D’ung aultre amer 4v ex 3v · Basiron, Philippe
Source:
*Bologna Q17 ff. 55v-56 »D’ung aultre amer« 4v ex 3v philipon (unicum) PDF · Facsimile (Q017_057)
Text: Rondeau quatrain; incipits only in Bologna Q17. For the complete rondeau text, see Ockeghem’s »D’un autre amer mon cueur s’abesseroit«.
Evaluation of the source:
Copied into the MS with some uncorrected scribal errors. Only three voices are notated, superius, tenor and a bassus part. The canon in the tenor is indicated by a fermata placed above the punctus of the first dotted note. All voices have the same text incipit, “D’ung aultre amer”. The many note repetitions in the lower voices make it clear that their text must have been different from the poem in the superius. They need a completely different sentence structure in order to fit the music. Every attempt to distribute the rondeau on the lower voices with the help of word and line repetitions like in the anonymous three-part setting found on the next opening in Bologna Q17, has failed.
The error in Superius bar 27.1 can also be found in Basiron’s four-part »D’ung aultre amer / L’homme armé« in Bologna Q17 ff. 57v-58. This probably means that the error goes back to a common exemplar.
Comments on text and music:
This song is most probable a double chanson by Basiron. It uses the upper voice of the famous rondeau quatrain »D’un autre amer mon cueur s’abesseroit« by Ockeghem in the superius, which is combined with a canon in the tenor. The lower voices do not appear to build on a popular tune; possibly the canon at the fourth in the tenors was created for a poem, which paraphrases “D’ung aultre amer”. In musical style the song is not far from the double chansons preserved in the ‘Loire Valley’ chansonniers, e.g. by Busnoys (except for, of course, being based on another courtly chanson). It is possible to perform it as a rondeau, even if its harmonic structure is heavily influenced by the restrictions put up by the canon structure.
Concerning the identification of Basiron with Philipon, see Paula Higgins, ‘Tracing the Careers of Late Medieval Composers. The Case of Philippe Basiron of Bourges’, Acta musicologica 62 (1990) pp. 1-28.
See also the article ‘The chansons of Basiron’s youth and the dating of the ‘Loire Valley’ chansonniers’.
PWCH September 2011