Robert de Castel (d'Arras) (

fl. ''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 indicatin ...

1272) 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- ...

active in and around

Arras Arras ( , ; pcd, Aro; historical nl, Atrecht ) is the prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais Departments of France, department, which forms part of the regions of France, region of Hauts-de-France; before the regions of France#Reform and mergers of ...

in the late thirteenth century. He is mentioned in the '' Congés'' of Baude Fastoul, written in 1272, which place him Arras at that date. He is the addressee of the poem ''Robert du Chastel, biaus sire'', a ''

jeu parti ''Jeu'' is a 2006 animated short by Georges Schwizgebel. Described as a film about the frenetic pace of modern life, ''Jeu'' is set to the scherzo of Prokofiev's Concerto for Piano No. 2, Opus 16. The film has received 12 international awards, inc ...

'' by another trouvère of Arras,

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 Era ...

(died 1272), which was judged by another Artesian,

Gaidifer d'Avion Gaidifer (Gadifer) d'Avion ( fl. 1230–50) was an Artesian trouvère from Avion. He entered the Church and was associated with the poets of the so-called "School of Arras". Gaidifer was well-connected to contemporary poets. He was a respondent ...

. Robert wrote six songs that have been preserved; two of these achieved some popularity. ''En loial amour ai mis'' is designated ''coronée'' (crowned) in one source, indicating that it won a poetic contest, probably to be associated with 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). ...

. More popular was ''Se j'ai chanté sans guerredon avoir'', which survives in eleven manuscripts: it is recorded in the

Phrygian mode The Phrygian mode (pronounced ) can refer to three different musical modes: the ancient Greek ''tonos'' or ''harmonia,'' sometimes called Phrygian, formed on a particular set of octave species or scales; the Medieval Phrygian mode, and the modern ...

in the

Chansonnier Cangé 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 o ...

, is in the

Dorian mode Dorian mode or Doric mode can refer to three very different but interrelated subjects: one of the Ancient Greek ''harmoniai'' (characteristic melodic behaviour, or the scale structure associated with it); one of the medieval musical modes; or—mos ...

in the

Chansonnier du Roi The ''Manuscrit du Roi'' or ''Chansonnier du Roi'' ("King's Manuscript" or "King's Songbook" in English) is a prominent songbook compiled towards the middle of the thirteenth century, probably between 1255 and 1260 and a major testimony of Europea ...

, and is ''coronée'' in the Chansonnier des Memses. The later anonymous religious piece ''La volontés dont mes cuers est ravis'' was a contrafactum of its melody. Besides these two songs Robert wrote ''Amours me mont me guerroie'', ''Bien ait l'amours qui m'a doné l'usage'', ''Nus fins amans ne se doit esmaier'', and ''Pour (çou) ce se j'ain et je ne sui amés''. This last was quoted—both lyrically and to a lesser degree musically—by

Guillaume de Machaut Guillaume de Machaut (, ; also Machau and Machault; – April 1377) was a French composer and poet who was the central figure of the style in late medieval music. His dominance of the genre is such that modern musicologists use his death to ...

in his four-part

Middle French Middle French (french: moyen français) is a historical division of the French language that covers the period from the 14th to the 16th century. It is a period of transition during which: * the French language became clearly distinguished from t ...

motet In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to Margar ...

.Jacques Boogaart (2001), "Encompassing Past and Present: Quotations and Their Function in Machaut's Motets," ''Early Music History'', 20, pp. 57, 61, 65.

References

*Falck, Robert
"Robert de Castel."
''Grove Music Online''. ''Oxford Music Online''. Accessed 20 September 2008.

Notes

{{Authority control Trouvères Male classical composers