Chanson de toile

The Chanson de toile (also called chanson d'histoire or romance) was a genre of narrative Old French lyric poetry devised by the trouvères which flourished in the late twelfth and early thirteenth century. As the term is a modern one, membership of the genre is subject to some disparity among scholars, but the most recent edition identifies twenty-one.^[1] Of these, five were written by Audefroi le Bastart; the others are anonymous. Of these eight are unica in the earliest chansonnier, TrouvU (Bibliothèque nationale de France, fr. 20050); one further one in TrouvU is also in the lai d'Aristote; six are in Guillaume de Dole by Jean Renart; and one is in the Roman de la violette by Gerbert de Montreuil.^[2]

Typically, they tell the story of a young, often married woman pining for a lover, with a happy ending. The genre's name derives from toile; that is, they are supposed to have been sung by women who were weaving,^[3] and the female main characters also sew as they relate their stories.^[4] In most cases, the song begins with a brief and sympathetic history of a woman: she is either absent from her lover or married unhappily to an older nobleman and in love with a knight. All but one end happily—the one exception is Bele Doette, who learns that her lover has died and then founds a monastery into which she retreats. The women sometimes appear careless, but their charm and demeanour are attractive. The chansons de toile are considered some of the most beautiful poems produced in Old French, and their importance was such that some of them were included in romances, in which they were sung by the heroines.^[3]

The Harvard Dictionary of Music suggests that since the woman's voice in the chanson de toile is so prominent some of them may have been composed by women. Musically some of them are quite ornate, considering the relatively simple narrative.^[5] While not all the melodies survive because of these songs' attestation within narratives into which notation was never entered, those by Audefroi le Bastart all have notation in TrouvM (F-Pn fr.844) and several are also notated in TrouvT (F-Pn fr.12615).

Works

List based on count given in Mainini 2019.

Chansons de toile in Guillaume de Dole

Fille et la mere se sieent a l’orfrois
Siet soi bele Aye as piez sa male maistre
La bele Doe siet au vent
Bele Aiglentine en roial chamberine
Renaus et s’amie chevauche par un pré
Or vienent Pasques les beles en avril

Chanson de toile in the Roman de la violette

Siet soi biele Eurïaus, seule est enclose

Chanson de toile in TrouvU and the Lai d’Aristote

En un vergier lez une fontenele

Unique Chansons de toile in TrouvU

Bele Yolanz en ses chambres seoit
Oriolanz en haut solier
Bele Doette as fenestres se siet
Quant vient en mai, que l’on dit as lons jors
Bele Yolanz en chambre koie
An halte tour se siet belle Yzabel
Lou samedi a soir fat la semainne
Belle Amelot soule an chanbre feloit

Chansons de toile by Audefroi le Bastart

Bele Ysabiauz, pucele bien aprise
Bele Ydoine se siet desous la verde olive
An chambre a or se siet la belle Beatris
Au novel tans Pascour que florist l’aube espine
Bele Emmelos es prés, desouz l’arbroie

References

^ Mainini, Lorenzo, Chansons de toile: Canzoni lirico-narrative in figura di donne (Rome, 2019); see also Zink, Michel, 'Belle': essai sur les chansons de toile (Paris, 1978). Studies variously exclude those interpolated in narrative and typically also exclude a song copied among Audefroi's chansons de toile in TrouvM because it does not contain the generic marker of a woman weaving.
^ McCann Boulton, Maureen Barry (1997). "Lyric Insertions and the Reversal of Romance Conventions in Jean Renart's Roman de la Rose or Guillaume de Dole". In Nancy Vine Durling (ed.). Jean Renart and the art of romance: essays on Guillaume de Dole. UP of Florida. pp. 85–104. ISBN 978-0-8130-1495-1. Retrieved 30 January 2010.
^ ^a ^b "Chanson de toile". Lexikon des Mittelalters. Vol. II. Bettlerwesen bis Codex von Valencia. J.D. Metzler. 1999. p. 1710.
^ Burns, E. Jane (2002). "3. Love's Stitches Undone". Courtly love undressed: reading through clothes in medieval French culture. U of Pennsylvania P. pp. 88–118. ISBN 978-0-8122-3671-2.
^ "Chanson de toile". Harvard Dictionary of Music. Harvard UP. 2003. p. 161. ISBN 9780674011632. Retrieved 2010-01-30.

[1] Mainini, Lorenzo, Chansons de toile: Canzoni lirico-narrative in figura di donne (Rome, 2019); see also Zink, Michel, 'Belle': essai sur les chansons de toile (Paris, 1978). Studies variously exclude those interpolated in narrative and typically also exclude a song copied among Audefroi's chansons de toile in TrouvM because it does not contain the generic marker of a woman weaving.

[2] McCann Boulton, Maureen Barry (1997). "Lyric Insertions and the Reversal of Romance Conventions in Jean Renart's Roman de la Rose or Guillaume de Dole". In Nancy Vine Durling (ed.). Jean Renart and the art of romance: essays on Guillaume de Dole. UP of Florida. pp. 85–104. ISBN 978-0-8130-1495-1. Retrieved 30 January 2010.

[lexikon-3] "Chanson de toile". Lexikon des Mittelalters. Vol. II. Bettlerwesen bis Codex von Valencia. J.D. Metzler. 1999. p. 1710.

[4] Burns, E. Jane (2002). "3. Love's Stitches Undone". Courtly love undressed: reading through clothes in medieval French culture. U of Pennsylvania P. pp. 88–118. ISBN 978-0-8122-3671-2.

[5] "Chanson de toile". Harvard Dictionary of Music. Harvard UP. 2003. p. 161. ISBN 9780674011632. Retrieved 2010-01-30.

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