Guillaume d'Amiens or Guillaume le Peigneur (''

floruit ''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...

'' late 13th century) 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 ...

and

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

from

Amiens Amiens (English: or ; ; , or ) is a city and Communes of France, commune in northern France, located north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme (department), Somme Departments of France, department in the region ...

. All his music is contained in one

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 ...

(songbook) of

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 ...

, now manuscript "Latin 1490" in the Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana. In it, the

rubric A rubric is a word or section of text that is traditionally written or printed in red ink for emphasis. The word derives from the Latin , meaning red ochre or red chalk, and originates in medieval illuminated manuscripts from the 13th century or ...

s which accompany the songs identify Guillaume as a ''paigneur'', "painter". He may even be the artist who added the large illumination which precedes his songs in the manuscript. The preservation of his ''rondeaux'' in a single book is an identical case to that of fellow trouvères

Adam de la Halle Adam de la Halle (1245–50 – 1285–8/after 1306) was a French poet-composer '' trouvère''. Among the few medieval composers to write both monophonic and polyphonic music, in this respect he has been considered both a conservative and pro ...

and Jehannot de l'Escurel. The only reference to Guillaume (the French form of William) outside of the chansonnier is in a list of taxpayers in Amiens in 1301, which mentions a "William the Painter" (''Willelmi pictoris'' in Latin). Guillaume's musical corpus comprises eight

monophonic Monaural sound or monophonic sound (often shortened to mono) is sound intended to be heard as if it were emanating from one position. This contrasts with stereophonic sound or ''stereo'', which uses two separate audio channels to reproduce sou ...

'' rondeaux'', two ''

chansons d'amour 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 ...

'', and one ''

virelai A ''virelai'' is a form of medieval French verse used often in poetry and music. It is one of the three '' formes fixes'' (the others were the ballade and the rondeau) and was one of the most common verse forms set to music in Europe from the ...

''. He also wrote four other lyric poems which do not survive with music. Guillaume's ''rondeaux'' and the ''virelai'' are typical for the time, although with slight variations in the refrains, perhaps representing how they were actually performed. In "Prendés i garde" an irregularity in the prosody is reflected in an irregularity in the music. His melodies usually emphasize the

perfect fifth In music theory, a perfect fifth is the Interval (music), musical interval corresponding to a pair of pitch (music), pitches with a frequency ratio of 3:2, or very nearly so. In classical music from Western culture, a fifth is the interval f ...

from D to A.

List of songs

;''Chansons'' *''Amours me fait par mon veuil'' *''Puisque chanters onques nul home aida'' ;''Rondeaux'' *''Amours me maint u cueur'' *''Dame, pour men lonc sejour'' *''De ma dame vient'' *''Hareu! Coument mi manterrai'' * *''Je canterai, faire le doi'' *''Prendés i garde'' *''Ses tres dous regers'' ;''Virelai'' *''C'est la fin quoi que nus die, j'amerai''

References

*Elizabeth Aubrey
"Guillaume d'Amiens, paigneur."
''Grove Music Online''. ''Oxford Music Online''. Accessed 20 September 2008. {{DEFAULTSORT:Guillaume Damiens Artists from Amiens Painters from Hauts-de-France Trouvères 13th-century French composers 13th-century French painters French male painters Year of death unknown Year of birth unknown French classical composers French male classical composers