SONGS OF THE TROUVRES

The Spirits of England and France 2

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GOTHIC VOICES
directed by

CHRISTOPHER

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HIS SERIES is designed to explore the riches of French and English music from 1150 to 1450. Volume I of The Spirits of England and France (Helios CDH55281) contains an anthology surveying the principal repertories from which these recordings are drawn: monophonic songs of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the conductus and Ars Antiqua motet, the polyphonic chansons of fourteenth- and early fifteenth-century France, and English music for the Mass or other devotions. The music for this recording, Volume II, has been selected from the earliest layers represented on Volume I, namely the monophonic song repertories of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and specifically the songs of the trouvres.1 Here are riches indeed, mostly from what is now Picardy, Artois, Champagne and Belgium. This repertoire is so large that a hundred recitals such as this would not encompass them. Nearly two thousand lyrics for solo voice have survived, with French words, from the period 11701300: love-complaints, tales of erotic adventures in the countryside, debates in verse about matters of love, political lyrics, spinning songs, prayers to the Virgin and calls to a crusade. The grand chant, a protracted meditation upon the fortunes of loving, was the supreme genre of the trouvres art. The nostalgia and gravitas of a song such as Gace Bruls Desconfortez, plains de dolor lie close to the heart of the grand chant tradition, as do all of Gaces songs with their lofty manner and their prestigious Champenois French. Grands chants favour abstraction: there is no explicit narrative context for what is said, and there is rarely an overt admission of physical desire. The lines of poetry are usually maintained at a length which keeps the rhymes from chiming too intensely, in contrast to lighter genres such as the pastourelle. In a grand chant, in other words, one writes like this:
Quant define fueille et flor Que voi la froidure entrer, Lors chant a guise de plor Quautrement ne puis chanter.
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Not like this:

Quant voi la fleur nouvele Paroir en la praele Et joi la fontenele Bruire seur la gravele

The more we explore these songs the more we appreciate the difference of tone and technique that separates these two passages, perhaps so similar at first glance. There may be a refrain in a grand chant, but it is usually one that becomes more rueful as each verse passes, or even more sardonic; it is rarely a celebratory refrain (and never a choric one) in the manner of some lighter genres. Compare the tone of the refrain in Dolerousement comence by Gontier de Soignies, which acquires the insistence of desperation, with the refrains of the dansas or of Guibert Kaukesels balade. The melody of a grand chant is often spacious, the first four lines of verse being commonly set to the melodic pattern ABAB and the following lines to music that may extend the tessitura of the setting upwards. (This change in the tessitura often comes and goes swiftly; to identify it, and to savour it, is part of what constitutes an informed hearing of these songs.) The prevailing musical style of the grand chant was not generally associated with mensural rhythm, or so we have assumed here, and in conservative practice few instruments other than the fiddle were admitted to the performance of such songs. The jeu parti (divided game) is a debate, usually between two trouvres who address one another at the beginning of each stanza, as in Assens chi, Grievilier by Adam de la Halle. These poems attest to the interest in questions of love amounting to a secularized scholasticismwhich is such a striking feature of later medieval civilization. The jeux partis have sometimes been treated unkindly by modern scholars; one, for example, has referred to the jeux partis of Adam de la Halle as truly absurd. No single defence can meet such a sweeping charge, but Assens chi, Grievilier is representative of many jeux partis in that a true understanding of refined love is associated with the simple wisdom of maxims and proverbs

(he hears badly who does not listen): good breeding is clearly not enough. Perhaps this view of love had a special appeal for those who lived in the mercantile world of cities like Arras. The chanson de toile was particularly favoured in Lorraine, not yet part of the kingdom of France in the thirteenth century. In the romance of Guillaume de Dole (?c1210) composed in the Lige area and thus to the north of modern Lorraine, a queen sings a chanson de toile while embroidering, announcing beforehand that ladies and queens of days gone by were always singing spinning songs as they embroidered (lines 11481151). This is more than just a realization, through narrative, of the term chanson de toile (a song of embroidery); it reveals the aura of romantic archaism that these songs possessed. This sense of archaism is often enhanced in the chansons de toile by a prosody that favours long lines and monorhymed stanzas, recalling the most ancient stratum of French narrative poetry: the assonating decasyllables of epics such as The Song of Roland or of the Alexander epic tradition. Au novel tens pascor is an example of this. Many chansons de toile are about the loneliness or distress of women: Au novel tens pascor reveals the consequences which could ensue from the use of language such as the male speakers in most trouvre lyrics employ (I beseech you for your love if you deny me in this you will put me in torment) and it also exposes the brutality of male, feudal power when it has no vested interest in persuading gently (if you are seen or encountered here, your life will be over forthwith). The pastourelle is the reverse of the grand chant in several respects. Pastourelles are usually narrative poems and are candid in their expression of a physical desire that sometimes prevails by force when it cannot prevail by entreaty (I, who was smitten, then took her and put her beneath me by force). They often employ short-range effects of rhyme and melody to create chiming verbal sounds and an instant tunefulness. Their music may often have been mensural; measured rhythm is accordingly employed here for Quant voi la fleur nouvele, for Je chevauchai and for Por conforter mon corage, a pastourelle
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which shares its music with a motet-clausula complex and was almost certainly intended for mensural performance. A striking piece of evidence suggests that they may often have been associated with instrumental accompaniment: Richart de Semillis Chanon ferai plain dire et de pensee (not recorded here) uses exactly the same melody as Je chevauchai, and in the text of the former poem Richart declares that his song will be played on the citole before the ladys door.2 The melody in question, shared by the two poems, is much as we might expect for a thirteenth-century French lyric intended for instrumental participation: it uses highly assertive sequential patterns and was perhaps designed for mensural rendition. We have accordingly used a plucked stringed instrument, a lute, to accompany Je chevauchai. The descort is represented by Gautier de Dargiess La doce pensee. A descort (discord) disrupts the decorum of all the forms mentioned above by using stanzas that are discordant in several senses. First, each stanza has a different metrical form and melody; the stanzas therefore do not accord with one another. Secondly, the form of the descort subverts the grand chant manner, and yet many descorts use a high-style poetic idiom that would be at home in a grand chant another source of discord. Thirdly, the musical settings of descorts, La doce pensee included, often use patterns of literal and shortrange melodic repetition that are rarely cultivated in the grand chant repertory. Sometimes the literal repetition is so insistent that momentary variation produces a striking sensation. Repetition of this kind also magnifies the effect of a shift in tessitura from one verse to another; this is a common device in the lai / descort repertoire. Finally to the balade and dansa. It is curious that the performances of dansas and a balade recorded here should have so much in common with many previous recordings intended to represent general trouvre practice, for these dansas and the balade lie on the periphery of trouvre song as do the musical practices here associated with them. With the balade and dansa we are on safe ground with regard to the

use of instruments and of mensural rhythm, for these two terms both evoke dance. Several songs of the thirteenth century refer to themselves as balades, one of them being Guibert Kaukesels Un chant novel where the musico-poetic form is quite unlike that of most grands chants; notice the monorhymed lines in sequences of three, broken by a new rhyme that anticipates that of the refrain. This seems to be one kind of structure that thirteenth-century musicians associated with the term balade. This word has clearly been borrowed from Old Provenal; the corresponding French form is balet(t)e, and in one important manuscript of around 1300 the texts of many balettes are given, preceded by an illustration of dancers accompanied by a drum.3 Some of the balettes in this manuscript (especially those which anticipate the Ars Nova ballade) are probably not intended for dancing, but there seems no reason why some should not have been performed exactly as the illustration suggests. We have accordingly added percussion to Guibert Kaukesels balade and have adopted a mensural transcription. The term dansa is Old Provenal but most of the surviving dansas in that language are to be found in French or Catalan manuscripts.4 The dansas recorded here are late (?c1310) and probably quite Frenchified versions of a very varied dancesong tradition in Old Occitan which appears to have been of little interest to the compilers of the principal troubadour sources. Amors mart con fuoc am flama and Donna pos vos ay chausida are both written in mensural notation in the Manuscrit du Roi (trouvre chansonnier M). The dansa is associated with instrumental accompaniment in several sources from the later twelfth century onwards, including the Doctrina de compondre dictatz attributed to Jofre de Foix. This treatise on troubadour poetry was probably composed around 1300 and is therefore approximately contemporary with our dansas; we have added bagpipes to Amors mart con fuoc am flama and a lute to Donna pos vos ay chausida. The instrumental estampies are additions of the early fourteenth century to this same Manuscrit du Roi. They are
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included here not only to represent a precious stratum of music in one chansonnier but also to provide examples of tunes constructed in a melodic and rhythmic style that is quite foreign to the central genre of the grand chant: the estampies help us to keep some important contrastive relationships in the front of our minds. As on the first volume of The Spirits of England and France, these estampies have been treated as art-music for a solo fiddler. TROUVRE POETRY Trouvre lyrics thrive upon paradox and oxymoron. The lady addressed, virtually always silent, is exalted, and yet she does not have the resolve or good judgement to accept the male poet whose capacity to love, and whose fitness to be loved, needs no further demonstration than his recourse to poetry; the poet is exalted by being a poet, yet his love is a sweet pain, or even a fair crime, both characteristic trouvre oxymorons. A trouvre may invoke the state of madness that Love induces, as in Gace Bruls Quant define fueille et flor, but his craftsmanship is usually meticulous: he counts the syllables in each line with care, he reproduces metrical schemes from stanza to stanza with every nicety intact. All the while, he establishes a polite casuistry of love, nuanced with the wealth of syntactic variation that is made possible by the case-system of Old French, and by subjunctives that discreetly express wishes, claim rights or contemplate possibilities. Amorous feeling is stated boldly, but the consequences of that feeling are revealed as mystifying and paradoxical. Underlying a good deal of trouvre poetry, and especially the grand chant, is a desire for purity of language. Most conspicuous to us, perhaps, is the purity of sentiment; as we have seen, blunt admissions of physical desire are generally confined to certain kinds of poem such as the pastourelle. The grand chant often deals in more evasive terms, including the ubiquitous joie, where the possibility of protesting an innocent or idealistic sense for the language used is always open. There is also, however, purity of language in the sense of purity of

dialect. One of the early trouvres, Conon de Bthune, was chided for his Picard accent by the French king, Philippe Augustus, who spoke Francien, the dialect of the Ile-de-France and the ancestor of Modern French.5 It has also been observed that Adam de la Halle generally avoids Picardisms in his grands chants; just as striking is the way he respects the case system of Old French, decaying rapidly in his own day. The linguistic tone of a grand chant was perhaps often comparable to that of a conservative version of Received Pronunciation English preserving the dative case (to whom do you refer?) and retaining subjunctives (if I were you). TROUVRE MUSIC The music of trouvre lyrics is almost invariably monophonic. The fundamental structural device is the musico-poetic line: one line of verse, defined by syllable count and by terminal rhyme + accent, which is set to a single melodic member making good use of one, unhurried breath.6 These songs therefore respire in a deeply satisfying way, and virtually the only contemporary standard of excellence in performance that is attested concerns singing the lines with such perfect breathing.7 Light ornamentation, usually created with groups of two or three notes in stepwise motion, may be introduced at any point but is often placed on the penultimate or last syllable of the text, allowing the singer to gently dissipate the energy of the melodic line and to taper the sound into the momentary silence where the breath will be taken. One of the beauties of these songs is created when different stanzas employ identical rhymes, for then the same melodic turn continually appears within the same envelope of harmonics because the vowel the singer is enunciating at that point is always the same. The essential range of most songs is an octave, expanded to nine or ten notes but rarely to more; this would have been a comfortable span for voices which had been developed with a care for evenness throughout their working compass but which had not been made to exercise in the gymnasium of the modern singing lesson.
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THE TROUVRES Trouvre songs survive in retrospective anthologies that were compiled, for the most part, between 1250 and 1320 in Picardy, Artois, the Ile-de-France, Champagne and Lorraine. These collections, of which there are many, often arrange their contents by author with the happy result that many trouvres are known by name. Those represented here range from members of the earliest generation, such as Gace Brul, to the remarkably versatile Adam de la Halle (d1285/8), one of the last. Gace Brul was a member of the minor noble family of Burul from Champagne. He had connections of some kind with Geoffrey of Brittany, son of Henry II of England and brother of Richard the Lionheart. Gaces songs, more than seventy in number, were probably written between 1179 and 1212, and long after his death these works of my lord Gace8 were cherished as authoritative examples of the grand chant. His Champenois form of French did much to establish the lyric koine of the first half of the thirteenth century. There may have been personal contacts between Gace and Gautier de Dargies, a member of a cadet branch of the family of de Dargies from the modern Oise. Guibert Kaukesel was apparently from Arras, a Parnassus of lyric poetry in the thirteenth century. The few songs associated with his name, together with the almost total obscurity of his name today, provide a reminder that many beguiling lyrics lie waiting to be discovered in little-known corners of this huge repertoire of poetry and music. The same might be made about Ernoul le vielle, a trouvre of whom so little is known for certain that it is hazardous even to translate his name (Ernoul the old? Ernoul the fiddle-player?), or indeed about Richart de Semilli. Richart may have had associations with the city of Paris, mentioned in several of his songs. His French places him around 1200. The name of Gontier de Soignies points to the northern and north-eastern regions of France and modern Belgium which were the homeland of most trouvres. Audefroi, active during the first third of the

thirteenth century, was another trouvre of Arras, a city where a respect for the old, high traditions reaching back to Gace Brul and others coexisted with a vigorous inventiveness and an insatiable appetite for songs of every kind. Audefroi was single-handedly responsible for an impressive number of the surviving chansons de toile. Adam de la Halle was an Artesian poet-composer of remarkable versatility, for his surviving works include vernacular verse-dramas, polyphonic motets, polyphonic rondeaux, and songs in several of the traditional genres including the jeu parti. A NOTE ON PERFORMANCE In general, these performances are intended to recapture what might have been assayed by singers in the second half of the thirteenth century who owned, or who could consult, a written copy of a trouvre song identical to the surviving chansonniers in all respects touching upon performance. We have assumed that such singersakin, for example, to the circle of trouvres in Arras evoked at the end of Guibert Kaukesels Fins cuers enamours would have performed sensitively and respectfully, conscious of the venerable tradition that had passed into their keeping. In some respects, we have followed guidelines proposed in the present writers book Voices and Instruments of the Middle Ages: Instrumental Practice and Songs in France 11001300 (London, 1987), some of which are independently formulated, together with others of importance,

in J Stevenss magisterial Words and Music in the Middle Ages: Song, Narrative, Dance and Drama 1050 1350 (Cambridge, 1986). The elements of measured rhythm and instrumental accompaniment are treated in this recording as ways to distinguish different genres of songs. Thus the grands chants are sung by unaccompanied, solo voices, either in an isosyllabic fashion (with each syllable being allowed, in theory, the same amount of time), or in an equalist fashion (with each note being allowed, in theory, the same amount of time). The choice of rhythmic style in each case reflects a decision as to what seemed to suit the melody and the singer best. Some of the narrative songs, such as the pastourelles, and the lyrics intended for dancing, have been treated in a different way, both with regard to rhythm and instrumental accompaniment. The notes on genres above will make these points clear. The manuscripts often show great variation in the number of stanzas in any given song. There is evidence that abbreviated versions of many songs were in circulation, and numerous instances might be cited which suggest that some people in the thirteenth century found the grand chant, for example, too grand. In the editions performed here we have generally been content with four stanzas. We are grateful to Stephen Haynes, Peregrine Rand and John Stevens for help and advice.
CHRISTOPHER PAGE 1995

1. The word trouvre can be traced in the sense a maker of songs from about 1165, in the Roman de Troie at line 5192. The fundamental meaning of trouvre in Old French is one who devises something, and its usage was accordingly much broader than modern custom suggests. 2. See S M Johnson, The Lyrics of Richard de Semilli (Binghampton, New York, 1992), p. 52. Not all the sources of the song have this reading. 3. Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Douce 308. 4. Of great importance here is G A Bond, The Last Unpublished Troubadour Songs, Speculum, 60 (1985), pp. 82749. 5. Conon relates this himself in his song Mout me semont Amors. 6. At the next level of organization there is what might be called the double musico-poetic line; this occurs when two lines of verse form one long line with a medial pause; it is very common in the songs recorded here. 7. dune si entire alaine. The phrase is from the romance of Meliacin (c1290) by Girart dAmiens, line 8999. 8. This is the respectful title given to Gace in Jean Renarts Roman de Guillaume de Dole (lines 845 and 3620) of disputed date (c1210) but almost certainly composed during Gaces lifetime.

1 RICHART DE SEMILLI Je chevauchai (K, pp.1745)

Je chevauchai lautrier la matinee; Delez un bois, assez pres de lentree, Gentil pastore truis. Mes ne vi onques puis Si plaine de deduis Ne qui si bien magree. Ma tres doucete suer, Vos avez tout mon cuer, Ne vous leroie a nul fuer; Mamor vous ai donee. Vers li me tres, si descendi a terre Pour li ver et por samor requerre. Tout maintenant li dis: Mon cuer ai en vos mis, Si ma vostre amor sorpris, Plus vous aim que riens nee . Ma tres doucete suer, Vos avez tout mon cuer, Ne vous leroie a nul fuer; Mamor vous ai donee. Ele me dist: Sire, alez vostre voie! Vez ci venir Robin qui jatendoie, Qui est et bel et genz. Sil venoit, sanz contens Nen iriez pas, ce pens, Tost avrez mellee . Ma tres doucete suer, Vos avez tout mon cuer, Ne vous leroie a nul fuer; Mamor vous ai donee. Il ne vendra, bele suer, oncor mie, Il est dela le bois ou il chevrie. Dejoste li massis, Mes braz au col li mis; Ele ma get un ris Et dit quele ert tuee. Ma tres doucete suer, Vos avez tout mon cuer, Ne vous leroie a nul fuer; Mamor vous ai donee.
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I rode out the other morning; by a wood, quite near to the entrance, I found a delightful shepherdess. I have never seen since either one so full of pleasure or one who pleased me so well. My very sweet sister, you have my whole heart, I will not leave you at any price; I have given you my love. I drew towards her, and so dismounted to the ground to beg her and ask her for her love. I said to her straightaway: I have set my heart upon you, love of you has smitten me so, I love you more than any creature born. My very sweet sister, you have my whole heart, I will not leave you at any price; I have given you my love. She said to me: Sir, go your way! See here how Robin comes for whom I was waiting, who is fair and pleasing. If he comes you will not get away, I think; you will quickly have a brawl. My very sweet sister, you have my whole heart, I will not leave you at any price; I have given you my love. He will not come yet, fair sister, for he is beyond the wood playing his bagpipe. I sat next to her, put my arm around her neck; she smiled and said that she was done for. My very sweet sister, you have my whole heart, I will not leave you at any price; I have given you my love.

Quant joi tout fet de li quanqil magree, Je la besai, a Dieu lai conmandee. Puis dist, quen lot mult haut, Robin qui len assaut: Dehez ait qui en chaut! a fet ta demoree . Ma tres doucete suer, Vos avez tout mon cuer, Ne vous leroie a nul fuer; Mamor vous ai donee. Desconfortez, plains de dolor et dire, Mestuet chanter, quailleurs nai ou entende; Tot le mont voi, fors moi, joer et rire, Ne je ne truis qui dennui me desfende. Cele mocit qui mes cuers plus desirre, Si sui irez quant ele nen amende. Chascuns dit qil aime autresi; Pour ce ne conoist on lami. El ne sent pas mon duel ne mon martire, Por ce mestuet qua sa merci atende; Touz faus amanz par qui ma joie enpire Pri je a Dieu quen enfer les descende. Jaim , fet chascun; grant loisir ont du dire: Mes pou en voi qui a Amors entende. Chascuns dit qil aime autresi; Pour ce ne conoist on lami. De moi grever est Amors costumiere, Si me fet bien por quoi de li me plaigne; Mes a soffrir mest la paine legiere Se ce li plest qui a amer mensaingne. Mes cuers me dit que souvent la requiere, Mes nonauz est quant el plus me destraigne. Chascuns dit qil aime autresi; Pour ce ne conoist on lami.

When I had done all that I wished with her, I kissed her and bid her farewell. Then she said, aloud for all to hear, when Robin reproached her for it: Damn anyone who cares! Your delay was to blame. My very sweet sister, you have my whole heart, I will not leave you at any price; I have given you my love. Disconsolate, full of pain and anger, I have to sing for I cannot direct my attention elsewhere; I see everyone, except me, play and laugh, nor do I find anyone who can protect me from distress. She whom my heart most desires is killing me, so I am angered as it does her no good. Each one says that he loves in this way; one cannot discern a lover by that. She does not feel my pain nor my suffering, therefore I must wait for her mercy; I pray God that he send to hell all the false lovers through whom my joy is spoiled. I love, says each one; there is certainly nothing to stop them saying so: but I see few of them who are intent on Love. Each one says that he loves in this way; one cannot discern a lover by that. Love is accustomed to distress me, and thus he gives me good reason to complain of him; but the pain of suffering is light if it pleases her who teaches me to love. My heart tells me that I should often beseech her, but it is worse as she torments me more. Each one says that he loves in this way; one cannot discern a lover by that.

2 GACE BRUL Desconfortez, plains de dolor (N, f.38)

Onques ne fis vers li fausse priere, Car je ne sai ne ja ne le maprengne; La moie amors nest mie nouveliere, Quil nest fors li nule ou mes cuers remaigne. Se plus ni preng, langoisse en est mult chiere, Puis quil li plest que Amors me destraigne. Chascuns dit qil aime autresi; Pour ce ne conoist on lami. Gasez a son chanter feni Qui touz jorz aime et na merci.

I have never made a false entreaty to her, for I do not know how, and may she never teach me how; my love is not at all inconstant, for there is none other upon whom my heart resides. If I gain no more, the pain of it is very dear to me, since it pleases her that Love oppresses me. Each one says that he loves in this way; one cannot discern a lover by that. Gace, who always loves and has no mercy, has finished his song. When leaf and flower wither as I see the cold season begin, then I sing in the manner of weeping because I cannot sing in any other way. I wish to show people if my lady derives much honour from distressing her good lover. My heart causes me great sadness from which I cannot turn away; indeed, her desire to discourage me doubles each day. My lords, when I have the opportunity to reflect upon whether I am behaving foolishly, that must weigh upon me very heavily. I am not to be blamed if I love her with refined love, because there is so much worth in her that I cannot love her too much; but, by God, I desire to ask her that she soothe enough of my pain that I may bear the other. [i.e. the pain of death] If ever a man found mercy I ought not to fail to have it; no creature ever loved as much as I do in long distress. I must not regret it: one who has served so much should not lose out for having suffered.
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4 GACE BRUL Quant define fueille et flor (N, f.67)

Quant define fueille et flor Que voi la froidure entrer, Lors chant a guise de plor Quautrement ne puis chanter. Mes a la gent vueil monstrer Se ma dame a grant honor De son bon ami grever. Mes cuers me fet grant iror Qui ne men lesse torner; Anois double chascun jour Son vouloir de moi lasser. Quant loisir ai desgarder, Seigneurs, se je faz folor, Mult me par devroit peser. Se je laim de fine amour Je nen faz pas a blasmer, Quen li a tant de valor Que ne la puis trop amer; Mes pour Dieu li vueil mander Que tant most de ma dolor Que lautre puisse porter. Sonques hons merci trouva Je ni doi mie faillir; Onques mes riens tant nama Com je faz en lonc consir. Si ne me doi repentir: Com cil qui tant servi a Ne doit perdre pour souffrir.

Ja nului tort ne fera Sele mi lesse morir; Que siens sui, si mocirra Quant li vendra a plesir; NAmours nen doit pas mentir Puis quele a li me dona. Bien me doi en ce tenir.

She will do no wrong if she lets me die of it; because I am hers she may slay me when it pleases her; but Love should not be false in that regard since Love gave me to her. I must trust to that. Lady, since I have chosen you, look kindly upon me for I am at your command all my life. I will be at your command every day of my life, and I will never leave you for any other, no matter who it may be. Erec did not love Enide as much, nor Tristram Iseut, as I you, gracious lady, whom I love without guile. Lady, since I have chosen you, look kindly upon me for I am at your command all my life. I expect great joy from loving well for it is my greatest desire. Know well, for sure, that Love is a lord of such power that he doubly rewards and pays the man who trusts in him, and he who repents of loving has certainly laboured in vain.

5 ANONYMOUS Donna pos vos ay chausida (M, f.3v)

Donna pos vos ay chausida Faz me bel semblan Quieu suy, a tota ma vida, A vostre coman. A vostre coman seray A totz los jors de ma via, E ja de vos non partray Per degunautra que sia. Que Erex non amet Enida Tan ni Yseutz Tristan Con yeu vos, donna grasida, Quieu am sens engan. Donna pos vos ay chausida Faz me bel semblan Quieu suy, a tota ma vida, A vostre coman. De bien amer grant joie atent Car cest ma greigneur envie. Et sachiez bien certainement QuAmours a tel seignorie Qua double guerredone et rent Celui qui en li se fie, Et cil qui damer se repent Sest bien traveilliez por noient.

6 GACE BRUL De bien amer grant joie atent (N, f.18rv)

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Onques ne fis a encient Vers Amours sens ne folie Ainz sui en son conmandement Et serai toute ma vie. Cil remaint enuieusement De qui Amours est partie; Ma dame mensaigne et aprent Queneurs est damer loiaument. Grant amor ne me puet grever: Quant plus mocit, plus magree. Et melz vuel morir et amer Qun jor vos aie oubliee Dame, qui me poz doner Ma grant joie desirree. Ce me fet souvent conperer Que vers vos nose regarder. Dame, de toutes la nonper, Bele et bone, a droit loee, Ja ne devriez escouter Fausse gent maluree Qua mentir et a deviner Ont Bone Amour destorbee Qui puis ne savoit assener La ou ele dest aler. Quant voi la fleur nouvele Paroir en la praele Et joi la fontenele Bruire seur la gravele, Lors mi tient amors nouvele Dont ja ne garai. Se cist maus ne masoage Bien sai quen morai.

I have never deliberately done anything wise or foolish against Love but rather I am subject to his command and will be all my life. He whom Love has abandoned lives a troubled life; my lady teaches and instructs me that it is honourable to love loyally. Great love cannot distress me: the more it kills me, the more it pleases me. And I would rather die and love than forget you for a single day, lady, who can give me the great joy I desire. This often makes me pay for the fact that I do not dare to glance in your direction. Lady, without peer among all women, fair and good, rightly praised, you should never listen to false and wretched people who, in their lying and misleading talk, have troubled Good Love who then did not know how to guide himself where he had to go. When I see the new flowers appear in the meadow and hear the spring rushing on the pebbles, a new love grips me of which I cannot be cured. If this pain does not recede I know well that I will die of it.

7 ANONYMOUS Quant voi la fleur nouvele (P, ff.160v161)

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 Je sui sade et brunete Et jone pucelete; Sai coleur vermeillete, Euz verz, bele bouchete; Si me point la mamelete Que ni puis durer. Reson est que mentremete Des douz maus damer. Certes, se je trouvoie Qui men mest en voie, Volentiers ameroie; Ja por nul nel leroie. Car bien ai o retrere, Et por voir conter, Que nus na parfete joie Sel ne vient damer. Vers la tose mavance Por or sacointance; Je la vi bele et blanche, De simple contenance. Ne mist pas en oubliance Ce que je li dis. Maintenant, sanz demorance, Samor li requis. Pris la par la main nue, Mis la seur lerbe dure; Ele sescrie et jure Que de mon gieu na cure: Ostz vostre lechere! Dex la puist honir! Car tant est asprete et dure Ne la puis souffrir.

I am a pleasing and brown-haired young girl. I have a rosy colour, green eyes, a pretty mouth; my breast pricks me so that I cannot endure it. It is right that I should take on the sweet pains of love. Indeed, if I were to find someone who could set me on that road, I would love him willingly; I would never leave him for anyone. For, indeed, I have heard it said, and claimed as a truth, that nobody has perfect joy unless it comes from love. I advanced towards the lass to hear her invitation; I saw that she was fair and white, with an innocent face. She did not ignore what I said to her. At once, without delay, I asked her for her love. I took her by her bare hand and laid her on the hard grass; she cried aloud and swore that she cared nothing for my game: Stop your wantonness! God make you ashamed of it! for it is so harsh and hard that I cannot endure it.

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8 GONTIER DE SOIGNIES Dolerousement comence (T, f.111v)

Dolerousement comence Ki chanter veut de dolour. Las! de ou ki plus magence Ainc nen euc joie sans plour. Fols en fais ma penitance Car ainc ne li quis samor: Ens moi fait une grant tence Volents contre cremor. Mult aim et has dire et taisir, Car daus deus puis vivre et morir. Amors est et fole et vaine Ki trop est mise a bandon, Mais quant apres la grant paine Vient la joie par raison, Lors est ele plus certaine Et sen sont li porfit bon. De boin jor boine semaine; Selonc luevre guerredon. Mult aim et has dire et taisir, Car daus deus puis vivre et morir. Perils est de tos afaires Dont on est auques certains, Car tex li samble contraires Ou joies est mult prochains. Mieus vaut servirs et atraires Et metre pour plus le mains; Cuer failli ne pris jou gaires Car trop est faus et vilains. Mult aim et has dire et taisir, Car daus deus puis vivre et morir. Jou faic, je croi, tele atente Com li Breton font dArtus; Amors mochist et tormente Et si nel savra ja nus. Miex me vient de li la tence Si ke jou ni faice plus Que de la cortoise gente Torner tote joie en sus. Mult aim et has dire et taisir, Car daus deus puis vivre et morir.
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Beginning is painful for whomsoever wishes to sing of pain. Alas! I have never had joy without weeping from that which becomes me most. I am a fool to do penance for it, because I have never besought her for her love: rather there is a great conflict in me between desire and fear. I greatly love and hate both speech and silence, for each of them may be a matter of life and death to me. The love which is allowed too much freedom is foolish and empty, but when joy is judiciously given after great suffering then rational joy comes and the gains therefrom are good. From a good day a good week; reward according to the work. I greatly love and hate both speech and silence, for each of them may be a matter of life and death to me. Every undertaking is hazardous where there is little certainty, for circumstances in which joy is very close at hand appear inauspicious. It is best to serve, to attract and to put least for most; I set little value on a cowardly heart for it is too false and base. I greatly love and hate both speech and silence, for each of them may be a matter of life and death to me. I believe that I am maintaining the kind of vigil that the Bretons do for Arthur; Love kills and torments me and yet nobody will know of it. It is better that he do battle with me so that I do no more than raise all the joy of courtly people aloft. I greatly love and hate both speech and silence, for each of them may be a matter of life and death to me.

9 GUIBERT KAUKESEL Un chant novel (T, f.168rv)

Un chant novel vaurai faire chanter Pour la millour ki soit decha la mer; Bien loiaument laim de cuer sans fauser Et amerai ma vie. Diex! ki a boine amour, Sil sen repent nul jour, Il fait grant vilonie. Molt me doit ou anuier et peser Ke ne men veut nes or parler. Larbre, bien sai, ne voit on pas verser A la premiere fie. Diex! ki a boine amour, Sil sen repent nul jour, Il fait grant vilonie. Bien sai ke ou me doit bien conforter: Une cit, quant on velt conquester, Si covient il pluisors assaus livrer Ains com lait gaaignie. Diex! ki a boine amour, Sil sen repent nul jour, Il fait grant vilonie. A ma dame, balade, presenter Te voil; di li [de] par moi, sans celer, Ke de sa cose empirier et grever Nest ce pas cortoisie. Diex! ki a boine amour, Sil sen repent nul jour, Il fait grant vilonie. I wish to cause a new song to be sung for the finest who lives from here to the sea; I love her very loyally with all my heart, without falsity, and will love her all my life. God! He who has a good love and repents of it at any time does a very base deed. It must trouble and grieve me greatly that she does not even want to hear me speak of it. I know well that a tree does not fall at the first stroke. God! He who has a good love and repents of it at any time does a very base deed. I know that this must comfort me well: when one wishes to conquer a city one must assail it several times before one may win it. God! He who has a good love and repents of it at any time does a very base deed. Balade, I wish to present you to my lady; say to her on my behalf, without concealment, that it is not courteous to blame or to distress her person. God! He who has a good love and repents of it at any time does a very base deed. He who counsels me, concerning love, that I must depart from her, does not know who keeps me wakeful nor whence come my sad sighs. He who wishes to put me right has little understanding or acuity, nor has he ever loved in his life; he who turns his hand to a craft in which he has no expertise commits a very foolish error.
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bl GACE BRUL Cil qui damours (N, f.16rv)

Cil qui damours me conseille Que de li doie partir, Ne set pas qui me resveille Ne dont sont mi grief sospir. Petit a sens et voisdie Cil qui men veut chastier, Nonques nama en sa vie; Si fet trop nice folie Qui sentremet du mestier Dont il ne se set aidier.

H! blanche, clere et vermeille De vous sont mi grief souspir, Car fetes en tel merveille Droiture et Reson faillir. Quant je vous vueil a amie Droit nel porroit consentir, Car vostre grant courtoisie, De tres grant biaut garnie, Ne mi daigne conseillier. Mar vous o tant prisier. Povre cuer se desconseille Et let de poor morir; Li viguereus sapareille En biau confort de guerir. Dame, mes riens que je die Ne me vaut, car je sorqier; Sun petit de vilanie, Esprise de felonnie, Vous fet merci delaier, Mar vous vi et ma mort qier. Dedenz mon cuer monte treille Toute preste de florir: Bone amour fine et freille, Qui la daigneroit joir. Mes amours qui nest joe Ne puet cuer esleecier; Bien voi, se mort ne chastie Ma volent, manemie, Ne puis mon biau tort lessier, Ne mon outrage changier. La doce pensee Ki me vient dAmors Mest el cuer entree Tos jors, sans retor; Tant lai desiree, La doce dolor, Ke riens ki soit nee Ne ma tel savor.
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Ah! white, radiant and rose-coloured one, my sad sighs are for you, because you make Right and Reason go amiss in such an astonishing way. If I wish to have you as a lover Right could not consent to it, for your great courtliness, adorned with great beauty, does not think it fitting to help me in that regard. It is to my misfortune that I heard you praised so much. A feeble heart loses resolve and abandons itself to die of fear; a vigorous one girds itself to defend itself, emboldened. Lady, nothing further that I might say avails me, for I ask too much; if a little baseness, enflamed by wickedness, causes you to delay your mercy, then it is to my misfortune that I saw you and I seek my death. In my heart a trellis arises all ready to flower: refined, delicate and good love, for whomsoever should think it fitting to gratify it. But a love which is not gratified cannot gladden the heart; I see clearly that if death does not discipline my desire, my enemy, I cannot desist from my fair crime, nor relinquish my excess. For ever, without renunciation, the sweet thought which comes to me from Love has entered my heart; I have desired it so much, the sweet suffering, that no creature born has such a delight for me.

bn GAUTIER DE DARGIES La doce pensee (T, ff.147v148v)

Doce dame, ainc ne vos dis nul jor Ma grant dolor, ains lai tos jors celee. Mort mont mi oel, ki mont mis en esror Dont la paine nert ja jor achievee; Je lor pardoins, car tant mont fait donor Ke la millor del mont en ai amee. Qui voit sa crine bloie Ki samble ke soit dor, Et son col ki blanoie Deseur som bel chief sor! Cest ma dame, ma joie, Et mon rice tresor; Certes, je ne vauroie Sans li valoir Hector. De si belle dame amer Ne se porroit nus desfendre; Puis kAmors mi fait penser El mi devroit bien aprendre Coment porroie achiever Puis kaillors ne puis entendre. Se je li disoie Ke samors fust moie, Grant orguell feroie Nis se le pensoie. Ains sosferrai mon martire, Ja ne savra mon pens Se par piti ne remire Les maus [que me fait porter]; Car tant redoc lescondire De sa tres grant volent; Tel cose porroie dire Dont el me saroit mal gr. La ou Diex a assambl Pris et valor et bont, Ten va, descors, sans plus dire, Fors itant, pour lamor D, Com puet bien par toi eslire Ke je ne chant fors por l Dont Diex me doinst estre am.

Sweet lady, I have never told you my great pain, but rather I have always concealed it. My eyes have killed me, for they have put me into a state of perplexity which brings a pain that can never end; I forgive them, for it is a great honour to me that I have fallen in love with the best in the world. If you could but see her blonde hair which looks like gold, and her white neck underneath her radiant head! That is my lady, my joy and my rich treasure; certainly, without her I would not wish to be as brave as Hector. No man can guard himself against loving such a beautiful lady; since Love makes me think of it, Love should teach me well how I may attain it, since I have no other aim. It would be overweeningly proud of me if I asked her to grant me her love, or even thought of doing so. But instead I shall endure my suffering, for she will never know my thought unless she looks compassionately upon the ills which she makes me bear; for I greatly fear that her exalted wish may go against me; I might say something which she would hold against me. Betake yourself, descort, to where God has assembled valour, worth and virtue, without saying any more save that, for the love of God, one may well discern through you that I sing for none except her, by whom God grant I be loved.

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bo ANONYMOUS Amors mart con fuoc am flama (M, f.170ter v)

Amors mart con fuoc am flama, E nueg e jorn plus mapren; Per quieu sai, ben veramen, Que del lueng conois qui ama. E lueng vos sui, doussamia, So creson nostre guerrier, Mas non sabon ges con fier Le cairells camors menvia. Ca totz jorns plus menlliama Con sius vesia presen, E ja no.m trobi dormen, Cam vos non sie jos la rama. [Amors mart con fuoc am flama, E nueg e jorn plus mapren; Per quieu sai, ben veramen, Que del lueng conois qui ama.] Assens chi, Grievilier, jugement: U quel puet miex chius se paine emploiier Ki weut Amours par parole essauchier? U en celui ki aime loialment Pour chu kil nait volent ne talent De soi cangier, U en celui ki aimme faussement Pour ravouer? Adam, de chu vous jugerai briement. En un loial a poi a preechier, Et ensement ki est en un sentier Pourfait kil dist: Als serement. Ciex fait trop miex ki sa paine despent Au losengier Tant com la fait a amer loialment Acoragier. Love burns me with a fire and flame, and both night and day it takes hold of me more firmly; wherefore I truly know that one may discern someone who is in love from afar. And I am far from you, sweet friend, so our warriors believe, but they do not know how the arrow that Love sends towards me strikes. Every day I am bound closer as if I saw you present before me, and every time I fall asleep I am with you beneath the bough. [Love burns me with a fire and flame, and both night and day it takes hold of me more firmly; wherefore I truly know that one may discern someone who is in love from afar.] Grievilier, give judgement here: if someone wishes to exalt love by argument, on whom should he concentrate his efforts? Should it be one who loves loyally because he has neither wish nor desire to change, or should it be one who loves falsely, in order to reform him? Adam, I will give you immediate judgement upon this. In a loyal lover there is little to correct, and when a man is on the right path it is enough to say to him: Go confidently. He does much better who concerns himself with the false lover until he has set his heart on loyal loving.

bp ADAM DE LA HALLE Assens chi, Grievilier (P, f.228rv)

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Jehan de Grievil[i]er, sor fondement Foible et mauvais fait mauvais edefier; Laissis le faus amant a justicier Si vous mets a celui qui ne ment; Con voit par defaute denseignement Maint desvoiier Et mainte tour ki na retenement Adamagier. Adan, sachis que mal ot qui nentent Et mal entent con ne puet consillier; Teus fait trop mains ki loe un bon ouvrier Ke ne fait cius qui a ouvrer laprent. [Qui chou ne set ne voit pas clerement], Pour droit jugier, Nil nest pas plains de bon entendement, Au mien cuidier. Por conforter mon corage Qui dAmors sesfroie, Lautre jor les un boschage Toz seus chevauchoie. Pastorele Gente et bele Truis et simple et coie. En lerboie Qui verdoie Repaissoit sa proie. Cors ot gent Et avenant, Bouche vermeille et oel riant, Noirs sorcis Et bien assis, Blanc col et color le vis, Quar nature Mist sa cure En former tel enfant. A! E! O! Son frestel, son baston prent, A! E! O! Chantoit et notoit: Je voi venir Emmelot Par mi le vert bois .
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Jehan de Grievilier, it is bad to build upon a weak and bad foundation; give up chastising the false lover and apply yourself to him who does not lie; one sees many go astray through lack of instruction and many a tower fall to ruin through lack of support. Adam, know that he hears badly who does not listen and he understands badly whom one cannot advise; a man who praises a good workman accomplishes much less than one who teaches that workman his trade. Whoever does not know this does not see clearly, to judge aright nor does he have a good understanding, in my opinion. To raise my spirits, laid low by love, I rode all alone the other day by a wood. I found there a shepherdess, fine and beautiful, innocent and at ease. She was pasturing her flock on the green grass. She had a fine and comely body, a red mouth and a laughing eye, black and well-placed eyebrows, a white neck and a rosy complexion, for nature had exerted all her powers to make such a child. A! E! O! She took her flute and her crook. A! E! O! She sang and played: I see Emmelot coming amidst the greenwood.

bq ERNOUL LE VIELLE Por conforter mon corage (M, f.175 v)

Joi la touse qui frestele Et demaine joie; Por ce quele est simple et bele Vers li ti[n]g ma voie. Je li dis Com fins amis: Touse, car soiez moie! La bergiere, Qui fu fiere, Durement sesfroie. Maintenant Samor demant; El dit que nen fera noiant. De Robin A fait ami Qui li a jur et plevi Que sa vie Dautre amie Navra los ne cri. A! E! O! Robins est loiaus amis. A! E! O! Traiez vos en la! Robins ma de cuer amee Si nel lairai ja. Jentix touse debonaire, Preus sanz vilenie, Ne mi faites plus contraire: Devenez mamie. Cote noire, Cest la voire, Ne vos donrai mie; Descarlete Iert vermeillete, De vert mi partie. Ele dit: Traiez arrier! Ni vaut vostre desnoier . Je la pris, Qui fui soupris, Par force soz moi la mis; Demanois Le ju franois,
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I heard the lass who was playing the flute and regaling herself; because she was sweet and beautiful I made my way towards her. I said to her like a courtly lover: Lass, be mine. The shepherdess, who was haughty, was greatly taken aback. Straightaway I asked her for her love; she said that she would never grant it. She has taken Robin as a lover who has sworn and pledged to her that all his life he will never be allied or associated with any other lover. A! E! O! Robin is a loyal friend. A! E! O! Get away! Robin loves me with all his heart and so I will never leave him. Noble and courteous lass, worthy, with no baseness, do not oppose me any further: become my love. Truly, I will never give you a black gown; it will be of scarlet, vermillion and green, parti-coloured. She said: Go back! your declaration is worth nothing! I, who was smitten, then took her and put her beneath me by force; forthwith I played the French game

Li fis a mon talant. A! E! O! Touse, or est il autremant? A! E! O! Cele crie en haut: Se Robins ma mal guardee Maldehait qui chaut . Fins cuers enamours, Vivans en esperance, A [de] deduis asss; Celui ki a fiance Ke ja naura amie, Tote joie est faillie. Espoirs et Loiauts Et Pensee Jolie Mafient kiere ams; Raisons non, ains mafie Dasses doloir et plaindre; Trop haut aim pour ataindre. Desirs et volents De bien servir, sans faindre, Et sa tres grans beauts, Fait ma volent graindre Damer damor veraie; Nai voloir ken retraie. Gens cors bel acesms, Plus pres de vous se traie Piti, si oublis Raison, car trop mesmaie; Mais ou me rasouaige Ke serf boin signouraige. Cent fois me sui los Ke a mon dou damaige Sui si bien assens. Belle, cortoise et saige, Merci! car miex amee Ne fu de vous ainc nee.

with her as I desired. A! E! O! Lass, how goes it now? A! E! O! She cried aloud: Damn anyone who cares that Robin has guarded me badly. A refined heart in love, living in hope, has enough pleasure; he who believes that he will never have a lover is entirely lacking in joy. Hope, Loyalty and Fair Thought assure me that I shall be loved; Reason does not, but rather assures me of much pain and regret; the one I love is too exalted for me to attain her. Desire and the will to serve her well, without falsity, and her very great beauty, cause my wish to love with a true love to increase; I have no desire to draw back from it. Fine creature, well adorned, may Pity draw closer to you and so may you forget Reason, for it confounds me too much; and yet it consoles me that I serve a noble governance. A hundred times have I congratulated myself that, to my own sweet sorrow, I am so richly endowed. Fair one, courteous and wise, mercy! for no woman born was ever better loved than you.

bs GUIBERT KAUKESEL Fins cuers enamours (T, f.168v)

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Jehan Erart, chants Mon chant, si vous agree; Boutillier presents Vous est. Si soit loee Ma canons; la reprise Ai a Dragon tramise.

Jehan Erart, sing my song, if it pleases you; Boutillier, it is presented to you. Thus may my song be praised; I have sent the refrain to Dragon. In the new season of Spring, when the hawthorn flowers, Count Gui married the beautiful Argentine. They were so well in one anothers arms under the bed-curtain that he had six fair sons of her; then he began to be hostile to her because he loved his maid Sabine better. Whoever is wed to a bad husband often has a sad heart. Sabine, says the Count, I desire you. I beseech you for your love: I offer you mine. And if you deny me in this you will put me in torment. The fair one replies: God forbid that my youth be spent as a concubine. Whoever is wed to a bad husband often has a sad heart. The count has promised so much and made such gifts to the fair one, that he has taken from her the sweet name of maiden: he does all that he wishes with the young girl. Argentine learns of it. She calls her lord to account. Her heart in her breast almost bursts. Whoever is wed to a bad husband often has a sad heart. The lady, sighing, shows what is in her heart: Sire, for the love of God, have mercy! You have too much contempt for me that you keep a concubine in front of my very eyes. I marvel why you do me this shame, for there has never been wantonness or excess in me. Whoever is wed to a bad husband often has a sad heart.

bt AUDEFROI Au novel tens pascor (U, ff. 66v67)

Au novel tens pascor, quant florist laubespine, Esposa li cuens Guis la bien faite Argentine. Tant furent bonement braz et braz sor cortine Que six bels fiz en out; puis li mostra hane Por ceu que melz ama sa pucele Sabine. Qui covent a a mal mari Sovent en a lo cuer marri. Sabine , dist li cuens, vostre cors matalente. Vostre amor vos requier, la moie vos presente, Et se vos men failliez mis mavez en tormente. Et la bele respont: Ja, Dex ne lo consente Qen soignantage soit usee ma jovente. Qui covent a a mal mari Sovent en a lo cuer marri. Tant a li cuens promis et don a la bele, Que il li ait tolu lo douz non de pucele: Totes ses volentez fait de la damoisele. Argente saperoit. Son seignor en apele. Por pou que ne li part li cuers soz la mamele. Qui covent a a mal mari Sovent en a lo cuer marri. La dame en sospirant a mostr son corage: Sire, por Deu merci! Trop mavez en viltage Que devant moi tenez amie en soignantage. Si me mervoil por coi me faites tel hontage, Kar onques en moi nout folie ne outrage. Qui covent a a mal mari Sovent en a lo cuer marri.

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 Argente, bien avez vostre raison mostree. Sor les euz vos comant que vuidiez ma contree. Et gardez que ni soit see vo rentree! Car se vos i estiez vee nencontr[e]e, Maintenant en seroit la vostre vie outreie. Qui covent a a mal mari Sovent en a lo cuer marri. La dame al duel quele at est chaiie sovine. Quant se pot redracier dolente sachemine, Del cuer va sospirant et de plorer ne fine. Les larmes de son cuer corrent de tel ravine Que ses mantiax en muelle et ses bliauz dermine. Qui covent a a mal mari Sovent en a lo cuer marri.

Argentine, you have made yourself very clear. I command you, by your eyes, to leave my land. Be sure that you are never known to return! For if you are seen or encountered here, your life will be over forthwith. Whoever is wed to a bad husband often has a sad heart. For the sadness that she feels the lady has fallen to the floor. When she is able to arise she sadly goes her way, sighing in her heart, and does not cease to weep. The tears of her heart flow in such a flood that they soak her clothes and her ermine tunic. Whoever is wed to a bad husband often has a sad heart.

All editions of music, editions of texts and translations by Christopher Page. In each case the version of a song performed here follows the melody and text of the stated manuscript with no deviation to another source except in the case of manifest errors (loss of rhyme words, for example, or sudden transpositions of a small note-cluster by one degree of the stave). The manuscript sigla employed below are the conventional ones: K: Paris, Bibliothque de lArsenal, 5198 (Chansonnier de lArsenal) M: Paris, Bibliothque nationale, fonds franais 844 (Manuscrit du Roi) N: Paris, Bibliothque nationale, fonds franais 845 P: Paris, Bibliothque nationale, fonds franais 847 T: Paris, Bibliothque nationale, fonds franais 12615 (Chansonnier de Noailles) U: Paris, Bibliothque nationale, fonds franais 20050 (Chansonnier de Saint-Germain) X: Paris, Bibliothque nationale, fonds franais nouvelle acquisition 1050 (Chansonnier de Clairambault)

Recorded on 1517 December 1994 Recording Engineer TONY FAULKNER Recording Producer MARTIN COMPTON Executive Producers JOANNA GAMBLE, NICK FLOWER P Hyperion Records Ltd, London, 1995 C Hyperion Records Ltd, London, 2009 (Originally issued on Hyperion CDA66773) Front illustration: Countess Uta. A statue from the Cathedral at Naumberg

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Also available The Spirits of England and France, Volume 1 Music of the later Middle Ages for Court and Church GOTHIC VOICES / CHRISTOPHER PAGE director Compact Disc CDH55281 Unalloyed pleasure Once again a superb recording that stimulates, that charms (Gramophone) Entente cordiale at its best. Glorious music (BBC Music Magazine) Unqualified rapture (American Record Guide) Beautiful performances of gorgeous, accessible music. Marvellous all the way. All should rush and buy (Classic CD)

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CDH55282

The Spirits of England and France 2

Songs of the trouvres
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 bl bm bn bo bp bq br bs bt
RICHART DE SEMILLI (fl 1200) Pastourelle Je chevauchai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . b i GACE BRUL (c 1160after 1213) Grand chant Desconfortez, plains de dolor . . . . . . . . . c ANONYMOUS Estampie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . h GACE BRUL Grand chant Quant define fueille et flor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . e ANONYMOUS Dansa Donna pos vos ay chausida . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . a i GACE BRUL Grand chant De bien amer grant joie atent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . b ANONYMOUS Pastourelle Quant voi la fleur nouvele . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . b f GONTIER DE SOIGNIES (fl before 1220) Grand chant Dolerousement comence . . . . . . . c GUIBERT KAUKESEL (fl c12301255) Balade Un chant novel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . a g GACE BRUL Grand chant Cil qui damours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . e ANONYMOUS Estampie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . h GAUTIER DE DARGIES (c 1165after 1236) Descort La doce pensee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . c ANONYMOUS Dansa Amors mart con fuoc am flama . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . b f ADAM DE LA HALLE (1245/501285/8) Jeu parti Assens chi, Grievilier . . . . . . . . . . . . . e ERNOUL LE VIELLE DE GASTINOIS (fl c1280) Pastourelle Por conforter mon corage d ANONYMOUS Estampie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . h GUIBERT KAUKESEL Grand chant Fins cuers enamours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . c AUDEFROI le Bastart (fl 11901230) Chanson de toile Au novel tens pascor . . . . . . . . . . b
[2'37] [5'11] [1'12] [3'20] [1'31] [4'41] [2'38] [4'12] [2'04] [4'20] [1'18] [4'40] [1'48] [3'35] [3'22] [3'20] [3'44] [7'25]

GOTHIC VOICES
EMMA KIRKBY soprano (a) MARGARET PHILPOT alto (b) ROGERS COVEY-CRUMP tenor (c) LEIGH NIXON tenor (d) HENRY WICKHAM baritone (e) ROBERT WHITE bagpipes (f) NICK BICAT percussion (g) PAVLO BEZNOSIUK fiddle (h) CHRISTOPHER PAGE medieval lute (i)

CHRISTOPHER PAGE director

HELIOS CDH55282

I found myself extraordinarily moved this is a CD that grabs you and hangs on to the end (Early Music Review) Radiantly beautiful music the whole CD is one of unalloyed delight (Classic CD) This is quite simply the best recording ever of the trouvre literature (American Record Guide) Outstanding (BBC Music Magazine)

CDH55282
Duration 61'59

THE SPIRITS OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE 2 GOTHIC VOICES . CHRISTOPHER PAGE

The Spirits of England and France 2

Songs of the trouvres
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 bl bm bn bo bp bq br bs bt
RICHART DE SEMILLI Je chevauchai [2'37] GACE BRUL Desconfortez, plains de dolor [5'11] ANONYMOUS Estampie [1'12] GACE BRUL Quant define fueille et flor [3'20] ANONYMOUS Donna pos vos ay chausida [1'31] GACE BRUL De bien amer grant joie atent [4'41] ANONYMOUS Quant voi la fleur nouvele [2'38] GONTIER DE SOIGNIES Dolerousement comence [4'12] GUIBERT KAUKESEL Un chant novel [2'04] GACE BRUL Cil qui damours [4'20] ANONYMOUS Estampie [1'18] GAUTIER DE DARGIES La doce pensee [4'40] ANONYMOUS Amors mart con fuoc am flama [1'48] ADAM DE LA HALLE Assens chi, Grievilier [3'35] ERNOUL LE VIELLE DE GASTINOIS Por conforter mon corage [3'22] ANONYMOUS Estampie [3'20] GUIBERT KAUKESEL Fins cuers enamours [3'44] AUDEFROI LE BASTART Au novel tens pascor [7'25]

THE SPIRITS OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE 2 GOTHIC VOICES . CHRISTOPHER PAGE

A HYPERION RECORDING

DDD

MADE IN ENGLAND

GOTHIC VOICES CHRISTOPHER PAGE director

Recorded on 1517 December 1994 Recording Engineer TONY FAULKNER Recording Producer MARTIN COMPTON Executive Producers JOANNA GAMBLE, NICK FLOWER P Hyperion Records Ltd, London, 1995 C Hyperion Records Ltd, London, 2009 (Originally issued on Hyperion CDA66773) Front illustration: Countess Uta. A statue from the Cathedral at Naumberg

HELIOS CDH55282