- Edited by Gaël Saint-Cricq with Eglal Doss-Quinby and Samuel N. Rosenberg
- (Series: Recent Researches in the Music of the Middle Ages and Early Renaissance, 42)
- Middleton, Wisconsin: A-R Editions, 2017
- lxxxiv + 192 pages
- Paperback: ISBN 978-0-89579-862-6
The 13th-century Noailles manuscript songbook preserved at the Bibliothèque nationale de France contains a great number of motets, along with other vocal pieces. This volume, prepared in collaboration with my fellow-philologist Eglal Doss-Quinby and the musicologist Gaël Saint-Cricq, presents the 91 motets in an all-inclusive critical edition with English translations of the Old French texts.
In addition to the musical importance of the Noailles manuscript, this source is also of great literary and philological interest. Using a network of common themes of the period, these motet texts express amorous desire, generally from a male perspective. The poets engage above all with the vocabulary, metaphors, and motifs associated with fin’amors, the true, perfect, refined love first elaborated by the troubadours. A feminine point of view is nevertheless well represented in the corpus. With remarkable frequency, the texts in this repertory—pastourelles or chansons de toile, rondets or reverdies and more—all circle back to one essential concern: the joys and woes of love (be it courtly or even rustic) in all their manifestations, the great binding material being music, with countless celebratory references to singing, dancing, and the playing of musical instruments.
Philological complements to this volume
Some additional philological materials could not be included in this volume because of space limitations. They have been published elsewhere, in two parts:
Samuel N. Rosenberg and Eglal Doss-Quinby, “Philological Complement to Motets from the Chansonnier de Noailles (BnF f. fr. 12615) [music edited by Gaël Saint-Cricq, with texts and translations prepared by Eglal Doss-Quinby and Samuel N. Rosenberg (A-R Editions, 2017)]—Part 1: Language of the Scribe and Versification,” Textual Cultures 10.2 (2016 [published in 2018]), 51-75.
Eglal Doss-Quinby and Samuel N. Rosenberg, “Philological Complement to Motets from the Chansonnier de Noailles (BnF f. fr. 12615) [music edited by Gaël Saint-Cricq, with texts and translations prepared by Eglal Doss-Quinby and Samuel N. Rosenberg (A-R Editions, 2017)]—Part 2: Textual Variants.” Published separately online in Smith ScholarWorks: http://scholarworks.smith.edu/frn_facpubs/4 .
“[T]his edition will remain a vital and much-used tool as research progresses. It is an important collection that calls for and rewards intensive, sustained, and repeated engagement.”
Matthew P. Thomson (Oxford University), Medium Aevum 88.1 (2019), 182
Review
For a thorough, thoughtful review, follow the “full text link” for the October 22, 2018, blog posting of Elizabeth Eva Leach (Oxford University): http://eeleach.blog/blog/ or read the review in Music and Letters 99.2 (May 2018), 281-285.
Abstract and table of contents
These additional descriptive materials are available on the publisher’s website for this book: https://www.areditions.com/motets-from-the-chansonnier-de-noailles-m042.html .
See the 13th-century manuscript
The Chansonnier de Noailles itself is catalogued as Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fonds fr. 12615. It may be consulted at https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b60007945 .
Anyone wanting to search online for other treasures of the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) and some other collections may begin with http://gallica.bnf.fr .