Heu, Fortuna. Musique au temps de Philippe IV le Bel / La Rota

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atma classique ACD2 2561
Église Saint-Augustin de Mirabel (Québec), Canada
abril de 2007









heu, Fortuna
musique au temps de Philippe IV le Bel (1268-1314)




Gillebert de Berneville (fl. c. 1250-1280)
1 :: Au noviau temps que yvers se debrise  [5:46]
SOPRANO 1, HARPE, VIÈLE, FLÛTE À BEC

Attr. Philippe de Vitry (1291-1361)
2 :: Aman novi | Heu, Fortuna subdola | Heu me  [1:47]
SOPRANOS 1 ET 2, TÉNOR, LUTH, VIÈLE

Tobie Miller
3 :: Estampie «Chascuns dit que je foloi»  [2:51]
FLÛTE À BEC, LUTH, VIÈLE

Anonyme
4 :: Amis, quelx est li mieuz vaillanz (JEU PARTI)  [4:06]
cf. Bernart de VENTARDORN. Quan vei la lauzetta mover
SOPRANO 1, HARPE, FLÛTE À BEC, VIÈLE

Anonyme
5 :: Helas! Tant vi de male (RONDEAU)  [3:12]
SOPRANO 1, FLÛTE À BEC, HARPE, VIÈLE

Anonyme
6 :: Retrové (ESTAMPIE)  [6:04]
FLÛTE À BEC, LUTH, VIÈLE

Blondel de Nesles (fl. 1180-1200)
7 :: A l’entrant d’esté  [7:59]
SOPRANO 1, VÌELLE À ROUE, LUTH, VIÈLE

Jehan de Lescurel (d. 1304)
8 :: A vous, douce debonaire (RONDEAU)  [3:13]
SOPRANO 1, FLÛTE À BEC, HARPE, VIÈLE

[2:33]
Anonyme
9a :: Prendés i garde, s’on mi regarde (RONDEAU)  [0:43]
9b :: S’on me regarde | Prennés i garde | Hé ! Mi enfant  [1:51]
SOPRANOS 1 ET 2, FLÛTE À BEC, VIÈLE, HARPE

Anonyme
10 :: Ne m’oubliez mie | Domino  [2:58]
SOPRANO 1, VIELLE À ROUE, VIÈLE

Anonyme
11 :: Dieus! Comment porrai | O regina | Nobis Concedas  [3:07]
2 SOPRANOS, HARPE, VIÈLE, FLÛTE À BEC

[11:48]
Attr. Guiot de Dijon (fl. 1215-1225)
12a :: Chanterai por mon coraige  [8:19]
Tobie Miller
12b :: Estampie «Chanterai por mon coraige»   [3:29]
SOPRANO 1, VIELLE À ROUE, HARPE, VIÈLE

[4:57]
Anonyme
13 a:: Apris ai qu’en chantant plour  [3:20]
13 b:: Quant voi la flor nouvelle  [1:37]
SOPRANO 1, FLÛTE À BEC, LUTH, VIÈLE

[3:442]
14a :: Philippe de Vitry (1291-1361)
Tribum que | Quoniam secta | Merito hec patimur  [1:49]
14b :: Anonyme
Tribum quem non abhorruit (INTABULATION)  [1:56]
SOPRANO 1, TÉNOR, FLÛTE À BEC, LUTH, VIÈLE

Anonyme
15 :: Estampie  [7:29]
VIELLE À ROUE, LUTH, VIÈLE




Sources:
#: 1, 4, 7, 12, 13 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, fr. 845 (Chansonnier Cangé)
#: 2, 8, 14a Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, fr. 146 (Roman de Fauvel)
#: 5 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Coll. de Picardie 67
#: 6, 14b, 15 Londres, British Library Ms. Add. 28550 (Robertsbridge Codex)
#: 9a Rome, Biblioteca Apostolico Vaticana, Reg. lat. 1490
#: 9b, 10, 11 Montpellier, Bibliothèque Inter-Universitaire, Section Médecine, H196 (Codex Montpellier)



LA ROTA
Sarah Barnes :: soprano 1
Tobie Miller :: flûte à bec, vielle à roue :: soprano 2
Émilie Brûlé :: vièle
Esteban La Rotta :: luth, harpe gothique


Réalisation, enregistrement et montage: Johanne Goyette

The 13th century in France was a period of growth, learning, and development. Over the course of the century the kingdom’s population doubled, and by 1300, Paris, with a population of 200,000, was the largest city in western Europe. The end of the century, however, saw political and environmental instability: disputes between the French crown and Rome led to one dead pope, and the subsequent move of the papal residence to Avignon. A succession crisis after the deaths of Philip IV (known as Philip the Fair) in 1314 and that of his son Louis two years later was concurrent with the worst famine in recorded European history (1315-1322), paving the way for the turbulence and instability that were to mark the 14th century. Our program follows the musical developments that took place in France during the 13th century and into the beginning of the 14th century, focusing on manuscripts copied during and immediately after the lifetime of Philip IV (1268-1314).

Philip’s lifetime was witness to the coexistence of, and transition between, several musical styles. Trouvères, whose legacy was inherited from the troubadours of Occitany, flourished throughout the 12th and 13th centuries, finally fading out by the beginning of the 14th century. Poet-composers of the upper class, trouvères, like their southern counterparts, espoused the virtues of courtly love (fin’amors) through their poetry. By the end of the 13th century, northern France was a leading center of manuscript production, and the extant manuscripts containing trouvère songs were all copied beginning in the second half of the century, even though many of the songs they contain date from much earlier periods. The transmission of an earlier repertoire in later manuscripts is evidence of the strength and importance of this tradition.

The Chansonnier Cangé (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, fr. 846) was copied during the early years of Philip’s lifetime, between 1270 and 1280, and contains close to 400 songs. Chanterai por mon coraige, attributed to Guiot de Dijon (fl. 1215-1225), is written in the voice of a woman who sings to keep up her courage while waiting for the man she loves to return from pilgrimage. In contrast, the anonymous text of Amis, quelx est li mieuz vaillanz is a jeu parti or debate. The question being debated is: Who is more worthy – he who lies all night with his companion and does not “excercise his talents”, or he who visits many women, and leaves each as soon as he has exercised? The music of Amis, quelx est li mieuz vaillanz is a contrafactum of the 12th-century troubadour Bernart de Ventadorn’s “Quan vei la lauzetta mover”.

Both Blondel de Nesles’ A l’entrant d’esté and Gillebert de Bernevelle’s Au noviau temps que yvers se debrise are songs on the theme of fin’amors, in which both poets rely heavily on nature metaphors. Blondel de Nesles, born c. 1150, belonged to the first generation of trouvères, and was active at the court of Champagne. Gillebert de Berneville was active in Arras in the mid-13th century. The anonymous Apris ai qu’en chantant plour is a chanson à refrain. The refrain at the end of each strophe, “Chascuns dit que je foloi, mais nuns le sait mieuz de moi”, can be translated as “Everyone says that I am crazy, but no one knows it more than I.”

The motets Ne m’oubliez mie / Domino, Dieus comment / O Regina / Nobis concedas, and S’on me regarde / Prennes i garde / Hé mi enfant are taken from the Montpellier Codex (Montpellier, Bibliothèque Inter-Universitaire, Section Médecine, H196), the largest manuscript of 13th-century motets (copied c. 1270-1310). The text of the motetus, “Ne m’oubliez mie”, is essentially a courtly love poem interspersed with several lines of pastourelle text on the subject of Robin. “Dieus comment / O Regina / Nobis Concedas” comments on life in Paris, and both the motetus and triplum of S’on me regarde / Prennes i garde / Hé mi enfant are based on the monophonic rondeau “Prendés i garde, s’on me regarde” (Rome, Biblioteca Apostolico Vaticana, Reg. lat. 1490).

By the late 13th century, polyphonic rondeaux appear in a few sources. As with the monophonic rondeau, the poetico-musical form is: ABaAa’b’AB. Both the anonymous Hélas! tant vi de male eure and Jehan de Lescurel’s A vous, douce debonaire are courtly love texts in three-voice settings. “A vous, douce debonaire” appears in both a monophonic version and in this three-voice version in the same manuscript, which contains all of the composer’s surviving works, but most famously, the interpolated Roman de Fauvel (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, fr. 146).

Philip IV “the Fair,” grandson of Louis IX (Saint Louis), reigned during a period of transition from growth and stability to a time of instability. As a monarch he is remembered for his political policies of state centralization, as well as for his tumultuous relationship with the papacy and his actions towards minority groups under his rule. In contrast to his grandfather, Philip was a strict monarch who aimed not to please but to increase royal control in all areas. At his death, France was at the brink of a long period of instability: famine, succession crises, and war. Later, the Black Death characterized the 14th century. Philip’s son, Louis X, succeeded him in 1314, but died after only two years, leaving no male heir, thus beginning the succession crisis that would eventually launch the Hundred Years War in 1328. The Roman de Fauvel dates from this period of instability. An allegorical poem in two books written by Gervais du Bus between 1310 and 1314, it is a satire of the power of both crown and church. The protagonist is a donkey named Fauvel, whose name is an anagram for six vices: flattery, avarice, vanity, inconstancy, envy, and laziness. A manuscript of the Roman de Fauvel from c. 1316 (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, fr. 146) contains interpolations of music, illustrations, and other text, and is the most important source of early 14th-century polyphony.

One of the interpolations in the Fauvel manuscript, Tribum que / Quoniam secta / Merito hec patimur, is an isorhythmic motet by the early 14th century composer and theorist Philippe de Vitry (1291-1361). As with Fauvel, the text of the motet is an allegory, criticizing events at the French court between 1315 and 1317:

“The tribe that did not shrink
From seizing power in a disgraceful manner —
Raging Fortune has not flinched
From swiftly, fearlessly toppling it
When she did not spare its leader from the pillory,
And shamed him publicly,
As a lasting example to all.”

Aman novi / Heu, Fortuna subdola / Heu me tells of the dangers of power: the motetus voice condemns Fortune for raising a person to great heights and then deliberately leaving him to fall, while the triplum paints a picture of one who yearns for too much power, comparing him to Phaeton, and finally proclaiming that “things do not always end up as they started.”

The latest manuscript on this program, the Robertsbridge Codex (London, Ms. Add. 28550, mid-14th century), contains the earliest known example of organ tablature, including an intabulation of Tribum que / Quoniam secta / Merito hec patimur and two other motets. The codex also contains the two estampies (Retrove and an untitled work) presented here.

TOBIE MILLER