Descant and Troubadour Melodies: A Problem in Terms

Descant and Troubadour Melodies: A Problem in TermsAuthor(s): Robert H. PerrinSource: Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 16, No. 3 (Autumn, 1963), pp.313-324Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the American Musicological SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/829825 .

Accessed: 17/06/2014 03:39

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

University of California Press and American Musicological Society are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,preserve and extend access to Journal of the American Musicological Society.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.253 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 03:39:31 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucal

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=amusoc

http://www.jstor.org/stable/829825?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


Descant and Troubadour Melodies: A Problem in Terms

BY ROBERT H. PERRIN

N A PROVENCAL vida or "biography"' of the troubadour Gui d'Uisel, there appears the statement that Gui's brother Peire "descanted" the

works of his brothers and his cousin. We might infer from this that descant was employed in the performance of troubadour melodies; indeed, just such an inference has been drawn by several scholars, both philolo- gists and musicologists, who also display a curious interdependence in their

interpretation of the passage in question. The vida, in its entirety, runs as follows: 2

Gui d'Uisel was a noble chitelain of Limousin, and he and his brothers and his cousin Elias were seigneurs of Uisel, which is a rich castle. His two brothers were named Ebles and Peire, and his cousin was named Elias. All four were troubadours. Gui composed good cansos and Elias good tensos, and Ebles satirical tensos, and Peire descanted all that the other three wrote.

Gui was canon of Brioude and Montferrand, and he was for a long time in love with Marguerite d'Aubusson, for whom he wrote many fine songs. But the legate of the pope made him promise that he would make no more songs, and for him he ceased composing and singing.

Theodore Gerold, in citing the vida, mentions the possibility of descant in the performance of troubadour melodies: 3

II est meme une fois question de chants ' deux voix. Le troubadour Gui d'Uisel, dit-on avait trois freres: Elie faisat de bonnes tensons, Ebles n'avait guere de talent pour la po6sie, mais Peire 6xecutait le d6chant (une partie superieure) pour les melodies que ses freres avaient composees. G6rold's interpretation of the vida is immediately suspect, owing to his

1 The vidas of ioi troubadours have been preserved, in various manuscripts of the 13th and i4th centuries. They appear at the head of collections of poems of the various troubadours in the sources.

2 Jean Boutiere and A. H. Schiitz, Biographies des troubadours (Toulouse and Paris, I950), pp. i34-35: "Gui d'Uisel si fo de Limozin, gentils castellans, et el e sei fraire e sos cosins N'Elias eron seignor d'Uisel, qu'es us rics castels. E li dui sei fraire avian nom I'uns N'Ebles e I'autre Peire, e'l cosins avia nom N'Elias. E tuich quatre eran trobador. Gui trobava bonas cansos e N'Elias bonas tensose N'Ebles las malas tensos, e'N Peire descantava tot quant li trei trobaven.

En Gui si era canorgues de Briude e de Monferran, e si entendet longa saison en Na Malgarita d'Albuison et en la comtessa de Montferan, don fetz maintas bonas cansos. Mas lo legatz del papa li fetz jurar que mais non fezes cansos. E per lui laisset lo trobar e'l cantar."

S3Theodore Gerold, Histoire de la musique dis origines a la fin du XIVe sidcle (Paris, 1936), p. 267.



314 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY

mention of Gui's three brothers. The vida is extant in nine manuscripts, and in each, mention is made of Gui's cousin Elias. Gerold's definition of descant as merely "an upper part" might also give rise to argument, but we are concerned here only with the implication of harmonization of the melodies.4 Gerold interprets the phrase "malas tensos" as meaning that Elias had no talent for poetry, but perhaps a more accurate translation of the phrase might be "satirical tensos."5 The English scholar Francis Hueffer has provided a succinct explanation of the type:

There was still another use to which the tenso was occasionally put. When two troubadours owed each other a grudge, instead of fighting it out with the sword, they frequently challenged each other to a song of combat. Like most polemical poems in the langue d'oc these personal tensos, for so they may conveniently be called, are full of the grossest slander. The wonder is that, with all this spite and rage, the poet always preserves sufficient equa- nimity to adhere to the strictest rules of the art, and even to reproduce the exact metre and rhyme scheme chosen by his adversary as the medium for his abuse.

Another scholar who has noted the vida is Ernest Hoepffner, who writes: 7

La vida ne connalt Peire que comme musicien; N'Peire descantava tot quant li trei trobaven (il chantait ou: composait? tout ce que les trois trouvaient) ... Descantar n'est pas synonyme de cantar, mais pourrait &tre aussi "composer I'accompaniment d'une chanson."

Hoepffner then refers to Boutikre and Schiitz, who state that "Descant being a type of counterpoint, descantar apparently means 'to make a musical composition.' "8

Antonio Restori, who made a study of the troubadours at the turn of the century, called attention to "a curious passage in the biography of the four brothers d'Uisel," and stated: 9

In provenzale, descantar (come mi scrive cortesemente l'amico E. Levy) ha van sensi: e tra gli altri anche quello solito di apporre una linea armonica a una linea melodica gid fissata. Mi pare che e proprio questo il senso che nelle citate parole, si presenta alla mente pel primo.

4For a more detailed discussion of the term, see William G. Waite, "Discantus, Copula, Organum," this JOURNAL V (1952), pp. 82-87; also Lincoln B. Spiess, "Discant, Descant, Diaphony, and Organum, A Problem in Definitions," this JOURNAL VIII (1955), pp. 144-147.

6 Boutikre and Schiitz, op. cit., p. 382. 6 Francis Hueffer, The Troubadours (London, I878), p. I24- 7 Ernest Hoepffner, "Les Troubadours d'Uisel," in Romance Philology, Vol. IX,

No. 2, p. 139. 8 Ibid., p. 139. 9 Antonio Restori, "Per la storia musicale dei Trovatori provenzali," Rivista

musicale italiana III (1896), p. 255.



DESCANT AND TROUBADOUR MELODIES 31 5

The verb descantar is, of course, found in more than one place in Pro-

venqal literature. It appears in the following lines of Bernart de Venta- dorn: 10

Amors, cil que us volon delir, son enoyos e deliau. e si us deschanton, me qu'en cau, no's podon melhs envilanir. be conosc a lor parladura qu'il renhon mal, contra natura.

Of these lines, Carl Appel says: 11 Deschantar ist vielleicht nicht als blosses 'verspotten' aufzufassen, sondern der Begriff des Singens mag darin noch zu erkennen sein: "wenn sie Schlechtes von Euch singen." Dann liegt hier eine Polemik gegen Genossen des Dichters vor, welche (wie etwa Marcabru) die Liebe geschmliht haben.

In a Provenqal treatise embracing grammar, rhetoric and poetics, Las leys d'amors, written in 1356, descantar appears in the section of the treatise that deals with descriptions of poetic types. In the description of the dansa, the following phrase appears: 12

Some make the dansa of "debate stanzas," and it is then called "dans;" however there is no difference in form between dans and dansa. And some make a "desdansa" or "desdans" by putting down and descanting a contrary opinion, and it should not vary from the form of the dansa.

Here descantar is employed in the sense of taking an opposing side in a tenso, or debate. Its use in this instance, together with desdansa and desdans, points up the function of the prefix des-, derived from the Latin dis-, implying separation and/or negation.x3

Perhaps the most revealing passage concerning the verb descantar is to be found in a poem by Arnaut Catalan, who flourished in the first third of the I3th century. The second stanza of this particular poem is devoted to a discussion of 'descanting,' and is as follows: 14

10 Carl Appel, Bernart von Ventadorn (Halle, 1915), p. 78. Translation: "Love, those who wish to destroy you are troublesome and faithless. And if they mock you, what does it matter? I know well their manner of speaking, which is evilly directed, against nature."

11 Ibid., p. 80. 12 A. F. Gatien-Arnoult, Monumens de la Litterature Romane (Toulouse, 1841-43),

Vol. I, p. 342: "Alqu fan dansa de coblas tensonadas laqual adonx appelan dans pero entre dans e dansa no fam lunha differensa et alqu fan desdansa e desdans per pauzar e descantar lo contrari e degus nos varia del compas de dansa.

13 This matter is considered below, p. 324. 14C. A. F. Mahn, Gedichte der Troubadours in prov. Sprache (Berlin, 1864),

Vol. 3, P. I89. Translation: "If one would sing well, he would be correct if he did not satirize another song. But I do not fear that mine is a copy, if some of the words of another song are not used. And one does not satirize if the rhyme of another song is not used, wherefore my song is secure."




Dreitz fora, qui ben chantes C'autrui chan no deschantes Mas lo mieu no tem deschan S'om noi met dels motz del chan E nuils hom be no deschanta Sin la rim en com chanta Non es faitz lo deschans Per ques ben segurs mos chans

Levy expressed some doubt as to the meaning of these lines, particularly the word deschan, and wrote: 15

Raynouard iibersetzt das erste Mal "Critique," das zweite Mal "Parodie," aber das wort muss doch beide Mal die gleiche bedeutung haben. Trifft "spottender Gegensang, gegen ein anderes Lied gerichtetes Spottgedicht" das Richtige? In his Petit Dictionnaire ProvenGal-Franfais, which is the abridgement of his larger work, Levy gives the definition of descantar as "to compose a satire, directed against another poem: to mock; to sing." 16

If we return to the troubadours d'Uisel, we will find more source material which appears to have a direct bearing upon the use of descantar as it appears in the biography of Gui d'Uisel. In addition to the biographies of the troubadours there are also anecdotes of various lengths known as razos, in which there is an attempt to give the reasons behind the composition of certain poems. In most cases, these razos are even more fanciful than the biographies themselves. In MS P (Florence, Bibl. Lau- rentiana, Plut. XLI, cod. 42) there are, in addition to a vida, three razos

concerning the troubadours d'Uisel. In one of these, we are told that Gui became enamoured of one Gidas de Mondus, and that she was a rich woman and wanted to marry. She told Gui that he could have her either as a wife or a mistress. Gui was very happy, and he asked the advice of his cousin Elias in a tenso. Elias replied that he would much rather be a husband than a lover. Gui, however, did not want to marry her, and informed her of his decision. Thereupon the lady married a knight named Renardon, and told Gui that she could not have a man as a lover who was not a knight. The razo tells us that her action prompted Gui to write the poem of which the first stanza is as follows: 17

15 Emil Levy, Provenzalisches Supplement-Wiirterbuch (Leipzig, 1894-1924), Vol. II, p. 118.

16Emil Levy, Petit Dictionnaire Provengal-Franfais (Heidelberg, 1909), p. II3. 17 The discrepancy in texts between the version of the poem of Gui d'Uisel pre-

sented here and that appearing later on with its melody, is due to the fact that this version was edited by Boutiere and Schiitz, while that with the melody appears as it does in the manuscript. The same applies to the text of the poem of Peire d'Uisel, which follows later. The version here quoted is from Boutiere and Schiitz, op. cit., p. I37: "If I must part from you, cruel lady, there is no reason why I should part from song or pleasure, which would make it seem as though I were angry over that about which I am joyous. Indeed I was angry, but now I repent. For I have taken your advice and have changed my desire, wherefore I shall sing of that about which I had wept."



DESCANT AND TROUBADOUR MELODIES 317

Si be'm partetz, mala dompna, de vos, Non es raison q'eu me parta de chan Ni de sollatz; qu faria semblan Q'eu fos iratz d'aiso don soi joios. Ben fui iratz, mas ara me repen, Car emprez ai del vostr'ensegnamen Com posca leu camjar ma voluntat; Qer q'era chan d'aiso don ai plorat.

In another razo that appears in the same manuscript, there appears a coblas8 that Gui's brother Peire wrote, in which he criticizes Gui's ac- tions in the matter. Here is Peire's cobla: 19

Fraire en Gui, be'm platz vostra cansos, Qe dissetz mal lei qe lauzes antan; Se'n dissetz mal, ella no'i a nul dan, Che cavalier deu meil amar qe vos: Et s'ella'us fe conven nesciamen, Ella'us a frait aconsilladamen. Ben deu esser per aiso perdonat, Pois ella se conoc de sa foldat.

En Gui d'Usel, un cavalier valen Valetz vos be a tot mestier plazen; Mas de clerge no's es acostumat Qe dompna l'am', anz es totz temps blasmat.

It will be noted that Peire's cobla is an exact copy of Gui's poem, as regards stanza structure and rhyme scheme. The melody for Gui's poem survives in MS G (Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana MS R 71, fol. 58r). There is no melody extant for Peire's poem, but if we set its text to the melody for Gui's poem, it is obvious that the same melody will suffice for both. Thus we have here a perfect example of descant as set forth in the above-noted stanza of Arnaut Catalan.

In former years, students of Provengal poetry tended to overemphasize the originality of individual troubadours in strophic construction. This may be illustrated in a statement by Gaston Paris: 20

La forme de chaque strophe est inventee " nouveau pour chaque piece par le poete, et constitue pour celui qui l'a invent6e une propri6te qu'on ne peut lui enlever sans plagiat .... On a cependant des pieces qui reproduisent la

is The cobla might be called a "reduced tenso." Its name is the Provengal word for "stanza," and its length is usually one or two stanzas. It is usually an answer to another poem or to a question posed to its author.

19Boutidre and Schiitz, op. cit., p. I38: "Brother Gui, I am well pleased with your song, which criticizes the one you had formerly praised. Although you speak ill of her, she cannot be blamed if she loves a knight more than you. And if she made a foolish agreement with you, she has now reconsidered. Indeed she should be par- doned, since she has realized her folly.

Gui d'Uisel, as a worthy gentleman, you are well versed in courtly manners; but it is not proper for a cleric to love a lady, for such a one is always criticized."

20 Gaston Paris, La Litterature francaise du Moyen Age (Paris, 189o), p. 181.




Ex. i

ExI.i

Gui: Se bem par - tez ma - la don - na de vos Peire: Frai - re en gui bern platz vos - tra can - sos

Non es rai- zon qeu mi par - ta de chan Ni Qe dis - setz mal lei qe lau - zes an - tan Sen

'• • m, .n - • • -?-,-

de so - laz qeu fa - ra - i sen - blan-- Qeu dis - setz mal el - la noi a nul dan Che

fos i - raz dail- zo don sui ioi - os Ben fui ca - va - lier deu meil a- mar qe-. vos Et sel-

i - raz mas a - ra me re - pen Car en - pres la us fe co- ven nes - cia - men E - la'us a

ai del vostre en - seg - na - men Com puos - ca leu frait a - con- sil - la - da - men Ben deu es ser

can - iar ma vo - lun - tat Per qe - ras

per._ ai - so per - do - nat Pois el - la--

chan dai - zo-- don ai plo - - - rat. se con - oc-

de__ sa_ fol - - - dat.

structure et meme les rimes d'autres pieces, mais alors c'est une imitation voulue et d'ordinaire declaree....

The extent to which such imitation was practiced by the troubadours has been shown in an article by Frank M. Chambers, entitled "Imitation of Form in the Old Provengal Lyric." Chambers points out the desire for



DESCANT AND TROUBADOUR MELODIES 3I9

originality among the troubadours, but he also shows that imitation was very prevalent among them: 21

But among these original. .. poets, there developed also a diametrically op- posite practice. In many of their compositions, they deliberately copied the form and borrowed the tune of another poem. And they did this so system- atically that it became a recognized literary practice.... Chambers states that "at least 68 of the extant melodies have texts which served as models for other poems."22 It is obvious, then, that these melodies might serve the texts of the poems that are copies of their original texts. There are also cases in which we find one melody used for two texts, either in the same manuscript or in different manuscripts. In MS R (Paris, Bibliothique nationale 22543, fol. 72 , there is a poem by Peire Cardenal, "Ar mi posc eu lauzar d'amor" that has the same melody as a poem by Guiraut de Bornelh (same source, fol. 82%), "No posc sofrir qu'a la dolor." The melodies and texts of both poems appear in Examples 2 and 3.

Another poem by Peire Cardenal, "Rics hom que greu ditz vertat e leu men" (Paris, Bibl. nat. 22543, fol. 72r), is set to the same melody as a poem by Raimon Jordan, "Vas vos soplei, domna, premieramen" (Paris, Bibl. nat. 844, fol. i94r). The similarity between these two melodies is not as marked as that evinced by the two previous examples, but the similarity was seen by Jean Beck, who wrote: 23

Peire Cardenal a emprunt6 le schema et la m6lodie de la chanson, Vers vos souple, dosne, premierement pour son sirventois Rics hom que greu ditz vertat e leu men. Peire depouille la musique des notes pliqudes pour lui donner la forme d'un r&citatif, mais les deux melodies sont essentiellement les memes.

Chambers also mentions the enueg24 of the Monk of Montadon, "Be'm enoia s'o auzes dire" (Bibl. nat. 22543, fol. 40o'), which has the same melody as Bertran de Born's "Rassa tan creis e mont'e poja" (same source, fol. 6'). Chambers is not familiar with the melody to which the poems are set, but he is correct in his conclusion concerning the setting of the texts: 25

Both poems have lines of eight syllables, and the schemes are similar. But the enueg has fewer lines in a stanza than Bertran's sirventes, the schemes are respectively, aaaabbbbb and aaaaaabbbbb. The rhyme sounds also are different. Fortunately, the music for both pieces has been preserved, and J. B. Beck (Die Melodien der Troubadours, p. 54) says that they both have the same

21 Frank M. Chambers, "Imitation of Form in the Old Provencal Lyric," Romance Philology, Vol. VI, no. 2, p. 104.

22 Ibid., p. io6. 23 Jean Beck, Le Manuscrit du Roi (Philadelphia, 1938), Vol. II, p. 1x3. 24 The enueg is a form given to the expression of various matters which annoy the poet. 25 Chambers, op. cit., p. 117.




Exx. 2 and 3 Ex. 2

Peire Cardenal

Ar mi pose eu lau - zar da - mor Que nom tol

man - jar ni dor - mir Ni'm sent frei - du - ra ni

ca - lor Ni no'n ba - dalh ni no'n sos - pir Ni'n

vauc ni noit a - ra - tge Ni'n sui con - ques ni'n

" A sui co - chatz Ni'n sui do - lens ni'n sui i - ratz

Ni non 1o - gui mes - sa - tge Ni'n sui tra - hitz ni

en - ga - natz Que par- titz men sui ab mos datz Ex. 3 Guiraut de Bornelh

Non puesc so - frir ca la do - lor De ma den la

len - gua non vir El chant a la no - ve - la flor

Ak 0~ Lay cant vey los ra - mels flo - rir Els chans fors pel

bos - cat - - ge De Io au - zeletz ena - mo - ratz




E si tot mes- tau a - pes - satz Ni pres de

mal vra - ti - - e Cant vei cams e ver - giers

ee - e pratz lem re- no- vel e ma so - latz

tune. He does not explain the discrepancy in length; presumably the Monk shortened Bertran's tune by omitting the musical phrases that accompanied two of the lines riming in a.

The two melodies as they appear in the manuscript are shown in Examples 4 and 5-

Exx. 4 and 5 Ex. 4 Monk of Montadon

Fort m'e - noi - a so au - zes di - re Par - liers

e, quant es a - vols. ser - vi - re Et hom que trop

vol. autr' au - ci - re Me- noi - a e ce - vals

que ti - re Et e - noi - am si deus ma - ut

Jo - ves hornm quan. trop port es - cut Que ne - gun

colp noi - a a - gut Ca - pe - la e mor - gue

bar - but E lau - zen- gier , bec es - mo - lut.-.




Ex. 5 Bertran de Born

Ras- sa tan. derts e mont e pue - ia De leys ques

de totz e laus bue - ia Son pretz ca - las mel - hors

en - ve - ia Cu- na non a po - der quel nue - ia

Quel ve - zer de sa beu- tat lue - ia A sos obs

.jtai • m m --

les pros cuy que cue - ia El pus co - noy - sent el

rr- -- . -

rmel - hor Man - te - nent a - des sa lau - zor E la

tJ

te - n per be lau - zor Mas ilh sap far ta

en - neu ia o - nor Que no vol mas un pre - ia - dor.

We will note that the melodic pattern for the Monk's poem is abcdefghi, while that for Bertran's poem is abcdcdefghi. Also, while various inter- vallic differences occur between the two melodies, there can be no. question that they are essentially the same. Further proof of this exists in a rubric that appears with the melody set to the Monk of Montadon's

poem. We find there the phrase, "el so de la rassa," ("to the melody of Rassa"). Such rubrics referring to the use of an existing melody are

infrequent, but they are to be found in both troubadour and trouvere

manuscripts. In recent years, scholars have given a prominent place in their studies

to the practice of imitation among the troubadours. In addition to the




above-mentioned article by Chambers, there is a work by Istvan Frank, Ripertoire mitrique de la podsie des troubadours. Frank writes: 26

A ce sujet, nous noterons. . que seules les chansons etaient tenues d'avoir, selon la coutume des troubadours, une melodie inidite, c'est

' dire une formule

strophique originale; les autres genres, notamment les sirventes et les tensons, suivaient d'habitude une melodie en vogue.

Frank's view is amply substantiated in this work, in which are to be found outlines of the stanza structures and rhyme schemes of all extant troubadour poems. When we consult Frank's work we find that, concerning the

example we cited of the poem by Peire Cardenal which imitates the poem of Raimon Jordan, there are no less than six other poems that have the same stanza structure and rhyme scheme. Likewise, in the case of the

poem of Guiraut de Bornelh which is imitated by Peire Cardenal, there are eleven poems that share the same stanza structure and rhyme scheme.

Friedrich Gennrich, in his Grundriss einer Formenlehre des mittelal- terlichen Liedes, published in 1932, called attention in several places to the

practice of setting different texts to the same melody, or contrafacta.27 In recent years, Gennrich has produced a veritable avalanche of material on medieval music. In 1958 he published transcriptions of the entire body of troubadour melodies. In 1960 he produced a companion volume, in which he analyzed the structure of each of the melodies, giving in addition the sources from which he believed certain melodies or poems to have been derived.28 We can, then, with the volumes of Frank and Genn- rich before us, be made aware of the extent to which the troubadours imitated one another's works.

If we may now return to Peire d'Uisel, with whom this paper began, we will bring it to a conclusion with a consideration of his role in the quadrumvirate of troubadours d'Uisel. The cobla of Peire d'Uisel we cited earlier is the only extant work of this troubadour. This fact, together with the statement in the vida to the effect that Peire descanted what his brothers and cousin had written, is no doubt the reason why some have considered Peire only as a musician. We have seen, however, how his poem conforms to the requirements for "descanting" as set forth in the poem of Amaut Catalan. Another curious circumstance is to be found in an examination of the extant output of the troubadours d'Uisel. The poems of Gui d'Uisel that have come down to us include 8 cansos, 8 tensos or partimens, 3 pastorelas, and 2 coblas. Of these, only the cansos are not dialogue-type poems. Ebles d'Uisel has left us one tenso and two

26 Istvan Frank, Ripertoire me'trique de la podsie des troubadours (2 Vols., Paris, I953-57), Vol. I, p. xxxii.

27 For an explanation of this practice, see Gustave Reese, Music in the Middle Ages (New York, I940), p. 218.

28Friedrich Gennrich, Der Musikalische Nachlass der Troubadours, Kritiscbe Ausgabe der Melodien (Darmstadt, I958). Ibid., Kommentar (Darmstadt, I96o).




coblas. Of the poems of Elias d'Uisel there remain four tensos or partimens and two coblas. In such dialogue-type poems, both parties customarily used the same stanza structure and rhyme scheme. It may be that the

only poem Peire wrote was the one cobla we have. It is also possible that Peire was primarily a musician. We will remember that Emil Levy gave one definition of the verb descantar as "to sing." This definition is given credence in a version of the biography that appears in Bibl. nat.

22543, fol. 'r. In this particular version appears the phrase "En Peire cantava tot can els trobaven" (Peire sang all that they wrote). Here, descantava is replaced by cantava, which is the third person singular im-

perfect of the verb cantar, "to sing." This, of course, implies that Peire

merely sang what the other three wrote. Further support is given to this view in a statement by Edward L. Adams: 29

DIS-, the source of the Provengal DES-, indicates in Latin separation and also negation, but there are some words in which the prefix conveys no such force . . . this lack of force may have been due to the very meaning of the simple verb, which made impossible for the prefix any force other than intensive.... This intensive force, however, was not strong enough to show any decided difference in meaning between the simple and the compound verbs.

Adams gives the meaning of descantar as "make fun of; make a song ridiculing a person." He was undoubtedly influenced by Emil Levy in his choice of this particular definition.

Francis Hueffer, quoted earlier, has given a translation of our selected

passage in the biography of Gui d'Uisel, in which he foreshadows one of the definitions of descantar given by Emil Levy. Unfortunately, he does not give the reason for his interpretation. He writes: 30

"They were all four poets," the old biography says, "and made Excellent songs. Elias (the cousin) wrote good tensos; Eble the wicked ones; and Peter sang what the other three had invented."

I have found no instance in Provenqal literature in which descantar

might be interpreted as referring to descant in the musical sense. I would not presume to say that it is not used in this sense somewhere in Provengal literature; I will say, however, that while descant may certainly have been employed in the performance of troubadour melodies, proof of such

practice is not, it would seem, to be found in the biography of Gui d'Uisel. It appears to me that "descanting" as referred to in our biography is the deliberate imitation practiced by the later troubadours, which recent

scholarship has shown to have been so prevalent.

Brooklyn, N. Y.

29 Adams, op. cit., pp. 425-26. 30 Hueffer, op. cit., p. 84.



Documents

Descant and Troubadour Melodies: A Problem in Terms