YEARBOOK OF THE ALAMIRE FOUNDATION

10
MARY E. WOLINSKI
The triplum of the first motet, En ce chant, summons all to dance, while the motetus,
Roissoles ai, roissoles, begins and ends in the manner of a street cry. 2 Meat pies (hard,
soft and well-formed) are being advertised to the school clerks, whom the hawker
describes as speaking to the young girls who sing with the round dances. There is
here an innuendo of other pleasures, as well. 3
TRIPLUM (TRANSLATION)
En ce chant
qe je chant
faz acorder
sanz descorder
ce novel deschant
ainsi m’envois
alons a la dance
alons i
car g’i vois.
MOTETUS
Roissoles ai roissoles
de dures et de moles
faites sont a biaus moles
por ces biaus clers d’escole
qui dient les paroles
a ces puceles foles
qi chantant as queroles
roissoles ai roissoles.
TENOR
Do (from Domine) Lord
On this song,
Which I sing,
I make agree
Without discord
This new discant.
So I enjoy myself.
Let us go to the dance.
Let us go there,
For I am going there.
Meat pies, I have meat pies
Hard and soft.
They are made well-formed
For the fine clerks of the school,
Who make speeches
To these flighty young girls
Who sing with the round dances,
Meat pies, I have meat pies.
2 MS W2, fol. 197v. The text is edited in A. STIMMING, Die altfranzösischen Motette der Bamberger
Handschrift nebst einem Anhang, enthaltend altfranzösische Motette aus anderen deutschen Handschriften,
mit Anmerkungen und Glossar,(Gesellschaft für romanische Literature, 13), Halle a.S., 1906,
pp. 80–81. The music appears in H. TISCHLER, The Earliest Motets (to circa 1270): A Complete
Comparative Edition, 2, New Haven – London, 1982, pp. 874–875.
3 I am most grateful to Professor Nancy Regalado of New York University and Professor Emerita Joan
Williamson of Long Island University for their help in translating the French poems. Any errors are
my own.