Je Chevauchoie L'Autrier: A Song History

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"Je chevauchoie l'autrier" is an Old French song with a refrain, credited to Moniot de Paris, a trouvère of the thirteenth century who is also known as Jehan Moniot and is credited with a narrative poem, the Dit de Fortune.[1][2] The Medieval Refrain database at refrain.ac.uk classes it as a chanson de malmariée, a song type centred on a woman who is unhappy in her marriage.[1][3] The same database records five stanzas set to a melody that opens with a repeated pair of phrases, and notes that the tune is shared with another song, catalogued as RS 1299.[1]

Round carved ivory mirror case showing a man and woman on horseback with a falcon, framed by leafy corner knobs

Mirror Case with a Falconing Party, French, ivory, about 1330–60. A French Gothic carving of riders, shown for the ride in the song's opening words; it has no connection to the song.

The song survives in four Paris manuscripts: one at the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal (MS 5198) and three at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (fr. 845, fr. 847 and nouv. acq. fr. 1050).[1] The database lists Moniot as author for all four copies, but it marks the ascription in fr. 847 as late, and in nouv. acq. fr. 1050, itself described as a late copy, it flags the name as a later inscription.[4][5]

Early-music performers have taken it up: the soprano Anne Azéma, with Cheryl Ann Fulton and Shira Kammen, closed the Erato album The Unicorn: Medieval French Songs with it, reviewed by Gramophone in 1994.[6] The Dufay Collective recorded the song and a separate dance version on On the Banks of the Seine: Music of the Trouvères (Chandos, 1997).[7] A piece titled "Je Chevauchoie L'Autrier," written out in four dulcimer parts in DAD tuning with one part for chord backup, appears in Ellen Pratt's self-published Ensemble Arrangements For The Mountain Dulcimer, Volume 7, a collection that mixes traditional and classical tunes with some original melodies.[8]

Our book that contains the song "Je Chevauchoie L'Autrier"

Sources

  1. Musique, poésie, citation: The Medieval Refrain: "Je chevauchoie l'autrier (Sor)".
  2. ARLIMA, Archives de littérature du Moyen Âge: "Moniot de Paris".
  3. Routledge: "Dolores Pesce, The Malmariée in the Thirteenth-Century Motet".
  4. Musique, poésie, citation: The Medieval Refrain: "Je chevauchoie l'autrier (Sor), Paris, BnF fr. 847".
  5. Musique, poésie, citation: The Medieval Refrain: "Je chevauchoie l'autrier (Sor), Paris, BnF nouv. acq. fr. 1050".
  6. Gramophone: "The Unicorn: Medieval French Songs".
  7. University of North Texas Libraries catalog: "On the Banks of the Seine: Music of the Trouvères".
  8. Ellen Pratt: "Ensemble Arrangements For The Mountain Dulcimer, Volume 7".
  9. Image: Mirror Case with a Falconing Party, French, ivory, about 1330–60. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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