A French medieval lyric characterized by its pastoral theme. Unlike the bergerette, its form is variable, but it generally includes a refrain and follows the pattern of a dialogue between a gallant knight and a shepherdess (pastourelle) whose favours he seeks. Its origins may be popular, but classical precursors are found in Ovid, Theocritus and Virgil. Latin goliard verses (10th–12th centuries) provided prototypes for the many examples found in the courtly repertory of the troubadours and trouvères. Pastourelles were no doubt played and danced by the jongleurs; the oldest ones surviving with monophonic music are probably those of Marcabru (c1100–50), but the heyday of the musically notated form was not reached until the late 13th century. Echoed in the jeu-parti and notably in Adam de la Halle’s Jeu de Robin et de Marion, the genre survived for many centuries in both folksong and art song; there are examples with the common opening lines ‘L’autre jour par un matin’ and ‘L’autrier me chevalchoie’ in modern folksong as well as in numerous 15th- and 16th-century polyphonic settings. The tradition was essentially French and rural, but it was affected by Arcadian manners and consequently flourished in post-Renaissance Italy as the Pastorella (see also Pastoral); the Italian type in turn influenced the cultivation of the French pastourelle in 18th-century society.
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W.D. Paden: The Medieval Pastourelle (New York, 1987)
R. Freedman: ‘ Pastourelle jolie: the Chanson at the Court of Lorraine, c.1500’,JRMA, cxvi (1991), 161–200
FRANK DOBBINS