Roman de Fauvel

The Roman de Fauvel is a string of two books of the 14th century French verse text. It is the notary Gervès you working at the Parisian royal court attributed bus and survives in 13 manuscripts from the 14th and 15th centuries.

Meaning of the name

Fauvel (from French fauve: pale yellow; see also Dun ), a horse or donkey, is the protagonist of this satire. The name " Fauvel " is an acrostic from various vices:

• Flaterie ( flattery )
• Avarice ( greed )
• U / Vilanie ( baseness )
• Vaudeville ( impermanence )
• Envie ( Envy )
• Lâcheté ( cowardice )

In addition, it can be as contraction of the Old French terms fout ( wrong, bad) and vel ( faithless / appearances ) indicate. The color fawn ( fawn ), has also - perhaps by their similarity to the French word fout - since the 12th century a negative connotation that refers to hypocrisy and lies.

Content

The first book describes the rapid rise Fauvel: he leaves his stable and is with the help of Lady Fortune (Fortuna) the most powerful ruler. Secular and spiritual leaders, including the king and the pope, a pilgrimage to him, stroking and caressing it as the symbol of hypocrisy and lies. The world, rules over the Fauvel is bestorné ( wrong / upside down ): the king is above the Pope, the women to men, the poor become rich and the moon is the sun its light. The time of the Antichrist seems close dawned and the apocalypse. The second book begins with a detailed description of the court Fauvel in the macrocosm palace to its inhabitants Charnalité ( carnality ), Avarice ( greed ), Envie ( Envy ), Haine ( venom ), Paresse ( laziness ), Gloutonnie ( gluttony ), Ivresse ( drunkenness ), Orgueil ( arrogance ), Hypocrisie ( hypocrisy ), vilenie ( baseness ) Barat ( treason), Tricherie ( cheating ), Parjure ( perjury ), Hérésie ( heresy ), sodomy and others. Fauvel asks Dame Fortune for her hand, but she rejects him and hits him instead to marry her maid, Vaine Gloire ( vain glory ). Fauvel agrees and the marriage takes place. Among the wedding guests are Fauvel servant, the vices and the virtues. After extensive wedding ceremony, the couple convinced many descendants, fauveaux that dominate the whole of France soon. The novel ends with a prayer to the lily of purity, which is the last and only hope of France.

The surviving manuscripts

There have been handed two different versions of the novel. The earlier and shorter from the year 1314 consists of two books and a total of 3280 octosyllabischen verses (Book 1: 1226 verses, Book 2: 2054 verses ). It is available in 12 complete manuscripts and two excerpts. The later and longer is only in a single manuscript ( BNF fr 146. ) Preserved, but has - especially for musicology - a special meaning: it extends the text not only illuminated manuscripts and various Versdichtungen, but also to numerous unanimous and polyphonic pieces of music. These taken together form the main body of the unanimous and polyphonic music of the French Ars Nova. Among the interpolations are also some motets, which are attributed to the eminent composer and music theorist Philippe de Vitry.

This version of the novel can not be compiled on January 9, 1317 before the coronation of Philip V in Reims, where a verse of one of the interpolations is " raining Phelippe qui ores " refers to. Another passage in the Latin dit Hora rex it refers to events shortly after Easter (April 3 ) 1317. According to the latest research, the time of origin is placed in the spring of 1317. Chaillou de Pesstain is called at the end of the first book as author of interpolations: [C ] i s'ensivent les addicions que mesire Chaillou de mises en ce livre Pesstain ha oultre les choses qui sont dites dessus de chant ( " Here are the additions, with which Monsieur de Chaillou Pesstain has provided this book, in addition to the foregoing pieces of music "). It is possible that at Chaillou to Geoffroy Engelor called Chalop, a notary who was active from 1303 to 1334 in the French Court of Chancery. Some of the compositions from BNF Fr. 146 are probably written by himself, but most are taken from earlier -existing repertoire. BNF Fr. 146 consists of 100 folios. Before the interpolated version of the novel by Gervès you bus is a Complainte d' amour, next to the manuscript contains eight French and Latin Versdichtungen about political events of the years 1314/15 bis 1317/18, 34 French songs of Jehannot de Lescurel and an anonymous Verschronik the year 1300 bis 1316.

Literature Historical importance

In the form of thoughts and by no means original - the work can easily be in the tradition of medieval regum admonition or exhortation series - Gervès du Buis offers such a clear view of the moral situation of his time, that the work has been the subject of critical research again and again and is.

Musicological importance

The 56 Latin and French 113 works that have been preserved by the National Library of France ( fr. 146), divided into

• Songs in the contemporary forms ( lays, rondeaux, stroll )
• Excerpts from liturgical chants
• Two-to four-voice motets of the Ars Antiqua and Ars Nova

They offer a broad cross- section through the repertoire, which was the creation time available to the Parisian clerics. The latest of these tunes were composed with great probability especially for handwriting. The remaining pieces are selected or edited to support the political and allegorical meaning of the novel. It is speculated that Philippe de Vitry himself participated in the processing of the novel. But it is not even certain that the Fauvel motets, which attributing Heinrich Besseler Vitry, really come from him. The write-ups are based on a traditional, especially in Italian manuscripts of the late 14th and early 15th century textual tradition and can not be linked directly with Vitry.

Directory of BNF Fr. 146 contained musical works

Polyphonic pieces

The individual voices in the following list are separated by slashes and named after the first words of the associated text. Non - textierte votes are written in italics and named according to the voice.

• Favellandi vicium / Tenor
• Mundus a mundicia / Tenor
• Quare fremuerunt / Tenor
• Presidente in thronis / Super cathedram / ​​Ruina
• Jure quod in opere / Scariotis geniture / Superne mater gaudia
• In mari miserie / [ Manere ] ( midi? / I / transmission in modern notation)
• Ad Solitum vomitum / [ Regnat ]
• Plange, nostra regional / Nulla pestis est GRAVIOR / convergent
• Qui secuntur / detractor est nequissima vulpis / verb iniquum et dolosum
• In principibus perpera / Ex corruptis arboribus / Neuma de Alleluya
• Ve, qui gregi deficiunt / quasi non Ministry / trahunt in precipicia / Displicebat
• ( Attributed to Philippe de Vitry ) Vos pastores adulteri / Desolata mater ecclesia / Filios enutrivi et exaltavi
• Fauvel nous a fait present / Yes voi douleur avenir / Fauvel: autant m'est si poise
• Rex beatus, Confessor Domini / Se cuers ioians / Ave
• O Philippe, prelustris Francorum / Servant lively misericordia / Rex regum
• O Nacio Nephandi / condicio nature / [ M] ane great Sabbati
• Alieni bonuses invidia / Facilius / " Imperfecte canite "
• Veritas Arpie / Johanne
• Ade costa dormientis / Tenor
• J'ai fait nouveletement / La mesnie fauveline / Grant despit ai ie
• Inter amenitatis tripudia / Revertenti
• Sicut de ligno parvulus / inflammatus invidia / Tenor
• Se me desirs / Bonne est amours / [ A]
• Hay, Fortuna subdula / Aman novi probatur exitu / hay me, tristis est anima mea ( Philippe de Vitry attributed )
• Quomodo cantabimus / thalamus puerpere / Tenor
• Quoniam secta latronum / Tribum, que non abhorruit / Merito hec partimur ( Philippe de Vitry attributed )
• Maria, virgo virginum / Celi domina / Porchier mieuz estre ameroie
• Omnipotens domine / Flagellaverunt Galliam
• Adesto, sancta trinitas / Firmissime fidem teneamus / Alleluya, Benedictus ( Philippe de Vitry attributed )
• Scrutator alme Cordium / Tenor
• Ihesu, do dator Venie / Zelus family / Tenor
• In nove Fert / Garrit Gallus / N [ EUMA ] ( Philippe de Vitry attributed )
• Bon vin doit / Quant ie le voi / Cis chans veult boire

Transmission in modern notation

A transfer of all polyphonic music pieces from the Roman de Fauvel is found in the following works, from which the above list is taken from: Leo Schrade: Polyphonic Music of the Fourteenth Century Volume I. Éditions de l' Oiseau -Lyre, Les Remparts / Monaco 1956