Moniot de Paris (fl. post-1250) was a trouvère and probably the same person as the Monniot who wrote the ''Dit de fortune'' in 1278. He was once thought to have flourished around 1200, but his dates have been pushed back. Moniot wrote nine surviving pieces: three ''

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

s'', one ''

chanson de rencontre A (, , french: chanson française, link=no, ; ) is generally any lyric-driven French song, though it most often refers to the secular polyphonic French songs of late medieval and Renaissance music. The genre had origins in the monophonic ...

'', one ''

chanson de la malmariée A (, , french: chanson française, link=no, ; ) is generally any lyric-driven French song, though it most often refers to the secular polyphonic French songs of late medieval and Renaissance music. The genre had origins in the monophonic ...

'', and four enigmatic ''

rotrouenge In the Middle Ages, the ''rotrouenge'' (Old French) or ''retroencha'' (Old Occitan) was a recognised type of lyric poetry, although no existing source defines the genre clearly. There are four conserved troubadour poems, all with refrains and three ...

s'' that are not of the '' grand chant'' variety. Throughout, his work represents a blurring of the traditional boundaries between genres. One modern scholar, J. Frappier, has gone so far as to identify in him a new conception of

courtly love Courtly love ( oc, fin'amor ; french: amour courtois ) was a medieval European literary conception of love that emphasized nobility and chivalry. Medieval literature is filled with examples of knights setting out on adventures and performing vari ...

: ''une courtoisie embourgeoisée'' (a bourgeoisie courtliness). Moniot represents a "low style" or "less refined lyricism". His themes, both lyric and musical, are light in tone. He uses

refrain A refrain (from Vulgar Latin ''refringere'', "to repeat", and later from Old French ''refraindre'') is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in poetry — the "chorus" of a song. Poetic fixed forms that feature refrains include the vi ...

s (such as the

onomatopoeic Onomatopoeia is the process of creating a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Such a word itself is also called an onomatopoeia. Common onomatopoeias include animal noises such as ''oink'', ''m ...

"Vadu, vadu, vadu, va!") in nearly all his works and his melodies are simple in the extreme, with repeated notes, repeated phrases, and small intervals. These melodies were popular nonetheless: Moniot reused one and four of them have later '' contrafacta''.

Poems

*''A une ajournee'' *''Au nouvel'' (or ''nouviau'') ''tens que nest la violete'' *''Je chevauchoie l'autrier'' *''L'autrier par un matinet'' *''Li tens qui reverdoie'' *''Lonc tens ai mon tens usé'' *''Pour mon cuer releecier'' *''Quant je oi chanter l'alouete'' *''Qui veut amours maintenir''

References

*Falck, Robert
"Moniot de Paris."
''Grove Music Online''. ''Oxford Music Online''. Accessed 14 August 2008. *O'Neill, Mary (2006). ''Courtly Love Songs of Medieval France: Transmission and Style in the Trouvère Repertoire''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. See "Songs of Moniot de Paris", pp. 135–52. {{Authority control Trouvères Male classical composers