Moniot de Paris
Encyclopedia
Moniot de Paris was a trouvère
and probably the same person as the Monniot who wrote the Dit de fortune in 1278. He was once thought to have flourished around 1200, but his dates have been pushed back.
Moniot wrote nine surviving pieces: three pastourelle
s, one chanson de rencontre, one chanson de la malmariée, and four enigmatic rotrouenge
s that are not of the grand chant
variety. Throughout, his work represents a blurring of the traditional boundaries between genres. One modern scholar, J. Frappier, has gone so far as to identify in him a new conception of courtly love
: une courtoisie embourgeoisée (a bourgeoisie courtliness). Moniot represents a "low style" or "less refined lyricism". His themes, both lyric and musical, are light in tone. He uses refrain
s (such as the onomatopoeic "Vadu, vadu, vadu, va!") in nearly all his works and his melodies are simple in the extreme, with repeated notes, repeated phrases, and small intervals. These melodies were popular nonetheless: Moniot reused one and four of them have later contrafacta.
Trouvère
Trouvère , sometimes spelled trouveur , is the Northern French form of the word trobador . It refers to poet-composers who were roughly contemporary with and influenced by the troubadours but who composed their works in the northern dialects of France...
and probably the same person as the Monniot who wrote the Dit de fortune in 1278. He was once thought to have flourished around 1200, but his dates have been pushed back.
Moniot wrote nine surviving pieces: three pastourelle
Pastourelle
The pastourelle is a typically Old French lyric form concerning the romance of a shepherdess. In most of the early pastourelles, the poet knight meets a shepherdess who bests him in a wit battle and who displays general coyness. The narrator usually has sexual relations, either consensual or...
s, one chanson de rencontre, one chanson de la malmariée, and four enigmatic rotrouenge
Rotrouenge
In the Middle Ages, the rotrouenge or retroencha was a recognised type of lyric poetry, although no existing source defines the genre clearly. There are four conserved troubadour poems, all with refrains and three by Guiraut Riquier with music, that are labelled retronchas in the chansonniers...
s that are not of the grand chant
Grand chant
The gran chan or, in modern French, chanson courtoise or chanson d'amour, often abbreviated chanson, was a genre of Old French lyric poetry devised by the trouvères. It was adopted from the Occitan canso of the troubadours, but scholars stress that it was a distinct genre...
variety. Throughout, his work represents a blurring of the traditional boundaries between genres. One modern scholar, J. Frappier, has gone so far as to identify in him a new conception of courtly love
Courtly love
Courtly love was a medieval European conception of nobly and chivalrously expressing love and admiration. Generally, courtly love was secret and between members of the nobility. It was also generally not practiced between husband and wife....
: une courtoisie embourgeoisée (a bourgeoisie courtliness). Moniot represents a "low style" or "less refined lyricism". His themes, both lyric and musical, are light in tone. He uses refrain
Refrain
A refrain is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse; the "chorus" of a song...
s (such as the onomatopoeic "Vadu, vadu, vadu, va!") in nearly all his works and his melodies are simple in the extreme, with repeated notes, repeated phrases, and small intervals. These melodies were popular nonetheless: Moniot reused one and four of them have later contrafacta.
Poems
- A une ajournee
- Au nouvel (or nouviau) tens que nest la violete
- Je chevauchoie l'autrier
- L'autrier par un matinet
- Li tens qui reverdoie
- Lonc tens ai mon tens usé
- Pour mon cuer releecier
- Quant je oi chanter l'alouete
- Qui veut amours maintenir