Perrin d'Angicourt (''

floruit ''Floruit'' (; abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for "they 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 indicat ...

'' 1245–70) 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 poet ...

associated with the group of poets active in and around

Arras Arras ( , ; pcd, Aro; historical nl, Atrecht ) 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 ...

. His birthplace was most likely

Achicourt Achicourt (; vls, Kortaken; pcd, Hachicourt) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. Geography A light industrial suburb of Arras located 2 miles (3 km) southwest of Arras, at the D3 and D5 road junction. The ri ...

, just south of Arras. His surviving oeuvre is large by the standards of the trouvères, and well-distributed in the

chansonnier A chansonnier ( ca, cançoner, oc, cançonièr, Galician and pt, cancioneiro, it, canzoniere or ''canzoniéro'', es, cancionero) is a manuscript or printed book which contains a collection of chansons, or polyphonic and monophonic settings ...

s: thirty-five (35) of his songs survive, in some case in as many as eleven different manuscripts. Two, or perhaps three, of Perrin's songs—"J'ai un joli souvenir", "Quant partis sui" and perhaps "Quant li cincenis s'escrie"—are described in their chansonniers as "crowned songs" (''chansons couronnées''), indicating that they had won poetry competitions, probably under the aegis of the ''

puy d'Arras The Puy d'Arras, called in its own day the Puy Notre-Dame, was a medieval poetical society formed in Arras for holding contests between trouvères and ''pour maintenir amour et joie'' (for maintaining love and joy, i.e. the courtly love lyric). Th ...

''. Twice Perrin composed ''

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

''—"Perrin d'Angicourt, respondés" and "Prince del pui"—with

Jehan Bretel Jehan Bretel (''c''.1210 – 1272) was a trouvère. Of his known oeuvre of probably 97 songs, 96 have survived. Judging by his contacts with other trouvères he was famous and popular. Seven works by other trouvères (Jehan de Grieviler, Jehan Erar ...

, also from Arras, and he is referenced in other ''jeux partis'' by Bretel, Gaidifer d'Avion,

Lambert Ferri Lambert Ferri (fl. c. 1250–1300) was a trouvère and cleric at the Benedictine monastery at Saint-Léonard, Pas-de-Calais. By 1268 he was a canon and a deacon of the monastery; he is last associated with the monastery in 1282. He was a popul ...

Jehan de Grieviler Jehan de Grieviler (''fl.'' mid- to late 13th century) was an Artesian cleric and trouvère. Jehan was probably born at Grévillers near Arras. A certain "Grieviler" is mentioned in the necrology (''registre'') of the Confrérie des jongleurs ...

and a certain Audefroi (perhaps the banker Audefroi Louchart), and also a song by Gillebert de Berneville. Perrin dedicated his own songs "Quant voi en la fin" and "Lors quant je voi" to Duke Henry III of Brabant and Count

Guy of Flanders Guy of Dampierre (french: Gui de Dampierre; nl, Gwijde van Dampierre) ( – 7 March 1305, Compiègne) was the Count of Flanders (1251–1305) and Marquis of Namur (1264–1305). He was a prisoner of the French when his Flemings defeated the ...

, respectively, known patrons of the trouvères of Arras. Perrin's most important patron, however, was Count

Charles of Anjou Charles I (early 1226/12277 January 1285), commonly called Charles of Anjou, was a member of the royal Capetian dynasty and the founder of the second House of Anjou. He was Count of Provence (1246–85) and Forcalquier (1246–48, 1256–85) ...

, younger brother of King Louis IX of France and later himself

King of Naples The following is a list of rulers of the Kingdom of Naples, from its first separation from the Kingdom of Sicily to its merger with the same into the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Kingdom of Naples (1282–1501) House of Anjou In 1382, the Kin ...

.According to Karp, Charles "is known as the patron of

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 prog ...

and

Rutebeuf Rutebeuf (or Rustebuef) (fl. 1245 – 1285) was a French trouvère (poet-composers who worked in France's northern dialects). Early life He was born in the first half of the 13th century, possibly in Champagne (he describes conflicts in Troyes i ...

." Perrin dedicated "Quant li biaus estés repaire" to Charles, he and the count partnered to compose the ''jeu parti'' "Quens d'Anjou" and the two together judged "Encor sui cil qui a merci s'atent" by

Jehan Erart Jehan Erart (or Erars) (''c''.1200/10–1258/9) was a trouvère from Arras, particularly noted for his favouring the ''pastourelle'' genre. He has left behind eleven ''pastourelles'', ten ''grand chants'', and one '' serventois''. Erart's prese ...

. Charles also judged one of Perrin's ''jeux partis'' with Bretel, "Perrin d'Angicourt, respondés". Although the Charles and Perrin's literary relationship is known, evidence of their real-world interactions is scarce. One document of 1269 may refer to Perrin when it names Petrus de Angicuria as a "rector of the chapel" (''rector capellae'') to Charles in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

. Most of Perrin's poems are

strophic Strophic form – also called verse-repeating form, chorus form, AAA song form, or one-part song form – is a song structure in which all verses or stanzas of the text are sung to the same music. Contrasting song forms include through-composed, ...

, that is, they contain stanzas each with lines of different length. "Quant partis sui" has five line lengths per strophe. His preference was for heptasyllables. Twelve of his poems have fixed or varying

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 v ...

s. Five or six of were used as models for

contrafacta In vocal music, contrafactum (or contrafact, pl. contrafacta) is "the substitution of one text for another without substantial change to the music". The earliest known examples of this procedure (sometimes referred to as ''adaptation''), date back ...

. Two, possibly three, have their melodies preserved in

mensural notation Mensural notation is the musical notation system used for European vocal polyphonic music from the later part of the 13th century until about 1600. The term "mensural" refers to the ability of this system to describe precisely measured rhythmi ...

Notes

Sources

Theodore Karp Theodore Cyrus Karp (17 July 1926 – 5 November 2015) was an American musicologist. His principal area of study was Secular music, mainly mediaeval monophony, especially the music of the trouvères. He was a major contributor in this area to the ...

"Perrin d'Angicourt"
''Grove Music Online''. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press, accessed 5 April 2013. {{Authority control Trouvères Male classical composers