Jehan de Lescurel

Score of A vous douce debonnaire by Jehan

Jehan de Lescurel (fl. early 14th century; also Jehannot de l'Escurel) was a composer-poet of late medieval music. Jehan's extensive surviving oeuvre is an important and rare examples of the formes fixes before the time of Guillaume de Machaut; it consists of 34 works: 20 ballades, 12 rondeaus and two long narrative poems, diz entés. All but one of his compositions is monophonic, representing the end of the trouvère tradition and the beginning of the polyphonic ars nova style centered around the formes fixes.

Identity and career

Jehan de Lescurel is also known as Jehannot de l'Escurel. Very little is known of his life; the transmission, notation and circumstances of his works suggest he was active in the early 14th century, and his compositions's textual references indicate he was active in Paris. It has also be inferred that Jehan was the son of a merchant and probably received his musical training at the Notre Dame de Paris. For many years, scholars assumed he was the 'Jehan de Lescurel' who had been hung on 23 May 1304 along with three other young clerics of Notre Dame, including Oudinet Pisdoé, for "debauchery" and "crimes against women". Recent research has shown that "Jehan de Lescurel" was a rather common name in early fourteenth-century Paris, and there is no other clear link between the composer and cleric.

Music

He was a transitional figure from the trouvère period to the ars nova. His lyrical style unites him with the composers of the later period. The sole source for his music is the same manuscript (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS français 146) which preserves the interpolated version of the Roman de Fauvel.

Most of his works are monophonic songs, in the style of the trouvères; only one of his 34 works is polyphonic, although he wrote other works which have not survived. The songs are virelais, ballades, rondeaux; they include word painting more in the style of the later 14th-century composers than those of the 13th century; they are simple, charming, and debauchery is not a prominent theme. Jehan also has two extant diz entés, length poems with music set only to the refrain text.

Works

List of compositions by Jehan de Lescurel

W	Title	Genre
W 1	A vous, douce debonnaire	Rondeau
W 2	Amours aus vrais cuers commune	Ballade
W 3	A vous, douce debonnaire	Rondeau
W 4	Amours cent mille merciz	Ballade
W 5	Amour, voules vous acorder	Ballade
W 6	Amours que vous ai meffait	Ballade
W 7	Abundance de felonnie	Ballade
W 8	Amours trop vous doi cherir	Ballade
W 9	Bietris est mes delis	Rondeau
W 10	Bien se lace	Ballade
W 11	Bontes, sen, valours et pris	Ballade
W 12	Bonne amour me rent	Ballade
W 13	Bonnement m'agree	Rondeau
W 14	Belle et noble a bonne estrainne	Rondeau
W 15	Bien se peust apercevoir	Ballade
W 16	Belle com loiaus amans	Ballade
W 17	Comment que pour l'eloignance	Ballade
W 18	De gracieuse dame amer	Rondeau
W 19	De la grant joie d'amours	Ballade
W 20	Douce Amour confortez moi	Ballade
W 21	Dame vo regars m'ont mis en la voie	Ballade
W 22	D'amour qui n'est bien celee	Ballade
W 23	Dame gracieuse et bele	Ballade
W 24	Dame, par vo dous regart	Rondeau
W 25	Douce dame je vous pri	Rondeau
W 26	Douce desirree	Rondeau
W 27	Dame, si vous vient a gre	Rondeau
W 28	Diex quant la verrai	Rondeau
W 29	Dis tans plus qu'il ne faudroit flours	Ballade
W 30	Fi, mesdisans esragie	Ballade
W 31	Guilleurs me font mout souvent	Rondeau
W 32	Gracieusette	Ballade
W 33	Gracieuse, faitisse et sage	Diz entez
W 34	Gracieus temps est quant rosier	Diz entez
No other works by Jehan survive

Editions

• Wilkins, Nigel [in French] (1966). The Works of Jehan de l'Escurel. Corpus mensurabilis musicae. Vol. 30. Cambridge, Massachusetts: American Institute of Musicology. OCLC 1123637753.

References

Sources

Books

• Hoppin, Richard (1978). Medieval Music. A Norton Introduction To Music History (1st ed.). New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-09090-1.
• Randel, Don Michael, ed. (1996). The Harvard Dictionary of Music (4th ed.). Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-37299-3.
• Regalado, Nancy Freeman (2008). "The Songs of Jehannot de Lescurel in Paris, BnF, MS fr. 146: Love Lyrics, Moral Wisdom and the Material Book". In Dixon, Rebecca; Sinclair, Finn E. (eds.). Poetry, Knowledge and Community in Late Medieval France. Suffolk: D.S. Brewer. ISBN 978-1-84384-177-7.
• Rouse, Mary; Rouse, Richard (1998). "Jehannot de Lescurel". In Bent, Margaret; Wathey, Andrew (eds.). Fauvel Studies: Allegory, Chronicle, Music, and Image in Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS français 146. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. 525–27. ISBN 978-0-19-816579-8.
• Saltzstein, Jennifer, ed. (2019). Musical Culture in the World of Adam de la Halle. Brill's Companions to the Musical Culture of Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Vol. 3. Leiden: Brill Publishers. ISBN 978-90-04-37948-0.

Journals and articles

• Arlt, Wulf [in German] (2001). "Jehannot de l'Escurel". Grove Music Online. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.14242. ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
• Mullally, Robert (1994). "The Ballade before Machaut". Zeitschrift für französische Sprache und Literatur. 104 (H. 3): 252–268. JSTOR 40618305.

Online

• Fallows, David (2016). "The Love Songs of Jehan de Lescurel". Gramophone.

Further reading

• Mediabook "Songé .i. Songe" (Jehan de Lescurel. Songs and one of the Dits Entés: "Gracïeux temps") by theEnsemble Syntagma, dir. A.Danilevski, essay by E. Danilevski EAN 3003651420002

External links

• List of compositions by Jehan de Lescurel at the Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music
• Free scores by Jehan de Lescurel in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
• Works by Jehan de Lescurel in the Medieval Music Database from La Trobe University