The song from "Li biaus Desconneus"

THE SONG FROM "LI BIAUS DESCONNEUS"

( The beautiful unknown man, Renault de Beaujeu, XIIIth Century), Semiomusicology approach, An enrichment from semiolinguistics.

 By Dr. Vincent MICHAUD-LAINE  ( Lab. ELLIADD-LECLA, University of Franche-Comté – France)

 

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We have, by the means of various types of musical notation and testimonies, a limited and lacunar access to the music composed and played in the Middle-Age.When wishing to play this music today, the modern musician is confronted with various problematic angles : how to understand the notation, how to bridge the gaps between what we have and what we don't have, what type of instruments can we play today, with what tuning, what are the plausible musical choices, etc... In parallel to the new fashionable trend of Artistic Research[1], also called Research by Practice, we propose to ground the research into the secure field of the Sciences of Culture with its well-honed tools 

The Founding Epistemology :

Humboldt[2] proposed a Weltansicht, a Vision of the World, a set of observations tools, that define the modalities of an objective, efficient and dynamic description. Anne-Marie Chabrolle-Cerretini[3] (2017, p.129-132) helps to clearly define the three main specific traits of Humboldt's epistemology :

 

“The first trait relates to the complementarity of a linguistic of the Language and a linguistic of the Discourse, which is demanded by the Essence of Language as defined by Humboldt.”

“Another defining trait which has been underlined, is that of the relationship between Language and Ideas, which the Vision of the World supposes. Humboldt has only defined the idea of a necessity in organising the cognition by the extralinguistic world's language.”

“Finally, the last trait is about the theorisation per se of the linguistic diversity. Without putting in competition the universality of Language and the languages particularities, Humboldt seeks at the same time and conjointly, what unites and what sets apart. He wrote “ The individuality is the Unit of diversity [4]”

Such an epistemology will in turn, key a new strict and rigorous observing method revolving around the main points evoked above. The Observer will seek to understand the modalities of both the language of the documents studied and its discursive characteristics, intimately bound to the language. The language will then be enriched by a wealth of other data coming from other disciplines and federated the question of how all of this makes sense and how do we observe that. This Vision of the World, conditions a “Point de vue” in French, which could be translated as Focal  Point. Francois Rastier defines it as:

“A point of reference which situates and organises a cultural object or a semiotic performance, in what concerns its genesis as well as its interpretation. This notion comes for Hermeneutic and is now redefined and exploited in descriptive semiotics.[5]”

Rastier rightfully warns that “The spatio-temporal situation of the observer is doubled by the historico.cultural situation of the interpreter”. (Rastier, 2005). To keep the observation, prior to any interpretative work, one has to remain cautious about their own situations and therefore will need tools to describe without ever pretending to be able to reach an utopic neutral  “view from nowhere” state, the point of view indeed becomes an inner characteristic of the study, but one that is stated clearly and explicitly, in the context of a material hermeneutic. Material Hermeneutic[6] is described as “aiming at understanding how the conditions of production, circulation and reception occur in the interpretation of texts[7]” (De Angelis, 2020)  such a patient and precise process is also rendered most necessary by the simple observable fact that any cultural object is, by nature, resolutely transversal. Material Hermeneutic is a global philosophy which can be translated into a methodology which would use its directive principles to guide a critical observation.

Thus, in studying a song written in the 13^th century and noted down via the Messinian notation, it's next to impossible to draw any conclusions, let alone reconstruct a musical soundscape by restraining one's analysis to the sole field of music and musicology.

 The departure hypothesis will be that poetry has presided to the elaboration of the song[8], and this poetry obeys certain rules and norms that are typical both of the times, the language and the aesthetics of the area concerned, which in turn can't fully be understood without the means of philology and linguistic considerations, to which must be added geo-political considerations as well as a historical comparative observation of features, such as the musical notation.

Material Hermeneutic settles down an observed array of conditions that culminated into the production of an artwork, and the interpretation of such an artwork has to sole its processes on the observation of these conditions in order to structure the reconstruction into a plausibility spectrum. This dialogue between the respective domains of linguistics and musicology  reflects the fact that poetry, prosody, particularly the linguistic stresses of a given language, may both act at the starting point and the structural frame for the musical composition which in turn, with its phrasing and accents, will develop similar features in the same type of temporal and accenting forms ; equally the semiotic contents of the poem might justify, and settle choices in the musical modal and melodic characteristics, at least in a prudent explicated reconstruction that would be the starting point of an artistic performance today. It may, in truth, not always be possible to clearly define which of the text or the melody got developed first, but the song, as a totality, demands that one aspect cannot be understood without the other. Language and Music can be seen as two different institutions, but these indissociable common grounds serve as a complete demonstration that culture acts as a whole.

Renault de Beaujeu (v. 6249 Renals de Biauju) writes little, but his "Bel Inconnu" is known to contemporary authors, and notably by the song relating to it. If the complete text (the Bel Inconnu and its song) are preserved in a single manuscript: MS 472, Musée de Condé, Chantilly, dated  second half of the 13th century, the song and more particularly its musical notation, is found in three chansonniers. In two chansonniers (the U: MS 20050, fo 19, BNF, Paris, probably first half of the 13th century, and the O: MS 846, fo 78, BNF, Paris, probably late 13th century) it is anonymous, and in the Chansonnier de Berne (MS 389, Burgerbibliothek, Bern, last third of the 13th century) it is cryptically attributed to an 'alens de Challons'. Sometimes read as "cuens[9]" (Count) as this "alens" raises questions (Paris, 1886). Nevertheless, several clues and some contemporary attestations do attribute this song to Renault de Beaujeu.

 Le Bel Inconnu tells the story of a young knight who does not know his name nor who his father is. When he arrives at Arthur's court, he is given his first mission: to rescue a princess by giving the monster she has been transformed into, a "proud kiss". During his journey he will perform deeds and kill the monster Mauger the Grey, who is keeping the White Handed Fairy prisoner in the Golden Isle. The latter is so beautiful that the knight falls in love with her and promises to marry her. However, he must leave the golden island on the sly to accomplish his mission with the princess. After many trials and tribulations he finally arrives at the enchanted city where the princess is and accomplishes the "Proud Kiss", i.e. he gets to let a horrible foul monster  kiss him full on the mouth, upon which the enchantments are broken, and the monster becomes the beautiful princess Esmérée of Wales, and the knight learns his name : Guinglain and that of his father : Gauvain. Esmérée and Guinglain will have to marry and to do so they go to Arthur's court, but Guinglain hasn't forgotten about the White Handed Fairy, and sneaks back to the Golden Isle where he'll loose himself into the arms of the Fairy. Esmérée begs Arthur to organise a knight contest in the hope that Guinglain will come back to her. He indeed comes to the contest, abandons the Fairy, who, out of pure kindness renounces him, he wins the contest, gets recognised by Esmérée and marries her.

Beaujeu stops that narration but says that he could, should the lady he writes for be nice to him, continue the story and make Guinglain come back to his one true love: the White Handed Fairy, but if the lady in question isn't amenable, then out of spite he will keep Guinglain forever away from his beloved[10].

I.       The text:

The songs comes at the end of the story and has 5 paragraphs:

Leals amors q'est dedanz fin cuer mise Ne s'en doit mais partir ne removoir Et la dolors qui destraint et justise Semble doucors, cant en la puet avoir. Nus biens d'amors ne puet petit valoir Ainz sont tuit douz qant on les aime et prise Ce doit chescuns bien entendre et savoir.       Tels puet dire que la morz li est prise Par bien amer qu'il ne dit mie voir. Fals amant sont kel font par false guise, malvais luier lor en doint Dex avoir. Qui en poroit morir en boen espoir, Gariz seroit devant Deu al juïse, De ce me lo quant plus me fait doloir.     "J'aim lealment senz trechier et senz faindre" Ceu dient cil qui en vuelent parler. La lor merci, kant ce me font entendre Don fine amors puet adès enmeldrer. S'il savoient qu'il m'ont fait endurer, Lor falsetez en seroit, espoir, maindre : Non seroit, voir, trop me vuelent grever.     Nus nes poroit de lor jangler destraindre : Tant les heit Dex ne s'en vuelent oster. Ne plus c'on voit lo vant qant il est graindre, Puet on savoir lor cuer ne lor panser. Nus ne se puet de traïson garder, Fors que de tant que meuz ne sevent feindre Que ne font cil qui muerent por amer.     Dolce Dame, qant ma mort vos vuet plaire, Ainz ne morut nus hom si dolcement, Or est bien droiz que la granz amors paire Dont je vos aim de cuer entierement. Et cil qui dit vos m'amez, il se mant. Ce poise moi, ire en ai et contraire : Pleust a Deu qu'il fussent voir disant.

Faithful Love put in a fine heart Should never go away no leave it and the pain which chastises and brings justice feels a sweetness when you get to have it. No feat of Love is meagre in value thus they are all sweet when you love and value them everybody must quite understand and know this.       One could say that they have taken death if they say they can't have  good love. The false lovers are thus with their false ways, And God will have a foul salary for them. The one who would die of it (love) in good hope, would only be healed in front of God during the Judgement,  this is making me grieve, so much more indeed .     " I love faithfully, without cheating nor pretend" say those who care to speak of it. If they'll pardon me, but when i hear them say so Fine love could then immediately get bettered. If they knew what they made me suffer Their falsity would be, hopefully, diminished or not, maybe, as they want to harm me so.     None could detach them from their false words, God hates them so much for not stopping it. Not any more that one can see the wind when it augments one can know their heart and their thoughts. None can escape betrayal, except those who time and again simulate, which those who die of love, can't ever do.     Sweet Lady, when my death shall please you none will have died so quietly, It is indeed so right this great amount of great love, with which i love you, totally  from my heart. And the one who says you love me, he lies. This burdens me and i feel anger and peeves, though please God, that they may be right saying so.

 

1.1  The global context of that poetry:

 

Around the 11^th century in the Occitan speaking courts of South of France, a new form of poetry started to become the main standard in love poetry. The well-known Fin'amor[11] (Amour Courtois, or Courtly Love in English) defines precise norms and values around which any poetic text, song or production has to articulate. The Lady (most often) whom the poem is addressed to is never namely designed but alluded to in an encoded allegorical cryptic way[12], with both Purity of sentiment most often associated with Chastity doubling up with an expression of Longing (either geographical distance as the Lady praised is oversea, or a social one as the Lady remains inaccessible). This precise context of Fin'amor will bloom from the 11^th century to the 12^th century in the southern Occitan courts and will generates equivalents in Oil dialects of the more northern French courts during the 13^th century. However, in the course of the 13^th century, the French poets will begin to slightly contest the model and start railing it and insert allusions to sexuality and reason into the idealised norms of Courtly Love. A most emblematic production that illustrate the fact is to be seen in Le Roman de la Rose. Its first author Guillaume de Loris, wrote c. 1230 the first part, which obeys quite to the letter the standards of Courtly Love, described the most sophisticated idealised ways to woe the beloved Lady. But an ending will be added c. 1275 by Jean de Meun, who will rail in a savoury way these implements and begin to add interventions from Reason and culminate the text with a most explicit allegory of sexuality and sexual intercourse, thus breaking with the Purity and Chastity norms of Courtly Love[13]. 

1.2  Stylistic and versification

The versification obeys a constant paragraphic pattern in ABABBAB, with A being more on the feminine rime side whether B being more on the masculine rime side. Each paragraph can be divided into two sequences corresponding to groups of rimes in that way: ABAB BAB. The verses are decasyllabic. This 10 syllables metric is the most common metric in the medieval times, particularly in a profane context, it is also the preferred metric for epic poems[14]. We will now proceed to analyse the stylistic architecture of each paragraph.

Leals amors q'est dedanz fin cuer mise

Ne s'en doit mais partir ne removoir

Et la dolors qui destraint et justise

Semble doucors, cant en la puet avoir.

Nus biens d'amors ne puet petit valoir

Ainz sont tuit douz qant on les aime et prise

Ce doit chescuns bien entendre et savoir.

 

The first paragraph is built around the paralleling or opposition of two elements and redundant binary rhythms.

ABAB

Leals amors is paralleled with fin cuer by  dedanz, underlying the correspondinf quality of the heart and the love, that sequence is then sealed by a binary rhythm : partir ne removoir. The next paralleling is mobilised in the next two verses' opening : et la dolors ↔ semble doucors, they form an enclave into which a binary rhythm is inserted : destraint et justise.

BAB

The introducing element of the verse verse of this series gets sealed in the next two verses by binary rhythms : aime et prise, entendre et savoir.

 

 

Tels puet dire que la morz li est prise

Par bien amer qu'il ne dit mie voir.

Fals amant sont kel font par false guise,

malvais luier lor en doint Dex avoir.

Qui en poroit morir en boen espoir,

Gariz seroit devant Deu al juïse,

De ce me lo quant plus me fait doloir.

 

ABAB

The paralleling structure will be here deployed in the two first verse where morz is paralleled with bien amer + negation (ne...mie), it's noteworthy  that morz, amer, mie, is the paralleling equation present an alliteration in <m>. This alliteration gets reactivated with amant opening the next verse and introduced by the adjective fals, this adjective is repeated in a binary redundant rhythm in the same verse. The last verse of the series opens with a word beginning by <m> malvais. To the binary rhythm fals-false, responds two successive binary sequences induced by alliterations : luier lor and doint Dex. The <l> of malvais even creates here and ternary rhythm : maLvais Luier Lor, immediately followed by the <d> binary rhythm doint Dex, this creates a strong percussive quality in the last verse of that series.

BAB

the first verse offers an assonance in [oe] en porOIt morir en bOEn espOIR, which also corresponds to the final rime's sound, which is particularly relevant as this rime opens and ends the sequence in BAB. It also induces a parallelism between espoir and doloir.

 

 

 

"J'aim lealment senz trechier et senz faindre"

Ceu dient cil qui en vuelent parler.

La lor merci, kant ce me font entendre

Don fine amors puet adès enmeldrer.

S'il savoient qu'il m'ont fait endurer,

Lor falsetez en seroit, espoir, maindre :

Non seroit, voir, trop me vuelent grever.

ABAB

The A verses open with an element put in the same place thus creating a parallelism : lealment – lor merci. This goes within an opposition between I and THEY which constructs the whole structure in the sequence. A strong binary rhythm is observable in senz trechier – senz faindre. 

BAB

The THEY is the leading term of the sequence with ME/MY as an oblique of the actions. The two verbs ending the B verses are of a similar meaning : endurer – grever, one is passive /to suffer/ and the last is active /to harm/ thus reinforcing this opposition between THEY and ME.

 

 

 

Nus nes poroit de lor jangler destraindre :

Tant les heit Dex ne s'en vuelent oster.

Ne plus c'on voit lo vant qant il est graindre,

Puet on savoir lor cuer ne lor panser.

Nus ne se puet de traïson garder,

Fors que de tant que meuz ne sevent feindre

Que ne font cil qui muerent por amer.

 

ABAB

Enclaving of a noun preceded by the posessive lor, which creates an echo effect with the binary rhythm at the end of the last verse lor cuer ne lor panser.

BAB

Nus starts the sequence in the way that it started the previous sequence, thus forming a binary rhythm.

 

 

 

 

Dolce Dame, qant ma mort vos vuet plaire,

Ainz ne morut nus hom si dolcement,

Or est bien droiz que la granz amors paire

Dont je vos aim de cuer entierement.

Et cil qui dit vos m'amez, il se mant.

Ce poise moi, ire en ai et contraire :

Pleust a Deu qu'il fussent voir disant.

 

ABAB

Dolce Dame, opening the sequence, in the first allusion to the dedication of the poem to a Lady. It arrives at the end of the poem thus reinforcing the dedication effect.

BAB

The sequence contains vos, a remainder and reinforcement of the dedication, the final verse ends as a prayer introduced by a subjoncive of wish/prayer followed by Deu.

 

            1.3 The semantic architecture of the poem :

 

The stylistic and versification architecture serves as a base for the semantic strategies. Several strategies can be observed, we chose to centre our analysis around the most relevant.

 ME vs THEY :

POEM	Semantic analysis	ME vs THEY Comment
Leals amors q'est dedanz fin cuer mise   Ne s'en doit mais partir ne removoir   Et la dolors qui destraint et justise   Semble doucors, cant en la puet avoir.   Nus biens d'amors ne puet petit valoir Ainz sont tuit douz qant on les aime et prise Ce doit chescuns bien entendre et savoir.	/loyal/ /true/ /faithful/ in /love/   /eternal/ /durable/     /pain/ /justified/   /sweetness/ //reward/     /love/ -> /high value/       /obvious/	ME seems to be absent from this generally speaking aphoristic declaration, yet, the author piles up syntagms which design virtues and constancy in love, which later will strongly be associated to ME, thus creating a feeling that this general description of a certain normality is transgressed by THEY. THEY is alluded to in the last verse, reinforcing this assessment : THEY can see how the virtue of a sincere love is obviously of high value. This ending is ominous.
Tels puet dire que la morz li est prise   Par bien amer qu'il ne dit mie voir.   Fals amant sont kel font par false guise,   malvais luier lor en doint Dex avoir.   Qui en poroit morir en boen espoir,   Gariz seroit devant Deu al juïse,   De ce me lo quant plus me fait doloir.	/fatality/ /death/->     /quality//love/ /absence/     /hypocritical/ /false/ /lovers/ /lies/   /Bad/ /reward/ /from God/   /death/ /good disposition/   /healing/ /reward/ /god/ /justice/->   /more pain/	This second paragraph introduces THEY. The two first verses do not name them but introduces a lack in the form : no quality love = death. The aphoristic formulation continues the logic of the preceding paragraph.   THEY are them names :  fals amant, the binary rhythm centred of the adjective Fals false reinforces the negative description of THEM around one flaw : the Falsity. Then the reward thematic, already present in the first paragraph gets reintroduced in a negative form : God will punish THEM for being false.   The reward thematic is instantly reverted to the positive associating death + True love = reward, healing in front of God.   The last verse introduces the expression of a bitterness in front of the fact that the only reward true will get is the praise of God after death by love, strongly associated for the first time in the poem with the pronoun ME. In this we can see a rupture of norms within the Fin'Amor structures where the death and the longing are to be accepted and not questioned. This questioning of the Courtly Love will linger here and there throughout the whole poem.
"J'aim lealment senz trechier et senz faindre"   Ceu dient cil qui en vuelent parler.   La lor merci, kant ce me font entendre Don fine amors puet adès enmeldrer.   S'il savoient qu'il m'ont fait endurer,   Lor falsetez en seroit, espoir, maindre :   Non seroit, voir, trop me vuelent grever.	/me/ + /love/ /true/ /sincere/     /they/ /public declaration/   /irony/-> /they lie/ /me/ /hear/-> /them/ /fin'amor/ /augment/     /me/ /suffering/     /they/ /false/ /irony/ /less/   /no/ /they/ /hurt/ /me/	The first verse is ME in the mouth of THEY. That ME takes the same vocabulary than in the beginning of the poem leals -> lealment. The second verse replaces THEY in their "they" place and insist of the public declaration aspect, immediately followed by the expression of ironical disbelief la lor merci-> enmeldrer.           THEY then are exposed as source of pain for ME.   The reason of the pain opens the following verse lor falsetez.   After an ironical statement ME reiterates that THEY wish ME to suffer.
Nus nes poroit de lor jangler destraindre :   Tant les heit Dex ne s'en vuelent oster.       Ne plus c'on voit lo vant qant il est graindre,     Puet on savoir lor cuer ne lor panser.         Nus ne se puet de traïson garder,   Fors que de tant que meuz ne sevent feindre   Que ne font cil qui muerent por amer.	/external impossibility/ /they/ /falsity/   /negative/ /god's judgement/ /internal refusal/     /comparison/ /invisible/ /wind/ -> /immaterial/       /they/ -> /heart/ /mind/             /treason/ /unavoidable/     /except/ /those who don't pretend/   /those who die of love/	THEY are doubly condemned, they resist bettering by external means and refuse to better themselves, thus attracting the negative reward of God, as an echo to preceding verses.         The comparison with the immaterial quality of wind is a linguistic traits, that keeps being alive in modern French "c'est du vent" (it's wind = it's not true, dubious, lies)   THEY gets now associated to the world of the Mind with cuer and panser. The binary rhythm and the echo effect with the earlier lor jangler, draws a parallel between this world of the mind and the falsity.     Those who can't pretend and have a true love are associated to death, which situated them in the tangible material world, a world of treason and suffering, which gets opposed to the unreal and false world of the mind plays evoked previously.
Dolce Dame, qant ma mort vos vuet plaire,     Ainz ne morut nus hom si dolcement,   Or est bien droiz que la granz amors paire   Dont je vos aim de cuer entierement.   Et cil qui dit vos m'amez, il se mant.   Ce poise moi, ire en ai et contraire :   Pleust a Deu qu'il fussent voir disant.	/dedication/ /me/ /death/ /want/     /consequence/ /me/ /death/ /willingly/   /righteous/ /love/     /true/ /total/     /they/ /public declaration/ /love/ /lie/   /suffering/ /injustice/     /wish/ /prayer/	The equation Lady -> me -> death -> pleases contributes to place the Lady in the camp of the THEY, defined previously as those who wished suffering and death upon ME. The second verse shows resignations toward death, as a result to the real true love.                THEY introduce the love lie     which generates suffering and a sentiment of injustice     ME prays and wishes that ME could live and believe in the World of the play of mind.

The ME mobilises a world of material sensations which associated to true love, generates refusal, pain and suffering, opposed to the dis-incarnate and rhetoric-only love professed by THEY, associated in the text to Fin'amor. This poem constitutes a sly criticism of the dis-incarnate, false and formal play-of-mind-only of the Fin'amor, within its own norms, opposed to the real physical tangible love which can only be met by suffering and death in the real world when the subject of Love is an adept of the sophisticated intangible Fin'Amor. It adds a religious condemnation of such a false love, placing it under the vengeful glance of God with judgement thematics. The last verse somehow softens this condemnation by a wish/prayer that ME could believe in the Fin'Amor as if it was real.

                                    1.4 The semantic rhythm :

In the context of the Interpretative Semantic theorised by F.Rastier[15], the observed articulation between Form and the the Form of the Contents, where the Form of the Contents would be semantic isotopies articulated within the Form, constituted as a network of semes[16], will revolve around rhythmical pattern which can be analysed in three distinct phases: the structure, the periodicity and the movement. The structure will be defined as the layout of the parts in a Whole. Periodicity is defined as the perceptions of specific feats that could be described as cycles, alternances, repetitions or cadences. Last, the Movement will be found in the globalising observation of the Rhythm that will not be reduced to the structure and/or the periodicity but with the synergy of both in a Global strategy of the Whole. The qualities observed in the semantic domain are very near the forms and qualities researched in music, it therefore appears both necessary and helpful to draw the semantic rhythm of the piece.

 

paragraph	Structural semes, Isotopies and semic molecules
1	/love/+/loyal/+/true/+/constant/ /pain/ /jugement/ /reward/+/good/
2	/death/ /love/+/true/ -> /absence of/ /love/+/false/+/lies/ /reward/+/bad/ /god/+/jugement/+/bad/ /god/+/jugement/+good/ /pain/
3	/me/+/love/+/true/ /they/+/pretend/ /they/+/lie/ /they/+/fin'amor/   /me/+/pain/   /they/->/hurt//pain/->/me/
4	/they/+/lie/ /god/+/jugement/+/bad/
5	/Lady/->/me/+/death/ /me/+/death/ /me/+/love/+/true/+/constant/ /they/+/pretend/+love/+/false/+/lies/ /me/+/pain/ /me/+/wish/

 

A structure and periodicity can start to be isolated from these observations: the two first paragraphs introduce a global context which place the two main antagonisms: /love/+/true/+/constant/ VS /love/+/pretend/+/false/+/lies/, in a moralist context induced by a binary antagonism between /positive judgement/ and / negative judgement/ in the presence of /God/. An under lying leitmotiv starts also be introduced in /pain/. In these two paragraphs of “introduction”, these antagonisms aren't personalised. The three next paragraphs introduce a personalisation of the two main antagonisms personified in /ME/ VS /THEY/.  They are constructed as alternances of associated mirroring qualities: on the ME side is true love, and suffering, on the THEY side is falsity and lies, centrally articulated around a word, almost at the centre of the composition : Fin'amor. The paragraph associates /pain/ to / as /death/ as /Lady/ makes her first and only apparition. The despair generated is somehow lightened by the presence in the last verse of the semantic hapax /wish/.

                        II. The music and the inevitability of choices, guiding the artistic (re-)imagination

                                    2.1 the limitations of the notation system:

Around the 9^th century, liturgical texts started to be fitted with certain types of musical notations. They start to appear like a collection of signs in the margin, in regard to the liturgical texts. This notation is called Paleo-frank notation. Along the next century and onward, several notations will develop, each region getting their own slightly different system, thus we have Catalan, Aquitanian, Breton, Messinian or French notations. The Messinian one, is the one that interests us as the geographical origin of both the text and chansoniers locates them around Metz influence area, thus the melody is noted using the Messinian notation[17]. The Messinian notation is said to be in campo aperto, that is to say it consists in dots without staff lines (unlike for instance the Aquitanian notation)[18].

 The principal feats to understand and bear in mind are that:

→ the notation had four lines, and a little “key” that tells where the C or the F are.

→ It notes only melodic movements, with rudimentary indication if any of rhythm and expressivity, as the only value noted are long and short, with no real means to understand how long and how short.

→ it was designed to be a memory help and absolutely not a full system that could be used to compose music, music was composed externally and then, eventually noted down.

Two different versions exist of that song as we evoked in the introduction.The version from U is the most ancient and regarded as the original, whereas the O version, based on U, diverges a bit. The choosing of which mode is the first difficulty. The decasyllabic verse calls for certain modes, but this only narrows the possibilities, thus Th. Gerold is of the opinion that a third mode could be chosen whereas M.Beck rather prefers the sixth mode[19]. The third mode is sung from B usually but it has the characteristic to have been often raised to C, and to permit to each degree inside to gain a certain preponderance in a given melody. Its ethos[20] is equally blurred, as most of the commentators describe it as the most mysterious mode, which is not telling a lot in terms of ethos. The sixth mode is sung in A although it has its roots in the archaic mode of C, its ethos is devotion, piety. Transposed to modern appreciations, it's highly plausible to understand that the piece is in essence Major moded. Equally, the precise rhythmical of the melody is subject to interpretations. The notation permits the expression of global melodic movements with distinct grouping of notes for ornament and passage purposes, O has pliques which are quick conjoint ornament notes.

                        2.2 Guiding the choices

                                    a. The ethos:

The tone of the poem, that of a bitter resentment towards the falsity of Fin'amor and its futility that makes the true lover suffer, and how it therefore creates bad individuals who, in front of God will be negatively judged, would place the piece in a piety/devotion sort of ethos. This piety/devotion could also be redoubled by the fact that it's still a dedicated poem to a Lady who, however false and frivolous in her Fin'amor ways, still will be loved to the death. In this light, the sixth mode appears more consistent in the choose of an ethos, than a third mode, as the mysterious aspect isn't present in the general semiotic feat of the poem. Naturally it is unclear if the composer has such conception of the ethos when composing but if the text is not a pretext but the source the composition, then its semiotic contents is of the essence, besides the ethos theories are well known in the Middle-age in the liturgy grounds, and the Messinian system used to note the melody, comes from this common ground. The historical “truth” is unattainable, but in the case of a modern interpretation, the artist could guide and explicit their choices using th text as a pivotal point. It is impossible for us to know with complete certitude what were the intentions of the composer, but putting this interpretation inside the medieval context of ethos and giving to the text the preponderance it ought to have. It is possible to make guided plausible choices.

                                    b. the rhythm:

If the notation indeed put the musical notation above the first paragraph of the text, it doesn't really permit to fully understand where the stresses would fall, nor how articulate a phrasing of the melody. Again in the spirit of semiotised transversality, philology will now help to tentatively guess where such stress would fall. French is a language derived from the evolution of Latin in contact to various subtracts. It has retains from Latin its accentuation. Latin words distinguished three types of stresses : words called oxytons, mostly monosyllabic words, would have the stress on the final, paroxyton would have the stress on the syllable before the last, and the proparoxytons would have the stress on the antepenult. As French looses most its case in the declination to keep only subject case and regime case, and the the words shortened, this stress appears sometimes to have changed but it fundamentally hasn't. Comparing the stress in modern French and the stress in the corresponding word in Latin allows for reconstitution of a stressing pattern in ancient French. We therefore could take the text and underline the accented syllables (on the first paragraph) :

 

Leals amors q'est dedanz fin cuer mise

Ne s'en doit mais partir ne removoir

Et la dolors qui destraint et justise

Semble doucors, cant en la puet avoir.

Nus biens d'amors ne puet petit valoir

Ainz sont tuit douz qant on les aime et prise

Ce doit chescuns bien entendre et savoir.

As French also has the characteristic to link syntagms and stress only the last element, such a grouping, Noun plus adjective or Adverb + noun for instance, guided by the meaning, could be made to refine to possible stressing:

Leals amors q'est dedanz fin cuer mise

Ne s'en doit mais partir ne removoir

Et la dolors qui destraint et justise

Semble doucors, cant en la puet avoir.

Nus biens d'amors ne puet petit valoir

Ainz sont tuit douz qant on les aime et prise

Ce doit chescuns bien entendre et savoir.

With prudent groundings on philology and guidance from the semiotic analysis, one could devise a stressing pattern in coherence both with the language in its globalize AND the text's meaning and stylistic itself and use this template as a means to understand the melody's flow better. Its equally the text and the prosody of French, which could guide our choices for assigning to notes a more precise value.

 The verse is :

Leals amors q'est dedanz fin cuer mise.

As we saw, the prosody would have

Leals amors q'est dedanz fin cuer mise

 

The bold letters correspond to the stress of French, in blue when it's linked to a semantic sequence. We could therefore decide to assign to the note that fall under this text's stresses, a longer value.

Such a work of reappropriation of the melody guided through by the prosodic and semantic structure of the text, can then be done for the whole melody. There is not absolute certitude, as there can never be, that this would correspond to the truth of what this song would have sounded like in the Middle-Age, but both the musical, phraseology and rhythmical patterns are the result of a clear exposed and justified hermeneutic path which make the whole performance repeatable, and as each of its choices are exposed clearly, it also becomes refutable. The music produced still is music of the Here and Now, but the methodology in approaching the medieval documents, has tried to get as close possible to the experimental sciences' array of methodology. As such any refutation on the same method, would produce divergences which would stop being concurrent in an artistic sort of way, but both would contribute to the display and augmentation of the understanding around Medieval music.

 

CONCLUSION :

 

This is a song in ancient French, written by the author of an Arthurian adventure, in the context of the literary production of the French 13^th century, with a melody noted in two different yet contemporary manuscripts, in the Messinian notation. That sentence itself is proof enough at how a wide array of knowledge and domains of knowledge is mobilised in the elaboration of the Artwork.

This Local artwork has to be linked to the Globality of its context of production in order to be sufficiently and efficiently analysed. The material Hermeneutic aims at providing a description of reality in its own context, thus empowering the interpretation in our time. If certitude isn't ever attainable, a certain measure of plausibility can be reached. The processes of Material Hermeneutic putting in clear and hierarchized forms its own elaboration, the processes are followable and therefore repeatable: one could, following these processes, reconstruct the whole stream of interpretation. This fact in turn makes in entirely refutable, each of its stage could be understood or done differently, opening the field to a justified and explained array of diverse possibilities: we are in the field of science, specifically Sciences of Culture which do not seek Causes but describe and hierarchize conditions. The wish for Science will lead us, rather than to be Seekers after Truth, to be merely guided by an ethic of true and false, based on a prudent, and evolvable scientific consensus. This wish for science can become in turn the wings on which the artistic imagination will soar and empower today’s artist to enchant our ears and create beauty,  in the field of music of ancient times.

 

 

 

Bibliography :

 

 

About the reconstructed pronunciation of ancient french :

 

BONNARD H. Synopsis de phonétiaue historique, 5th edition, SEDES, Paris, 1992

LABORDERIE N., Précis de phonétiaue historique, Nathan, Paris, 1994

General bibliography :

 

ANDERSON, GORDON A., and  ROESNER E. "Ars Antiqua [Ars Veterum, Ars Vetus]". The New Grove Dictionary of Music, and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie, and John Tyrrell. 29 vols. Macmillan Publishers, London,  2001

BECK M., Les chansoniers des troubsdours et des trouvères, Paris, 1927

CHABROLLE-CERRETINI A-M., La vision du Monde de Wilhem von Humboldt, ENS éditions, Lyon, 2017

DE ANGELIS R. (2020) «De l’herméneutique matérielle à l’herméneutique digitale ou numérique», [ onligne] http://www.revue-texto.net/index.php?id=4470, Volume XXV - n°4 (2020). Coordonné par Régis Missire

EASTHOPE A. , "Bernart de Ventadorn: 'Can vei la lauzeta mover' (c. 1170)", Poetry and Phantasy, Cambridge University Press,1989

FERRAND F, and CULLIN O, Le guide de la musique du Moyen-âge, Fayard, Paris, 1999.

GEROLD Th. in Li biaus desconneus, edited by G. Perrie Williams, Honoré Champion, paris, 1983

HUMBOLDT (Von) W. , (1767-1835, Postdam). Gesammelte Schriften (GS), edited by Albert Leitzmann,, B. Behr’s Verlag, Berlin, 1903-1935, 17 vols.

HUMBOLDT (Von) W, De l’esprit de l’humanité et autres essais sur le déploiement de soi, translated by Olivier Mannoni, edited by Yves Wattenberg, Premières Pierres, Charenton 2004.

KALUZA M., libeaus desconus, die mittelenglische romanze vom schoenen Unbekannten, Lepzig, 1990

LANGLOIS, Ernest,  Le Roman de la Rose par Guillaume de Lorris et Jean de Meun. 5 vols. “Société des Anciens Textes Français” Firmin Didot, Paris, 1914–24

LEWIS C. S. The Allegory of Love: A Study in Medieval Tradition., Clarendon Press, Oxford 1936

LOTE G. Les Mètres In: Histoire du vers français. Tome II: Première partie : Le Moyen Age II. La déclamation. Art et versification. Les formes lyriques [online]. Aix-en-Provence: Presses universitaires de Provence, 1951 http://books.openedition.org/pup/1817

MAHT, W. P.  "Chant". In A Performer's Guide to Medieval Music, Ross Duffin,  Indiana University Press,Bloomington, 2000.

MISSIRE R. Rythmes sémantiques et temporalité des parcours interprétatifs, [online] http://www.revue-texto.net/Inedits/Missire/Missire_Rythmes.pdf

NEWMAN, F. X. The Meaning of Courtly Love. State University of New York Press, Albany 1968

PARIS G. Etude sur les romans de la Table Ronde, Guinglain ou le Bel Inconnu, Romania XV, 1886, reproduced in vol. XXX of l'histoire littéraire de la France. Particularly : Note sur les chansons de Guillaume de Dole, Servois, Paris 1893

RASTIER F « Herméneutique et linguistique : dépasser la méconnaissance », 2005 [online], URL : http://www.revue-texto.net/index.php?id=2262

RASTIER F. « Formes sémantiques et textualité », in D. Legallois (dir.) Cahiers du CRISCO,Unité(s) du texte, 12, Caen, 2003

SAULNIER (Dom) D. , les modes grégoriens, Solesme 1997.

SCHLEIERMACHER F. D. E., 1959, Hermeneutik, ed. by Heinz Kimmerle, Heidelberg, Winter 1959

SCHLEIERMACHER F. Hermeneutik und Kritick mit besonderer Beziehung auf das Neue Testament,  F. Lcke, Reimer, Berlin 1938

SCHULTZ, J. A. Courtly Love, the Love of Courtliness, and the History of Sexuality'. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2006

SZONDI P., Einführung in die literarische Hermeneutik, ed by J. Bollack, H. Stierlin, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt-am-Main 1975

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[1]A significant definition is to be found on the official site of Sibelius Academy of applied Arts, in Helsinki, Finland : https://www.uniarts.fi/en/general-info/what-is-artistic-research/

[2]The celebrated German philosopher, Wilhem Von Humboldt, 1767-1835, Postdam. Gesammelte Schriften (GS), edited by Albert Leitzmann, Berlin, B. Behr’s Verlag, 1903-1935, 17 vols. We also consulted : De l’esprit de l’humanité et autres essais sur le déploiement de soi, translated by Olivier Mannoni, edited by Yves Wattenberg, Charenton, Premières Pierres, 2004, and La recherche linguistique comparative (extraits), translated by Pierre Caussat, Patrimoine littéraire européen, anthologie en langue française, Jean-Claude Polet éd., vol. 11a, Renaissances nationales et conscience universelle, Paris-Bruxelles, De Boeck Université, 1999

[3]We borrow these particularly clear paragraphs to Anne-Marie Chabrolle-Cerretini, La vision du Monde de Wilhem von Humboldt, ENS éditions, Lyon, 2017. pp129-132

[4]We translate

[5]François Rastier « Herméneutique et linguistique : dépasser la méconnaissance », 2005 [online], URL : http://www.revue-texto.net/index.php?id=2262

[6]: François Rastier « Herméneutique et linguistique : dépasser la méconnaissance », 2005 [online], URL : http://www.revue-texto.net/index.php?id=2262, originally the concept stems from the works of SCHLEIERMACHER: Schleiermacher, Friedrich D. E., 1959, Hermeneutik, ed. by Heinz Kimmerle, Heidelberg, Winter 1959, Schleiermacher, Friedrich D. E., 1938, Hermeneutik und Kritick mit besonderer Beziehung auf das Neue Testament,  F. Lcke, Reimer, Berlin 1938 (trad. it. A. Bowie, Hermeneutics and Criticism and Other Writings, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1998, pp. 1-224)  and also SZONDI, Peter, 1975, Einführung in die literarische Hermeneutik, ed by J. Bollack, H. Stierlin, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt-am-Main 1975 ; trad. fr. Introduction à l’Herméneutique Littéraire. De Chladenius à Schleirmacher, translated by Mayotte Bollack, preceeded by an essay written by  Jean BOLLACK, Paris, Cerf, 1989

[7]We translate : ROSSANA DE ANGELIS (2020) «De l’herméneutique matérielle à l’herméneutique digitale ou numérique», [ onligne] http://www.revue-texto.net/index.php?id=4470, Volume XXV - n°4 (2020). Coordonné par Régis Missire,

[8]Both the Chansoniers where this song can be found with a musical notation, are slightly posterior to the text itself.

[9]G.PARIS Etude sur les romans de la Table Ronde, Guinglain ou le Bel Inconnu, Romania XV, 1886, reproduced in vol. XXX of l'histoire littéraire de la France. Particularly : Note sur les chansons de Guillaume de Dole, Servois, Paris 1893 (société des anciens textes francais) 

[10]That story is a well known story and gets told also in other works : an english poem imited from french sources ( edited by Max KALUZA, libeaus desconus, die mittelenglische romanze vom schoenen Unbekannten, Lepzig, 1990), An italian poem of the 16th century : Carduino (edited by Pio RAJNA, Bologna, 1873) and a german poem by Wirnt of Gravenberg, composed around 1210 (ed. Pfeiffer, Leipzig, 1847)

[11]Some references in English : Lewis, C. S. The Allegory of Love: A Study in Medieval Tradition. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1936, Newman, Francis X. The Meaning of Courtly Love. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1968, Schultz, James A. Courtly Love, the Love of Courtliness, and the History of Sexuality'. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2006

[12]A very well known example is the two first verses of the no-less very known song by Bernard de Ventadorn "can vei la lauzeta mover, de joi s'as allas contra'l Rai" ( when i see the lark go, in joy and cuddle against the ray" where the Lauzeta designs the Lady and the Ray designs a beloved knight of which the Trobador feels jealous. (Easthope, Antony (1989), "Bernart de Ventadorn: 'Can vei la lauzeta mover' (c. 1170)", Poetry and Phantasy, Cambridge University Press, pp. 75–81 )

[13] Langlois, Ernest, ed. Le Roman de la Rose par Guillaume de Lorris et Jean de Meun. 5 vols. Société des Anciens Textes Français. Paris: Firmin Didot, 1914–24.

 

[14] LOTE, Georges. Les Mètres In: Histoire du vers français. Tome II: Première partie : Le Moyen Age II. La déclamation. Art et versification. Les formes lyriques [online]. Aix-en-Provence: Presses universitaires de Provence, 1951 (generated 05 novembre 2021). Available on the Internet: <http://books.openedition.org/pup/1817>

[15]RASTIER F, (2003a), « Formes sémantiques et textualité », in D. Legallois (dir.) Cahiers du CRISCO,Unité(s) du texte, 12, caen, pp. 99-114.

[16]R.MISSIRE Rythmes sémantiques et temporalité des parcours interprétatifs, [online] http://www.revue-texto.net/Inedits/Missire/Missire_Rythmes.pdf

[17]Notions explained further in FERRAND F, and CULLIN O, Le guide de la musique du Moyen-âge, Fayard, Paris, 1999.

[18]MAHT, William P. (2000). "Chant". In A Performer's Guide to Medieval Music, Ross Duffin, ed., pp. 1–22. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, POPIN M. And VENDRIX p. Histoire de la notation du Moyen-âge à la Renaissance

Minerve, CESR, 2003

[19]Th. GEROLD, in Li biaus desconneus, edited by G. Perrie Williams, Honoré Champion, paris, 1983. M.BECK, Les chansoniers des troubadours et des trouvères, Paris, 1927. Don D. SAULNIER, les modes grégoriens, Solesme 1997.

[20]A mode's ethos is the classical association of that mode to a particular stylised human sentiment : joyful, sorrowful, proud, solemn, etc.