Detailed exploration of an enigmatic manuscript containing the texts to hundreds of songs, but no musical notation. The medieval songbook known variously as trouvere manuscript C or the "Bern Chansonnier" (Bern, Burgerbibliothek, Cod. 389) is one of the most important witnesses to musical life in thirteenth-century France. Almost certainly copied in Metz, it provides the texts to over five hundred Old French songs, and is a unique insight into cultures of song-making and copying on the linguistic and political borders between French and German-speaking lands in the Middle Ages. Notably, the names of trouveres, including several female poet-musicians, are found in its margins, names which would be unknown today without this evidence. However, the manuscript has received relatively little scholarly attention, partly because the songs' musical staves remained empty for reasons now unknown, and partly because of where it was copied. This collection of essays is the first to consider C on its own terms and from a range of disciplinary perspectives, including philology, art history, literary studies, and musicology. The contributors explore the process of creating the complex object that is a music manuscript, examining the work of the scribes and artists who worked on C, and questioning how scribes acquired and organised exemplars for copying. The peculiarly Messine flavour of the repertoire and authors is also discussed, with contributors showing that C frames the tradition of Old French song from a unique perspective. As a whole, the volume demonstrates how in this eastern hub of music and poetry, poet-composers, readers, and scribes interacted with the courtly song tradition in fascinating and unusual ways.

About the Author
ELIZABETH EVA LEACH is Professor of Music at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of the British Academy. Her work focuses on song in the medieval West in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. JOSEPH W. MASON is a Junior Research Fellow at New College, University of Oxford. His research focuses on vocal music from the twelfth to the fourteenth century. MATTHEW P. THOMSON is Assistant Professor in Early Music, University College Dublin. Previously a Fitzjames Research Fellow at Merton College, Oxford, his research focuses on music of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, including polyphonic motets, monophonic song, and the role of music in literature. ELIZABETH EVA LEACH is Professor of Music at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of the British Academy. Her work focuses on song in the medieval West in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. JOSEPH W. MASON is a Junior Research Fellow at New College, University of Oxford. His research focuses on vocal music from the twelfth to the fourteenth century. MATTHEW P. THOMSON is Assistant Professor in Early Music, University College Dublin. Previously a Fitzjames Research Fellow at Merton College, Oxford, his research focuses on music of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, including polyphonic motets, monophonic song, and the role of music in literature.


Book Information
ISBN 9781783276523
Author Elizabeth Eva Leach
Format Hardback
Page Count 286
Imprint The Boydell Press
Publisher Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Weight(grams) 546g