Gace Brule

(b c1160; d after 1213). French trouvère. Gace’s shield was banded in red and silver (burelé de gueules et d’argent de huit pièces; see illustration), and his name is merely a description of this blazonry, altered through the transposition of two letters. The name can be traced in two documents of 1212 and 1213: the first indicates that he owned land in Groslière (département Eure-et-Loire, arrondissement Dreux) and that he had dealings with the Knights Templar; the second records a gift from the future Louis VIII. Apart from these facts, all other biographical information about Gace rests on clues provided within his poetry. It is reasonably certain that he was born in Champagne, and his home may have been Nanteuil-les-Meaux (département Seine-et-Marne, arrondissement Meaux). He appears to have spent some time at the court of Count Geoffrey II of Brittany, son of King Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. The Count of Brittany is mentioned in Li plusour ont d’amours chanté, and a Count Geoffrey is the dedicatee of A la doucour and Sans atente de gueredon; the identity of the two is probable, but not beyond question. The count was intensely interested in literature, and was the patron of Guiot de Provins and of the troubadours Bertran de Born, Gaucelm Faidit and Guiraut de Calanson. Gace, par droit me respondés, one of the earliest jeux-partis in Old French, involves the Count of Brittany and Gace, and may be by them jointly.

Gace apparently also spent time at the court of Marie de France, Countess of Brie and Champagne, and half-sister of Geoffrey II. She was active in literary circles, having been the patroness of Richart de Berbezill, Gautier d’Arras, Chrétien de Troyes and Conon de Béthune. Gace was also familiar with others in the highest ranks of the nobility, including the counts of Blois and Bar (presumably Louis and Thibaut I, respectively) and Guillaume V de Garlande, known under the sobriquet ‘Noblet’. It would appear that Gace was on fairly close terms with a number of the earliest generation of trouvères, including Blondel de Nesle, Conon de Béthune, Gautier de Dargies, Gilles de Vies Maisons, Pierre de Molins, Bouchart de Marly, Amauri de Craon, and perhaps even Hugues de Berzé and the Chastelain de Couci. Several of these took part in the crusades of the time, and there are hints in Les consirers de mon päis, Tres grant amours and Bien cuidai toute ma vie that Gace may have taken part in either the Third or Fourth Crusade, possibly in both.

Gace Brule was not only the most prolific of the earliest trouvères, but also one of the best known. En cel tens, Quant flours et glais and Bien cuidai were quoted by Jean Renart in the Roman de la rose ou de Guillaume de Dole, the first of the romans to incorporate such quotations. Cil qui d’amour, Ne me sont pas, Pour verdure and Bien cuidai were inserted into the closely contemporaneous Roman de la violette by Gerbert de Montreuil, the two tales having been written probably between 1220 and 1230. Cil qui d’amour me conseille and Li plusour appear in the Méliacin ou la Conte du cheval de fust, while Au renouveau de la doucour d’esté and Pour verdure ne pour pree are included, misattributed, in the Roman du castelain de Couci et de la dame de Fayel. Yet another work, Ire d’amour, was cited by Dante in De vulgari eloquentia, but with an erroneous attribution to Thibaut IV of Champagne. Brief quotations of works by Gace or allusions to him appear in chansons by Gontier de Soignies (R.433), Gautier de Dargies (R.708), Gilles de Vies Maisons (R.1252) and Guillaume Le Vinier (R.691 and 1859). A number of poems by Gace provided the models for later imitations; De bone amour et de loial amie in particular served as model for four other trouvère songs and for one by a German Minnesinger as well. Latin contrafacta include works by Philippe de Grève and Adam de la Bassée.

The great popularity enjoyed by Gace derives more from the fact that he satisfied admirably the conventions of his time than from particular originality of situation, imagery, or structure. The poet followed faithfully, and seldom strayed from, the paths laid by earlier troubadours. Among the many chansons attributed to Gace, only three, L’autrier estoie, Quant bone dame and Quant voi l’aube, do not begin with the rhyme scheme ABAB. Of the remainder, ten continue this pairing of rhymes still further; the rest are built in the standard pattern of two equal pedes and contrasting cauda. The continuation of the paired rhyme scheme in Quant voi la flor botoner is deceptive in that the musical structure would seem to indicate that the work was conceived in terms of pedes of four lines each. Most poems consist of either five or six strophes. Usually there are seven or eight verses per strophe, although there may be as many as 11 and as few as six. The largest single group of works is composed of isometric, decasyllabic strophes, while others intermingle decasyllables with shorter verses. Isometric heptasyllabic and octosyllabic verses are also fairly frequent. In the few more complex poems, Gace employed three or four different line lengths.

There is a corresponding lack of variety in the larger aspects of the musical structures. Among the original settings of the works certainly or very probably by Gace there is only one, Bien ait amours, that is not in bar form; it follows instead the scheme ABCDEFA'B'. On the other hand, the treatment of the cauda itself is more flexible: about two dozen melodies use new material throughout the concluding section, while the remainder display repetition patterns of different kinds. More than half of the original settings have finals on d, and there is a heavy preponderance of authentic modes. A curiosity worthy of some note is the appearance of f in three chansons having a final on d, Au renouveau, Desconfortés, plain de dolor and Ne puis faillir; c is notated in Quant l’erbe muert, while e appears in De bone amour. A few chansons use common motifs, such as the leap from d to a that appears at the opening of several phrases. The rhythmic construction of the melodies is quite variable: in F-Pn fr.846 (Chansonnier Cangé), Chanter me plaist, De bone amour, Tant m’a mené, and large portions of Ne me sont pas achoison de chanter are notated in 3rd mode; in the same source Sorpris d’amors and large parts of Quant define, Quant noif and Quant voi la flor are notated in 2nd mode. Normally, however, there are few indications of regular rhythmic patterns in the music, although there is a perceptible tendency to increase rhythmic activity towards the end of the phrase, a trait common in the works of many other trouvère composers.

See also Troubadours, trouvères.

Sources, MS

WORKS

Editions:Trouvères-Melodien, i, ed. H. van der Werf, MMMA, xi (1977)Trouvère Lyrics with Melodies: Complete Comparative Edition, ed. H. Tischler, CMM, cvii (1997)

Abbreviations: (R) etc. indicates a MS (using Schwan sigla: see Sources, ms) containing a late setting of a poem; where the siglum is italicized the poem occurs only in that MS.

doubtful works

BIBLIOGRAPHY

F. Gennrich: ‘Sieben Melodien zu mittelhochdeutschen Minneliedern’, ZMw, vii (1924), 65–98

T. Gérold: La musique au Moyen Age (Paris, 1932/R)

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

F. Gennrich: ‘ Zwei altfranzösische Lais’, Studi medievali, new ser., xv (1942), 1–68

H. Petersen Dyggve: Gace Brulé: trouvère champenois: édition des chansons et étude historique (Helsinki, 1951)

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

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

A.F. Carrara: ‘Il linguaggio poetico di Gace Brulé e la tradizione lirica occitania’, Spicilegio moderno, no.11 (1978), 90–120

I.R. Parker: ‘A propos de la tradition manuscrite des chansons de trouvères’, RdM, lxiv (1978), 181–202

D.J. Mayer-Martin: Melodic Materials in Trouvère Music: a Comparative Analysis of the Chansons of Châtelain de Coucy, Gace Brulé, Thibaut de Champagne, and Gillebert de Berneville (diss, U. of Cincinnati, 1981)

D.J. Mayer-Martin: ‘The Chansons of Gace Brulé: a Stylistic Study of the Melodies’, Literary and Historical Perspectives of the Middle Ages, ed. P. Cummins and others (Morgantown, WV, 1982), 93–103

S.N. Rosenberg and S. Danon, eds.: The Lyrics and Melodies of Gace Brulé (New York, 1985) [music ed. H. van der Werf]

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

H. Tischler: ‘Mode, Modulation, and Transposition in Medieval Songs’, JM, xiii (1995), 277–83

For further bibliography see Troubadours, trouvères.

THEODORE KARP