De tous biens plaine est ma maistresse 3v · Hayne van Ghizeghem
Appearance in the group of related chansonniers:
*Copenhagen ff. 4v-5 »De tous biens plaine est ma maistresse« 3v Edition · Facsimile
*Dijon ff. 14v-15 »De tous biens plaine est ma maistresse« 3v hayne Edition – Facsimile
*Laborde ff. 62v-63 »De tous biens plaine est ma maistresse« 3v Edition · Facsimile
*Leuven ff. 20v-21 »De touz biens plaine est ma maistresse« 3v Edition · Facsimile
*Wolfenbüttel ff. 52v-53 »De tous biens plaine est ma maistresse« 3v Edition · Facsimile
Other musical sources:
Bologna Q16 ff. 133v-134 »De tous biens pien« 3v · Facsimile (Q016_272)
Bologna Q18 f. 48 »[De tous biens plaine]« 2v [4v] (Only C and added part) · Facsimile (Q018_049)
Cape 3.b.12 ff. 84v-85 »Com defecerunt ligna« 3v
Florence 121 ff. 24v-25 »De tus bem plaine« 3v
Florence 178 ff. 34v-35 »De tous biem playne« 3v hayne
Florence 2356 ff. 26v-27 »De tout bien pleine« 3v
Florence 2794 ff. 18v-19 »De tous biens plaine est ma maistresse« 3v
London 31922 ff. 40v-41 »De tous bien plaine« 3v · Facsimile
Maastricht 169/1 ff. 25-25v »De tous bin plaijn est ma mestresse« 1v [3v] (Only S)
Montecassino 871 p. 344 »[Without text]« 3v
New Haven 91 ff. 42v-43 »De tous bien plaine est ma maistresse« 3v (C incompl.) Heyne · Facsimile
Paris 15123 ff. 105v-106 »De tous biens plaine est ma maistresse« 3v · Facsimile
Paris 2973 ff. 25v-26 »De tous biens plaine est ma maistresse« 3v · Facsimile
Paris 676 ff. 42v-43 »De tous biens« 3v
Pavia 362 ff. 34bisv-35 »De tous biens playne est ma maistresse« 3v Heyne
Perugia 431 ff. 70v-71 »De tous biens plains est« 3v
Petrucci 1501 ff. 22v-23 »De tous biens playne« 4v (A “Si placet”) · Facsimile
Rome 2856 ff. 66v-67 »De tous biens plaine« 3v Haine · Facsimile
Rome XIII.27 ff. 64v-65 »De to biens plena« 3v (with 2 extra substitute voices) · Facsimile
Sevilla 5-1-43 f. 39 »De tous biens playne« 2v [3v] (Only T and C)
Ulm 237 no. 21 »De tous bien plaine« 3v
Uppsala 76a ff. 15v-16 »De tous biens plaine« 3v
This page with editions as a PDF
Reworkings, citations, intabulations and use of material, see Fallows 1999, pp. 130. Many compositions based on material from this chanson, see the lists in Hayne 1977, pp. xxxix-xli, and Meconi 1994, pp. 27-28.
Editions: Jeppesen 1927 no. 5 (Copenhagen); Droz 1927 no. 11 (Dijon); Gutiérrez-Denhoff 1988 no. 43 (Wolfenbüttel).
Text: Rondeau quatrain, full text in Copenhagen, Dijon, Laborde, Leuven, Wolfenbüttel and Paris 2973 – also in Berlin 78.B.17 ff. 184-184v (no. 575), ed.: Löpelmann 1923, p. 358.
The poem according to Copenhagen, Dijon and Laborde:
De tous biens plaine est ma maistresse, En la veant j'ay tel leesse (3) De tous biens plaine est ma maistresse, Je n'ay cure d'autre richesse De tous biens plaine est ma maistresse, |
My mistress has such great merit When I see her, I feel such joy [for] my mistress has such great merit I do not care about any other riches My mistress has such great merit |
There are differences of spelling among the sources, but only Leuven and Wolfenbüttel have variants:
1) Wolfenbüttel, line 3, “car accomplie ...”
2) Wolfenbüttel, line 4, “autant qu’oncques maiz deesse”; one syllable short
3) Wolfenbüttel, line 5, “... voyant j’ay tel richesse”
4) Leuven, line 10, “... voustre serviteur”; one syllable too many
5) Wolfenbüttel, line 11, “et affin qu’ung chascun soyt seur”
Evaluation of the sources:
The Dijon scribe copied this famous chanson three times and used the same exemplar every time. The copies in the chansonniers Dijon and Laborde are identical (in Laborde he breaks a ligature in the tenor bars 10-11) and probably reproduce his exemplar without any writing errors. Copenhagen too is without errors (he has written “et” in stead of “est” in the first line of the poem!), but exhibits some small changes. He did omit the signature of one flat in the superius – this does not make any difference as most b’s would be flattened anyway, and he supplied the important flats as accidentals (e.g. b. 19) – and changed a few details in ligatures and decoration (S b. 46.2; T bb. 13-14 and 38; C b. 11). The last change is interesting: While most sources in the contratenor’s bar 11 have a b-flat during the whole bar (rhythmizised in different ways as a brevis, as two semibreves (Dijon and Laborde), as a dotted semibrevis and minima, as a semibrevis, a minima-rest and minima – see Gutiérrez-Denhoff 1988, p. 145) he here chose a semibrevis with punctus b-flat and a minima a (dissonant, but very elegant), which is exactly the same as in Leuven and Wolfenbüttel, possibly indicating an awareness of this version of the song.
The Wolfenbüttel version was copied after a different exemplar with a somewhat corrupt version of the poem (see above). The differences in the musical notation appear in ligatures (generally many more than in the Dijon scribe’s versions: S bb. 23, 31-33.1, 35, 52.2-53.1, and 56; T bb. 10-15, 23-24, 32-33, 39, and 57-61; C b bb. 24-27, 35, 37.2-38.1, 43, 44.2-45.1, 46-47, 52, and 56), cadential decoration (S bb. 13.1, 27.2, and 46.2; T b. 21), and in the musical text with consequences (just as the ligatures have) for the text underlay (S bb. 19 and 50.2-51 (remark the dissonant a’ in b. 51.1, which is found in the majority of sources - and corrected in the Dijon scribe’s versions and in Leuven); T bb. 5.2-6.1 and b. 51; C bb. 11, 15 and 30-35), and the scribe notated the contratenor with only one flat and did not put in flats before e’ in the tenor part.
The song appears in the Leuven chansonnier carefully copied without any errors. It is quite similar to the version that the Dijon scribe copied into Copenhagen. The superius parts are identical except for the cadential decoration, which the Dijon scribe removed in bar 46.2, but in the lower voices the Leuven version uses many more ligatures, also more than in Wolfenbüttel. This, of course, influences the text underlay and gives a workable performance different from those given by the other ‘Loire Valley’ sources. For example, the first three notes in the tenor are bound together in a ligature, and the note repetition in bars 5.2-6.1 is a single brevis note. This way of performing the tenor can also be found in the slightly later MSS Paris 15123 and Rome XII.27 (see the facsimiles) and several other sources. In Leuven the poem has become more personalized in the tierce: Instead of referring to the beloved in the third person, the lover wants to be “voustre serviteur” (line 10). It produces a syllable too many, but fits the music perfectly.
These five sources probably are the earliest we know of for this chanson. It must have been in circulation for some time as it here appears in three interrelated, but different versions.
Comments on text and music:
The rondeau with paradise in its heart was a top hit for generations around 1500 – and rightly so. The extraordinarily strong tune in the tenor is perfectly balanced by a nearly as memorable tune in the superius and an unusual effective low contratenor - all parts are highly singable, and you will never forget the tenor tune! It is important to notice how triumphantly happy a Dorian tune – in what to us is g-minor – can sound.
Material from Hayne’s song, especially from the tenor and superius, has been arranged and reworked by other composers in songs, instrumental pieces, motets and masses (see the lists in Hayne 1977, pp. xxxix-xli, and Meconi 1994, pp. 27-28). The many sources for the widely circulated song exhibit quite a lot of variants, but this never impairs the personality of the song just as the tunes keep their individuality in the arrangements.
PWCH March 2009, revised May 2017