Audefroi le Bastart

(fl 1190–1230). French trouvère. The dedication of two chansons (Amours, de cui j'esmuef and Pour travail) to Jehan de Nesle, castellan of Bruges, suggests that they were written before 1200, when Jehan joined the Fourth Crusade with Conon de Béthune. The interpolation of the first strophe of Destrois, pensis into Gerbert de Montreuil's Roman de la violette (1225 or slightly later) indicates that Audefroi belonged to one of the earlier generations of trouvères. He was probably a native of Picardy, perhaps of the area near the Artois border. He may have been associated with the Arras puy; the Registre records the death of his wife in 1259.

Although he was the creator of ten chansons courtoises, Audefroi did not achieve the recognition that such early trouvères as Gace Brulé or the Chastelain de Couci achieved. His works are to be found chiefly in the Noailles Chansonnier and the Manuscrit du Roi (F-Pn fr.12615 and 844), and appear only rarely in as many as four sources. His six romances (Bele Emmelos; Bele Idoine; Bele Ysabiaus; En chambre a or; En l'ombre; En nouvel tens), however, are an important contribution to the genre, elaborating on the older, popular tradition of the chanson de toile. The freshness of these works, their use of monologue and dialogue, and their expansive length (9–25 strophes) are distinguishing traits. Half of them open with a series of dodecasyllabic lines on a single rhyme, closing with octosyllabic refrains. The use of the hexasyllabic line as the main or sole structural unit of one romance and two chansons courtoises is also distinctive, and Com esbahis is one of a group of only 14 works in the repertory that open with a four-syllable line.

All of the romances except En l'ombre open with the characteristic repeat of the first phrase (two of them employing a varied repeat). Half employ no further repetition, but the rest exhibit either motivic quotation or varied repetition of some kind. The chansons courtoises employ bar form, except for Pour travail, which is non-repetitive. Several melodies are characterized by a comparatively small range. Bele Emmelos – with nine strophes – spans only a 5th, including a whole step below the final; two other works remain within the compass of a 6th. Of the two melodies that range widely, one involves a probable error of clef, whereas the other is a late setting. Most melodies are at least moderately florid. None survives in mensural notation, although there are brief suggestions of regular patterns of rhythmic organization in Destrois, pensis, Fine amour and Onques ne seu chanter.

Sources, MS

WORKS

Editions: Trouvères-Melodien, ed. H. van der Werf, MMMA, xi–xii (1977–9), ii Trouvere Lyrics with Melodies: Complete Comparative Edition, ed. H. Tischler, CMM, cvii (1997–)

Abbreviations: (V) etc. indicates a MS (using Schwan sigla; see Sources, ms) containing a late setting of a poem. When the letter appears in italics, the original setting cannot be identified with certainty.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

G. Schlager: ‘Über Musik und Strophenbau der französischen Romanzen’, Forschungen zur romanischen Philologie: Festgabe für Hermann Suchier (Halle, 1900/R), 115–60

A. Cullman, ed.: Die Lieder und Romanzen des Audefroi le Bastard (Halle, 1914)

T. Gérold: La musique au moyen âge (Paris, 1932/R)

T. Gérold: Histoire de la musique des origines à la fin du XIVe siècle (Paris, 1936/R)

F. Gennrich, ed.: Troubadours, Trouvères, Minne- und Meistergesang, Mw, ii (1951; Eng. trans., 1960)

H. van der Werf: The Chansons of the Troubadours and Trouvères: a Study of the Melodies and their Relation to the Poems (Utrecht, 1972)

M. Zink: Belle: essai sur les chansons de toile (Paris, 1978) [incl. edn and trans., music ed. G. Le Vot]

For further bibliography see Troubadours, trouvères.

THEODORE KARP