Guiot de Dijon

(fl 1215–25). French trouvère. He was a native of Burgundy, and he seems to have received the patronage of Erard II de Chassenay, who took part in the fifth crusade and returned to France in 1220. There are 17 chansons ascribed to Guiot, either in the Manuscrit du Roi (F-Pn fr.844) or in the Berne manuscript (CH-BEsu 389, an unreliable source). Unfortunately, only two ascriptions are corroborated by a second source. Many of the isolated ascriptions are contradicted in other chansonniers, and scholars have even questioned the authenticity of uncontradicted ascriptions to Guiot (e.g. in Chanter m'estuet pour la plus bele and Chanterai por mon corage). Guiot appears to have been technically fluent, and he successfully used a wide variety of poetic structures. His verse, however, is seldom imaginative.

Amours m'a si enseignié, Quant je plus voi felon rire, Joie ne guerredon and Quant li dous estés all survive with two melodies. There is a late setting in Franconian notation of Quant je plus voi that provides a rare example of a through-composed setting of a trouvère poem. The melodies for all strophes are cast in bar form and all end on the same final; a subtle sense of overall shape is achieved, however, through the control of tessitura. In the other instances there is no obvious means of ascertaining which (if either) of the melodies is by Guiot. Chanterai por mon corage, which is notated in the 2nd mode in the Chansonnier Cangé (F-Pn fr.846), is noteworthy for the use of a number of small variations on the opening phrase, and for the fact that while similar materials are used in all sources, they are organized into two different repetition patterns. Helas, qu'ai forfait and Quant je plus voi each end on a note other than that which serves as the tonal centre for the opening lines.

Sources, MS

WORKS

Edition: Trouvère Lyrics with Melodies: Complete Comparative Edition, ed. H. Tischler, CMM, cvii (1997)

works of uncertain authorship

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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

E. Nissen: Les chansons attribuées à Guiot de Dijon et Jocelin (Paris, 1928)

For further bibliography see Troubadours, trouvères.

THEODORE KARP