Gillebert [Guillebert] de Berneville

(fl c1250–80). French trouvère. The approximate period of Gillebert's activity can be deduced from references in his poems to prominent nobles and figures within the Arras poetic circle (Berneville is situated 7 km south-west of Arras). Among his four jeux-partis, Henri III, Duke of Brabant, and Thomas Herier appear as partners, while Charles d'Anjou, Raoul de Soissons, the Châtelain de Beaumetz, Hue d'Arras and a countess, possibly Béatrice de Brabant (sister of Henri III and widow of Guillaume de Dampierre) appear as judges. Dedicatees of chansons by Gillebert include Charles d'Anjou, Huitace de Fontaines, Béatrice d'Audenarde and Colart le Boutellier. Apparently his poetry was much appreciated: Je n'ëusse ja chanté was designated a chanson couronnée by the Arras puy, seven works (including one uncertain and one doubtful) served as models for ten later poems, and Gillebert was probably the intended subject of a flattering reference in Roussiaus le Taillier's Arras est escole de tous biens entendre (R.630). Nevertheless, few of his poems survive in a large number of sources.

Neither original nor profound, Gillebert's talent lay in facility, grace and mastery of form. Playful and parodistic elements appear to advantage in, for example, L'autrier d'Ais a la Chapele and Thumas Herier, j'ai partie. He had a definite preference for short lines and heterometric constructions. Only five of his works use decasyllables (and only three of those consistently) while no more than seven are isometric. The number of lines per strophe is usually greater than the average in works by other poets; only four of his works have eight lines or fewer per strophe. Most frequently, three different line lengths are used per strophe, but J'ai fait maint, J'ai souvent d'Amours, Je feisse chançons and Hé, Amours each have four different line lengths, and D'amours me vient has six. Refrains are used prominently in half of the poems.

Most of the melodies are simple and forthright but not imaginative. Nearly a third unfold within the interval of a 6th, from the sub-final to the 5th degree, with occasional upward embellishment by one step. In a few other melodies this basic ambitus is exceeded only in one phrase. On the other hand there are four melodies, Amours, vostre seignourie, Aucune gent, Onques mais si esbahis and Ja mès chançon, that display the range of a 10th or 11th (Ja mès chançon departs sufficiently from the norm of Gillebert's modal practice to raise doubts concerning the accuracy of the single ascription). With the exception of De moi douloureus, which is of disputed authorship, all melodies are in bar form. Normally the first and third phrases end with ouvert cadences, while the second and fourth close on the final. In seven works the second phrase is basically a variant of the first. Some of the melodies clearly lack invention: the caudas often contain varying amounts of literal or varied repetition, a tendency that is most prominent in Au besoing voit.

Partly because of the limited range of the melodies, partly because of their repetition structure, there is normally a strong insistence on the final as a main tonal centre. Nevertheless there are occasional significant differences in modal structure between different readings of the same work. Although clear evidence of mensural notation is rare (as in the Chansonnier Cangé's reading of Au besoing voit), the disposition of ligatures in more than a third of the melodies is sufficiently regular and other melodies are frequently syllabic enough for an assumption of modal rhythm to appear acceptable. Normally it is the 2nd mode that is implied, although Onques d'Amours, which is decasyllabic, seems to call for the 3rd mode. But there are some phrase constructions that proceed from simple beginnings to more elaborate cadences and the stylistic appropriateness of modal rhythm for these is more doubtful.

Sources, MS

WORKS

Edition:Trouvère Lyrics with Melodies: Complete and 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.

works of uncertain authorship

works of doubtful authorship

BIBLIOGRAPHY

H. Waitz: ‘Der kritische Text der Gedichte von Gillebert de Berneville mit Angabe sämtliche Lesearten nach den Pariser Handschriften’, Festgabe für Gustav Gröber (Halle, 1899/R), 39–118

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

F. Gennrich: ‘Die altfranzösische Liederhandschrift London, Brit. Mus. Egerton 274’, Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie, xlv (1926), 402–44

A. Långfors, A.Jeanroy and L. Brandin, eds.: Recueil général des jeux-partis français (Paris, 1926)

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

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

D. 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)

K. Fresco, ed.: Gillebert de Berneville: Les poésies (Geneva, 1988)

THEODORE KARP