Blondel de Nesle

(fl 1180–1200). French trouvère. Although the legend recounting the part he supposedly played in freeing King Richard the Lionheart from captivity is traceable to manuscripts of the 13th century, it is accurate only with respect to period. The trouvère's identity is a matter for speculation. Because the poet is never named Messire or Monseignor in the manuscripts, he would seem to be at most a younger son of lesser nobility, and perhaps a commoner. On the other hand, it has also been suggested that he is identifiable with the powerful Jehan II de Nesle. Quant je plus sui and Tant ai en chantant are dedicated to Conon de Béthune, and therefore antedate 1200, while A l’entree de la saison is sent to Gace Brulé, another of the oldest generation of trouvères. On this basis, Blondel's date of birth may be estimated c1155–60. Features of dialect in the poems indicate that he was a native of Picardy, his home most likely being the town of Nesle in the département of Somme, lying between Péronne and Saint Quentin.

Works by Blondel are among the most widespread within the trouvère repertory, several surviving in ten or more manuscripts. Quant je plus sui, the model for four other chansons, is among the famous works quoted by Gilles de Vies Maisons (in R.1252 – other quotations being drawn from poems by Gace Brulé and the Chastelain de Couci). Li plus se plaint provided the model for three other chansons, and four or five other poems by Blondel were the subject of later imitations. Gautier de Coincy based four of his Miracles de Nostre Dame on Amours dont sui espris, Bien doit chanter, Li plus se plaint and Quant je plus sui. Bien doit chanter apparently also provided the basis for Ich hôrte wol ein merlîkin singen by Ulrich von Gutenberg. Blondel's name is coupled with those of the Chastelain de Couci and Tristan by Eustache Le Peintre de Reims, who (in R.2116) compared himself with these ideal representatives of the tradition of courtly love.

Blondel displayed a strong preference for isometric strophes, although a few of his poems have three different line lengths to the strophe, while one has five. In addition to the common heptasyllabic, octosyllabic and decasyllabic verses, there are others that are rare. Puis qu'Amours provides the only example of an isometric nonosyllabic poem in the repertory. Amours dont sui espris and Ma joie me semont comprise isometric hexasyllabic strophes, as do De la plus douce amour, whose authenticity has been questioned, and R.1163, a work of contested authorship that is attributed to Blondel only in an unreliable manuscript. Amours dont sui espris shares its form and melody with Purgator criminum and Procurans odium, while Ma joie me semont is similarly related to Ver pacis aperit, written for the coronation of Philippe II Auguste in 1179. Because the latter date is suspiciously early for Blondel, and because isometric hexasyllables constitute less than 3% of the trouvère repertory, these examples probably demonstrate the influence of conductus on secular song. (The temporal priority of Ver pacis has also been claimed on the basis of a supposed quotation from the antiphon Unxerunt Salomonem.)

Most of the original melodies to Blondel's poems are cast in bar form, although Tant ain et veul et desir is non-repetitive, and Puis qu'Amours has the structure ABCDBEF. More often than not there is some repetition, strict or varied, within the cauda. There is considerable variety to the modal constructions, and several of these vary according to different manuscript readings. Two readings of J'ain par costume place the final at an extraordinarily high point within the ambitus. The late setting of Li plus se plaint in F-Pn fr.24406 is unusual in that the melody begins an 11th above the final; the late setting of Se savoient mon tourment in F-Pa 5198 has an even more extended range of a 12th. Most melodies display a fairly strong sense of tonal centre, but Coment que d'amours, De mon desir and Tant ai en chantant raise the expectation of a final at the lower part of the ambitus, while ending at or above the centre. Portions of Amours dont sui espris are notated in 2nd mode in F-Pn fr.846, and one suspects that the rhythmic solution valid for Ver pacis is applicable also to Ma joie me semont. A late setting of De la plus douce amour in F-Pn fr.844 is in 1st mode with upbeat, the notation being fully mensural. Elements of regularity in the construction of other chansons are few, and these vary from the fairly simple Se savoient mon tourment to the much more florid Cuers desirous apaie.

Sources, MS

WORKS

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

see Sources, ms) in which a late setting of a poem occurs

doubtful works

BIBLIOGRAPHY

L. Wiese: Die Lieder des Blondel de Nesle: kritische Ausgabe nach allen Handschriften (Dresden, 1904)

F. Gennrich, ed.: Die altfranzösische Rotrouenge (Halle, 1925)

F. Gennrich: Grundriss einer Formenlehre des mittelalterlichen Liedes als Grundlage einer musikalischen – Formenlehre des Liedes (Halle, 1932/R)

U. Aarburg: Die Melodien Blondels de Nesle (diss., U. of Frankfurt, 1946)

R. Dragonetti: La technique poétique des trouvères dans la chanson courtoise: contribution à l'étude de la rhétorique mediévale (Bruges, 1960/R)

F. Gennrich, ed.: Die Kontrafaktur im Liedschaffen des Mittelalters, SMM, xii (1965)

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

H. Tischler: ‘Metrum und Rhythmus in der französischen Poesie und Musik des 13. Jahrhunderts’, AMw, xxxii (1975), 72–80

H. Tischler: ‘Trouvère Songs: the Evolution of their Poetic and Musical Styles’, MQ, lxxii (1986), 329–40

Y.G. Lepage, ed.: L'oeuvre lyrique de Blondel de Nesle (Paris, 1994)

For further bibliography see Troubadours, trouvères.

THEODORE KARP