Antoine Busnoys, C'est vous en qui j’ay esperance

C'est vous en qui j’ay esperance 3v · Busnoys, Antoine

Appearance in the group of related chansonniers:

*Dijon ff. 45v-47 »C'est vous en qui j’ay esperance« 3v Busnoys · Edition · Facsimile

*Nivelle ff. 33v-35 »C'est vous en qui j’ay esperance« 3v Busnois · Edition · Facsimile

Editions: Droz 1927 no. 39 (Dijon), Goldberg 1994, p. 348 (Nivelle), Busnoys 2018 no. 38 (Nivelle).

Text: Bergerette; full text in both sources; also in Berlin 78.B.17 f. 180, ed: Löpelmann 1923, p. 348.

After Dijon and Nivelle:

C’est vous en qui j’ay esperance,
c’est vous en qui tousjours je pense,
c’est vous a qui je suis donnéé,
c’est vous par qui habandonné
j’ay le sourplus sans difference.

Ma maistresse et mon tout seul bien,
nul ne pourroit penser combien
estre empres vous tant je desire.

Quamque je voi, ne me plaist rien, 1)
ce que je veul, pas ne le tien, 2)
tout me queurt sus ou me veult nuire. 3)

S’il ne vous vient a desplaisance,
donnez a mes maulx allegence
dont j’ay plus qu’aultre qui soit né;
mais je me tien bien fortuné
que par vous soit ma souffisance. 4)

C’est vous en qui j’ay esperance,
c’est vous en qui tousjours je pense,
c’est vous a qui je suis donne,
c’est vous par qui habandonne
j’ay le sourplus sans difference.

It's you that I'm longing for,
it's you that I always think of,
it is you to whom I belong,
it is you by whom I, forsaken,
without regard am left with the dregs.

My mistress and my only treasure,
no one could imagine how much
I desire to be close to you.

Whatever I see pleases me not at all,
what I wish, I do not have,
everything attacks me or want to do me harm.

If it does not displease you,
grant some relief for my hurts
of which I have more than anyone born;
however, I hold myself most fortunate
that by you I will get my satisfaction.

It's you that I'm longing for,
it's you that I always think of,
it is you to whom I belong,
it is you by whom I, forsaken,
without regard am left with the dregs.

1) Dijon, line 9, “... plaist en rien” – a syllable too many (error)
2) Nivelle, line 10, “... ne le le tien” (error)
3) Nivelle, line 11, “tout me court sus ...”
4) Dijon, line 16 “que pour soit ma souffisance” (error); Nivelle, “que par vous soit ...”
– a few different spellings appear in Nivelle.

Evaluation of the sources:

Busnoys’ song was copied into the Dijon and Nivelle chansonniers by their main scribes after the same exemplar or after very similar ones. Apart from banal minor errors, the variants are all of the type that can be attributed to the copyist's interpretation of his exemplar: In the highest voice we find in bar 31 in Nivelle a simpler version of the final cadential decoration, and in bar 42 the accidental flat before b’ is not found in Nivelle. The first note in the tenor in bar 53 is a g instead of Dijon’s d, and in Nivelle the contratenor has two minimae spanning bars 9.3-10.1 instead of a dotted figure. In Dijon there is signa congruentiae placed at different places in the three voices just before the end of the couplets, which are not in Nivelle (see below); and as usual there are lots of differences in the scribes’ use of coloration to indicate dotted figures. What is more important is that both sources mention Busnoys as the author, that there is no difference in their use of ligatures, and that the two sources completely agree on the use of coloration as a marker of hemiola passages and to prevent augmentation of brevis values.

The refrain of the bergerette is in triple time, tempus perfectum, with the couplets in double time, tempus imperfectum diminutum, which causes a tempo relation on the semibrevis level of 3:4 between the two sections. This layout is standard for courtly songs in this form of the 1460s. However, while the opening of the refrain and its two first lines clearly adhere to standard patterns in triple time – with hints of double time due to the coloured hemiolas (bb. 3-4) –, the patterns are broken up from the third line, and the middle cadence in bar 17 (marked with signum or fermata in both sources) falls on the second beat of the triple perfection. Busnoys has simply moved the perfection’s pattern one beat forward as can be seen from the placement of the second set of coloured hemiolas (bb. 19-21). After some free play with double time patterns in the refrain’s last line, the section ends comfortably on the true first beat of the song’s original pattern of perfections.

Both sources show up the classic disposition of the hexachordal signatures with no signature in the highest voices and one-flat signatures in the lower voices; and also in both sources the flat is preserved in the tenor in the couplets, while it disappears in the contratenor until the last staff. In Dijon a flat before b’ is introduced in bar 42. It moves forward the shift in sound, which comes anyway for melodic reasons in Nivelle at bar 43.2. After the contrast that the initial imitation in the couplets creates in relation to the refrain with its imitation at the fifth, the switch to the flat side generates a more dramatic effect in Dijon, which thus may belong to Busnoys’ concept of the song.

In Dijon the scribe has put some signa congruentiae in the three voices in bars 57, 58 and 59 respectively, apparently in order to indicate a stop on a triad on a and thus propose a quite unusual type of ouvert and clos endings to the repeated couplets (see the edition). In Nivelle we find no such signs. The quite clumsy bid on a ouvert ending of the Dijon version appears to be an editorial intervention.

Comments on text and music:

The male love complaint in very rich rimes belongs to a not so rarely encountered type, where the lines of the refrain begin with the same words, here “C'est vous”, until the punch line. The poem may seem slightly ordinary, but Busnoys’ musical setting is a masterpiece in rhythmic flexibility and flowing melodic lines.

The upper voice is in a fairly normal range, b-d’’, and is the leading voice with a clear declamation of the words using many note repetitions, especially in the couplets. Tenor and contratenor are more freely flowing and in wider ranges, tenor sings between A and f’, while the versatile contratenor extends the same range down to G. This permits Busnoys to apply a wide palette of textual colours in addition to the rhythmic refinement described above.

Imitation at the octave between superius and tenor appears in the first, third and fifth lines of the refrain section, while imitation at the fifth opens the couplets and with its pull towards naturals (use of the G-hexachord) assists in creating contrast between the sections. We meet the same drift towards the C- and G-hexachords in the beginning of the refrain’s second part (bb. 18-23).

The contratenor mostly keeps below the tenor at the beginnings of the two halves of the refrain and in the couplets. Otherwise it rises above the tenor, exchanges function with it producing allusion to the sound of fauxbourdon and creates with the tenor a freely flowing polyphonic wed upon which the upper voice floats. The end of the refrain is brilliant: The octave imitation is formed as two duets in double time; first tenor and contratenor (b. 24), then superius and tenor an octave higher (b. 25.2). From here on the contratenor stays in its high range above the tenor and creates a fauxbourdon-like sound, which maximises the contrast with the following couplets.

PWCH October 2024