Robert de Reims: Songs and Motets

Robert de Reims

Published by Penn State University Press 2020

Robert de Reims

Songs and Motets

Robert de Reims
Edited by: Eglal Doss-Quinby , Gaël Saint-Cricq and Samuel N. Rosenberg

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780271088280

Overview
Contents

About this book

Robert de Reims, also known as “La Chievre de Rains,” was among the earliest trouvères—poet-composers who were contemporaries of the troubadours but who wrote in the dialects of northern France. This critical edition provides new translations into English and modern French of all the songs and motets ascribed to him, along with the original texts, the extant music, and a substantive introduction.

Active sometime between 1190 and 1220, Robert was an influential figure in the literary circles of Arras. Thirteen compositions set to music are here attributed to him, including nine chansons and four polyphonic motets that were broadly disseminated in the thirteenth century and beyond. Robert’s work is exceptional on a number of fronts. He lavished particular care on the phonic harmony of his words. Acoustic luxuriance and expertise in rhyming, grounded in the play of echoes and variation (often extending into the music), constitute the hallmark of his poetry. Moreover, he is the earliest trouvère known to have composed a parodic sotte chanson contre Amours (silly song against Love).

Located clearly at the nexus of monophonic song and polyphony, Robert’s corpus also poses the intriguing question of trouvère participation in the development of the polyphonic repertory. The case of Robert de Reims jostles and tempers the standard history of the chanson and motet.

Accessible and instructive, this trilingual critical edition of his complete works makes the oeuvre of this innovative and consequential trouvère available in one volume for the first time.

Author / Editor information

de Reims Robert :

Eglal Doss-Quinby is a translator and literary scholar specializing in Old French songs and motets. She is Professor of French Studies at Smith College.Saint-Cricq Gaël :

Gaël Saint-Cricq is a music scholar specializing in polyphony and song in the long thirteenth century. He is Maître de conférences at the Université de Rouen.

Reviews

“As a composer of motets as well as monophonic songs, Robert de Reims is the first known trouvère to cross the boundaries between the monophonic and polyphonic repertoires. As such, his corpus serves as a touchstone for our understanding of the musical culture that shaped the trouvères’ predominantly monophonic musical language. The expert textual and musical transcriptions in this edition are enhanced by idiomatic and flowing translations into modern English and French.”
—Christopher Callahan, coeditor of Les chansons de Colin Muset: Textes et mélodies

“Active at the turn of the thirteenth century, Robert de Reims is the first trouvère to be involved with both monodic and polyphonic compositions, which makes this new edition of his work highly useful. The volume gives a very complete survey of the corpus and its transmission, of Robert’s thematic choices and linguistic and versification options, as well as some elements concerning the analysis of the music.”
—Anne Ibos-Augé, author of Chanter et lire dans le récit médiéval

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Abbreviations Publicly Available Download PDF	x
Manuscripts Cited Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Tables Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Songs and Motets Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	43
Works Cited Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	137
Index of First Lines Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	143

Language: English
Publisher: Penn State University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 160
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 22
- Images: 22
- Other: 22 illustrations
Keywords: trouvère; motet; chanson; sotte chanson; Old French; lyric poetry; medieval music; medieval literature; Ars Antiqua; Early Music

eBook

Published: November 22, 2021
ISBN: 9780271088280