Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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SONG 541
century, is said to be of popular origin ; it
is melodious and rhythmical, it has a refrain,
and the first little phrase is four times repeated.
'
L'autrier par la matinee,' by Thibaut, King
of Navarre (1201-54), opens with a phrase
exactly similar, which is also repeated. ' There
is the same charm of sincerity and pretty sentiment
about an older song, the Chatelain de
Coucy's (1192) 'Quant le rossignol,'^ though
the form is less concise. It is composed in
phrases of seven bars each, like many other
mediaeval songs. ^ Both are good illustrations
of Troubadour songs.*
Ex. 10.
Quant le Eossignol.
Chatelain de Couct.
^^^^
Quant U lou • acji gaolz Jo lis chaBte
sur la flor . d'es - t^, que naist la
L^^^ii^^
^^^^
^*^-i^
ro se et le lys et la ro
^^^^^^^te
vert pr£ plaiiiB de bon • ne to - len
- - t^ chan-te-rai . . coiiflns a - mis, mais di tant
'
Jeu de S. Nicolas' and 'Le Juif were of the
same type, at once sacred and comic. The
character of the mysteries remained faithful to
tradition ; these were only a continuation of
the liturgical dramas of the 11th century.^
But by the end of the 13th century the
Trouveres had broken loose from the Chiirch,
and resorted to little village histories or lovestories
for their
'
material. Aucassin et Nicolete,'
the well-known chant -faile, belongs to
this time. Musically more important was
Adam de la Hale's celebrated pastorale Le ' jeu
de Robin et de Marion,' which was played
at the court of Charles of Anjou at Naples in
1285. This work has long been attributed
solely to Adam de la Hale's own invention, but
M. 'Tiersot has now shown that A. de la Hale
probably wrote the play, and then strung
together a number of popular tunes (many of
them of far older date) to suit his words.''
Thus this pastoral comedy forms probably the
oldest collection of French folk-tunes in existence.
Adam de la Hale, together with Guillaume
de Machault, should more properly be
classed among the Chansonniers, or the early
musicians, who in the 13th centui'y paved the
way for the contrapuntal school, which for two
centuries was to be the predominating influence
in European music. A. de la Hale, surnamed
'
Le bossu d'Arras, ' was born in 1240 ; Machault
in 1286, thus fomiing the link between the
Trouveres and the scholar musicians of a little
later time. Like the Ti-ouvferes they often
invented both the words and the melodies of
their songs, but they also attempted to write
in the polyphonic form of composition ; and
raw and imperfect as these efforts were, they
marked a step in advance. To Adam de la
Hale and G. de Machaiilt French music owes
much ; not only can the form of the future
Ex. 11.
'»
ser vira . dont jai & grS.
Very few sirventes, but many pasUmrelles,
have been preserved from the 12th century.
This period was specially rich in sacred and
secular dramatic representations ; and, as before
stated, proses and canticles in plain -chant
melody are found side by side with light,
rhythmical popular tunes. It is thus in ' Daniel
Ludus ' by one Hilaire, played in 1250. The
> Ambros, OetchicJite der SftuiJc, ii. 227, and Tiersot, Hist., p. 371.
2 Ainbros, Ibid. ii. 223. Blimey and Feme put these into modem
notation, and where tbey differ, Barney's are the lower notes.
3 Another of Thilwut's songs, '
Je me quidoie partir d'amour,'
given by Ambros, ii, 228, has an alternating rhythm of two and
three bars, hut it preserves a perfect symmetry of form.
' Further examples of Troubadour songs will be found in Wolf's
tjeber die LaiA, Kiesewetter's S(^hiclisale vrtd Begchaffeiiheit dee
'
Vlt^ltchen Geganges ; J. Stafford Smith's Musica Antiqua,' and in
the histories of music by Ambros, Piitis, Bumey, and others. Also
for modernised versions see Wekerlin's 'Ecbos du Temps pass6,
V..1, i.
i Bo - bins m'aime, Bofiins m'a, Robins m'a
P^^^S^i^p^
Filie.
de - man - diS - e si m'a - ran. ma - ca-
^E^^:
^E^^
CO • tS - le d'ea • car te bonne et belle
Dal Segno aZ Fine.
y^mi
sous kra - ni - e et chain - tu - re - le & leur iia.
vaudeville be detected in the pastorale Robin
*
et Marion,* but its chansons are strictly similar
5 See Lavoix, La Jlfusigue Pran^aite, p. 41.
8 Space prohibits quoting here at length M. Tiorsot's interesting
and conclusive arguments. They are given in different places in
his Rwtoire de la CJiansan Pop, See eapeeially p. 422 et seq., and
the article Halb, Adam de la, vol. ii. p. 273.