Escu d’ennuy semé de plours 3v · Anonymous
Appearance in the group of related chansonniers:
*Leuven ff. 51v-52 »Escu d’ennuy seme de plours« 3v · Edition · Facsimile
This page with edition as a PDF
Text: Rondeau quatrain, full text in Leuven, also found in Paris 1719, f. 92v, and Jardin 1501, f. 118, no. 53. After Leuven:
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Escu d’ennuy semé de plours Timbre de piteuses clamours, escu d’ennuy semé de plours ordonnez, las, m’avez tousjours, Escu d’ennuy semé de plours |
A shield of misery decorated with tears A crest of piteous wails a shield of misery decorated with tears have you, alas, forever assigned me, A shield of misery decorated with tears |
Evaluation of the sources:
The unique rondeau was entered into the Leuven chansonnier by its main scribe without any errors in the text and music, except that the scribe misread the mensuration sign, which appears in the upper voice only, as tempus perfectum. Obviously, it must be tempus imperfectum. A strange phenomenon probably originates from the exemplar: the last two cadences are both in fauxbourdon style with the contratenor placed between the upper voice and the tenor (bb. 20-21 and 25-27). The standard cadence ornamentation usually appears in the upper voice leading to the song's finalis, but here the ornamental figure is sung by the contratenor, which has the leading tone for the fifth of the final chord. This reversal is most likely due to a copying error, which had appeared also in the exemplar. The poem also were included in two later poetic collections, MS Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, ms. f.fr. 1719 and the printed Le Jardin de plaisance et fleur de rethoricque, Paris [Verard, 1501]. Here it appears with variants in the tierce.
The song is the fourth in a series of unique songs consisting of two virelais simples, two rondeaux and a bergerette, which fills out the eighth fascicle in Leuven (ff. 45-54).
Comments on text and music:
This rondeau quatrain is a male love complaint in rich rimes léonines, which uses heraldic terminology as images of the lover's sufferings. The poem may be a bit repetitive, but the pictures and meaning flow smoothly, especially through the couplets and the tierce. The Dorian music uses low voices with the upper voice ranging between a and a’ – its restricted range may still be performed by boys – and tenor and contratenor in nearly the same low ranges (A-d’ and G-c’), and they often cross each other.
The greatest interest is concentrated in the melody of the upper voice, which is well-formed with a clear presentation of the words and quite long melismas that emphasize important words such as "tristesse / destresse" in bars 17-20. The lower voices most accompany without imitation before the last line, where all three voices participate in a unison/octave imitation, which leads directly to the final D cadence.
The point where the couplets repeat the first half of the refrain’s music is hardly marked. Only fermatas in the superius and the tenor indicate the point, no cadential movement or standard figuration. When the refrain is performed in full, there is no audible incision. The second and third lines come to function as a whole, where the cadences to F and to C in bars 15 and 18 gain more weight and lead to the important melisma on "tristesse / destresse". This artifice serves to strengthen the melodic unity. The two last cadences in the song, to A in bars 20-21 and the final to D are both in fauxbourdon style with the curious old-fashioned decoration of the double leading notes in the contratenor.
This song could very well be composed by the same musician who might have authored the others in the series in the eight fascicle of Leuven. It displays, for example, the same mixture of old and new, with its double leading note cadences, as we can find in the rondeau that comes just before it in Leuven, »Par Mallebouche la cruelle«. However, “Escu d’ennuy” shows a surer grip on the compositional technique and especially in the shaping of a melody. It might have been incorporated into the series because it had served as an inspiration for “Par Mallebouche”; the two songs share the same limited range of the upper voice, “Escu d’ennuy” sounding just a fourth lower.
Parts of this text are included in my publication The unica of the Leuven chansonnier – a portfolio of songs by an ambitious young musician, August 2024.
PWCH July 2024