Andrieu Contredit d'Arras ( 1200 – 1248) was a

trouvère ''Trouvère'' (, ), sometimes spelled ''trouveur'' (, ), is the Northern French ('' langue d'oïl'') form of the '' langue d'oc'' (Occitan) word ''trobador'', the precursor of the modern French word '' troubadour''. ''Trouvère'' refers to po ...

from

Arras Arras ( , ; ; historical ) is the prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais department, which forms part of the region of Hauts-de-France; before the reorganization of 2014 it was in Nord-Pas-de-Calais. The historic centre of the Artois region, with a ...

and active in the Puy d'Arras. "Contredit" may not be, as it might appear, a nickname, since two other individuals with the name Contredit are attested in a manuscript associated with the Puy. It records his death at Arras in 1248 and the death of his wife in 1225. Contredit may therefore be a surname. Andrieu Contredit wrote mostly ''

grand chant The ''grand chant'' (''courtois'') or, in modern French, (''grande'') ''chanson courtoise'' or ''chanson d'amour'', was a genre of Old French lyric poetry">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginn ...

s'', but also a ''

pastourelle The pastourelle (; also ''pastorelle'', ''pastorella'', or ''pastorita'' is a typically Old French lyric poetry">lyric form concerning the romance of a shepherdess. In most of the early pastourelles, the poet knight meets a shepherdess who best ...

'', a '' lai'', and a ''

jeu-parti The ''jeu-parti'' (plural ''jeux-partis'', also known as ''parture'') is a genre of France, French lyric poetry composed between two ''trouvères''. It is a cognate of the Occitan language, Occitan partimen (also known as ''partia'' or ''joc parti ...

'' with Guillaume li Vinier. Andrieu is probably the ' who in 1239, according to French royal documents, joined the

Crusade The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding t ...

Theobald I of Navarre Theobald I (, ; 30 May 1201 – 8 July 1253), also called the Troubadour and the Posthumous, was Count of Champagne (as Theobald IV) from birth and King of Navarre from 1234. He initiated the Barons' Crusade, was famous as a trouvère, and was the ...

as a

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

and

minstrel A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. The term originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist enter ...

. His appearance in royal documents may indicate his service (probably as a minstrel) to

Louis IX Louis IX (25 April 1214 – 25 August 1270), also known as Saint Louis, was King of France from 1226 until his death in 1270. He is widely recognized as the most distinguished of the Direct Capetians. Following the death of his father, Louis ...

, and he addressed his song ' to a king, who is probably Louis. His song ' (no.17 in the list below) was addressed to the Puy. Evidence for authorship is found in Andrieu's poems themselves, since he named himself as author in fourteen. He addressed ' (no.16) to a "Marote", probably fellow trouvère Maroie de Diergnau de Lille. He praised the city of Arras in ' (no.22). Andrieu three times refers to himself as ''messire'' (in the envoys of nos. 4 and 12, and in the second strophe of no.18), a title which some have interpreted as denoting

nobility Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally appointed by and ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. T ...

, although Nelson notes it is often used by clerics and bourgeois.See ''The Songs Attributed to Andrieu Contredit d'Arras, with a Translation into English and the Extant Melodies'', ed. and trans. Deborah Hubbard Nelson (poetry) and Hendrik van der Werf (music) (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1992), p.3, which cites Vigneras, p.380, although Vigernas is in turn citing Guesnon, ''Bulletin archéologique du Comité des Travaux historiques et scientifiques'' (1894, p.422). His blason once decorated the start of his author collection in

chansonnier A chansonnier (, , Galician and , or ''canzoniéro'', ) is a manuscript or printed book which contains a collection of chansons, or polyphonic and monophonic settings of songs, hence literally " song-books"; however, some manuscripts are call ...

TrouvM, but the manuscript is damaged in this place and the image has been lost. Andrieu's chansons show a moderate variation of form. They all begin with the same

rhyme scheme A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes at the end of each line of a poem or song. It is usually referred to by using letters to indicate which lines rhyme; lines designated with the same letter all rhyme with each other. An example of the ABAB rh ...

(ABAB), all are in regular metre with 7-, 8-, or 10-syllable lines, and all use coblas unissonans. Most of the songs have at least one

envoy Envoy or Envoys may refer to: Diplomacy * Diplomacy, in general * Envoy (title) * Special envoy, a type of Diplomatic rank#Special envoy, diplomatic rank Brands *Airspeed Envoy, a 1930s British light transport aircraft *Envoy (automobile), an au ...

, which in the vast majority of cases is sung to the entire

cauda {{About, the musical feature The cauda is a characteristic feature of songs in the conductus style of ''a cappella'' music which flourished between the mid-12th and the mid-13th century. The conductus style placed strict rules on composition, and s ...

melody. Most of the envoys name Andrieu as the composer, with the exception of those transmitted only i
TrouvR
(nos. 15-17). Andrieu's music is relatively varied, for the chansons it is often pedes cum cauda or

bar form Bar form (German: ''die Barform'' or ''der Bar'') is a musical form of the pattern AAB. Original use The term comes from the rigorous terminology of the Meistersinger guilds of the 15th to 18th century who used it to refer to their songs and the ...

, or a modified version thereof.

List of works

(numbering from the Edition of Nelson and van der Werf)

Lai

*1. ', a lai, which survives with blank staves o
fols 75v-76v in TrouvT
outside the author-collection of Andrieu's works in this manuscript, and ascribed only to "Contredis"

Chansons

*2. ' *3. ', attributed to Guiot de Dijon and Jehan Erart in some manuscripts. *4. ' *5. ' *6. ' *7. ' *8. ' *9. ' *10. ' *11. ' *12. ' *13. ' *14. ' *15. ' *16. ' *17. ' *18. ', survives without music and incipit *19. ', survives without music and incipit *20. ', survives without music

Jeu-parti

*21. ', his part of a ''jeu-parti'', survives without music

Pastourelle

*22. '

Doubtful work

*23. ', only attributed to "mesires andreus li contredis" i
TrouvC
and either anonymous or attributed to the Chastelain de Couci in all other manuscripts.

References

* Karp, Theodore
"Andrieu Contredit d'Arras."
''Grove Music Online''. ''Oxford Music Online''. Accessed 20 September 2008. *''The Songs Attributed to Andrieu Contredit d'Arras, with a Translation into English and the Extant Melodies'', Lyrics translated and edited by Deborah Hubbard Nelson; Melodies by Hendrik van der Werf. Faux titre: Etudes de langue et littérature françaises publiées sous la direction de Keith Busby, M.J. Freeman, Sjef Houppermans, Paul Palckmans et Co Vet, vol 59 (Amsterdam and Athens, GA: Rodopi, 1992).
Vigneras, L.A. 'Note sur Andrieu Contredit', ''Romanic Review'' 24 (1934), 380-381
*Page for this individual a
Connecting Medieval Music

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Contredit Darras, Andrieu 12th-century births 1248 deaths Trouvères Christians of the Crusades People from Arras French male classical composers