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• 4 French Songs of the early 15th century

4 French Songs of the early 15th century

for 3 voices or instruments.

These four songs come from MS canonici misc. 213 of the Bodleian Library in Oxford, one of the most important collections of music from the firsf half of the fifteenth century.
This music is written in an attractively simple style, possibly as a reaction to the great complexity of much French music of the late fourteenth century. Three of the songs are rondeaux, while no. 2 is a ballade; unfortunately the complete texts for nos. 3 and 4 have not survived. As is normally the case in this repertoire, the contratenor, printed as the middle part here, is less important than its neighbours, and could even be omitted if necessary.
Johannes Haucourt (Acourt in the source) was probably a singer in the papal chapel in Avignon c. 1390. Nicolas Grenon (1380-1456) was a singer at Notre Dame in Paris from 1399 onwards, and also worked in Cambrai, Rome, and in various towns in Flanders. Nothing is known about Johannes Ie Grant, except that he seems to have been active between 1420 and 1440; he left five songs, plus some secular music. The most important composer here is Hugo de Lantins; a ceremonial motet of his dated 1423 refers to the Doge Francesco Foscari, suggesting a connection with Venice; three Italian and fourteen French songs of his have survived. He seems to have been a rather forward-looking composer, and in fact the imitation in A ma dame playsant e belle makes it sound like the mature work of Dufay.
These pieces can be performed purely vocally (with the untexted parts vocalised), or purely instrumentally (groups of recorders, or of bowed or plucked strings); alternatively the top part may be sung, and the remaining parts played on instruments. The two lower parts of le demande ma bienvenue are very simple, and could easily be played on a single lute or harp.
The original note values have been halved throughout. Editorial accidentals are printed small above the stave, applying to the one note only. For the sake of convenience the original accidentals, printed on the stave, are taken as applying to the whole bar. I am grateful to Jeannine Alton and Alan Robson for providing translations of the texts.