This article investigates a corpus of sixteen thirteenth-century motets whose formal structures are rigorously modelled on the AAB formal type of the trouvère chanson. This corpus bears witness that the first specimens of hybridization between polyphony and the high-style lyric chanson arose as early as the 1240s, well before the emergence of fourteenth-century polyphonic song. The analysis of the make-up of the AAB form of the motets first reveals that its elements completely match those of the pedes-cum-cauda formal type of trouvère chansons. The formal impact of song citations within the corpus is then explored, together with the different modalities according to which they are involved in the make-up of the AAB form. Finally, the analysis of the texture of the works brings to light the singularity of their fabric: remodelled by the structures of the trouvère chanson, it breaks with the traditional format of the motet and turns into the texture of a motet-chanson.
This article presents a textbook case for the examination of generic interplay in the thirteenth century, investigating four works that offer transgeneric reworkings relating polyphony to trouvère song. These works are found as anonymous motets and clausulae in polyphonic gatherings, but their upper voices are also copied as multi-strophic songs in songbooks, where they are attributed to the trouvère Robert de Reims. This case therefore touches on the issues of generic borders and mixing, on trouvère involvement in this generic interplay, and on the relationships between attribution and authorship in the Middle Ages. The investigation has important outcomes for the reconstruction of the genetic map of the motet, revealing works playing havoc with the vectors of transmission customarily established in the interplay of motet, chanson and clausula, and revealing early trouvère involvement in the repertoire as an essential key to the comprehension of cross-over activity between song and polyphony.
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