- I am grateful to Bonnie Blackburn, John Milsom and Bernadette Nelson for generously commenting on earlier drafts of this text.
- As in so many cases involving Josquin's name, this attribution should perhaps be treated with some caution: it occurs in only one of the many vocal sources of the piece, and this source—Susato's L'unxiesme livre contenant vingt et neuf chansons amoureuses a quatre, 154929—is late. The piece bears the name ‘J. Lemaire’ in Attaingnant's Chansons musicales a quatre parties of 1583 (f. 11v); Martin picker and Daniel Heartz have suggested that this might be a reference not to the composer but to the author of the text, Jean Lemaire de Beiges (Martin Picker, The Chanson Albums of Marguerite of Austria: MSS. 228 and 11239 of the Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique, Brussels: A Critical Edition and Commentary, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1965, 17, and Daniel Heartz, pierre Attaingnant, Royal Printer of Music, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1969, 97), although Brian Jeffrey has expressed doubt concerning this attribution, pointing out that the poem is not associated with Jean Lemaire in any literary source (‘The Literary Texts of Josquin's Chansons’, Josquin des Prez: Proceedings of the International Josquin Festival-Conference, ed. Edward Lowinsky, London, New York and Toronto, 1976, 401–20 (p. 416)). It is perhaps worth recalling, however, that Josquin did set one ‘regretz’ text by Lemaire, Plus nulz regretz. Picker defends the attribution of Mille regretz to Josquin, on stylistic grounds, in ‘Josquin and Jean Lemaire: Four Chansons Re-examined’, Essays Presented to Myron P. dimore, ed. Sergio Bertelli and Gloria Ramakus (Florence, 1978), 447–56 (p. 452).
- Mille regretz is placed first in the group of intabulations of French chansons in book 3. Narváez introduces it as follows (f. 40): ‘Comiençan las canciones Francesas y esta primera es una que llaman la cancion del Emperador del quarto tono de Jusquin’ (‘Here begin the French chansons, and this first chanson is one which they call the emperor's song, [and is] in the fourth tone, by Josquin’).
- The 1538 publication is dedicated to Francisco de los Cobos, secretary to Charles V. In 1548 Narváez was one of the musicians in the service of Charles's son, Prince Philip (later Philip II), being appointed to teach the choirboys.
- An edition by Higinio Anglés can be found in Cristóbal de Morales: Opera omnia, Monumentos de la música españla, 11 (Barcelona, 1952), i, 238–73.
- Christophori Moralis Hyspalensis missarum liber primus (Rome: Valerio and Luigi Dorico, 1544).
- On the other hand, Hermann Finck's declaration that Gombert was Joaquin's pupil might, if true, supply more than adequate reason for Gombert's tribute. An edition of Gombert's Mille regretz's in Nicolai Gombert opera omnia, ed. Joseph Schmidt-Görg, Corpus mensurabilis musicae, 6 (n.p., 1975), xi, 160-S.
- The number of surviving sources of the piece, including intabulations, is quite substantial but by no means exceptional. For a list, see Sydney Robinson Charles, Josquin des Prez: A Guide to Research (New York, 1983), 43.
- On the principal groups of chanson reworkings in the fifteenth century, see Honey Meconi, Art-Song Reworkings: An Overview’, Journal of the Royal Musical Association, 119 (1994), 1–42.
- This work is misattributed to Crecquillon in one printed source (Missae cum quinque tum sex vocum, 1568'), leading to erroneous references to a Crecquillon Missa Mille regretz, most recently by Martin Picker in ‘Josquin and Jean Lemaire’, 451.
- The piece opens with an imitative development of the initial superius motive of Mille regretz. See A. Cutler Silliman, ‘“Responce” and “Replique” in Chansons Published by Tylman Susato, 1543–1550’, Revue belge de musicologie, 16 (1963), 30–42 (pp. 39–40 and Examples 15–16).
- The avoidance of the term imitation—whose application to Renaissance music is the subject of current debate—is deliberate: this article does not seek to address the larger issues surrounding musical borrowing in thc-Renaissance and the associated terminology, but focuses instead on a single group of musical resemblances. For a recent discussion of some of these wider issues, see Honey Meconi, ‘Does Imitatio Exist?’, The Journal of Musicology, 12 (1994), 152–78.
- Such a borderline case is that of Johannes Lupi's Vous scavez bien, which—as Bonnie Blackburn has pointed out—‘begins with a theme very similar to one in Josquin's Mille regretz’ (i.e. the opening of that chanson; see ‘Johannes Lupi’, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, London, 1980, xi, 334–5 (p. 335)). Dr Blackburn has also noted (in correspondence with the author) that the setting of Vous scavez bien by Cipriano de Rore is clcarly related to Lupi's in its opening section. The resemblance between these openings and that of Mille regretz may not have been deliberate, and certainly there is no significant parallel between the poems which would have led to such a conscious allusion. Modern editions may be found in Johannes Lupi: Opera omnia, ed. Bonnie J. Blackburn, Corpus mensurabilis musicae, 84 (Neuhausen-Stuttgart, 1989), iii, 143–5, and Cipriano de Rore: Opera omnia, ed. Bernhard Meier, Corpus mensurabilis musicae, 14 (Neuhausen-Stuttgart, 1977), viii, 144–5.
- Howard Mayer Brown, ‘Emulation, Competition, and Homage: Imitation and Theories of Imitation in the Renaissance’, Journal of the American Musicological Society, 35 (1982), 1–48 (p. 14).
- See Otto Gombosi, ‘Ghizeghem und Compère’, Studien zur Musikgeschichte: Festschrift Guido Adler (Vienna, 1930), 100–6, Howard Mayer Brown, Music in the French Secular Theater, 1400–1550 (Cambridge, Mass., 1963), 187, and Irena Cholij, ‘Borrowed Music: “Allez regrets” and the Use of Pre-existent Material’, Companion to Medieval and Renaissance Music, ed. Tess Knighton and David Fallows (London, 1992), 165–76 (pp. 168–71).
- The attribution to Hayne is found, for example, in Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS f. fr. 2245, and that to Agricola in Brussels, Koninklijke Bibliothcek Albert 1, MS 11239. The consensus of opinion is that Hayne is most likely to be the composer. Modern editions may be found in Alexandri Agricola opera omnia, ed. Edward R. Lerner, Corpus mensurabilis musicae, 22 (n.p., 1972), v, 120–1, and in Picker, The Chanson Albums, 422–4.
- The parallel with Mille regretz is all the more striking because Les grans regrets is not Phrygian.
- The dactylic rhythm of motive A is also found here, though this is too commonplace an opening device to be counted a ‘significant relationship’.
- An edition of the whole piece is in Picker, The Chanson Albums, 347–9.
- For an edition of the whole work, see Schmidt-Görg, Nicolai Gombert opera omnia, xi, 139–42.
- Ibid., 142–5.
- Ibid., 230–40.
- Gombert even engineers one entry during the opening section of the piece which employs the pitch-classes of motive A, i.e. beginning on E; see the fifth voice down at bars 15–17 of Example 9.
- See bars 21–4 of Schmidt-Görg's edition, Nicolai Gombert opera omnia, xi, 161.
- Je prens congie was an appropriate source of music for Lugebqt David Absalon, since that text is also, of course, concerned with the pain of separation and with death. An edition by John Milsom of Lugebqt David Absalon is published by Mapa Mundi (series B. no. 8; London, 1979).
- For a discussion, see Norbert Böker-Heil, ‘Zu einem frühvenezianischen Motettenrepertoire’, Helmuth Osthoff zu seinem siebzigsten Geburtstag (Tutzing, 1969), 59–88 (p. 70).
- Recognition of the relationship between Mille regretz and Je prens congie, and—more importantly—of the fact that this relationship sprang from the kinship of the texts, can increase our confidence that ‘Jc prens congie’ was the original text for which Gombert conceived this music, rather ‘han ‘Tulerunt dominum meum’ or ‘Sustinuimus pacem’.
- For an edition of the whole work, sec Jacobus Clemens non Papa: Opera omnia, ed. K. Ph. Bernet Kempers, Corpus mensurabilis musicae, 4 (n.p., 1962), x, 104–7.
- There is an equally striking similarity between the opening of Clemens's chanson and that of Lupi's Vous scavez bien, mentioned above (see note 12); indeed, this relationship is closer than that between Vous scavez bien and Mille regretz, noted by Bonnie Blackburn. In addition to the melodic correspondence, the mode is the same (although with different transpositions), as is the plan of the initial four imitative entries (in terms of pitch-classes, the order in which voices enter, and—to a large degree—the spacing of entries). Although one would be rash to classify this as a conscious allusion, it is at least possible that Clemens knew Lupi's work in addition to Gombert's.
- There is. however, no close textual parallel to account for the allusion. The text set by Clemens ‘s as follows:
- Lasje languis et si ne seay pourquoy, vivant en dueil et en melancolie, parquoy ie dis et iure sur ma foy: ilest bien fol qu'en amour se fye.
- An edition of the whole song may he found in Schmidt-Görg, Nicolai Combert obera omnia, xi,97–9.
- An edition of Si le partir may be found in Schmidt-Görg, Nicolai Combert opera omnia, xi, 66–8.
- I am most grateful to Bernadette Nelson for initially drawing my attention to these similarities.
- Edition in Picker, The Chanson Albums, 339–42.
- See bars 10–18 and 41–51 of Picker's edition.
- This musical resemblance may have been prompted by the word ‘piteuse’, since the same ending (‘-euse’) forms the rhyme of the middle two lines of Mille regretz and occurs (‘douloreuse’) in the musical phrase discussed here.
- Edition in Picker, The Chanson Albums, 335–7.
- See bars 33–40 of Picker's edition.
- Edition in Picker, The Chanson Albums, 351–4.
- See the contratenor at the beginning of Pickcr's edition.
- Editions in Albert Smijers, Werken van Josquin des Prés (Amsterdam, 1921–69), Wercldlijke Werken, aflevering i, bundel i, 15–16 and 5–6 respectively.
- Bars 6–7 of Smijers's edition.
- When this passage is repeated to form the end of the piece, there are further harsh dissonances caused by the fact that the tenor holds its d (as in the fourth bar of Example 3) in the following bar also, against the last part of the statement of motive C in the second part down: see bar 58 of Smijers's edition.
- It is also worth mentioning that the first prominent cadence in Plusieurs regretz is essentially identical to the first cadence of Mille regretz, that it occurs at an identical point (after four breves), and of course that it occurs on the same word (‘regretz’): see bars 4–5 of Smijers's edition. There is an (inexact) resemblance—which may or may not be significant—between the opening rising motive in the superius and the two canonic voices of Plusieurs regretz on the one hand and the beginning of Richafort's Sur tous regretz (a piece which itself acted as a model for a Mass by Gombert and a setting of the same text by Clemens) on the other.
- The other motivic parallel to Mille regretz within this chanson is hardly less prominent: lines 3 and 4 of the poem (preceding the passage shown in Example 24) are set to motive A in the two canonic voices (although the descending suffix is not exactly as in motive A). See bars 28–41 of Smijers's edition.
- Complete edition in Smijers, Werken, Wereldlijke Werken, aflevering v, bundel ii, 38–40. I am most grateful to John Milsom for pointing out the resemblance to Mille regretz.
- That is, the voice labelled tenor in Smijers's edition, following Susato's printed edition in Le septiesme livre, 154512. As Bonnie Blackburn has pointed out (‘Josquin's Chansons: Ignored and Lost Sources’, Journal of the American Musicological Society, 29 (1976), 30–76 (p. 50)), this voice is more properly designated the contratenor.
- Bars 14–17 and 19–21 of Smijers's edition.
- It will have been noticed that, surprisingly, most of the works discussed so far are in the Dorian mode.
- For an edition of the whole piece, see Anonymous Chansons Published by Pierre Attaingnant, ed. Albert Seay, Corpus mensurabilis musicae, 93 (Neuhausen-Stuttgart, 1986), iv, 106–8.
- See bars 9–11 of Seay's edition.
- In this case, starting with Susato's Le septiesme livre, 154515.
- See Helmulh Osthoff, Josquin Desprez (Tutzing, 1967), i, 73, where part of the text of the document is reproduced, and Herbert Kellman, ‘Josquin and the Courts of the Netherlands and France: The Evidence of the Sources’, Josquin des Prez: Proceedings, ed. Lowinsky, 181–216 (pp. 186–9). Martin Picker defends the identification of the singer as Josquin des Prez in ‘Josquin and Jean Lemaire’, 454, note 24.
- Ost Hoff, Josquin Desprez, i, 74.
- Marguerite was made Charles's guardian (and hence responsible for his education) in 1507 following the death of his father, Philip the Fair: she re-established the Burgundian court for him at Mechlin, and sited her own court in the same city. Marguerite's influence upon the young Charles, in cultural as in other matters, must therefore have been considerable. This situation continued until 1515, when Charles, having attained his majority, moved his own court to Brussels.
- The sources of the piece—six of which attribute it to la Rue—are listed by J. Evan Kreider in Works Attributed in the Sixteenth Century to Both Josquin des Pres and Pierre de la Rue’, Pro ceedings of the International Josquin Symposium, Utrecht 1986, ed. Willem Elders (Utrecht, 1991), 103–16 (p. 108). Kreider argues that the style of the work likewise points to la Rue rather than Josquin as the composer (ibid., 109).
- An edition of the piece can be found in Picker, The Chanson Albums, 180–3. Motive A appears in the bassus at bars 13–15 and in the tenor at bars 17–19. It is worth noting that Martin Picker has proposed la Rue as the likely author of the anonymous Me fauldra il? and Il me fait mal discussed above; see ‘The Habsburg Courts in the Netherlands and Austria, 1477–1539’, The Renaissance from the 1470s to the End of the Sixteenth Century, ed. Iain Fenlon (London, 1989), 216–42 (p. 230).
Journal of the Royal Musical Association
Volume 120, 1995 - Issue 1