YEARBOOK OF THE ALAMIRE FOUNDATION

14
MARY E. WOLINSKI
TRIPLUM (TRANSLATION)
Mout sont vallant cil de Gant
plein de cortoisie
large et cortois despendant
et de riche vie
s’en ont li aver
mout grant envie.
MOTETUS
A la cheminee
eu mois froit de jenvier
vueill la char salee
le chapon gras mengier
dame bien paree
chantent et envoisier
c’est ce qi m’agree
boens vins a remuer
cler feu sanz fumee
les dez et le tablier
sanz tencier.
TENOR
Par verité
J’ai esprové
qe vin rinois
passent francois
et touz vins aucourrois
Of great merit are those of Ghent,
Full of courtliness,
Lavish in their generosity and courtesy,
And wealthy.
So the avaricious are
very envious of them.
By the fireplace
in the cold month of January
I would want salted meat,
fat capon to eat.
These things please me:
Singing and making merry
With a well-dressed lady,
good wine to spare,
A clear fire without smoke,
dice and a table
without quarrels.
By truth,
I have determined
That Rhine wines
Surpass French
And all Auxerrois wines.
The last of the drinking motets 18 creates a giant trope on the word Domine. All three
voices begin with this word, which comes from the gradual Sederunt principes for
the feast of St Stephen on 26 December. In the motet, however, Domine is not a devout
invocation of god, as in the chant. In the triplum, domine, or lord, seems to designate
the speaker, who has an authoritative tone.
18 As edited in STIMMING, Die altfranzösischen Motette, pp. 82–83, 134, 183–184; and TISCHLER,
The Earliest Motets, 2, pp. 980–982.