Moniot d'Arras

(fl 1213–39). French trouvère. (‘Moniot’ is an Old French diminutive for ‘monk’.) According to Amours, s'onques en ma vie his given name was Perron, but the authorship of this work has been questioned. The Moine d'Arras who appears as respondent to Guillaume Le Vinier in the jeu-parti Moines, ne vous anuit pas is assumed to be the same; Moniot was probably at one time associated with the abbey of St Vaast in Arras. Poems by him are apparently addressed to Robert III, Count of Dreux and to his brother, Jehan de Braine, to Gérard III, Seigneur of Picquigny and Vidame of Amiens, and to Alphonse of Portugal, Count of Boulogne. Two quotations from Moniot's poems appear in the Roman de la violette, written by Gerbert de Montreuil in about 1230. The charming pastourelle Ce fut en mai (whose attribution has also been questioned) was used by Hindemith in his Nobilissima visione.

Moniot wrote in a variety of genres and forms. In addition to the pastourelle and jeu-parti and the customary chansons courtoises he wrote two religious poems, both based on earlier models and their melodies, both apparently youthful works. The two initial and two concluding lines of the first strophes of Bone amour and Li dous termines form the opening and close of two motets entés (Motets 593 and 668 in Ludwig and other standard catalogues). The authorship of Motet 528c is credited to Moniot in the Vatican chansonnier (I-Rvat Reg.lat.1490), where it appears in monophonic form. While six chansons employ bar form, Dame, ains que je voise and Quant voi les prés use the repeat of the initial phrase that is characteristic of many rotrouenges. Bone amour is non-repetitive. A ma dame, Chançonete a un chant and Nus n'a joie begin in this fashion, but they each repeat one or more early phrases towards the end of the melody. Amours n'est pas and Amours, s'onques en ma vie, which share the same poetic form and melody, display the unusual structure ABA¹A²ACDEFG. The same melody appears also as one of three settings of Qui bien aime, a poem of different form requiring the merging of the third and fourth phrases into one.

A comparatively large amount of information regarding rhythmic structure is available for Moniot's melodies. The motet quotations of Li dous termines and Bone amour indicate the 1st and 2nd modes respectively, while the 1st mode is indicated for large portions of Ne me dones pas talent in the Chansonnier Cangé (F-Pn fr.846). Passages exhibiting regular disposition of ligatures occur in A l'entrant de la saison, Amours n'est pas, Chançonete a un chant, Dame, ains que je voise and Quant voi les prés, while the modal transcription proposed by Gennrich for Ce fut en mai seems quite apt. Bone amour apparently enjoyed extraordinary popularity, since it served as the model for four later works. Chançonete a un chant and Li dous termines were each imitated in one later poem and Ne me dones pas talent in two.

Sources, MS

WORKS

Editions: Trouvères-Melodien, ed. H. van der Werf, MMMA, xi–xii, ii (1979)Trouvère Lyrics with Melodies: Complete Comparative Edition, ed. H. Tischler, CMM, cvii (1997)

(R) etc. indicates a MS (using Schwan sigla: see Sources, ms) containing a late setting of a poem

doubtful works

works of probable joint authorship

BIBLIOGRAPHY

F. Ludwig: Repertorium organorum recentioris et motetorum vetustissimi stili, i/1 (Halle, 1910/R)

H. Petersen Dyggve: ‘Moniot d'Arras et Moniot de Paris’, Mémoires de la Société néo-philologique de Helsinki, xiii (1938), 3–252

For further bibliography see Troubadours, trouvères.

THEODORE KARP