton often uses new motives for already heard texts
and old motives for new textual phrases. 7 Contrary to Josquins tendency for economy of
material, Mouton prefers to dazzle the listener by his rich profusion of musical ideas. 8 While
Josquin explores the formal implications of a small number of important motives, Mouton seems
unconcerned with the structural potential of his melodic and rhythmic fragments. 9
All of the features pointed out by Stewart and Brown also emerge in the multi-voice
songs of both Groups 1 and 2. Especially for Group 1, the chansons in the aristocratisant
Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis, 1991), 158. Stewarts stylistic analysis aims at providing criteria for establishing
authenticity for dubia motets.
5
Stewart, Jean Mouton, 158-159.
6
Howard M. Brown, Notes Towards a Definition of Personal Style: Conflicting Attributions and the SixPart Motets of Josquin and Mouton, in Proceedings of the International Josquin Symposium, ed. Willem Elders
(Utrecht: Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis, 1991), 201.
7
More particularly, in the opening of the motet O Maria piissima, Mouton employs what Brown describes
as a double exposition. In this device, a pair of high voices sings the first line of the text, followed by a pair of
middle voices that sing the same text to a completely different melody. This process is then repeated with the same
music for the second line of the text. Brown, Notes, 200.
8
Brown, Notes, 201.
9
Brown, Notes, 190.

419

tradition, rhetorical analysis reveals common compositional strategies and expressive techniques
as well as intertextual relationships. The first song, Du bon du coeur, can serve as a conduit for
the exploration of the remaining chansons of Group 1.
Du bon du coeur is the typical courtly plea of the knight requesting the ladys favor.
Despite the courtly clichs of the poetry, the structural and metric layout of the text is markedly
different from the customary cinquain or quatrain refrain. In Du bon du coeur, a five-line abbba
stanza is followed by a couplet with an ab rhyme.
Du bon du coeur, ma chere dame,
10
[Je vous serviray loyaument,]
Je vous supply tres humblement
Que me recevs [retens] doucement
Pour vous servir de cors et dame.

From the goodness of my heart, my dear lady,

[I shall serve you loyally,]
I beseech you most humbly
That you receive [retain] me sweetly
In order to serve you with body and soul.

Et si vous jure sur mon ame

Que vous serviray loyaument.

And truly I swear to you on my soul

That I shall serve you loyally. 11

The Superius, the most important melodic part, features melismatic passages and
successive suspensions, evoking the musical style of a bygone era. The song curiously begins
with the entrance of the Bassus part, a gesture unprecedented among Moutons multi-voice
chansons. The highly imploring tone of the text possibly prompted Mouton to open Du bon du
coeur with the lowest voice, a musical depiction of humility. Whereas Josquin would probably
employ a long descending line, Mouton incorporates a different musical means for such
representation. 12 However, later on, the Superius, Contratenor, Quinta, and Bassus do employ a

10

It is possible that the Superius text is corrupt. While all voices continue with Je vous supply tres
humblement after the first line, the upper voice interpolates the line Je vous serviray loyaument, presented here in
brackets. Later on, the same voice sings retens instead of recevs. It is, however, also possible that the upper
voice differentiates itself as the main bearer of the text and thus proceeds independently of the other voices, as is the
case with the canonic melodies in some of Josquins chansons.
11
Translation provided in Charles Jacobs, ed., LeRoy & Ballards 1572 Mellange de Chansons (University
Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1982), 608. Unless otherwise indicated, the translations are my own.
12
See, for example, the descending gesture in all voices in Josquins Je ne me puis tenir daimer (explored
in Chapter IV) over the text Recepvez vostre amy.

420

standard rhetorical device by singing a descending melody at the phrase Je vous supply tres
humblement.
Du bon du coeur also exhibits, to a certain extent, the motivic orientation described by
Stewart. While the chanson is through-composed, the individual melodic phrases seem to be
closely interrelated. Long enough to be hardly regarded as motives, these phrases are
nevertheless fragmented into smaller units that generate subsequent melodic material. Example
7.1 presents the individual melodic phrases of the Superius and points out the relationships
between the smaller units. As the example demonstrates, a combination of the opening of phrase
A with phrase B provides the melodic material for the third phrase; phrase C opens with the
characteristic ascending third, F-A, of phrase A (motif a) and after a descending fourth gesture
continues with phrase B (motif b) to conclude with a melismatic cadential continuation. The
melismatic character of the third phrase is further intensified in phrase D, possibly in response to
the text; the respective verses of these two phrases form the climax of the poetry, expressing its
very essence: That you receive [retain] me sweetly/In order to serve you with body and soul.
The interdependence of the third and fourth lines is made all the more evident in the melodic
relationship between phrases C and D. Besides their common melismatic nature, phrase D
presents a slightly varied retrograde of phrase C (compare the phrases in dashed brackets
connected by the dashed lines, in mm. 27-36).
For the final couplet the music returns to the opening material. Phrase E is indebted to the
second half of phrase A (mm.13-15) although some relationship with phrase B cannot be denied.
Finally, phrase F is a rhythmic variation of phrase A. Similar interactions occur among the
melodic phrases of the other voices, which occasionally engage in approximate imitations with
the Superius. The similarities between phrases B and C possibly reflect the rhyming identity and

421

semantic continuity of the respective verses (Je vous supply tres humblement/Que me recevs
doucement). Whereas Josquin often employs phrase repetition to reflect common prosodic
features among different verses, Mouton manipulates the details of the melodic phrases to create
more complicated interrelationships. In Du bon du coeur, such interrelationships find expression
in the melodic and rhythmic variation of the opening notes for phrases C, E, and F, as well as in
the retrograde motion inspired by phrase C in phrase D. In this respect, Moutons music is closer
to La Rues. However, in La Rues music such manipulations are rather local phenomena and do
not enjoy the extensive treatment encountered in Moutons songs. This argument is, of course,
nullified if the top voice is proven to be derived from a cantus prius factus, in which case the
above properties would be inherent in the borrowed melody. Nevertheless, we can safely
conclude that Mouton either composed the Superius melody or chose it for its tight integration of
motivic material, an essential aspect of his writing, as we shall see.
Du bon du coeur best exemplifies Moutons tendency to disassociate specific melodic
material from particular phrases of the text, as Brown has pointed out. For example, in the
opening of the chanson the Contratenor and the Bassus repeat the first line of text to a
completely different melody., while the last line of the chanson, Que vous serviray loyaument,
is not related to the melody of Je vous serviray loyaument. In contrast, in their multi-voice
chansons, Josquin and La Rue set repeated textual phrases to the same music.

422

Example 7.1. Mouton, Du bon du coeur, Superius (after Jacobs 1982)

423

The technique of fragmentation of melodic material appears intensified in Vray Dieu

damours and Vray Dieu, quamoureux. The similarity between the two chanson incipits possibly
indicates that Mouton conceived them as a pair. The close relationship between their opening
musical phrases, the common compositional strategies, and the fact that Vray Dieu, quamoureux
is the only six-voice chanson in Moutons multi-voice output further reinforce the notion that the
two chansons form an envoy and responce pair, with Vray Dieu, quamoureux being a response
to Vray Dieu damours. 13
Vray Dieu damours is the highly charged love complaint of a noble lady. The
decasyllabic ab alternating verses are interrupted by a six-syllable line before the repetition of the
last verse. This shorter line poses a rhetorical question, Fault-il quainsi je soye? and Mouton
underscores the individuality of this verse through a distinct musical treatment.
1. Vray Dieu damours, maudite soit la journe
2. Quoncqen ma vie amoureuse je fus.
3. Car maintenant je suis la desole;
4. Seulette suis et si nay point damy.
5. Fautil quainsi je soye?
6. Seulette suis et si nay point damy.

rhyme music
a A1A2
b B
a A1A2

True God of love, cursed be the day

That ever in my life I was in love.
Because now I am disconsolate;
I am all alone and indeed have no friend
at all.
Is it necessary that I thus be?
I am all alone and indeed have no friend
14
at all.

b B
c C
b B

As the above scheme demonstrates, the individual melodic phrases of the Superius, the
most important voice, reflect the rhyme of the poetry (see also the phrase structure in Ex. 7.2).
The rest of the voices have a similar but not identical structure. Mouton observes the syntactical

13

The expansion of the texture for a response is very common in envoy and responce settings.
Translation based on Jacobs, LeRoy & Ballards, 591. A three-strophe chanson with a very similar first
stanza appears in Sensuivent plusieurs belles chansons nouvelles [Paris: n.p., c. 1515], modern edition in Brian
Jeffery, ed., Chanson Verse of the Early Renaissance, 2 vols. (London: Tecla, 1971-76), 1:132-133. The first stanza
reads: Vray dieu damours, maudit soit la journe/Que oncques jamais ma servi./Car maintenant suis fille
desole,/Seulle suis sans point avoir amy./Amy, amy, amy je nay./Dont suis mal fortune;/Or na mon cueur si non
pleurs et soucy. Jeffery mentions a setting of Vray Dieu damours by Lupi and Jacotin but omits Moutons. Various
fifteenth-century chansons open with the words Vray Dieu damours but continue differently. For the various
settings and their texts see David Fallows, A Catalogue of Polyphonic Songs, 1415-1480 (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1999), 408-410.
14

424

units of the text by clearly delineating the sentences with full cadences. Clausulae verae on G, D,
G, and D demarcate the four main clauses (at the end of ll. 2, 3, 4, and 5, respectively); Mouton
also marks the incomplete first line by a weaker cadence on A. The first musical phrase is
divided into two smaller units, A1 and A2, which correspond to the two hemistichs of the verse.
At the repetition of this phrase for l. 3, Mouton varies the first segment (A1) by maintaining its
contour and re-arranging the order of the notes (compare the Superius, mm. 20-22 to mm. 1-5 in
Ex. 7.2). He then continues with an abbreviated version of A2. While Mouton generally blends
the individual phrases together by dove-tailingcreating thus the sense of continuity that
characterizes much of his writinghe demarcates the entrance of the dramatic phrase Seulette
suis by avoiding such blending (Ex. 7.2, m. 28). The subsequent rhetorical question, which,
furthermore, falls outside the decasyllabic pace of the other verses, receives special attention.
Mouton emphasizes the entrance of l. 5 with a musical stasis (mm. 32-34). Four out of the five
voices move in a combination of breves and longas for the utterance of Faut-il. This gesture
stands in sharp contrast to the melismatic and faster-moving character of the surrounding
phrases. The deceleration of pace is further underscored by a rest in all voices before the
presentation of the entire question Faut-il quainsi je soye. This verse is set to a distinct
musical phrase that spans the range of an ascending seventh (Ex. 7.2, Superius, mm. 36-40).
Mouton, also takes advantage of the rhetorical potential of the expanded texture; he projects the
utterance Fautil across the polyphonic fabric in close temporal proximity, thus dramatizing
this intense moment in musical terms (see the dashed lines in mm. 32-36).

425

Example 7.2. Mouton, Vray Dieu d'amours (after Jacobs 1982)

426

427

428

429

430

431

Example 7.3. Mouton, Vray Dieu, qu'amoureux (after Jacobs 1982)

432

433

434

435

436

437

A similar treatment also occurs at the fifth line of Vray Dieu, quamoureux, which shares
other poetic and musical features with Vray Dieu damours. The parallel compositional strategies
and the common incipits between the two songs invite further exploration of their intertextual
connection. The expansion of texture to six voices, a common practice in model and response
settings, strengthens the hypothesis that the two songs were conceived as such.
The poem describes the male lovers complaint because he is deprived of his beloveds
company. It survives as the first stanza of four loosely related strophes in a chanson anthology
published during the first decades of the sixteenth century. 15
rhyme music

1. Vray Dieu, quamoureux ont de peine

2. Certes jaymeroys mieux la mort.
3. Je nay sur moy ny nerf, ny vaine
4. Qui ne se sente du remort.
5. Je my plein fort, las, ay je tort?
6. Lon moste ce que mon coeur ayme,
7. Encores dit on que jay tort.

True God, of the afflictions that lovers have

Certainly I would prefer death.
I have in me neither strength nor vanity
Which does not feel the remorse.
I complain loudly, alas, am I wrong?
They deprive me of what my heart loves
And they keep saying that I am wrong.

a
b
a
b
b
a
b

A
B1
A
B1B2
C
B2
B1

Mouton sets the first phrase of Vray Dieu, quamoureux to closely resemble that of Vray Dieu
damours (compare the Superius, mm. 1-5 in Ex. 7.2 to that of Ex. 7.3, mm. 5-8). In addition to
the common incipts and corresponding musical phrases, both songs feature a rhetorical question
at their fifth line of text. Mouton treats this point similarly in both chansons. He introduces the
question after a clausula vera, demarcates it with long rests, and, in the response, he further
employs a simple homorhythmic style that prevails for the rest of the chanson. The change to
homorhythm and the extremely syllabic pace slow down the chanson, creating a stasis similar to
the one in Vray Dieu damours. The final line of the poem, Encore dit on que jay tort, also
receives special attention (Ex. 7.3, mm. 40-end ). Based on the ascending/descending third of

15

Les chansons nouvelles que on chante de present (n.p., n.d. but from the first three decades of the
sixteenth century). Modern edition in Jeffery, Chanson Verse, 1:112-113. The relationship of the remaining stanzas
to the first one is unclear, which makes a strophic performance of the song unlikely.

438

phrase B2, Mouton creates a distinct last section in homorhythmic style, in which the reiteration
of the words encore dit on aims at the literal depiction of persistence (encore) in musical
terms.
The individual melodic phrases in Vray Dieu, quamoureux bear many features
characteristic of Moutons motivic orientation. Phrases A and B are closely related in their
intervallic content but they cadence on different notes. Phrase A unfolds in descending/ascending
thirds, starting on C, and cadences on A. Phrase B presents itself in two guises: as B1 beginning
on A, ascending to C, and cadencing on F; and as B2 beginning on F, ascending to C through A,
and again cadencing on F. 16 The melodic content of phrase C is similar to that of B1 and B2,
highlighting the triad F-A-C. Thus phrase C descends from C to F through interlocking
descending thirds, and cadences on A (see brackets in Ex. 7.3). At this point, while the Superius
and Tenor unfold in exact imitation, the Quinta and Sexta are subjected to one of Moutons
favorite devices: retaining the tonal content of phrase C, Mouton re-arranges the notes through a
combination of melodic inversion and paraphrase techniques. This treatment is typical of
Mouton and exemplifies his penchant for varied repetition and transformation.
If indeed Vray Dieu, quamoureux is based on a cantus prius factus, then Mouton must
have chosen it because of its tightly integrated motivic material. The close melodic associations
among the individual musical phrases could also suggest that Mouton was the composer of the
Superius melody, which was then used by Johannes Lupi and others to become a cantus prius
factus. 17

16

In the first appearance of B1 there is a brief linear extension down to C. However, this is eliminated in the
second appearance of the same phrase (see mm. 23-26)
17
Lupis setting transposes the Superius down a fourth. For Lupis and other related settings see Brown,
Music in the French Secular Theater, no. 412. The monophonic setting Vray Dieu, quamoureux in Paris 12744
(Paris, Bibliothque Nationale, MS fonds fr. 12744) is unrelated to that of Mouton, Lupi and the others, and the texts
have only their first line in common.

439

Motivic fragmentation of the melodic material and its subsequent subjection to variation
and repetition becomes further intensified in the chansons of Group 2. The three chansons in the
popularisant tradition feature asymmetrical rhyming schemes, smaller numbers of syllables, and
briefer melodic lines (compared to the courtly chansons). Textually, narration combines with
dialogue and pastoral settings. All three songs are possibly based on pre-existent popular models.
Mouton fragments these melodies into smaller units, which I will call modules, and which are
usually melodically and rhythmically interrelated. He then transforms these modules through
various contrapuntal manipulations to create more units that are spread throughout the
polyphonic texture. These manipulations are frequently so complex that it becomes difficult to
discern their origins since Mouton often combines elements from different modules to generate
further material. Thus the identification of the different modules is only possible through
retrospective analysis.
Le berger et la bergre reflects the pastourelle tradition in its combination of narration
with dialogue. However, the interlocutors speech, the shepherds and the shepherdesss, is only
made possible through the narrators voice, who describes their dialogue (see ll. 3, 6, and 8).
1. Le berger et la bergre
2. Bras bras jouer sen vont.
3. Je te pris (dit la bergre)
4. Mon amy dy moy ton nom.
5. Et lire lire liron.
6. Je te pris (dit la bergre)
7. Mon amy dy moy ton nom.
8. Le mignon luy fait response:
9. Par bleu jay nom Fourbifron.
10.Et fourbi le moy donc.

The shepherd and the shepherdess

Arm in arm they went to play.
I prithee (said the shepherdess)
My friend, tell me your name.
And tra, la, la, la.
I prithee (said the shepherdess)
My friend, tell me your name.
Her darling replied to her:
By Jove, my name is Fourbifron.
Well, clean me, then. 18

modules
ABC
DD
A(arch-shape)
D
E
BC
D
A(arch-shape)
D
E

The first line of the chanson features three different melodic modules, A, B, and C, all
beginning with the skip of an ascending fifth (see Ex. 7.4, mm. 1-6). 19 Therefore, all voices open
18

Translation based on Jacobs, LeRoy & Ballards, 588. Jacobs does not translate l. 5. I have also altered
the translation of l. 10, which in Jacobs reads And polish me it, then.

440

the chanson with similar melodic material and continue with more or less differentiated melodic
extensions. The second line features a fourth melodic module in the Superius, module D, that
spans a descending fifth and has a distinct homogenous rhythmic character. The same module
immediately repeats, retaining its characteristic rhythm but altering the tonal content to create a
meandering melodic line (ascending/descending/ascending, Ex. 7.4, mm.14-16). With the switch
to first person speech, all voices engage in approximate imitation of an arch-shape line, which
springs melodically from module A. At the same time, the rather melismatic character of the first
two narrative verses gives way to a very syllabic, declamatory style, especially with the
shepherdesss request to know the shepherds name (module D, mm. 19-23). The following
nonsense-syllable verse (l. 5) is built around a melodic cadential gesture, which emphasizes D in
all voices. It is a short but rhythmically animated module (E) with an anagogical accent on the
second note, reminiscent of dance rhythm.
For the repetition of ll. 3 and 4 for ll. 6 and 7, Mouton typically assigns different material
to the individual voices. However, this material is not new but a combination of modules B, C,
and D in varied forms (see the brackets in Ex. 7.4, mm. 26-37). Mouton thus reiterates the music
of the opening in a different guise. The following line (l. 8), introducing the shepherds reply
through the narrators voice, is again based on the arch-shape melodies that accompanied the
shepherdesss question in l. 3 (compare, for example, Superius, mm. 16-18 to mm. 39-41 in Ex.
7.4). For mignons response the music becomes again predominantly syllabic, based on the

19

In the musical examples, modules will be indicated with a capital letter in parentheses to distinguish them
from phrases, indicated simply by capital letters.

441

rhythm of module D. For the last obscene line, the music brings back the animated dotted rhythm
of l. 5. 20
Although at first glance Le berger et la bergre seems to be through-composed, the
recurrence of the modules in ever varied expressions turns such an argument mute. The musical
form closely follows the changes in the text (from narration to direct speech and vice versa) and
Mouton demarcates the different sections not by introducing new music but by manipulation of
the texture, the declamatory style, and the cadential treatment. As was mentioned above, Mouton
observes the change to first person speech by turning to a syllabic style. However, he
differentiates between the female voice and that of her companion. First, the shepherdess sings in
arch-shape melodic lines (module A) in all voices, whereas the shepherds speech is based
exclusively on module D. Second, while the main cadences of the chanson fall on A or D, at the
points of direct speech the music cadences on E (for both ll. 3-4 and 9). However, at the end of
the shepherdesss utterance (l. 4) there is an A in the Bassus which modifies the effect of the
cadence (m. 23). The A is missing in le bergers cadence (end of l. 9, m. 44). Mouton has thus
devised another way to differentiate not only between narration and direct speech but also
between the female and male voice.

20

The name Fourbifron is a pun on the verb fourbir which means to polish but also to copulate.
Rose M. Bidler, Dictionnaire rotique: anien franais, moyen franais, Renaissance (Montreal: ditions Ceres,
2002), 301.

442

Example 7.4. Mouton, Le berger et la bergre (after Jacobs 1982)

443

444

445

446

447

The technique of fragmenting melodies into smaller modules that are melodically and
rhythmically related is also very prominent in Ce que mon coeur pense. The structure of this
eight-line stanza, in which only the even-numbered verses rhyme (if we exclude the exclamatory
Helas), recalls the structure of other chansons in the popular tradition, such as Petite
camusette. 21
rhyme

modules

1. Ce que mon coeur pense

2. Je ne le di pas, Helas.

What my heart thinks

I shall not say, alas.

a
b

A
B

3. Au jardin mon pre

4. Un oyseau y a
5. Qui dit tous les jours
6. Qui senvolera, Helas.

In the garden my father

Has a bird
That says every day
That he will fly away, alas.

c
b
d
b

7. Ce que mon coeur pense

8. Je ne le di pas, Helas.

What my heart thinks

I shall not say, alas.

a
b

A
B

A
B

The music in Ce que mon coeur pense is constructed around units of two lines, which
correspond to the syntactical units of the poetry (ll. 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, and 7-8). 22 Every unit is
demarcated by a complete cadence. Two melodic modules, A and B, comprise the melodic
fodder out of which Mouton generates a considerably long chansonthe longest in his multivoice chanson outputthrough extensive text repetition. The two modules are closely associated
through a common rhythmic pattern (Ex. 7.5, mm. 8-12). 23 However, module A is melodically
more energetic with its ascending fourth motion, while module B is more static, featuring a
repeated note gesture. Module C is indebted to the rhythm of both modules A and B, but is
longer due to a cadential extension over the words Un oyseau y a (see, for example, Ex. 7.5,

21

It is also possible to read the lines as decasyllabic (again excluding Helas), in which case we are
dealing with a four-line stanza with a single rhyme (the b-rhyme in the above scheme).
22
Unlike Josquins and La Rues multi-voice chansons, in which the voices sing the entirety of the text, in
Moutons chansons there are instances in which a voice omits parts or whole lines of the poetry. In Ce que mon
coeur pense the Bassus omits the first line of the text and later on also the fifth verse. The only such instance in
Josquins songs occurs in Tenez moy en vos bras, discussed in Chapter IV.
23
In Ex. 7.5, I begin marking the modules after their first appearance in the Superius.

448

Superius, mm. 27-31 and Tenor, mm. 22-25). Module C provides the music for both lines 3 and
4.
As was the case with Le berger et la bergre, Mouton here, too, observes the changes in
the nature of the speaking voice. The chanson text switches from direct first-person
representation (ll. 1-2) to narration (ll. 3-6) and finishes with the repetition of ll. 1-2. Mouton
underscores the moments of self-representation, Je ne le dit pas, with homorhythmic passages
that amplify the recitative-like rhythm of module B (Ex. 7.5, mm. 4-6, 11-14, and 49-54).
As the scheme next to the translation demonstrates, the musical structure of the chanson
partially reflects the rhyme of the poetry. However, this scheme is but a simplification of what
actually happens in the music. Every return of module A or B presents new variations, as well as
different distributions of the modules among the voices of the polyphonic fabric (compare, for
example, mm. 1-19 to mm. 45-66 for different combinations). The end result is that of constant
variationof an almost minimalistic naturewithin an otherwise largely consistent and
homogeneous motivic context.

449

Example 7.5. Mouton, Ce que mon coeur pense (after Jacobs 1982)

450

451

452

453

454

The technique of fragmentation, transformation, and varied repetition of the modules

reaches its apogee in La rouse du mois de may. The chanson is probably based on a cantus prius
factus, which Mouton places in the Superius. 24 Another two settings of the same melody, by Jean
Rouse and Pierre Moulu, survive in the 1572 Mellange. 25 The inherent properties of the
presumed cantus prius factus provide Mouton with excellent opportunities for complex
contrapuntal manipulations. The melody, as it appears in Moutons Superius, consists of three
interrelated melodic modules given in Example 7.6 (Superius, mm. 4-6, 6-9, and 18-21). 26 The

24

According to Brown, Moutons chanson, as well as other sixteenth-century songs on the same text, have
similar thematic material with an anonymous setting a 3 in Florence 59, no. 85, [which] may paraphrase a cantus
prius factus, the upper two voices having the larger share of thematic material. Brown, Music in the French Secular
Theater, 198. There is no relevant entry in Fallowss Catalogue of Polyphonic Songs. Florence 59 is in fact
Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, MS Banco Rari 229 (olim Magliabechi XIX. 59) (FlorBN BR 229).
25
Jacobs, LeRoy & Ballards, nos. 119 and 120. While Rouses and Moulus settings are grouped
together, Moutons song stands apart as no. 16. The Mellange orders the compositions according to the number of
parts, thus Moutons five-part setting belongs to a different section than Rouses and Moulus six-part
arrangements.
26
The pre-existent melody in Moulus setting is very similar to that of Moutons. Only phrase B presents a
variant.

455

beginning of module B is an almost transposed retrograde inversion of the final four notes of
module A (see the dashed brackets in Ex. 7.6, mm. 5-7). Module C is also related to module A;
its first half imitates the characteristic ascending fifth of module A while its second half
introduces a new element, two consecutive ascending tones. All three modules also share a
constantly present four-note segment made up of a third (minor or major) and a whole step. This
segment becomes an important generator of further melodic material. 27
The freely composed voices follow the structure of the presumed model, which partially
reflects the rhyme of the poetry. The opening couplet, La rouse du mois de may/Ma gast ma
verte cotte, functions as a refrain that returns at the end of the chanson (similar to Ce que mon
coeur pense).
rhyme
a
b

module
A
B

1. La rouse du mois de may

2. Ma gast ma verte cotte.

The dew of the month of May

Has spoiled my green skirt.

3. Par un matin my levay,

4. (La rouse du mois de may),
5. En un jardin men entray;
6. Dittes vous que je suis sotte.

I got up one morning

(The dew of the month of May),
I entered into a garden;
You can say that I am foolish.

a
a
a
b

C
C
A
B

7. La rouse du mois de may

8. Ma gast ma verte cotte.

The dew of the month of May

Has spoiled my green skirt. 28

a
b

A
B

Mouton builds every section of the chanson around the main features of the Superius
individual phrases. However, he contrapuntally manipulates the individual phrases to generate
27

Set theory proves particularly helpful for penetrating into the intervallic content of La rouse and
demonstrating the tight interrelationship of its individual musical phrases. The prime form for modules B and C, that
is, the intervallic expressions of their contents in numerical form, is (0235) and (0357), respectively, while that of
module A is (02357). The prime forms clearly indicate that modules B and C are practically subsets of module A.
Mouton took advantage of the intervallic properties of the borrowed melody to create a chanson of extreme
minimalistic character.
28
The content of the chanson is based on several jeux de mots and is typically erotic. A girl who enters the
garden is after a sexual adventure. The Dictionnaire du moyen franais defines Baiser la cotte verte or Donnez la
cotte verte as jeter une fille sur lherbe et foltrer avec elle. Algirdas J. Greimas and Teresa M. Keane,
Dictionnaire du moyen franais (Paris: Larousse, 1992), 152. In the same entry, the authors also offer the proverb
Femme sotte se cognoist a la cotte, which echoes with the last line of the main stanza, Dittes vous que je suis
sotte. Furthermore, the Dictionnaire rotique defines donner la cotte verte as soulever la juppe. Bidler,
Dictionnaire rotique, 165. The verb gaster (to ravage) is also very strong and implies sexual interaction.

456

further melodic material. For example, the first repetition of module A in the Contratenor (which
opens with an ascending third instead of an ascending fifth) features transposition, while the
second repetition features augmentation of the final notes of the module (Ex. 7.6, mm. 5-13).
Later on, at the first repetition of module B, Mouton divides the melody into two halves and
builds a cadential extension out of the second half (Ex. 7.6, Superius, mm. 10-15). In their
settings of the same tune, Moulu and Rouse simply repeat exactly the second phrase of the
Superius. Furthermore, during the first appearance of module C for l. 3 (Par un matin my
levay), Mouton presents a rhythmically varied Bassus (Ex. 7.6, Bassus, mm. 17-19), while he
constructs the opening of the Contratenor by reversing and transposing the final four notes of
module A (Contratenor, mm. 17-18). The above gestures allow glimpses into how Mouton read
and manipulated the individual features of the borrowed melody and indicate that he chose the
borrowed material with an eye for their contrapuntal potential.
Mouton typically demarcates the main syntactical units of his chanson with full cadences
on G at the end of ll. 2 and 6 (Ex. 7.6, mm. 15 and 39-40, respectively). However, after the
complete cadence in mm. 39-40 the Quinta pars continues by repeating the sixth line of the text
instead of introducing the final couplet. I suggest that the text underlay at this point (Quinta, mm.
40 to 45) should read La rouse du mois de may/Ma gast ma vertecotte instead of Dittes
vous que je suis sotte, which is how it appears in the 1572 Mellange de chansons. Such an
alteration complies better with the phrase structure of the other voices for the final couplet
(module A followed by module B) and also with the clausula vera at mm. 39-40, which normally
would mark the beginning of a new section. The fact that Mouton maintains the motivic integrity
of each section further reinforces this suggestion. Better understanding of Moutons
compositional strategies thus guides us to informed decisions in matters of text underlay.

457

Example 7.6. Mouton, La rouse du mois de may (after Jacobs 1982)

458

459

460

461

462

The above musico-rhetorical analyses have shown that Moutons approach to multi-voice
chanson composition is markedly different from that of Josquins or La Rues. First, his poetic
texts, with their unusual metrical structures and unconventional rhyme schemes, indicate that
Mouton belonged to a different poetic universe compared to that of his famous contemporaries.
It is possible that his choice of texts was guided by the tastes of the more forward-looking French
royal court, of which Mouton was a loyal servant for most of his life. 29 As mentioned in Chapter
II, popularisant poetry was prominent in end of the fifteenth-century manuscripts intended for
French nobles (such as MS 12744 and Bayeux). The asymmetrical structures of this poetry
possibly influenced the structural schemes of aristocratisant poems, such as the ones set by
Mouton.
Second, unlike Josquin and La Rue who use canon extensively, Mouton prefers to build
his compositions around a main melodic line, newly composed or pre-existing, which he places
in the upper part of the polyphonic texture. Whether based on a cantus prius factus or a newly
devised melody, Mouton creates his chansons by relying on three basic principles: variation,
transformation, and repetition. Mouton fragments his main melody into smaller units, which he
then subjects to various contrapuntal manipulations. In addition to inversion, retrograde,
rhythmic augmentation and diminution, as Stewart has already pointed out, Mouton delights in
maintaining the contour of his units, which I call modules, and re-arranging the internal notes.
He thus generates subsequent melodic material by the varied combination of the transformed
modules.
Third, despite commonly held views about Moutons insensitivity towards the individual
prosodic features of the poetry, a musico-rhetorical analysis of the multi-voice chansons

29

After entering the service of Queen Anne of Brittany in the first decade of the sixteenth century, Mouton
remained attached to the French court until his death.

463

demonstrates that he was no less indifferent to his texts compared to Josquin or La Rue. 30 He
simply chose to emphasize different aspects of the poetry. The syllabic declamation and the clear
outline of the melodic phrases, so typical of Josquin, are almost absent in Mouton. Instead,
Mouton employs long melismatic passages, abounded with suspensions, in his courtly love
songs, but smaller and rhythmically animated ones in his chansons in the popular register.
Furthermore, Mouton is particularly sensitive to the projection of first-person speech, as the
analysis of Ce que mon coeur pense and Le berger et la bergre have shown. He achieves this
through differentiation of the texture and the motivic content, and with changes in the
declamatory style. Finally, Mouton takes special care to project rhetorical questions in musical
terms. In the possible envoy and responce pair, both Vray Dieu damours and Vray Dieu,
quamoureux feature a melodic stasis, as if allowing time to ponder over the question. The stasis
represents in musical terms this self-reflective moment and directs the attention of the listener to
the rhetoric of the poem. Moutons approach to multi-voice chanson composition thus reveals
different facets of musical rhetorical techniques available to the early sixteenth-century secular
music composer.

30

Howard M. Brown and Thomas G. MacCracken, Mouton [de Holluigue], Jean, The New Grove
Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell, vol. 17 (London: Macmillan, 2001), 241.
The authors state that Mouton was often indifferent to good text declamation: his music is filled with incorrect
accentuations and other infelicities in the way he combines words and notes, a trait indicating that he was more
interested in purely musical design than in expression.

464

II. Multi-voice chansons by other contemporary composers

With the exception of Josquin, La Rue, and Mouton, composers of the first quarter of the
sixteenth century did not systematically venture into multi-voice chanson composition, at least as
far as the extant sources permit us to say. No multi-voice chansons survive from the pen of major
composers such as Loyset Compre, Antoine de Fvin, or Heinrich Isaac. Of course a
considerable portion of this repertory survives anonymously in VienNB Mus. 18746 (one of the
main repositories of this subgenre), thus limiting our knowledge of multi-voice chanson
distribution. In addition, the lack of texts in this manuscript seriously impedes the musicorhetorical analysis of many of the chansons. 31 The following analyses will not consider chansons
for which a matching text cannot be located.
Early sixteenth-century composers to whom multi-voice chansons are attributed in
contemporary or posthumous sources include Benedictus Appenzeller (c. 1480-after 1558), Noel
Bauldeweyn (c. 1480; fl. 1509-1513), Antonius De Vinea (d. 1516, henceforth referred to as de
Vigne), Jean Le Brung (fl. early 16th century), Pierre Moulu (c. 1480/90-c. 1550), Johannes
Prioris (fl. c. 1485-1512), and Jean Richafort (c. 1480-after 1547). There is also a five-part
chanson attributed to Johannes de Stokem (c. 1445-1487). Appenzeller, Moulu, and Richafort are
younger contemporaries of Josquin, active well after 1520. Appenzeller is credited with seven
multi-voice chansons, Moulu with four (including one motet-chanson), and Richafort also with
four. Of these, I only consider songs that appear in sources compiled during the first quarter of
the sixteenth century. Table 7.2 presents the multi-voice chansons by composers other than
Josquin, La Rue, and Mouton in the order they are discussed. The chansons are grouped

31

VienNB Mus. 18746 provides only incipits. For some of the chansons the text can be reconstructed from
other musical and literary sources. However, chansons with common incipits often have different continuations
(e.g., Vray Dieu, quamoureux discussed in Part I of this chapter), thus the reconstructed version is not necessarily
the intended one. For many songs in VienNB Mus. 18746 no text survives at all.

465

according to the structural devices they are built on to better inform our understanding of
compositional practices in the early attempts at multi-voice song writing.
Table 7.2. Multi-voice chansons of the first quarter of the sixteenth century by composers
other than Josquin, La Rue, and Mouton
Incipit

Composer

Earliest
sourcea
Odhecaton A
(1501);
terminus ante
quem 1487
Odhecaton A
(1501)

Brunette mamiette (5)

Stokem

Hor oires une chanzon

(5)

anonymous

Je suis
dAlemagne/Joliettement
men vay (5)

anonymous

FlorBN BR
229 (1492-93),
Canti C (1503)

Franc coeur, quas

tu/Fortuna dun gran
tempo (5)

de Vigne

Canti B
(1502),
unicum

Dung aultre aymer/Cela

sans plus (5)

Le Brung

VienNB Mus.
18746 (1523)

Mi lars vous (5)

? Attr. Josquin
in Kriesstein
1540, unicum
Prioris

Kriesstein
1540 [RISM
15407]
FlorC 2439
(1506-14)

En douleur et tristesse
(5)

Bauldeweyn

VienNB Mus.
18746 (1523)

Je my levay par ung

matin (5)

Appenzeller/
Verdelot

VienNB Mus.
18746 (1523)

Navez point veu mal

assene (5)

Le Brung

BolC Q26 (c.

1540-50)

Jay bien cause de

lamenter (6)

? Attr. Josquin
in Kriesstein
1540

Kriesstein
1540 [RISM
15407]

Par vous je suis (Entre

je suis) (5)

466

Poetry

Canon/Canonic
writing
T/Q @ 4th
(strict)

Cantus prius
factus
Probably on
popular
melody

No text
survives

No

Combinative
chanson. No
text survives
for
Joliettement
Two texts (one
French and
one Italian)

No

abba refrain.
The text of
Cela sans plus
does not
survive
abba quatrain

No

No

Popular
melody and
ostinato related
to Cantus de
anglia
Je suis
dAlemagne
and
Joliettement
men vay
Franc cur (?)
and Fortuna
dun gran
tempo
Ockeghems
Superius and
Colinets
Tenor as
ostinato
Ostinato motif
mi la re

Textless in this
source

T/Q @ 4th (free

approach)

Textless in this
source; text
survives in
Paris 12744
Textless in this
source; text
survives in
15722
2 quatrains
separated by a
longer line
abba quatrain

T/Q @ 8ve
(strict)

No text
survives

T/CT altus @
5th (free
approach)

On Josquins
three-part
Entre je suis
Paris 12744,
no. 91

S/Q @ 8ve
(strict)

Possibly

S/T @ 8ve (free

approach)

Yes

S/CT @ unison
(free approach)

On
Pietrequins
Superius Mais
que ce fust
secretement

Damour je suis
desherite (5)
Ne vous chaille, mon
cueur (5)
Si vous navez autre
desir (6)

Fiere attropos/Anxiatus
est (5)

Richafort
Richafort
Le Brung

Moulu

CambriP 1760
(1509-1516)
VatP 1980-1
(c. 1518-23)
Susato 1545
[RISM 154515]

FlorL 666
(1518)

Asymmetrical

No

Yes

Asymmetrical

No

Yes in Q

aabba cinquain

T/Sx @ 8ve,
(strict)

Rondeau
cinquain/
antiphon

No

Response to
Josquins
Nesse pas ung
grant
desplaisir
Anxiatus est
(antiphon) in T

The dating of the manuscript sources is as reported in the Census-Catalogue. For full bibliographic citations of the
manuscript and printed sources see Appendix 2.

In addition to de Vignes, Prioriss, and Stokems chansons, most certainly written before
the turn of the century (see the dates of the earliest sources in Table 7.2), two more songs from
the same period survive: Hor oires une chanzon (in Odhecaton A) and Je suis
dAlemagne/Joliettement men vay (in FlorBN BR 229 and Canti C; see also Appendix 1), both
anonymous. These five songs constitute the earliest attempts at secular music composition for
more than four voices. Although the textless compositions Brunette mamiette, Hor oires une
chanson, and Je suis dAlemagne/Joliettement men vay do not avail themselves to musicorhetorical analysis, a few observations on their structural devices will complement our
understanding of the ways composers were experimenting to expand the texture.
In Brunette mamiette, the music unfolds around a strict canon at the fourth and all voices
imitate the canonic melody at the opening of the chanson. Besides this opening gesture, however,
imitation is kept to a minimum. As is very common with works built on a canon at the fourth, the
same interval features prominently in the melodic phrases of the individual voices. While
occasionally all voices sound together the texture is predominantly four-part.
Stokems death in 1487 provides a terminus ante quem for Brunette mamiette, which
would thus be the earliest extant multi-voice chanson. Recently however, David Fallows has
rejected the possibility that this chanson was composed before the 1490s, a suggestion that
467

subsequently questions the attribution to Stokem. Fallowss reservations derive from the
presence of the strict canon within a five-part texture, a technique established by Josquin after
the turn of the century. 32 Even if we accept Fallowss new date of composition for Brunette
mamiette, the chanson still stands as an exception in late fifteenth-century song repertories and a
forerunner for multi-voice settings on strict canon.
Hor oires une chanzon shows another aspect of architectural planning. The chanson is
based on a cantus prius factus placed in the Tenor and a seven-fold repetition of an ostinato
motif in the second Tenor. This motif replicates the second phrase of the Tenor melody and its
constant presence helps maintain a thick four- and five-part texture throughout the chanson. 33 As
in Brunette mamiette, the accompanying voices do not feature points of imitation with the
structural voices with the exception of the opening, where the Superius and Bassus imitate the
opening Tenor phrase.
The five-voice Je suis dAlemagne/Joliettement follows the tradition of the three-part
combinative chanson but with an expanded texture. Its Superius is based on the monophonic
melody Je suis trop jeunette, found in Paris 12744, 34 and its Tenor provides the incipit
Joliettement men vay. 35 The two pre-composed voices bear close similarities, especially at the
opening of their respective phrases (Ex. 7.7).

32

David Fallows, ed., One Hundred Songs of Harmonic Music: Ottaviano Petrucci 1501, A Quincentenary
Performing Edition, rev. ed. (Amherst: Amherst Early Music, 2003), 11.
33
In her edition of the Odhecaton, Helen Hewitt has pointed out the possible connection between this motif
and the Superius of the Cantus de anglia, a chanson preserved in VienNB Mus. 18746, fols. 37-37v. In the latter
composition, the Superius presents twelve repetitions of the solmized motif La sol mi fa mi in several
transpositional levels. Helen Hewitt, ed., Harmonice Musices Odhecaton A (Cambridge, MA: Mediaeval Academy
of America, 1942; repr. New York: Da Capo Press, 1978), 90. Hor oires une chanzon is no. 3 in the Odhecaton.
34
Modern edition in Paris Gaston and Auguste Gevaert, eds., Chansons du XVe sicle (Paris: Librairie de
Firmin-Didot, 1875), no. 22.
35
The chanson appears in two early sources: Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, MS Banco Rari 229
(olim Magliabechi XIX.59) (FlorBN BR 229), modern edition in Howard M. Brown, ed., A Florentine Chansonnier
from the Time of Lorenzo the Magnificent: Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, MS Banco Rari 229, 2 vols.,
Monuments of Renaissance Music, vol. 7 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983), 2: no. 162, and in Canti C,

468

Example 7.7. Anon., Je suis d'Alemagne/Joliettement (after Brown 1983)

Numero cento cinquanta (Venezia: Petrucci, 1503), no. 82. The incipit Joliettement is given only in Canti C, but
no further text survives (see also Table 7.2).

469

470

It is possible that the composer chose the second melody because of its affinity to Je suis
dAlemagne or that he devised it so that it resembles the Superius tune. The accompanying
voices, Bassus and Contratenors I and II, with their erratic and faster-moving rhythms that
feature parallel tenths, seem to have been instrumental in conception. As in Brunette mamiette,
the texture of Je suis dAlemagne/Joliettement is mainly four-part. 36
The early Franc coeur, quas tu/Fortuna dun gran tempo by de Vigne also combines two
secular tunes within a five-part setting: Franc coeur, quas tu in the Superius and Fortuna in the
Tenor. 37 Howard Mayer Brown identifies them both as pre-existent 38 but no such melody
survives for Franc coeur. 39 If indeed a cantus prius factus, then its treatment, as we shall see,
suggests that de Vigne certainly altered the tune to serve the particular needs of his chanson. As
with Je suis dAlemagne/Joliettement men vay, the two structural melodies share common
features, which is possibly the reason why de Vigne chose to combine them. The most
outstanding common element is the opening descending pentachord, characteristic of the
Fortuna tune, which recurs in various guises in the Franc coeur melody (see the various
appearances of the pentachord in the Superius of Ex. 7.8a). 40

36

For a discussion of the fifteenth-century combinative chanson see Maria R. Maniates, ed., The
Combinative Chanson: An Anthology, Recent Researches in the Music of the Renaissance, vol. 77 (Madison, WI: AR Editions, 1989).
37
Very few details are known about the life of Antonius de Vinea ( Vinea, de Vigne, van den
Wijngaerde). He was closely associated with the bishop of Utrecht, David of Burgundy and served as canon of the
Mariakerk in Utrecht from 1476 until 1515. He died in 1516. Only one other composition by de Vigne survives, the
four-voice motet Ego dormio.
38
Brown, Music in the French Secular Theater, no. 135.
39
Helen Hewitt, ed., Ottaviano Petrucci: Canti B, numero cinquanta, Venice, 1502, Monuments of
Renaissance Music, vol. 2 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1967), 65.
40
For the presence of the descending pentachord in Fortuna settings see the discussion of Pour souhaitter
in Chapter V.

471

Example 7.8a. De Vigne, Franc coeur qu'as tu/Fortuna dun gran tempo, Superius and Tenor
(after Hewitt 1967)

472

Example 7.8b. De Vigne, Franc coeur qu'as tu/Fortuna dun gran tempo, mm. 1-14

In addition to the two structural voices (Superius and Tenor), de Vigne employs a canon
between the Tenor and the Contratenor altus. While the Tenor presents the Fortuna melody in
473

augmentation, the Contratenor sings the same tune a fifth above and in diminution (Ex. 7.8b,
mm. 10-14). Furthermore, at the entrance of the canon, the Superius and the Bassus start
simultaneously with an inversion of the Fortuna theme (see Ex. 7.8b, Superius and Bassus, mm.
10-11). In his study of the chanson, Edward Lowinsky concluded that such treatment is a musical
representation of medieval conceptions of good and bad fortune. According to Lowinsky,
there are variations in the literary and pictorial representations of the wheel. In
the Roman de Fauvel good and bad Fortune are symbolized . . . by two wheels,
one fast and the other slow, within each of which there is another small wheel that
has a contrary movement. To reproduce this in music, one voice would have to
give the Fortuna melody at a fast pace, another at a slow paceor augmented,
as music theory terms it, a third voice would have to accompany the first
melody at its own brisk rate but in contrary movement, while a fourth voice
would move slowly but again in contrary movement. Such a technical feat would
be almost impossible of achievement. Yet this is precisely the plan of Fortuna
dun gran tempo by de Vigne . . . To be sure, the assignment is too difficult to be
carried out all through the work. But while, from meas. 10 to the end, the two
larger wheels are perfectly symbolized by the simultaneous slow and fast singing
of the Fortuna melody, the two smaller wheels are at least recognizable in the
form of the pair of fast and slow voices that begin at the same time and invert the
theme, thus moving in contrary motion with the first pair. 41
To the musical symbolisms identified by Lowinsky I would also call attention to the
descending and ascending octaves at the opening of the Superius. As discussed in Chapter V,
melodic octaves are omnipresent in compositions associated directly or indirectly to the fortuna
topos. In de Vignes setting, the Superius opens with a long descending octave followed by a
briefer ascending line that spans the same interval. The descending octave is realized through
two interlocking fifths (Ex. 7.8b, Superius, mm. 1-5 and 6-10), the first of which outlines the
characteristic descending fifth, D-G, of the Fortuna melody. 42 Such spiral movement (down-updown) adds another element of musico-pictorial symbolism, and indicates that de Vigne either

41

Edward E. Lowinsky, The Goddess Fortuna in Music with a Special Study of Josquins Fortuna dun
gran tempo, Musical Quarterly 29, no. 1 (1943): 75.
42
The opening of Josquins Pour souhaitter also features two ascending interlocking fifths. See the
discussion of this chanson in Chapter V.

474

took advantage of the inherent properties of the Superius tune or that he altered it accordingly to
underline the rhetoric of the Fortuna text and melody. The latter hypothesis is reinforced by the
fact that halfway through the chanson, the Superius abandons the French song and continues
with the Fortuna dun gran tempo poem (Ex. 7.8a, mm. 22ff). The entrance of the Fortuna
melody at this point unveils the melodic affinity between the two structural voices, which are
thus presented by a single voice part.
The manipulation of the common features between two pre-existent melodies also
characterizes the structural strategy behind Le Brungs five-voice Dung aultre aymer/Cela sans
plus. 43 Le Brung places the Superius of Ockeghems famous chanson in the upper part of his
own setting and borrows the head motif of Colinet de Lannoys Tenor in Cela sans plus to build
his own Tenor. 44 This motif features a descending fourth, which Le Brung employs in an
ostinato manner involving direct presentations, transpositions, and other contrapuntal
manipulations. Descending fourths also feature prominently at the opening of Ockegehms
Superius and subsequently permeate all of the accompanying voices in Le Brungs setting. This
interval thus becomes the common thread that allows Le Brung to musically juxtapose two
melodies of contrasting poetic nature. 45
Although Ockeghems melody is presented in its entirety, various features in the
treatment of the freely composed voices indicate that this is an instrumental composition. The
short motives, the quick rhythms, the constant leaps in the Quinta, the hocket-like writing, and

43

The chanson bears an ascription to Le Brung in VienNB Mus. 18746. Two more chansons incorporating
two pre-existing melodies appear in the same manuscript: A moy seulle/Comme femme and Consideres mes/Fortuna
desperata, both anonymous.
44
Howard Mayer Brown points out that Josquins three-voice Cela sans plus also uses Colinets opening in
inversion and in long notes. Brown, Music in the French Secular Theater, no. 42l. It is not entirely clear whether Le
Brung based his composition on Colinets head motif or on Josquins re-working. On the different texts starting with
the words Cela sans plus see Fallows, A Catalogue of Polyphonic Songs, 104-105.
45
Dung aultre aymer is the typical courtly love song, while Cela sans plus belongs to the popularisant
tradition.

475

the large range of the Contratenor point to a composition instrumental in conception.

Nevertheless, the employment of a cantus prius factus in combination with the ostinato treatment
of a short motif in another voice recalls the compositional strategy of Hor oires une chanzon and
indicates that this was one technique applied by early sixteenth-century composers in their
secular music for expanded textures.
The ostinato device is also very prominent at the opening of the five-voice Mi lars vous,
an unicum, which bears an ascription to Josquin in Kriessteins 1540 edition. 46 The opening of
the chanson features imitative entries of the motif mi la re, a musical pun on the title of the
chanson. However, apart from the opening imitation, the individual voices proceed with more or
less independent melodic phrases. The absence of canon or a cantus prius factus, the repetition
of textual phrases, and the non-imitative nature of the music speak against the attribution to
Josquin. 47 Neverheless, Mi lars vous testifies to the wide range of compositional techniques
devised by composers of multi-voice songs.
A different structural device occurs in Prioriss five-voice Par vous je suis. This chanson
appears in FlorC 2439 (Basevi Codex) and represents the earliest multi-voice secular
composition in the Habsburg-Burgundian manuscript complex. 48 It also survives in the later
VienNB Mus. 18746 with the incipit Entr je suis en grant penser, but neither source provides
any text underlay. Prioris builds his composition around a canon at the fourth on a melody

46

Selectissimae necnon familiarissimae cantiones (Augsburg: M. Kriesstein, 1540) [RISM 15407].

A four-voice homonymous setting is included in Attaingnants Trente chansons musicales a quatres
parties (Paris: Attaingnant, 1529) [RISM 15284], no. 30. Only fragments of this print survive.
48
Only three chansonniers survive from the Flemish court scriptorium: Florence, Biblioteca del
Conservatorio di Musica Luigi Cherubini, MS Basevi 2439 (Basevi Codex), henceforth referred to as FlorC 2439;
Brussels, Bibliothque Royale, MS 228 (BrusBR 228); and Vienna, sterreichische Nationalbibliothek,
Musiksammlung, MS Mus. 18746 (olim A.N.35.H.14) (VienNB Mus. 18746). FlorC 2439 is the earliest of the three
(c. 1505-1508) and contains only one multi-voice chanson, Prioriss Par vous je suis.
47

476

borrowed from Josquins three-voice Entre suis. 49 Josquins chanson was already in circulation
by the mid-1480s and it is possible that he was the composer of the structural melody. Prioris
expands the texture to five voices but closely adheres to the compositional plan set out by
Josquin. 50
In contrast to the strict treatment of the canon in his multi-voice chansons, in the early
Entre suis Josquin concludes every phrase of the Superius with non-canonic extensions. 51 In
addition, he changes the temporal interval as well as the interval of imitation between the
canonic voices. Prioris similarly incorporates a non-canonic melodic extension (Ex. 7.9, mm. 3436), alters the temporal distance between the canonic entries (mm. 41-43) and, furthermore,
shifts the dux and comes order for the final phrase of the chanson (mm. 48-49).52 The tonal
ambiguity characteristic of Josquins three-voice setting is also present in the five-part
arrangement by Prioris, who undermines cadential closure at important structural points (e.g.,

49

The three-voice Entre suis survives in Florence, Biblioteca Riccardiana, MS 2794 (FlorR 2794), a
manuscript prepared for the French royal court in the 1480s, and in the later French manuscript Uppsala,
Universitetsbiblioteket, MS Vokalmusik i Handskrift 76a (UppsU 76a), possibly compiled between 1490 and 1520.
Modern edition in Josquin des Prez, Werken: Wereldlijke Werken, ed. Albert A. Smijers (Amsterdam: G. Alsbach,
1922-1969), no. 58, and in Josquin des Prez, The Collected Works of Josquin des Prez, vol. 27, Secular Works for
Three Voices, ed. Jaap van Benthem and Howard M. Brown (Utrecht: Koninklijke Vereniging voor Nederlandse
Muziekgeschiedenis, 1991), no. 8. A four-voice version by Josquin, with the title Par vous je suis, immediately
precedes Prioriss homonymous setting in FlorC 2439. This four-voice setting also appears in BrusBR 228.
Josquins two versions and Prioriss five-part chanson are the only extant settings of the tune. For a discussion of
Josquins two settings and their sources see Louise Litterick, Chansons for Three and Four Voices, in The Josquin
Companion, ed. Richard Sherr (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 359 and 371-376.
50
The three- and four-voice settings by Josquin are markedly different. The text in the three-part version
consists of two stanzas of four and three lines, respectively, and features modal ambiguity, while the four-part
version adds another line at the end of the second stanza and, furthermore, displays stability around G. For a
comparison of the two settings see Jaap van Benthem, Josquins Three-part Chansons rustiques, in Josquin des
Prez: Proceedings of the International Josquin Festival-Conference Held at The Juilliard School at Lincoln Center
in New York City, 21-25 June 1971, ed. Edward E. Lowinsky with the collaboration of Bonnie J. Blackburn
(London: Oxford University Press, 1976), 431-434.
51
Such extensions are very common in the canonic chansons from the late years of the fifteenth century.
For example, the majority of the canonic chansons in the Odhecaton feature such extensions, which are otherwise
absent from the multi-voice repertory. They are also very common in Josquins four-part canonic chansons.
Evidently, with the expanded texture there were more voices available to take over the contrapuntal elaboration and
cadential preparation, thus eliminating the need for such extensions by one of the structural voices.
52
Ex. 7.9 follows the edition Johannis Prioris, Opera omnia, vol. 3, Motets and Chansons, ed. T. Herman
Keahey and Conrad Douglas, Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae, vol. 90 (n.p.: American Institute of Musicology, 1985),
no. 3.

477

between the two main sections of the chanson; m. 36 in Ex. 7.9). 53 Furthermore, the Bassus
frequently engages in imitation with the canonic melodies, a process possibly responsible for the
proliferation of melodic cadences in the upper parts (Superius and Contratenor). This treatment
resonates with La Rues canonic chansons in which the canon lies in the two lowest voices. To
compensate for the restricted possibilities of the Bassus to realize the harmonic implications of
the structural melodies, due to the parts imitative relationship to them, Prioris, like La Rue,
assigns a great number of melodic cadences in his upper voices.
While Prioris closely follows the phrase structure and syllabic pace of the model for his
canonic lines, his newly composed voices are instrumental in character. Both the Superius and
Contratenor unfold in long, irregular phrases, generally devoid of any breathing points. In
addition, the Superius and Bassus frequently proceed in parallel tenths, a hallmark of
instrumental compositions.
Although the instrumental writing prevents the rhetorical analysis of this chanson, Par
vous je suis shows another aspect of secular composition for expanded textures. Prioriss setting
stands at the cross-roads between Josquins and La Rues secular writing. The syllabic, shortspanned, and non-repetitive nature of the canonic melody of Par vous je suis clearly resonates
with Josquins canonic treatment. Furthermore, the manipulation of cadential planning with the
purpose of providing a subtle gloss on the text not only occurs in the three-voice Entre suis,
which is clearly the model for Prioriss setting, but also in a great number of other chansons by
Josquin. 54 On the other hand, the techniques of undermining cadential closure and of

53

Louise Litterick has demonstrated that the tonal instability in Josquins chanson reflects the emotional
ambiguity of the poem. Litterick, Chansons for Three and Four Voices, 359.
54
See, for example, the modal ambiguity that Josquin creates in Faulte dargent. For a discussion of this
chanson see Bernstein, Chansons for Five and Six Voices, in The Josquin Companion, 396-400.

478

incorporating melodic cadences in the upper voices resonate with La Rues style in his multivoice songs.
Example 7.9. Prioris, Par vous je suis (after Keahey and Douglas 1985)

479

480

481

482

Noel Bauldeweyns five-voice En douleur et tristesse is also an instrumental arrangement

of a cantus prius factus within an otherwise canonic setting. In contrast to Prioriss song,
however, En douleur et tristesse incorporates the borrowed tune, a melody that survives in the
monophonic chansonnier Paris 12744, in a strict canonic relationship at the interval of the
octave. 55 The only deviation from strict treatment occurs at the end of the chanson, where the
first Tenor concludes with a non-canonic extension. While the poetic lines nicely match with the
syllabic declamation of the canonic phrases, they cannot be successfully underlayed to the long
irregular phrases of the freely composed voices. The accompanying voices unfold in
uninterrupted melodic lines incorporating frequent runs, which reinforces their instrumental
character. 56

55

Paris and Gevaert, Chansons du XVe sicle, no. 91.

A strict canon at the octave, of what is possibly a borrowed popularisant tune, also forms the basis of
Appenzellers Je my levay par ung matin (see Appendix 1). The chanson similarly ends with a non-canonic
extension.
56

483

The free approach towards canonic writing, characteristic of Par vous je suis, is also
prominent in Le Brungs Navez point veu mal assene, a setting of a popular text and melody.
The character of the cantus prius factus reflects the influence of the new Parisian chanson in its
opening dactylic rhythm and subsequent three-note repetition (see the opening of the Superius in
Ex. 7.10). 57 The text recalls other poems in the pastourelle tradition that feature dialogue
between a shepherd and a shepherdess and obscene content. In its combination of narrative and
dialogue realized through the narrators voice, Navez point veu strongly recalls Moutons Le
berger et la bergre. Le Brungs text reads:
1. Navez point veu mal assene
2. Celle de qui on parle tant?
3. Sa mre lavoit envoye
4. Garder les brebiettes aux champs.

Have you ever seen such an unfortunate one

As she of whom they speak so much?
Her mother had sent her
To watch the sheep in the fields.

5. Et son amy qui va devant luy demandant:

And her friend who went to meet her asks:

6. Serez vous mon assote?

7. Nenny, dit elle, mon amy.
8. Je noseroye en bonne foy,
9. Mais fringus moy sur la rouse.

Will you be my mistress?

No (says she) my friend.
I would not dare, in good faith,
But do frig me on the dew. 58

The poem features a symmetrical structure of two octosyllabic quatrains separated by a longer
verse placed in the middle (l. 5). The two quatrains are different both in their rhyme structure
and character. The first one features narrative and an abab rhyme while the second one has a
dialogic structure in which only the outer lines (ll. 6 and 9) rhyme.
Le Brung places the main melody in the Superius and in canon at the octave with the
Tenor. Although for the first two lines the canon appears to be strict, it radically changes
character beginning with the third line of the text. The implied canon at the opening reflects the
57

Ex. 7.10 is based on Jane A. Bernstein, ed., Leschenet, Maillard, Le Brun, Lupi, The Sixteenth-Century
Chanson, vol. 18 (New York: Garland, 1990), no. 55. There are two more settings based on the thematic material of
this tune. See idem, xxxix.
58
Translation in Jean Richafort, Opera omnia, vol. 3, Magnificats and Chansons, ed. Harry Elzinga,
Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae, vol. 81 (n.p.: American Institute of Musicology, 1999), xxxvii. I have replaced
sorry with unfortunate in l. 1.

484

seriousness of tone of the first two verses, when it is not yet clear whether we are dealing with a
popular text or with a poem in the courtly love tradition. 59 Once the poetry shifts into the domain
of popular discourse at the third line, there are several deviations from strict treatment. First, the
temporal interval of imitation keeps changing with every line of the text. Second, the end of the
narrative is signaled by a non-canonic melodic extension in the Superius (Ex. 7.10, mm. 21-22).
Third, with l. 5 the interval of imitation becomes the tenth and the comes becomes the dux to
change again only with the final line of the chanson. Line 5, the midpoint of the poetry and the
one that introduces the dialogue to the audience, bears further differentiating features. The canon
breaks at m. 25 (beginning of l. 5) and the Superius features a stasis of three sustained longas
against a kinetic Tenor (Ex. 7.10, mm. 28-30). This stasis clearly reflects the pause needed (in
recitation as well as in silent reading) before the beginning of direct speech. The change of
interlocutor in l. 7 is similarly reflected through a stasis in the three lowest voices and a pause of
three longas (the longest in the chanson) in the Superius (Ex. 7.10, mm. 35-39). One cannot
escape noticing that these changes take place at the points of structural and semantic significance
in the poetry.
Le Brung further represents the shift in the mode of delivery of the second quatrain with
a drastic change in contrapuntal writing. The first quatrain is highly imitative, with every phrase
of the canonic melody anticipated or imitated by the accompanying voices. This imitative writing
culminates with the scaffolding of entrances for the last line of the quatrain (Ex. 7.10, mm. 1820). With the beginning of the second stanza Le Brung abandons the imitative texture. Not only
are the imitations approximate, even between the canonic voices, but also the continuous flow of
the music is interrupted by the melodic stases mentioned above. Furthermore, for the last catchy
59

The characterization mal assene clearly evokes the courtly discourse. See, for example Machauts
refrain, Dame qui fust se tres bien assene, in De Fortune me doy plaindre et loer; Guillaume de Machaut, La
Louange des Dames, ed. Nigel Wilkins (Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press, 1972), no. 45.

485

line of the chanson, the canon enters at the fourth and the music becomes predominantly
homorhythmic, with three of the five voices singing the same text simultaneously.
The analysis of Navez point veu mal assene demonstrates some of Le Brungs
responses towards the structural and semantic details of the poetry. As in Moutons chansons that
feature dialogue, Le Brung introduces changes in the texture to rhetorical ends. He marks the
switch from narration to first person representation and the change of interlocutors with melodic
stases in one or more of the voices. Furthermore, he plays with the individual features of the
canontemporal distance and interval of imitation, non-canonic extensions, and order of dux
and comes entriesto further prepare and signal these prosodic characteristics. Finally, Le
Brung teases his audience by playing with their expectationsjust as the poem teases the reader
and, ultimately, the maiden teases her friendwhen introducing a highly imitative chanson and a
strict treatment of the canon only to abandon these features as the poetry reveals its true
character. However, despite the imitative nature of the counterpoint and the use of canon, Le
Brungs writing in Navez point veu mal assene suggests that he belongs to a younger
generation of composers. 60 In addition to the choice of a cantus prius factus that reflects the
influence of the new Parisian chanson, the declamation features short note values in syllabic
style and the music unfolds entirely in homorhythmic fashion, a trait unprecedented in the multivoice chansons by Josquin and La Rue.

60

Le Brungs six-voice Si vous navez autre desir is discussed in Chapter V. It incorporates a strict canon at
the unison to reflect the same device in Josquins Nesse pas ung grant desplaisir, to which it is a response.

486

Example 7. 10. Le Brung, N'avez point veu mal assene (after Bernstein 1990)

487

488

489

490

491

492

A similar free approach to canonic writing also occurs in Jay bien cause de lamenter, a
chanson attributed to Josquin in Kriesstein 1540. The Superius is based on the Superius of
Pietrequins Mais que ce fust secretement and unfolds in a loose canonic relationship with the
Contratenor, featuring changes of the interval of imitation and reversal of the order of dux and
comes entries. Furthermore, the individual voices (including the upper two canonic parts) unfold
in a highly repetitive manner. The two lowest voices, in particular, revolve around a four-note
segment which begins and ends on D and presents itself in various contrapuntal guises (D-B-GD, D-F-F-D, D-F-E-D, D-F-G-D). The composer derived this segment from the second phrase
of the Superius, particularly the motif A-F-D-A over the words solas et joye. This motif
frequently migrates to the free-composed voices reinforcing the repetitive character of this
chanson.

493

The almost ostinato-like character of the lowest voices and the free deployment of the
canonic melodies recalls Le Brungs procedures more so than Josquins, whose authorship of
Jay bien cause has been seriously questioned. 61 The insistence on the four-note pattern in the
low parts resonates with the treatment of the Bassus in Dung aultre aymer/Cela sans plus. It is
thus intriguing to contemplate that Jay bien cause was penned by Le Brung, who is attributed
with another six-voice chanson (Si vous navez aultre desir).
Jean Richaforts two multi-voice chansons composed in the opening decades of the
sixteenth century demonstrate yet a different aspect of compositional planning. The imitative
counterpoint and the reliance on a cantus prius factus placed in the upper part is a prominent
feature of Damour je suis desherite and Ne vous chaille, mon cueur. 62 Both chansons are noncanonic and exhibit thick five-part textures and syllabic writing in short note values, with
melismatic extensions at the end of phrases (more prominent in Ne vous chaille). Although
imitative points occur at the openings of the musical phrases, they do not always involve the
cantus prius factus. The freely composed voices thus appear to unfold independently of the preexisting melody, especially in the inner sections of a chanson. 63
Several features of Richaforts approach to five-voice song composition resonate with the
style of his colleagues Mouton and Le Brung. The device of melodic stasis at points of direct
speech, prominent in the music of both Mouton and Le Brung, also finds expression in Jean
Richaforts Damour je suis desherite. The chanson survives in CambriP 1760, a chansonnier

61

See the discussion of Jay bien cause in Chapter IV.

Ne vous chaille bears a conflicting attribution to Werrcore in Kriessteins 1540 edition, Selectissimae
necnon familiarissimae cantiones [RISM 15407]. No other chanson has been assigned to this composer. Two more
multi-voice chansons by Jean Richafort survive: Cuidez vous que Dieu nous faille and Sy je my plain. The earliest
source for Cuidez vous, London, British Library, Reference Division, Department of Manuscripts, MS Additional
19583, dates from around 1535; Sy je my plain survives only in the 1560 and 1572 Livre de meslanges and
Mellange de chansons.
63
In his discussion of Richaforts three-part songs, Bernstein points out similar stylistic traits. Lawrence F.
Bernstein, ed., La couronne et fleur des chansons troys (New York: The Broude Trust, 1984), 2:34-36.
62

494

prepared for the court of Louis XII between 1509 and 1516. 64 Damour je suis is the sole fivevoice chanson in any source related to the French royal chapel from this time period. 65 Richafort
bases this strophic quatrain on a cantus prius factus placed in the Superius and builds a thick,
through-composed chanson around this structural voice. 66 Points of imitation occur only at the
opening of the individual phrases and generally do not involve the upper part. The composer
represents the plaintive tone of the poetry in a straightforward manner, devoid of text repetitions.
1. Damours je suis desherite
2. Et plaindre ne me scay qui.
3. Hlas! jay perdu mon amy;
4. Seulette suis, il ma laisse.

Of love I am deprived
And [I] know not to whom to complain.
Alas, I have lost my friend;
I am all alone--he has abandoned me. 67

A reading of the poem reveals a tension between the typical abba rhyme and the semantic
and syntactical structure, which emphasizes the final line of the chanson. Richafort underscores
the last doleful verse by a complete stasis of the music at m. 17 (Ex. 7.11). 68 He further
emphasizes the utterance Seulette suis through homorhythmic texture, and repeats the entire
final line. 69 Such a complete halt of pace is very rare in the early sixteenth-century multi-voice
chanson repertory but becomes prominent in the later Parisian chanson. Although Richaforts
song dates from the early years of the century, it anticipates features that were to become
prominent some twenty years later.

64

Cambridge, Magdalene College, Pepys Library, MS 1760.

Richafort was probably in the service of Anne of Brittany in 1512, that is, during the period when the
manuscript was prepared. Howard M. Brown and John T. Brobeck, Richafort, Jean, The New Grove Dictionary of
Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell, vol. 21 (London: Macmillan, 2001), 330.
66
An anonymous three-voice setting of the same melody survives in Attaingnants Quarante et deux
chansons musicales a troys parties (Paris: Attaingnant, 1529) [RISM 15294].
67
The translation appears in Richafort, Magnificats and Chansons, lii.
68
Ex. 7.11 is based on Richafort, Magnificats and Chansons, no. 19.
69
Notice also the similar treatment of the same words in Moutons Vray Dieu damours, discussed in the
first part of this chapter. Aside from the dramatic tone of this utterance (seulette suis) it is intriguing to
contemplate that this reference hides a tribute to the poetry of Christine de Pizan, who often used these words in her
poems.
65

495

Example 7.11. Richafort, D'amour je suis desherite (after Elzinga 1999)

496

497

498

While the poem survives with three additional strophes, which gradually reveal the reason for the
ladys complaint pronounced in the first line, the musical structure of Richaforts chanson
eliminates the possibility of a strophic performance. The economical, non-repetitive nature of the
music is thus rhetorical and does not spring from the need to serve a longer performance. 70
The straightforward deployment of the melodic lines is absent from Ne vous chaille, in
which textual repetitions are omnipresent. Furthermore, the chansons asymmetrical poetic
structure recalls Moutons multi-voice songs with their unusual numbers of verses, syllables, and
rhymes. Ne vous chaille is a six-line poem, in which the internal enjambments obscure the
divisions between the verses. The number of syllables and the rhyme is also untraditional.
1. Ne vous chaille, mon cueur,
2. Si vous avez du mal beaucop
3. Et si tousjours de vous plaisirs
4. Navez lentire joyssance.
5. Car si Dieu plaist, vous aurez allegeance
6. Du mal pour qui si souvent vous resuez.

Let it not matter to you, my heart,

If you have much suffering
And if you do not always of your pleasures
Have the full enjoyment.
For if it pleases God, you will be relieved
From the pain of which you so often suffer.

Nevertheless, Richafort shows sensitivity to the syntactical structure of the poetry. He clarifies
the unorthodox syntactical pace of Ne vous chaille by giving continuous melodic phrases to all
voices but the Contratenor at the points of the enjambments.
The above analyses have revealed some of the compositional strategies and rhetorical
devices employed by multi-voice chanson composers of the first quarter of the sixteenth century.
As Table 7.2 demonstrates, canon was not a very common device with songs composed before
the turn of the century. While the incorporation of strict canon became established in the opening
decades of the sixteenth century, mainly through the works of Josquin and La Rue, only four
chansons from Table 7.2 demonstrate such treatment. Of these, En douleur et tristesse, Je my

70

The complete text survives in Sensuyvent dixsept belles chansons nouvelles (n.p., n.d. but from the first
thirty years of the sixteenth century), modern edition in Jeffery, Chanson Verse, 1:257-258.

499

levay par ung matin, and Si vous navez autre desir were most certainly composed well after the
turn of the century (see the earliest sources in Table 7.2) The strict canon in the early Brunette
mamiette thus stands as an exception. Four chansons exhibit a free approach to canonic writing
made evident through non-canonic extensions at the end of phrases, reversal of the order of dux
and comes, and alteration of the interval of imitation and temporal distance between the canonic
entries (see Jay bien cause de lamenter, Navez point veu mal assene, Par vous je suis, as well
as the idiomatic canonic writing in Franc coeur quas tu/Fortuna dun gran tempo).
Instead of canons, composers preferred to build their compositions around a pre-existing
melody and frequently added another cantus prius factus or an ostinato pattern as a means of
structural and melodic organization. Whenever two structural melodies are employed, composers
ensured that they were melodically related, as the analysis of Je suis dAlemagne/Joliettement
and Franc coeur quas tu/Fortuna dun gran tempo has shown. This chanson is also exceptional
in that one of the two pre-existing melodies is furthermore treated canonically. Frequently,
composers created multi-voice instrumental re-workings of popular tunes or of texted chansons
by other composers (Je suis dAlemagne/Joliettement, Dung aultre aymer/Cela sans plus, Par
vous je suis, and En douleur et tristesse).
Apart from the imitative writing necessitated by a canon (whenever present), imitation in
the chansons of Table 7.2 is rather restricted. Points of imitation mainly occur at the opening of a
song, only to be entirely abandoned for the rest of the composition. Richaforts settings stand in
contrast to the other multi-voice chansons, since imitative points are prominent throughout. The
analysis of Prioriss Par vous je suis has further demonstrated that whenever the lowest part
engages in imitation with the structural voices, composers assigned melodic cadences in the

500

upper parts. Such treatment compensates for the restricted possibilities of the Bassus to
contribute to the cadential planning of the composition.
Although rhetorical figures inspired by classical oratory, such as the ones encountered in
the settings of Josquin and La Rue, do not seem to appear in this final group of chansons, the
analysis has demonstrated that composers of the early part of the sixteenth century devised
several means of poetic expression. The ever popular fortuna topos inspired composers to
intricate contrapuntal manipulations to enhance the symbolism of the text, as the analysis of
Franc coeur quas tu/Fortuna dun gran tempo has demonstrated. Complex syntactical structures
are clarified through the deployment of the melodic lines (Ne vous chaille). Finally, composers
of the multi-voice chanson repertory prove to be extremely sensitive in representing the poetic
voice. They invariably observe the changes in the speaking subjectwhether from narration to
first-person speech or between interlocutors within dialogueby manipulation of the texture
and, most often, musical stasis.

501

CONCLUSIONS
The comprehensive musico-rhetorical analysis of the multi-voice chanson repertory from
the first quarter of the sixteenth century reveals that the expansion of texture to five and six
voices posed several compositional challenges, but also offered new opportunities and greater
flexibility towards a text-sensitive approach to secular music writing. To expand the texture
composers employed a variety of structural means. The manifold approaches towards this end do
not allow for clear-cut classifications of songs according to such devices. Nevertheless, some
general patterns have emerged, within which composers experimented according to the musical
or textual demands of each individual chanson.
The overarching principle is the reliance on a pre-compositional entity, a cantus prius
factus or a newly composed melody, which is subjected to some contrapuntal manipulation that
generates further melodic material in another voice, or which is combined with another structural
device. Early attempts at multi-voice chanson composition (songs composed before 1500)
demonstrate that the prevalent practice was the incorporation of two cantus prius facti that are
melodically similar, or of a cantus prius factus combined with an ostinato motif derived from a
second pre-existent melody. The songs in this category follow the tradition of the combinative
chanson and it is within this context that Josquins Lamye a tous/Je ne vis oncques belongs. In
contrast to the three-voice combinative chanson, in which one voice follows a fixed-form model
and the other a popularisant tune, in the multi-voice chansons the two cantus prius facti can both
have an aristocratisant origin (as in Josquins chanson above and in Franc coeur quas
tu/Fortuna dun gran tempo).

502

A few chansons are based on Latin plainchant placed in an inner voice and combined
with a French text in a fixed form in the upper part. In these motet-chansons, the cantus firmus
usually does not interact with the freely composed voices, although in some cases it may inspire
some of the motivic material. In only one motet-chanson, Josquins Nymphes, napps/
Circumdedereunt me, is the cantus firmus treated canonically, a process which generates a sixvoice texture.
Frequently, the main structural voice is imitated by another voice-part throughout, but the
relationship between the two (the interval of imitation, their temporal distance, or the order of
their entries) changes in the course of the song. A strict canonic relationship between two voices
is rare before the turn of the sixteenth century, the only exception being Brunette mamiette. It is
only with Josquins multi-voice chansons that the incorporation of strict canon reaches its
apogee. The majority of his songs rely on strict canon on a melody of his own invention or on a
pre-existent model. To generate a six-voice texture, Josquin usually adds a second free canon for
part or the entirety of a song (Allgez moy, Petite camusette, Se congi prens) or combines three
two-voice canons (Baiss moy and Je ne dit mot, if by Josquin). The strict canonic relationship
between two individual voices requires a high degree of sophistication for the coordination of the
smooth deployment of the canon, the control of dissonances, and the musical projection of the
prosodic features. La Rues compositional approach appears to be even more demanding since,
in the majority of his canonic chansons, the canon lies in the two lowest parts. Such process
imposes several challenges on the successful realization of the canon and the cadential planning
of the composition. Fors seullement exemplifies La Rues penchant for such challenges since in
this song he reaches the extreme of combining a strict canon in the two lowest voices with a
cantus prius factus in the Superius within a five-part setting.

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Both Mouton and Richafort, composers with documented ties to the French royal court,
place the structural melody in the Superius and generally eschew canon. Besides this feature,
however, their approaches are markedly different. Mouton constructs his songs by fragmenting
his melodies (borrowed or newly composed) into smaller units, which he then varies, transforms,
and re-combines in different schemes that correspond to the textual sections of the poetry. Such
approach has a kaleidoscopic end-result: different sonorous expressions of the same basic
material, which are determined by the semantic and structural content of the poetry set.
Richafort delineates his formal structures with points of imitation at the opening of the individual
melodic phrases.
Je ne me puis tenir daimer and Mi lars vous are free compositions due to the absence
of canon or a cantus prius factus. However, in Je ne me puis one voice (the Tenor) behaves as a
structural one, unfolding in a syllabic declamatory style mainly without textual repetitions. In
addition to being placed in the Tenor, this structural melody closely follows the rhyme scheme of
the poetry in the delineation, repetitive pattern, and cadential notes of its musical phrases and
inspires a great deal of the melodic and rhythmic details of the accompanying voices.
Composers of the multi-voice song are particularly sensitive in reflecting the prosodic
features, although the analysis has demonstrated that different composers choose to emphasize
different aspects of the prosody. However, they invariably observe the syntactical divisions of
the poetry by constructing the melodic lines, especially the structural voices, in a manner that
faithfully follows the syntactic and semantic pace of the text. Whereas in the decasyllabic
rondeau quatrain or cinquain refrains the poetic caesura falls at the fourth syllable, composers
override this principle if the semantic halt of pace occurs at a different metrical point. The rhyme
structure is also reflected through the repetition of musical phrases or of cadential gestures for

504

similarly rhyming lines. Frequently, however, there is a discrepancy between the rhyme pattern
and the musical structure, especially evident in the through-composed and end-oriented
chansons. In the end-oriented forms, the AABBCC structure overthrows the established
expectations for a return to the material of the opening according to the aabba rhyme. The break
with the expected pattern is further underscored by the presence of commixtio, the disruption of
the repetitive scheme of the music, or the temporary incorporation of cross-relationships. The
tension produced by the discrepancy between the poetic rhyme and the musical structure serves
to emphasize the significance of the last verse as the culminating point of the entire stanza.
Apart from the rhyme scheme, composers devised several means of melodic articulation
to reflect the semantic or phonetic interrelationships between different verses or smaller textual
phrases. To this end, they relied on the principles and figures of classical oratory, adapted to the
particular musical needs. The analysis has demonstrated that, in the majority of cases, such
figures do not reflect the same gesture in the poetry. Instead, composers manipulate the
expressive properties of the rhetorical figures in order to call attention to a particular point in the
text or to create meaningful relationships between larger semantic units. Especially with figures
of repetition, such as anaphora, anadiplosis, and epanadiplosis, composers aim to connect two
phrases of similar syntactic structure and semantic content, or to underline similar sounding
words. Although the musico-rhetorical effect of such figures is certainly not identical to the
linguistic one, their presence serves both the structural and the semantic needs of the
composition. The analysis has also revealed the effective musical application of figures such as
hypotyposis, polyptoton, articulus, interiectio, hyperbaton, aposiopesis, and maxim. Three
additional musical figures that do not have analogies in classical oratory also feature prominently
in the multi-voice song: anabasis, catabasis, and circulatio, described by the later music theorist

505

Athanasius Kircher. These purely musical gestures as well as those that derive from classical
rhetoric are common in Josquins and La Rues aristocratisant chansons but are otherwise absent
from the chansons by other composers.
Within the context of principles and practices inspired by classical oratory we can also
situate the evocation of the literary fortuna topos, which emerges time and again across the
multi-voice song repertory, even in compositions that do not have direct references to the
subject. Apparently, composers devised a distinct musical vocabulary for the symbolic
representation of the fortuna topos, operative both in early attempts at multi-voice song writing,
such as Franc coeur quas tu/Fortuna dun gran tempo, as well as in later songs, such as
Josquins Pour souhaitter or La Rues Deuil et ennuy and Quant il advient.
Classical oratory provided more than a list of expressive devices to the composers of the
multi-voice song. Rhetorical thought lies behind the change from the formes fixes, and their
highly repetitive patterns, to freer forms, more closely related to everyday speech. Such influence
is particularly evident in Josquins settings of aristocratisant chansons, in which the canons
assume both a structural function, defining the overall formal plan of the entire chanson, and an
expressive one, presenting the text in the straightforward manner of an oration. In this repertory,
the surrounding polyphony functions as a commentary to the text of the canon, reinforcing or
undermining its semantic content, an approach greatly facilitated by the expansion of texture. In
such a rhetorical view of the canonic technique, textual repetition also acquires an expressive
function and Josquins handling of repetition testifies to this assumption. In his aristocratisant
chansons, Josquin reserves verbal repetition to place emphasis or highlight the meaning of
important words or phrases while in the popularisant songs he applies repetition to comic effect.

506

The prominence of rhetorical thought and figures in Josquins music is certainly related to his
exposure to humanistic ideals during his extended residence in Italy from 1484 to 1504.
The poetic registercourtly or popularplays a significant role in compositional
choices. With Josquin, it determines the treatment of the canon (the interval of imitation and the
straightforward or repetitive deployment of the canonic melodies) and the handling of repetition
in the freely composed voices. With Mouton, the poetic register defines the character of the
melodic lineslong, melismatic ones for the aristocratisant chansons, short and rhythmically
animated for the popularisant ones. As mentioned above, it is in the aristocratisant chansons
(mainly those by Josquin and La Rue) that classical rhetorical figures feature more prominently.
Thus, rhetorical figures appear to be intimately connected with the rhetorical notion of Grand
style, evoked by the elevated tone and language of the aristocratisant lyric.
In addition to enabling the direct juxtaposition of text and commentary, more pronounced
in Josquins chansons, the expanded textures also allowed composers to project and magnify
certain prosodic features on the vertical plane. While in the old Burgundian three-part chanson
all voices would sing almost without interruption, in the multi-voice song composers could play
more freely with the density of the texture without jeopardizing the richness of the aural effect.
They could thus manipulate texture for both variety and expressive purposes, to mark the
changes in the speaking voicefrom narration to first person or dialogue and vice versato
project the phonetic features of the prosody across the polyphonic fabric, thus intensifying their
effect, to differentiate between the male and the female voice, or to underline the humorous or
obscene character of the poetry. The shift to homorhythm and the antiphonal exchange of
phrases between pairs or groups of voices aimed to call attention to instances of direct selfrepresentation, signaled by the appearance of the first-person pronoun je in the poetry. The

507

analysis has also revealed the expressive function of musical stasis to demarcate a rhetorical
question in the poetry (as in Moutons Vray Dieu damours and Vray Dieu, quamoureux) or an
intense self-reflexive moment (as in Richaforts Damour je suis).
The concept of intertextuality has proven particularly useful for the interpretation of the
early multi-voice chanson. It informs our understanding of contemporary borrowing practices,
including both self-borrowing and musical allusions to other works, with wide implications on
several different levels: facilitating the relative dating of compositions (as in the group of the
end-oriented chansons); clarifying issues of authenticity in chansons with problematic
attributions (as in the two Cueurs desolez motet-chansons); untangling the web of relationships
in model and response pairs; unveiling the multi-level reliance on a borrowed melody and its text
(as in Je me complains); or meaningfully interpreting features that are otherwise regarded as
compositional anomalies (as in Pour souhaitter).
Musico-rhetorical analysis of the multi-voice chanson repertory of the first quarter of the
sixteenth century demonstrates that rhetorical thought permeates secular music writing, and we
can detect its influences in various compositional choices, both on the large structural level and
on the surface details of the individual melodic lines. The understanding of the conventions of
fifteenth-century poetry in combination with recent approaches in literary theory throw into relief
word-music relationships that would otherwise remain unrecognized to the modern scholar. Such
understanding contributes to the aesthetic pleasure of the musical settings, since knowledge of
the reciprocal relationship between the text and the music and, subsequently, of the composers
readings of his texts enhances both our satisfaction and appreciation of these works. As written
records of a performative art, these musical readings open a window towards what contemporary

508

audiences of poetry and music might have perceived as important, challenging, intellectually
satisfying, or simply amusing.

509

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Wimsatt, James I. Chaucer and His French Contemporaries: Natural Music in the Fourteenth
Century. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991.
Winn, James A. Unsuspected Eloquence: A History of the Relations between Poetry and Music.
New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981.
Zumthor, Paul. Le carrefour des rhtoriqueurs: intertextualit et rhtorique. Potique 27
(1976): 313-337.
______. Le masque et la lumire: La potique des Grands Rhtoriqueurs. Paris: Seuil, 1978.
______, ed. Anthologie des Grands Rhtoriqueurs. Paris: Union Gnrale dEditions, 1978.
Modern Editions of Multi-Voice Chansons
Bernstein, Jane A., ed. Leschenet, Maillard, Le Brun, Lupi. The Sixteenth-Century Chanson, vol.
18. New York: Garland, 1990.
Brown, Howard M., ed. Theatrical Chansons of the Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963.
______, ed. A Florentine Chansonnier from the Time of Lorenzo the Magnificent: Florence,
Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, MS Banco Rari 229. 2 vols. Monuments of Renaissance
Music, vol. 7. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983.
Canti C. Numero cento cinquanta. Monuments of Music and Music Literature in Facsimile I, 25.
New York: Broude Brothers, 1978.
528

Hewitt, Helen, ed., Canti B, Numero cinquanta, Venice, Ottaviano Petrucci, 1502. Monuments
of Renaissance Music, vol. 2. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1967.
______, ed. Harmonice Musices Odhecaton A. Cambridge, MA: Mediaeval Academy of
America, 1942. Reprint, New York: Da Capo Press, 1978.
Hillier, Paul, ed. Le Beau Ballet dAmour: An Anthology of French Chansons from the Sixteenth
Century. Devon, UK: Antico Edition, 1991.
Jacobs, Charles, ed. LeRoy & Ballards 1572 Mellange de Chansons. University Park: The
Pennsylvania State University Press, 1982.
Josquin des Prez. Werken. Ed. Albert A. Smijers. Amsterdam: G. Alsbach, 1922-1969.
Lowinsky, Edward E., ed. The Medici Codex of 1518: A Choirbook of Motets Dedicated to
Lorenzo de Medici, Duke of Urbino. 3 vols. Monuments of Renaissance Music, vols. 3-5.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1968.
Meconi, Honey. Style and Authenticity in the Secular Music of Pierre de la Rue. Ph. D. diss.,
Harvard University, 1986.
Picker, Martin, ed. The Chansons Albums of Marguerite of Austria. Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1965.
______, ed. Josquin des Prez: Parody Chansons. Hackensack, NJ: Jerona Music Corporation,
1980.
______, ed. Fors seulement: Thirty Compositions for Three to Five Voices or Instruments from
the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries. Recent Researches in the Music of the Middle
Ages and Early Renaissance, vol. 14. Madison, WI: A-R Editions, 1981.
Prioris, Johannis. Opera omnia. Vol. 3, Motets and Chansons, ed. T. Herman Keahey and
Conrad Douglas. Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae, vol. 90. N.p.: American Institute of
Musicology, 1985.
Richafort, Jean. Opera omnia. Vol. 3, Magnificats and Chansons, ed. Harry Elzinga. Corpus
Mensurabilis Musicae, vol. 81. N.p.: American Institute of Musicology, 1999.
Taruskin, Richard, ed. Dung aultre amer: Seventeen Settings in Two, Three, Four, and Five
Parts (Modern Score), Five Partbooks in Original Notation. Miami: Ogni Sorte Editions,
1983.

529

Other Editions of Music

Bernstein, Lawrence F., ed. La couronne et fleur des chansons troys. New York: The Broude
Trust, 1984.
Josquin des Prez. The Collected Works of Josquin des Prez. Vol. 27, Secular Works for Three
Voices, ed. Willem Elders, Jaap van Benthem, and Howard M. Brown. Utrecht:
Koninklijke Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis, 1987.
______. The Collected Works of Josquin des Prez. Vol. 28, Secular Works for Four Voices, ed.
David Fallows. Utrecht: Koninklijke Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis,
2005.
Maniates, Maria R., ed. The Combinative Chanson: An Anthology. Recent Researches in the
Music of the Renaissance, vol. 77. Madison, WI: A-R Editions, 1989.
Meconi, Honey, ed. Fortuna desperata: Thirty-six Settings of an Italian Song. Recent Researches
in the Music of the Middle Ages and Early Renaissance, vol. 37. Middleton, WI: A-R
Editions, 2001.
Ockeghem, Johannes. Collected Works. Vol. 3, Motets and Chansons, ed. Richard Wexler and
Dragan Plamenac. Boston: Schirmer, 1947-92.
Perkins, Leeman L. and Howard Garey, eds. The Mellon Chansonnier. 2 vols. New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1979.

530

APPENDIX 1
INVENTORY OF MULTI-VOICE CHANSONS FROM THE 1490s TO C. 1520
NG: The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (Macmillan, 2001)
Title

Voices

Cueur langoreulx

Cueurs desolez/ Plorans ploravit

Douleur me bat
Du mien amant
En non saichant
Faulte d'argent
Incessament livr suis
Je me complains

5
5
5
5
5
5

Je ne me puis tenir d'aimer

La Spagna
L'amye a tous/ Je ne vis oncques

5
5
5

Composer and
Conflicting
Attributions

Earliest source

Multi-Voice Chansons by Josquin

Messa motteti can[z]oni
(N. del Judici, c. 1526)
Josquin
Josquin [La
Rue]
RISM J681 (1549)
VienNB Mus. 18746
Josquin
(1523)
Josquin
VienNB Mus. 18746
Josquin
RISM 154515
Josquin
AugS 142a (1505-14)
Josquin
VienNB Mus. 18746
Josquin
VienNB Mus. 18746
Josquin/
Gombert/
Sermisy
MunBS 1508 (c. 1545)
Josquin
RISM 15371
Josquin
RISM J681

Canon

yes
no

aristocratisant
aristocratisant (motetchanson)

yes
yes
no
yes
yes
yes

aristocratisant
aristocratisant
aristocratisant
popularisant
aristocratisant
popularisant

no
no
no

aristocratisant
instrumental
combinative

Ma bouche rit
Mi lars vous
N'esse pas ung grant desplaisir

5
5
5

Josquin
Josquin
Josquin

UppsU 76b (c. 1515-35)

RISM 15407
RISM 15407

no
no
yes

Nymphes des bois/ Requiem

Josquin

RISM 15081

no

531

Poetry

aristocratisant
aristocratisant
aristocratisant
aristocratisant (motetchanson)

Notes

doubtful in NG

doubtful in NG
doubtful in NG
exists also 6
with a si placet
part
doubtful in NG
lament on death
of Ockeghem

Title

Voices

Composer and
Conflicting
Attributions

Earliest source

Canon

Poetry

Parfons regretz

Josquin

VienNB Mus. 18746

yes

aristocratisant

Plaine de deuil
Plusieurs regretz

5
5

Josquin
Josquin

BrusBR 228 (1508-1516)

VienNB Mus. 18746

yes
yes

aristocratisant
aristocratisant

Adieu mes amours (Ave Maria gratia plena)

BolC R142 (c. 1530-50)

n/a

aristocratisant

Allgez moy
Baiss moy

6
6

Josquin
Josquin/Barb/
Le Brung/
Willaert
Josquin

RISM 15407
RISM 15022

yes
yes

popularisant
popularisant

Fors seullement
J'ay bien cause de lamenter

6
6

Josquin
Josquin

BolC R142 (c. 1530-50)

RISM 15407

n/a
yes

Nymphes, napps/ Circumdederunt me

Petite camusette
Pour souhaitter
Regretz sans fin
Se congi prens

6
6
6
6
6

Josquin
Josquin
Josquin
Josquin
Josquin

yes
yes
yes
yes
yes

Tenez moy en vos bras

Vous l'arez, sil vous plaist
Vous ne l'aurez pas

6
6
6

Josquin
Josquin
Josquin

RISM 15371
VatP 1980-1 (c. 1518-23)
RISM 154515
RISM 154515
BolC A 71 (c. 1515-20)
RISM 154515; BolC
R142 (c. 1530-50)
RISM 154515
RISM 154515

aristocratisant
aristocratisant
aristocratisant (motetchanson)
popularisant
aristocratisant
aristocratisant
aristocratisant

no
yes
yes

popularisant
aristocratisant
aristocratisant

Notes

also in VienNB
Mus. 18746
only 3 voices
survive

doubtful in NG
only 1 voice
survives
doubtful in NG

Multi-Voice Chansons by La Rue (asterisk denotes conjecturally attributed works)

Cent mille regretz

La Rue/Josquin

VatP 1982 (c. 1513-23)

yes

aristocratisant

D'ung aultre aymer

La Rue

VienNB Mus. 18746

no

aristocratisant

En l'amour d'une dame

La Rue

LonBL 19583 (c. 1535)

n/a

aristocratisant

532

also in VienNB
Mus. 18746
attr. in VienNB
Mus. 18746
only 1 voice
survives;
doubtful in NG

Title

Voices

Composer and
Conflicting
Attributions

Earliest source

Canon

Poetry

Fors seullement

La Rue

VienNB Mus. 18746

yes

aristocratisant

Incessament mon povre cueur lamente

Adieu comment*

5
5

La Rue/Josquin
La Rue

VatP 1980-1 (c. 1518-23)

VienNB Mus. 18746

yes
yesa

aristocratisant
uncertain (textless)
aristocratisant (motetchanson)

Cueurs desolez/ Dies illa*

La Rue

BrusBR 228

no

Dueil et ennuy*

La Rue

BrusBR 228

yes

Il fault morir*

La Rue

RegBC 120 (c. 1518-19)

no

Je n'ay regretz*
Je ne dis mot*
Quant il advient*

5
6
5

La Rue
La Rue
La Rue

VienNB Mus. 18746

BrusBR 228
BrusBR 228

yes
yes
yes

aristocratisant
probably aristocratisant
(textless)
probably aristocratisant
(textless)
aristocratisant
aristocratisant

Saillis avant*

La Rue

VatV 11953 (c. 1515-16)

yes

uncertain (textless)

Ce que mon coeur pense

Du bon du coeur, ma chere dame

5
5

Multi-Voice Chansons by Mouton

Mouton
RISM 15722
Mouton
VienNB Mus. 18746

no
no

popularisant
aristocratisant

La rouse du mois de may

Le berger et la bergre
Vray Dieu d'amours
Vray Dieu, qu'amoureux ont de peine

5
5
5
6

Mouton
Mouton
Mouton
Mouton

RISM 15722
RISM 154315
RISM 15722
RISM 15722

533

no
no
no
no

popularisant
popularisant
aristocratisant
aristocratisant

Notes
attr. in VienNB
Mus. 18746
also in VienNB
Mus. 18746
lament on death
of Jean de
Luxembourg
also in VienNB
Mus. 18746
doubtful in NG

also in VienNB
Mus. 18746

a 6-voice
version appears
in RISM 154514

Title

A moy seulle/ Comme femme

Voices

Composer and
Conflicting
Attributions

Earliest source

Other Multi-Voice Chansons

anon.
VienNB Mus. 18746

Canon

no

Brunette m'amiette
Choisisses vrais amoreux

5
5

Stokem
anon.

Odhecaton A (1501)
VienNB Mus. 18746

yes
no

Coeur doloreulx qui vit

Consideres mes incessantes plaintes/ Fortuna
desperata

anon.

VienNB Mus. 18746

no

anon.

VienNB Mus. 18746

no

Cueuer endurci

anon.

VienNB Mus. 18746

no

Poetry

combinative (textless)

popularisant (textless)
uncertain (textless)
probably aristocratisant
(textless)

Richafort

CambriP 1760 (1509-16)

no

Dame d'honneur

anon.

VienNB Mus. 18746

yes

aristocratisant
probably aristocratisant
(textless)

Dung aultre aymer/ Cela sans plus

Doise espoir

5
5

Le Brung
anon.

VienNB Mus. 18746

VienNB Mus. 18746

no
no

combinative
uncertain (textless)

En douleur en tristesse

anon.
Bauldeweyn/
Grefinger

VienNB Mus. 18746

no

aristocratisant (motetchanson) (textless)

VienNB Mus. 18746

yes

aristocratisant

534

attr. Odh A;
terminus ante
quem 1487
when Stokem
died; also
appears in
VienNB Mus.
18746

combinative (textless)
probably aristocratisant
(textless)

Damour je suis desherite

Douleur me bat/ O vos omnes

Notes

attr. in 15722;
also appears in
VienNB Mus.
18746

instrumental
arrangement
no musical
relationship with
Josquin's
Douleur me bat
instrumental
arrangement

Title

Entr je suis en grant penser (Par vous je

suis)

Fiere attropos/ Anxiatus est

Voices

Composer and
Conflicting
Attributions

Prioris

Moulu

Earliest source

FlorC 2439 (1506-14)

FlorL 666 (1518)

Canon

Notes

yes

popularisant

possibly
instrumental;
also appears in
VienNB Mus.
18746

no

aristocratisant (motetchanson)

lament on death
of Anne of
Brittany

instrumental
arrangements

4 different anon.
and textless
versions appear
at the end of
VienNB Mus.
18746

Fors seullement
Franc coeur, qu'as tu/ Fortuna dun gran
tempo

anon. (several)

VienNB Mus. 18746

De Vigne

Canti B (1502)

yes

Garde le tret
Hor oires une chanzon

5
5

anon.
anon.

VienNB Mus. 18746

Odhecaton A (1501)

no
no

Le grant doueil

anon.

VienNB Mus. 18746

no

Jay ung regretz

anon.

VienNB Mus. 18746

no

Jay mis mon coeur

VienNB Mus. 18746

no

Je m'y levay par ung matin

anon.
Appenzeller/
Verdelot

VienNB Mus. 18746

yes

Je suis dAlemagne/ Joliettement men vay

Je suis nuyt et jour
La jonne dame
La sol mi fa mi: Cantus de anglia

5
5
5
5

anon.
anon.
anon.
anon.

FlorBN BR 229 (149293)

VienNB Mus. 18746
VienNB Mus. 18746
VienNB Mus. 18746

no
no
no
no

535

Poetry

combinative
probably popularisant
(textless)
popularisant (textless)
probably aristocratisant
(textless)
probably aristocratisant
(textless)
probably aristocratisant
(textless)
popularisant
combinative, no text
survives for
Joliettement
uncertain (textless)
uncertain (textless)
popularisant (textless)

possibly
instrumental

Title

Voices

Mon cour vit in tristicia

Navez point veu mal assene

5
5

Ne vous chaille
On a mal dit de mon amy
Pro chasser fait
Qui vult aymer il fault estre joieux

Composer and
Conflicting
Attributions

Earliest source

Canon

Poetry
probably aristocratisant
(textless)
popularisant

VienNB Mus. 18746

BolC Q26 (c. 1540-50)

no
yes

5
5
5
5

anon.
Le Brung
Richafort/
Werrecore
anon.
anon.
anon.

VatP 1980-1 (c. 1518-23)

VienNB Mus. 18746
VienNB Mus. 18746
VienNB Mus. 18746

no
no
no
no

Sans vous veoir

anon.

VienNB Mus. 18746

yes

Si vous n'avez autre desir

Tout a par moy
Tout a rebors
Vide vous

6
5
5
5

Le Brung
anon.
anon.
anon.

RISM 154515
VienNB Mus. 18746
VienNB Mus. 18746
VienNB Mus. 18746

yes
no
no
no

Vostre beault

anon.

VienNB Mus. 18746

no

aristocratisant
uncertain (textless)
uncertain (textless)
uncertain (textless)
probably aristocratisant
(textless)

no

aristocratisant (motetchanson)

no

uncertain (textless)

Vray Dieu d'amours/ Sancte Iouanes/ Ora pro

nobis

Japart

[Untitled]

Isaac

Canti C (1503)
FlorBN BR 229 (149293)

aristocratisant
uncertain (textless)
uncertain (textless)
uncertain (textless)
probably aristocratisant
(textless)

The information on the appearance or not of a canon in the textless chansons of VienNB Mus. 18746 derives from secondary sources.

536

Notes

also in VienNB
Mus. 18746

copied twice in
VienNB 18746
response to
Nesse pas ung
grant desplaisir

the Latin texts

unfold as
ostinati
possibly
instrumental

APPENDIX 2
CONTEMPORARY MANUSCRIPT SOURCES AND PRINTED EDITIONS OF MULTIVOICE CHANSONS
Manuscript sources
(sigla and citations follow those used in the Census Catalog of Manuscript Sources of
Polyphonic Music, 1400-1550)
AugsS 142a
Augsburg. Staats- und Stadtbibliothek. MS 20 142a (olim Cim. 43; = SchlettKK #18).
BolC A71
Bologna. Civico Museo Bibliografico Musicale. MS A71.
BolC Q26
Bologna. Civico Museo Bibliografico Musicale. MS Q26.
BolC R142
Bologna. Civico Museo Bibliografico Musicale. MS R142.
BrusBR 228
Brussels. Bibliothque Royale. MS 228.
CambraiBM 125-8
Cambrai. Bibliothque Municipale. MSS 125-128 (olim 124).
CambriP 1760
Cambridge. Magdalene College. Pepys Library. MS 1760.
CopKB 1873
Copenhagen. Det Kongelige Bibliotek. MS Ny kongelige Samling 1873.
CorBC 95-6 and Paris BNN 1817
Cortona. Biblioteca Communale. MSS 95-96 and Paris. Bibliothque Nationale de France.
Dpartement des Manuscrits. Nouvelles Acquisitions Franais. MS 1817.
FlorBN BR 229
Florence. Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale. MS Banco Rari 229 (olim Magliabechi XIX. 59).

537

FlorC 2439
Florence. Biblioteca del Conservatorio di Musica Luigi Cherubini. MS Basevi 2439 (Basevi
Codex).
FlorC 2442
Florence. Biblioteca del Conservatorio di Musica Luigi Cherubini. MS Basevi 2442 (Strozzi
Chansonnier).
FlorL 666
Florence. Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana. MS Acquisti e doni 666 (Medici Codex).
HalleU 1147
Halle an der Saale. Universittsbibliothek. MS Ed. 1147.
HamSU
Hamburg. Stadtbibliothek. MS ohne Signatur.
LeipU 49
Leipzig. Universittsbibliothek. MS Thomaskirche 49 (1-4) (olim III, A. alpha 17-20) and MS
Thomaskirche 50 (olim III, A. alpha 21).
LonBL 19583
London. British Library. Reference Division. Department of Manuscripts. MS Additional 19583.
ModE F.2.29
Modena. Biblioteca Estense e Universitaria. MS a.F.2.29 (olim Lat. 1232).
MunBS 1508
Munich. Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Musiksammlung. Musica MS 1508.
ParisBNC 851
Paris. Bibliothque Nationale. Dpartement de la Musique. Fonds du Conservatoire. MS Rs.
Vma 851 (Bourdenay MS).
RegB C120
Regensburg. Bischfliche Zentralbibliothek. MS C 120 (olim D XII) (Pernner Codex).
SGallS 463
Sankt Gallen. Stiftsbibliothek. MS 463 (Tschudi Liederbuch).
SGallS 464
Sankt Gallen. Stiftsbibliothek. MS 464 (Tschudi Liederbuch).
UlmS 237
Ulm. Mnster Bibliothek. Von Schermarsche Familienstiftung. MS 237 (a-d).

538

UppsU 76b
Uppsala. Universitetsbiblioteket. MS Vok. mus. hs. 76b.
UppsU 76c
Uppsala. Universitetsbiblioteket. MS Vok. mus. hs. 76c.
VatP 1980-1
Vatican City. Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. MSS Palatini Latini 1980-1981.
VatP 1982
Vatican City. Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. MS Palatini Latini 1982.
VatV 11953
Vatican City. Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. MS Vaticani Latini 11953.
VienNB Mus. 18746
Vienna. sterreichische Nationalbibliothek, Musiksammlung. MS Mus. 18746 (olim
A.N.35.H.14).
VienNB Mus. 18810
Vienna. sterreichische Nationalbibliothek, Musiksammlung. MS Mus. 18810 (olim
A.N.35.E.126).
Printed Sources
Harmonice musices Odhecaton A. Venezia: O. Petrucci, 1501. [RISM 1501]
Canti B. Numero cinquanta. Venezia: O. Petrucci, 1501. [RISM 15022]
Canti C. Numero cento cinquanta. Venezia: O. Petrucci, 1503. [RISM 15043]
Mottetti a cinque. Libro primo. Venezia: O. Petrucci, 1508. [RISM 15081]
Messa motteti can[z]oni. Roma: Nicolo del Judici, c. 1526. [RISM 15267]
Novum et insigne opus musicum (Nrnberg: Formschneider, 1537-38) [RISM 15371]
Selectissimae necnon familiarissimae cantiones, ultra centum vario idiomate vocum, tam
multiplicium quam etiam paucar. Ed. S. Salblinger. Augsburg: M. Kriesstein, 1540.
[RISM 15407]
Vingt et six chansons musicales & nouvelles a cincq parties convenant tant a la voix comme
aussi propices a iouer de divers instruments. Antwerp: Tylman Susato, 1544. [RISM
154315]

539

Le cinquiesme livre contenant trente & deux chansons a cincq et a six parties composes pas
maistre Nicolas Gombert & aultres excellens autheurs. Antwerp: Tylman Susato, 1544.
[RISM 154413]
Le sixiesme livre contenant trente & une chansons nouvelles a cincq et a six parties convenables
& propices a iouer de tous instruments. Antwerp: Tylman Susato, 1544. [RISM 154514]
Le septiesme livre contenant vingt & quatre chansons a cincq et a six parties, composes par feu
de bonne memoire & tres excellent en musicque Iosquin des Pres, avecq troix Epitaphes
dudiet Iosquin, composez par divers aucteurs. Antwerp: Tylman Susato, 1545. [RISM
154515]
Trente sixiesme livre contenant trente chansons tres musicales, a quatre, cinq et six parties, en
cinq livres, dont le cinquiesme livre contient les cinqiesmes et sixiesmes parties, le tout de
la composition de feu Iosquin des prez, tres corectement imrimees par Pierre
Attaingnant. Paris: Pierre Attaingnant, 1549. [RISM J681]
Livre de meslanges, contenant six vingtz chansons, des plus rares, et plus industrieuses qui se
trouvent, soit des autheurs antiques, soit des plus memorables de nostre temps:
composes cinque, six, sept, & huit parties, en six volumes. Paris: Le Roy & Ballard,
1560. [not in RISM]
Mellange de chansons tant des vieux autheurs que des modernes, a cinq, six, sept, et huict
parties. Paris: Le Roy & Ballard, 1572. [RISM 15722]

540