Anonymous · J’ay des semblans tant que je vueil 3v

J’ay des semblans tant que je vueil 3v · Anonymous

Appearance in the group of related chansonniers:

*Leuven ff. 79v-80 »J’ay des semblans tant que je vueil« 3v · Edition · Facsimile

Text: Rondeau quatrain by Monbeton, full text in Leuven; also in Berlin 78.B.17 f. 184v, ed. Löpelmann 1923, p. 359, Paris 1719 f. 50, Paris 9223 f. 38v “Montbreton”, ed. Raynaud 1889, p. 63, Paris 15771 f. 17 “Monbeton”, Jardin 1501 f. 86.

After Leuven:

J’ay des semblans tant que je vueil,
mais du surplus il n’est nouvelle,
car par ma foy la bonne et belle
n’a pas le cueur tel comme l’ueil.

Se je me plains ou je me dueil
mais que sans plus soye pres d’elle,

j’ay des semblans tant que je vueil,
mais du surplus il n’est nouvelle.

Nul aultre bien je n’en recueil
fors que par foiz elle m’apelle
“Mon amy” et puis se rapelle.
Mais quoy que j’aye ou joie ou dueil,

j’ay des semblans tant que je vueil,
mais du surplus il n’est nouvelle,
car par ma foy la bonne et belle
n’a pas le cueur tel comme l’ueil.

I get glances, as many as I want,
but otherwise there is nothing new,
for by my faith the good and fair
has not the heart that matches her eye.

If I lament or suffer,
only so that I may be near her,

I get glances, as many as I want,
but otherwise there is nothing new.

No other favours do I receive
except that sometimes she calls me
‘My friend’ and then turns away.
But whatever I get, joy or grief,

I get glances, as many as I want,
but otherwise there is nothing new,
for by my faith the good and fair
has not the heart that matches her eye.

Comments:

The unique rondeau was entered into the Leuven chansonnier by its second scribe who collaborated with the main writer on the completion of the manuscript. From the beginning, it was notated without any hexachordal signatures, but a flat appears in the signature of the tenor’s last staff (bb. 39-55). This is most probable a misreading of the exemplar, which may have had an accidental flat before b at a staff change a bit before bar 47.

The scribe has in the upper voice placed the word “nouvelle” below the notes in bars 23-25. However, the repeated notes in the tenor bars 17-18 indicates clearly that the text line must be completed with the cadence to D in bar 22. It is thinkable that this text placement in the superius suggests that all three voices may repeat “nouvelle” and later “pres d’elle” and “m’apelle” in bars 23-28 as shown in the edition

The elegant poem with its artful linking of the couplets and of tierce and refrain (or if recited the rentrement only) was well known since the middle of the fifteenth century appearing in several poetic sources. It was written by a certain Monbeton who belonged to the circle around Charles d’Orléans.

The compact musical setting may be some decades younger than the poem. The main interest is concentrated on the wide-ranging upper voice (a-e’’), while the tenor seems somewhat restricted (g-a’), it mainly moves within the narrow range between a and f’. The contratenor is quite old-fashioned; it is sounding above the tenor in places and leaping up an octave at cadences, but at the same time composed with the text in mind. The many repeated notes force the placements of the syllables in the three voices, and this creates a sort of polyphony of words with the voices declaiming the words in turns or at different speeds, see for example bars 11-22 or 35 ff.

The song opens in homorhythmic declamation with a marked upbeat, the upper voice presenting a motive whose shape, the characteristic descending fifth, is referred to at the opening of the second section, and its stock rhythmical figure (dotted semibrevis followed by two semiminimae) runs though this same section. The composer has aimed at an aural coherence in the short structure. There is not much imitation in the song, a short unison canon between superius and tenor opens the second section, and motives wander from voice to voice; a short imitation at the octave bars 23-26 brings the composer in difficulties with a harsh sounding seventh between superius and contra.

The song may not be a creation by a very experienced musician, but it has a couple of points, which made it worthy of inclusion in the chansonnier. First of foremost the poem, whose words are clearly audible, and the unusual opening of the second section with a short canon over a pedal point in the contratenor, the low d sustained for six brevis-bars, which creates a striking contrast against the first section.

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 April 2024