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Complete Works of Gilles Mureau

Amiens MS 162 D

Sacred music of the 15th century

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En atendant vostre venue 3v · Anonymous

Appearance in the group of related chansonniers:

*Leuven ff. 72v-73 »En atendant vostre venue« 3v PDF · Facsimile (72v)

Text: Rondeau quatrain; full text. Its 4th line quotes a rondeau cinquain in Le Jardin de plaisance et fleur de rethoricque, Paris, [Antoine Verard, 1501] f. 91, which was set to music by Ockeghem in the Dijon chansonnier, »Quant de vous seul je pers la veue«.

En atendant vostre venue,
mon bien que je desire tant,
une heure me dure bien cent
quant de vous seul je pers la veue.

Bien souvent seullete esperdue
je passe mon temps en pleurant

en atendantvostre venue,
mon bien que je desire tant.

Mais Bon Espoir m’a maintenue
et de son bon gre m’asseurant
que je vous reverray briefment
qui en joye m’a entretenue

en atandant vostre venue,
mon bien que je desire tant,
une heure me dure bien cent
quant de vous seul je pers la veue.

Waiting for your arrival,
my dear whom I so desire,
an hour feels like hundred
when I lose sight of you alone.

Very often alone and lost
I pass the time in tears

waiting for your arrival,
my dear whom I so desire.

But Good Hope has supported me
and by her good wish promised me
that I will see you again shortly,
which has kept me happy

waiting for your arrival,
my dear whom I so desire,
an hour feels like hundred
when I lose sight of you alone.

Evaluation of the source:

The unique rondeau was copied into the Leuven chansonnier by its second scribe with very few errors ­– both involving puncti.

Comments on text and music:

A woman is waiting and hoping for the return of her lover in this short rondeau quatrain. Poetically and musically it has the characteristics of being a local produce. The poem is in the courtly vein involving rich rimes and an allegorical figure (Bon Espoir), but seems to be made up from stock phrases, and the crucial rentrement of the second couplet is less elegant (lines 6-7 “...mon temps en pleurant / en atendant vostre..”). The quote from the somewhat older rondeau set by Ockeghem may not be the only loan in the poem, even if the line is made to stand out by its music. The reuse of the rime word in the fifth line of the Ockeghem song “tant suis de douleur esperdue” is conspicuous.

The poem is set for two very high voices in the ranges c'-f'' and g-a', which never cross and form a self-contained two-part structure in mainly thirds and sixths. Below this duet we find a wide-ranging low contratenor, G-d', which supports the upper voices in a rather clumsy way. In two places it sounds the note B against d' and f''/f' in the upper voices forming a diminished triad (bb. 14.2 and 22.2). It appears that the composer assumed a flattening of the B. However, such a flattening would have consequences and turn the music to the flat side thereby obliterating the effect of the deliberate introduction of the flat before b' in the upper voice at the quote of “quant de vous seul je pers la veue” (b. 26). The change in colour from Mixolydian to Dorian has to come with the quote, or the whole idea of the song as performed by superius and tenor is lost; the shift in colour was probably a conscious reference to the sound of Ockeghem’s song. Designing a suitable low contratenor was beyond the capabilities of the composer – also confirmed by the contratenor’s aimless marking time in bars 25-28.

PWCH November 2019