YEARBOOK OF THE ALAMIRE FOUNDATION

12
MARY E. WOLINSKI
The triplum of the following motet, Hare, hare, hye! Godalier ont fet ouen, 4 begins
with a cry that may be construed as a call of distress, meant to solicit help. It might
also be significant that the interjection hare, hare is known to have signaled the closing
of fairs and the end of selling in Champagne and Flanders. 5 Therefore, hare was probably
well known in Arras, since its merchants conducted trade at those fairs. This
motet is also transmitted in another manuscript that was probably written in Arras. 6
The hearty, down-to-earth quality of the texts reflects the style of some of the trouvère
poetry of that city. In the triplum the speaker is alarmed at the beer drinkers (possibly
an epithet for the English) who have made a beggar’s hangout of Arras. He calls
for a half-penny’s worth of lights and liver, which were often served together in
medieval menus, and good clarified wine, instead. At the same time, the narrator of
the motetus, Balaam, Godalier ont bien ouan, expresses disdain for the Englishmen
who gulp beer greedily. Although it is worth it to them at two pints for a half-penny,
this drink makes the poet sick to his stomach. He wonders how the Normans can
drink so much of it without throwing up. Noting that the motetus and triplum engage
in strict voice-exchange, Ernest H. Sanders has surmised that the composer was deliberately
imitating English musical style. 7
The tenor and the motetus both begin with the name Balaam. The tenor uses the
melody of a sequence for Epiphany, which contains the prophet Balaam’s prophesy
of the star that will be produced from Jacob and of the destruction of the armies of
Moab. Balaam was best known to medieval Christians, however, for having been
rebuked by his ass when Balaam beat him. 8 As part of the revelry of the Feast of
Fools, held mostly on the feast of the Circumcision, but sometimes on Epiphany, an
ass was ridden in some French churches. 9 The drinking and eating described in the
triplum and motetus in conjunction with Balaam seem to allude to the overindulging
of the Christmas season, which culminates in Twelfth Night on the eve of Epiphany,
the feast for which the tenor chant was written.
Another Flemish city is cited in the triplum Mout sont vallant, which praises the
courtliness, wealth and largesse of cil de Gant. These people are most likely the patri-
4 MS W2, fols. 197v–198v. Transcribed in TISCHLER, The Earliest Motets, 2, pp. 876–880.
5 K. BALDINGER et al. eds., Dictionnaire étymologique de l’ancien français, H, Tübingen – Laval,
1974–, col. 159.
6 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, MS f.fr. 12615, fols. 180r–180v. See M.E. WOLINSKI, Tenors
Lost and Found: The Reconstruction of Motets in Two Medieval Chansonniers, in J. KNOWLES ed.,
Critica Musica: Essays in Honor of Paul Brainard, Amsterdam, 1996, pp. 461–482.
7 E.H. SANDERS, art. Rondellus, in S. SADIE and J. TYRRELL eds., The New Grove Dictionary of
Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., London, 2001, 21, pp. 648–649.
8 Book of Numbers, chapters 22–24.
9 E.K. CHAMBERS, The Medieval Stage, 1, Oxford, 1903, pp. 323–325, 330–335.