be repeated through all stanzas (coblas unissonans), change after every pair of stanzas
(coblas doblas), or, much less commonly, change with each stanza (coblas singulars);
other arrangements occur, too, as well as smaller rhyme-based devices serving to
structure the text. The modern principle of alternating masculine (oxytonic) and feminine
(paroxytonic) rhymes is unknown. A further structuring is sometimes achieved, though
only rarely among the classical trouvères, through the adjunction of a refrain, normally
invariable, at the end of each stanza. The initial stanza of a grand chant is always marked
as introductory, whether by an evocation of nature or the desire to sing or by other
exordial material. The conclusion is usually marked as well, whether in the last stanza or
in a following partial stanza (the envoi), by a statement that “sends” the song to the
beloved or some other auditor. The intervening stanzas tend toward an inherently lyrical
semantic discreteness, a result of which is that it is not uncommon for the several
manuscript redactions of a given poem to present them in different sequences. The usual
internal structure of the grand chant stanza is bipartite, the first section (frons) being
divided into two subsections (pedes, sing. pes) that are identical in meter and rhyme, and
the second section (cauda) showing a freer sequence, as in: 8a 8b/8a 8b//8b 8a 8a 8b or
10a 10’b/10a 10’b//10a 10a 4’b 7c 7c.
This structure is widely paralleled by the overall melodic form AAB, in which musical
pes and prosodic pes coincide, but in which the line-by-line development of B may
readily diverge from the pattern suggested by the corresponding rhymes. The melodic
construction of the grand chant, as of the other genres, is modal. Compared with other
such music, the trouvère corpus is unusually rich in accidentals, including not only B-flat
and B-natural but also E-flat, F-sharp, and C-sharp; extensive in range, with most
melodies developed within the range of a seventh to a tenth, but others within
considerably narrower or broader intervals; and ample in both its choice of finals and its
ways of relating the final to the melodic ambitus. The grand chant is variable in its
overall density of melismatic ornamentation, but it is infrequent for a given ornament to
include more than four notes. In all these respects, there is broad variation from songbook
to songbook, each of which, or each family of which, tends to show stylistic
individuality; a consequence is the often marked diversity within multiple redactions of
the same melody. But the most striking feature of the trouvères’ melodies, and the one
that has not ceased to generate heated controversy, is that, with only few exceptions, the
manuscripts transmit them in nonmensural neumatic notation, that is, with no indication
of rhythm. Theories have been proposed to fill the void—an undertaking essential to any
performance of the music. Their spectrum moves from a strict application of the
principles of modal rhythm, which would apparently deny the text, to the advocacy of a
free declamatory rhythm that would reduce the importance of the music; propositions
between these poles argue for a modal usage somehow responsive to poetic rhythm or a
sort of isosyllabism effectively eliminating the ebb and flow of rhythm altogether.
Cutting across all these theories are such questions as whether all lyric genres, including
dance songs, are to be treated in the same fashion and, if not, how to differentiate among
them, or whether certain melodic features point to particular rhythmic interpretations.
From the deep source of Provençal lyric, the trouvères derived not only the grand
chant but also, in combination with local materials, the related crusade song and the
heterostrophic lai-descort, both of which are well represented in the French corpus. The
political or religious serventois, however, is of only passing importance compared with
The Encyclopedia 1765