Je ne fais plus, je ne dis ne escris 3v · Mureau, Gilles
Appearance in the group of related chansonniers:
*Leuven ff. 27v-29 »Je ne fays plus, je ne dys ne escrips« 3v · Edition · Facsimile
Additional main sources:
*Florence 176 ff. 73v-75 »Je ne fay plus je ne dis« 3v G. muream · Edition
*Florence 2794 ff. 50v-51 »Je ne fais plus, ne ne ditz ne escris« 3v · Edition
Other sources dated before c 1500:
Bologna Q17 ff. 37v-38 »Je ne fais« 3v A busnois · Facsimile (Q017_039)
Florence 178 ff. 40v-41 »Je ne fai plus« 3v
Florence 229 ff. 54v-55 »Je ne fay plus ne je ne dis ne escrips« 3v Antonius busnoys
Florence 2356 ff. 6v-7 » Jenephai« 3v
Paris 15123 ff. 177v-178 »Je ne fais plus je ne dis ne escrips« 3v · Facsimile
Paris 2245 ff. 23v-24 »Je ne fais plus je ne dis ne escrips« 3v mureau · Facsimile
Rome XIII.27 ff. 19v-20 3v »Je ne fay plus« Gil murieu · Facsimile
Sevilla 5-1-43 ff. 25v-26 »Je ne fay plus« 3v
Sources dated later than c 1500:
Copenhagen 1848 p. 97 »Je ne fais plus ne je ne dis« 3v · Facsimile
Florence 121 ff. 26v-27 »Je ne fai plus« 3v
Petrucci 1501 ff. 10v-11 »Je ne fais plus« 4v (Altus “Si placet”) · Facsimile
Sankt Gallen 462 p. 85 »Je ne fais plus je ne dis ne escrips« 3v · Facsimile
Segovia f. 181v »Je ne fay plus« 3v Loysette Compere
Turin I.27 f. 47 »Au joly moys de may« 3v
Washington M2.1 M6 ff. 11v-12 »Jene fai plus« 3v
This page with editions as a PDF
For intabulations and citations, see Fallows 1999 p. 209.
Editions: Brown 1983, no. 55 (after Florence 229), Geering 1967, no. 44 (after Sankt Gallen 462), Hewitt 1942, no. 8 (after Petrucci 1501).
Text: Rondeau tercet layé; full text in Leuven, Florence 2794 and Paris 2245; also in Paris 1719 f. 39-39v (crossed out).
After Florence 2794:
Je ne fais plus, je ne dis ne escris, (1) Toute ma joye est de souppirs et cris Je ne fais plus, je ne dis ne escris, Se mes sens ont aucuns doulz motz escris, Je ne fais plus, je ne dis ne escris, |
I do nothing more, I do not speak nor write, All my joy has by sighs and cries I do nothing more, I do not speak nor write, If my mind ever did write any sweet words, I do nothing more, I do not speak nor write, |
1) Florence 2794, line 1, “... ne ne ditz”
2) Florence 2794, line 7, “en dueil et cris”, changed in accordance with Paris 2245.
After Leuven:
|
Je ne fays plus, je ne dys ne escrips, Toute ma joye est de sourpirs et escris Je ne fays plus, je ne dys ne escrips, Si mes sens ont aulcuns doulx motz escris, (3) Je be fays plus, je ne dys ne escrips, |
I do nothing more, I do not speak nor write, All my joy has by sighs and cries I do nothing more, I do not speak nor write, If my mind ever did write any sweet words, I do nothing more, I do not speak nor write, |
1) Paris 1719, line 2, “en maintz escriptz”
2) Paris 1719, line 5, “... descriptz”
3) Paris 1719, line 12, “... rescriptz”
4) Paris 1719, line 13, “... parscriptz”
5) Paris 1719, line 14, “... par destroys ...”
6) Paris 1719, line 15, “la me complains”
Evaluation of the sources:
The earliest sources seem to be the Leuven chansonnier, which belongs to the group of ‘Loire Valley’ chansonniers, where the song is without composer attribution, and the Italian MS Florence 176, in which it was entered around 1480 or earlier by its main scribe. His exemplar probably was French and contained the complete poem, but he only used the first words to identify the song. A slightly later hand added the composer’s name, as was the case with many other songs in this MS, among them two more chansons by Mureau. The complete poem can be found in the Leuven chansonnier and in the two other French manuscripts, that is Florence 2794, contemporary with Florence 176, and Paris 2245 from the 1490s.
The poem survives in two different versions (see above). The version characterized by its use of the words “des livres plains” as its fourth line is found in the Leuven chansonnier and in the poetry collection Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, ms. f.fr. 1719, where it has been cancelled as quite corrupted (scored out). The refrain from this version is also found in the Italian chansonniers Florence 229 and the Pixérécourt MS (Paris 15123). This text version probably was used for most of the Italian sources, which share some notational traits that influence the performance of the poem. In Leuven and in Florence 176 the octave leap in the superius in bar 33 is included in a ligature (see the editions). This ligature forces the singer to place the word “livres” before the exposed high point in bar 33.2. The French MSS, Florence 2794 and Paris 2245, do not have this ligature; instead the octave leap is separated by a rest (see the edition). This interpretation is obviously more effective in a performance. The opposite situation is found in bar 44: Here Leuven and Florence 176 in the tenor have two semibreves, which allow the upper voices to pronounce the words together, while the bar in Florence 2794 is a brevis and part of a ligature. Paris 2245 again follows Florence 2794 (with Sevilla 5-I-43, Florence 121, Copenhagen 1848), while the majority of the Italian sources follow Florence 176.
The poem in Florence 2794 and Paris 2245 has “de larmes plains” as its fourth line, and in line 2 it has the possessive pronoun “en mes escris” in stead the cryptical “mains/maintz”. On the whole the poem in Florence 2794 seems more fluent and consistent. It is worth remarking that its spelling underscores the poem’s use of rime equivoque, which is not as evident in other sources in which “escris” is spelled “escrips”. The last spelling blurs the homonymous final words in all verse lines.
The song was apparently widely circulated in the 1470s, and many lesser differences appear between the sources concerning ligatures, tone repetitions and accidentals. The earliest sources show on the surface only few variants, but the differences in the poems and the details mentioned above, outline two different traditions already in existence at an early date. Leuven and Florence 176 represent a tradition, which was exported to the families of Italian sources, while Florence 2794 and Paris 2245 belonged to another French tradition.
While the song in Leuven is notated in standard key signatures of one flat in each voice, it has three flats in each voice in Florence 176: Superius has flats at f’, b’ and f’’ positions, tenor at b, f’ and b’, and contratenor at e, b and e’. These formations of flats supply quite sure evidence that the song originally was notated without letter clefs – in formations of fa-clefs alone, three or two flats in each voice are typical. This means that “Je ne fais plus” was not notated at a fixed pitch, but could be performed at any convenient pitch; if letter clefs were imagined, two sets of such clefs were available a fifth apart. The relatively restricted tessitura of “Je ne fais plus” (d-g’’) permits a performance a fifth lower. The fa-clef notation seems to have been used by composers around Binchois and in Central France in the 1450s and the early 1460s (Ockeghem, Barbingant, Le Rouge). Knowledge of the notation soon faded away, and the songs were then transmitted in fixed-pitch notation (concerning fa-clefs, see my article ‘On chansons notated in fa-clefs – and the question of pitch in 15th century secular music’).
The original fa-clef notation had probably been misinterpreted already in the exemplar, which the main scribe of Florence 176 reproduced carefully. The flats in the contratenor should have been placed at the positions f, b and f’ (fa2, fas3, fas5), which produce a standard formation of fa-clefs with a default reading in D-Dorian. This, of course, is readable in two sets of letter clefs too (G2, C2, C4 (G-Dorian), and C2, C4, F4 – sounding a fifth lower in C-Dorian), and it does not bring about the superfluous e-flat signature in the contratenor. In the French chansonnier Florence 2794, as in most other sources, the contratenor is notated with one flat only. The Pixérécourt chansonnier (Paris 15123), which was made in Florence shortly after Florence 176, maintains the erroneous three-flat signature in its contratenor.
Nine sources including Petrucci’s Odhecaton retained the flat in the superius at f’’, which signals the part’s high tessitura. But scribes did not know what to do about the now redundant flat at the f’ position, which apparently still circulated in many exemplars. Different impossible interpretations appear in the superius parts: In Florence 2794 flats at e’ and b’; in Florence 2356 at g’, b’ and f’’; in Florence 121 at e’, b’ and f’’ (this late MS also have two or three flats in the tenor and contratenor, at b, e’, b’ and e/f, b respectively)– and Bologna Q17, Paris 2245 and Rome XIII.27 do not have a flat at all at b’. An unusual and soon obscure notation could have unexpected repercussions many years later!
Comments on text and music:
This song is by Gilles Mureau. This interpretation is not only favoured by the early sources closest to France (French or copied from French exemplars), the song also appears in Florence 176 among undisputed songs by Mureau. The ascriptions to Busnoys and Compere, which appear in later sources, probably reflect the fact that Mureau as a composer had disappeared from the international scene before the 1490s – his name was simply replaced by names of more famous colleagues.
The poem is congruent with other poems, which probably stem from the hand of Mureau, cf. »Grace actendant ou la mort pour tous mes« and »Tant fort me tarde ta venue«. It is a rondeau tercet layé in the not so common form with three long lines only in the refrain (with two short lines interpolated), which is combined with a rime équivoque pattern; in all, a rather literary pretentious concept, which is not often met in poems made for musical setting, and it involves the writing situation itself in its subject.
The lyrical musical setting adheres closely to the text. It is varied with a declamatory first section and a more animated second section. The tessitura is high (d-g’’), and the upper voices often go in parallel thirds or sixths, the tenor occasionally crossing above the superius. The contratenor keeps below the tenor, but takes the fifth at cadences (first and fifth lines in Florence 176). The very short 2nd line “en mes/mains escris” is integrated with the following line as a declamatory beginning, while the just as short 4th line “de larmes/des livres plains” is stretched out to a full line length by the introductory duet in parallel thirds between superius and tenor and the elaborate continuation. In this way Mureau balances his setting of the irregular verse lines. The nearly syllabic setting of the 3rd line in the tenor forces the placing of the syllable “plains” in bar 26, and thereby invites the tenor’s repeat of the last words “et mes plains”, while the outer voices slides into the fermata chord.
See further my Introduction to The Complete Works of Gilles Mureau.
PWCH July 2011, revised April 2017