Claudin de Sermisy, Clement Marot, and Their “Jouyssance vous donneray” in the Paintings of Lady Concerts

by

Larry Mauk

MH 301; Sec 001

The iconography of music can provide an extensive amount of information about many subjects. It can present new ideas as well as elaborate on what is already known. In five sixteenth century paintings produced by the Master of the Female Half-Lengths or members of his workshop, information is presented that regards people (such as Claudin de Sermisy and Clement Marot), musical styles (such as the Parisian Chanson), and musical performance.[i] This is expressed through the paintings’ portrayal of lady concerts.

A work of art may originally have many different aspirations, intentions, and purposes. It may be created for a functional application or merely for the interest of the artist or art patron. Eventually, work of art may have significance for historians in various fields. Whatever may have been its primary aim, it may help us reconstruct the past. For music historians, iconography is especially important for the study of earlier periods of music. Visual arts are often some of the few sources of details on music in an oral tradition. Written records do not always present a complete account. The iconography of music can often provide information about performance practices, period instruments, a composer or performer’s way of life, the state of society in which the music was heard, and even the music notation itself (in later times).

Between 1520 and 1530, four paintings were produced that show three female musicians (a singer, a flautist, and a lutenist) performing Claudin de Sermisy’s chanson, “Jouyssance vous donneray.”[ii] A fifth painting depicts Mary Magdalene playing this piece on a lute.[iii] Not much is known concerning the history of these paintings. These works were created in Antwerp by the Master of the Female Half-Lengths or by members of his workshop.[iv] The exact identity of the artist, or artists, remains unknown, but the Master is believed to have been either Jean Clouet or Lucas d’ Heere.[v]

Paintings from the studio of this Master were quite popular in France. Their regular inclusion of chansons and excerpts from letters made them a strong source of French culture and style. His paintings also found a market in other countries and were often created for export. Many of the Master’s paintings can be found in Spain today.[vi] It is thought that the paintings of the lady concerts may have been fashioned in an assembly line manner. Their detailed similarities and reuse of motifs suggest that members of the workshop may have individually specialized on a particular item. It is also likely that parts of later paintings were copied directly from the previous works.[vii]

These lady concerts depict numerous aspects of music, including instruments and performance styles. The five paintings contain many similarities. The four “Three Lady Musicians” paintings differ only in their backgrounds, environments, clothing, and jewelry. The differences regarding the physical performance of the music are minimal. In the painting found in the Harrach Gallery at Rohrau, the singer stands with a closed mouth, while in the painting in the Hermitage Museum at Leningrad she performs with a barely open mouth. The singers in the other two paintings (one in the Ducal Castle at Meiningen and the other in a private collection in Brazil) are presented with fully open mouths.[viii]

Together, these paintings show us what a usual performance may have been like at this time. It shows us what instruments were used, how they were constructed, and how they were held. The flautist in the Rohrau and Meiningen paintings holds her head in a very unnatural manner.[ix] In the Leningrad version, her head is balanced better, but is turned inward.[x] This difference supports the idea that these paintings were produced by an assembly line. Music played an important part in court life. The artists could have merely placed the females in these settings to portray the idea of courtly love with no particular concern for musical accuracy. However, the detail in which many of the remaining musical features are presented suggest a more personal attention and literal approach to the musical accuracy.

The most significant detail of these paintings is the precise replication of the partbooks to Claudin’s chanson. They contain various versions of both text and the voice parts and differ from printed versions. The painted music provides answers to questions concerning the chanson’s different arrangements, voicings, performance, its place in the literature of the sixteenth century, and even the composer and poet’s true intentions. To understand the musical contributions of these paintings, the history of the chanson, “Jouyssance,” and Claudin de Sermisy and Clement Marot must be examined.

The choice of this chanson for a series of five paintings is significant. It indicates that Claudin’s music was well known. Having a peer praise your achievements in his work was a distinct privilege and honor. It was common practice to produce a posthumous tribute in this manner. It was also commonplace for the wealthy and noble to have artists under their command to produce their portraits. However, persons with lower social status, such as musicians, did not often receive this artistic attention. In addition to “Jouyssance vous donneray,” Claudin’s chanson “Aupres de vous” has been a subject in a painting.[xi] Claudin was indeed worthy of this honor. He produced many notable and influential pieces in varied styles, including masses. His chansons were commonly found in early publications of music in France.

The practice that was still widespread in France of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries was the composition of masses and motets. These works had their own style and characteristics, but were basically variations on the prevalent techniques.[xii] From the printing press of Pierre Attaingnant, on April 4, 1528, came a collection of compositions entitled, “Chansons nouvelles musique a quatres parties.”[xiii] Composers based around Paris and the court of Francis I were its contributors.[xiv] This was the earliest printing of polyphonic music in France. These songs presented a new form of chanson that was unique in the extent to which it incorporated French culture and styles. This Parisian chanson was usually composed in a simple form, such as abcd or aabc, in a quick duple meter, for four voices with a text on an amorous subject, and set syllabically.[xv] The predominant melody was found in the top voice with accompaniment that was, overall, very homophonic despite moments of imitation between voices.[xvi] This type of chanson was very expressive and provided a natural musical medium for the poet’s words.

Claudin de Sermisy was an important contributor to the Attaingnant publication (seventeen of thirty-one pieces are his) and, therefore, to the style of the Parisian chanson.[xvii] Claudin was born around 1490.[xviii] The first written record of Claudin places him as a cleric in the Sainte Chappele in Paris.[xix] While serving here, Claudin may have also been singer at the personal chapel of Louis XII, the Chappelle Royale.[xx] He eventually became music director there. This was the most distinguished office a musician could hold in France.[xxi] Claudin achieved this position under the rule of Francis I.

During Claudin’s time under Francis I, the poet Clement Marot was also producing works that attempted to counter traditional styles. His poems were closely related to natural and expressive common folk texts and popular forms. Marot’s works are a large part of the collection of texts found in the Parisian chanson. He shunned the more complicated and mechanical structures of the medieval Rhetoriquer, much like Claudin’s hand in the development of a new approach to the chanson.[xxii] It is fitting that Claudin was the first to set Marot’s text to music.[xxiii]

“Jouyssance vous donneray” is only one of several chansons having text Marot and music by Claudin included in the original Attaingnant compilation. As we can tell through its inclusion in the paintings, “Jouyassance” was one of the most popular songs of its time. After its initial printing, “Jouyssance” was reprinted numerous times, copied into manuscript form, spread throughout Europe, and even arranged in many different instrumental settings.[xxiv] Its tenor was even used as the basis for a popular basses dance tune.[xxv] “Jouyssance” was also modeled by other composers in their chansons. Adrian Willaert used the text and Claudin’s tenor in his compositions.[xxvi] Nicolas Gambert borrowed the text and tenor as well as various parts of other voices.[xxvii] Claudin’s bass and Marot’s text where used by Antoine Gardane in his version of “Jouyssance.”[xxviii]

The use of the tenor of “Jouyssance” as a basse dance is important to the meaning and symbolism of the Master’s painting of Mary Magdalene. This painting is one in a series of at least five.[xxix] Each portrays her as a lutenist and contains music for another popular sixteenth century chanson, “Si j’ayme mon amy.” Included in some of the various paintings in this series were also other basse dances. It is only in the one now found in the A. de Witte collection in Courtai, that “Jouyssance” is found.[xxx] In this painting, two fragments of mensural notation are found on a partially covered sheet. This is the extent of the presence of “Jouyssance.” Its inclusion with “Si j’ayme” does suggest that, in addition to the painting’s obvious representation of her musical abilities, the painter was also attempting to symbolize her dancing abilities. Confirmations of these talents are also found in various plays, poems, and other visual works of art concerning her.[xxxi]

The initial version of “Jouyssance” that appeared in the Attaingnant publication was written for four voices: cantus, altus, tenor, and bassus.[xxxii] Nowhere in the four Three Lady Musicians paintings are the partbooks for the altus or bassus pictured. In the Rohrau painting, the flautist is playing from a partbook that contains the complete cantus.[xxxiii] On a table in this painting are two closed books. These may be the altus and bassus partbooks. The singer is holding a piece of sheet music that is neither part of “Jouyssance” nor any work of Marot or Claudin.[xxxiv] Brazil’s singer is also holding a piece that does not relate to any Marot or Claudin piece.[xxxv] The flautist is seen performing from a complete tenor partbook.[xxxvi] This painting, however, is deteriorating and has lost some of the text and music.[xxxvii]

The Leningrad painting has the singer holding the first line of the cantus.[xxxviii] This time, the flautist is playing the partbook for the tenor, but it does not contain the last line of text or music.[xxxix] The two closed books lying on the table here could also be the altus and bassus. They may also be the cantus and bassus.[xl] If the remainder of the cantus were lying on the table, it would explain the singer holding only one of its lines. The bassus would be a logical guess for the other partbook. A trio performance would probably have contained the bassus part instead of the tenor. A logical guess such as this could also be made in the Meiningen painting. Here, there are three closed partbooks. The flautist is playing from the tenor book, so the closed books could conceivably be the cantus, altus, and bassus.[xli] This would be the case if the trio chose the bassus over the tenor.

Meiningen’s singer holds more of the cantus.[xlii] Another sight that points toward the assembly line belief is found in this painting. The tenor partbook here and the one in Leningrad’s are identical. They were obviously painted by different artists, but they are exact replicas, down to an error of a breve rest.[xliii]

The Meiningen painting also supports the original publication of a four-voice composition. However, the other three paintings in the Three Lady Musicians series could be considered as supporting an arrangement for three voices. This is a significant contribution of the iconography of these paintings. “Jouyssance” did receive many different settings after its first publication, but what was Claudin’s original plan for this work? Was the four-voice printing only a reworking of a previous composition?

These three paintings may have been based on a manuscript that exists in Copenhagen.[xliv] It is a three-voice setting of “Jouyssance” that is believed to have been written somewhere between 1520 and 1525.[xlv] This would have been between three and eight years before the Attaingnant publication. The paintings would, therefore, also be dated at approximately the same time.

Looking at the altus part, in the printed version, reveals that it has a large range and makes larger melodic skips than the other three voices.[xlvi] This makes it seem as though the altus was not as intricately written and that, for the printed version, Claudin may have merely taken his original three-part voicing and added an altus part. The painting and the manuscript support this as a possibility. If these three paintings were truly dated at this time, the Master of the Female Half-Lengths would be credited with providing accurate detail in his portrayal of the existing arrangement. If they were not dated at this time, these paintings would be representative of a trio arrangement of the four-voice publication.

Does any of the evidence in the paintings suggest any other possible arrangements of “Jouyssance”? In the Mary Magdalene painting, we see the symbolic reference to the basse dance tune which incorporated the lone tenor part. Visually represented the cantus in this painting is sitting under the lute tablature for “Si j’ayme mon amy.”[xlvii] This may suggest a monophonic performance. The lack of a lute accompaniment in the painting may mean that she supposedly had that part memorized.[xlviii] At this point in lute history, the player would probably have performed the tenor and the bassus part with the singing of the cantus. Using this idea, it is possible that she may have accompanied her singing of “Jouyssance” with an arrangement of these other two voices.[xlix] This may be based on an arrangement that was included in another of Attaingnant’s publications. “Tres breve et familiere introduction…en la tablature de Lutz” was printed in Paris of 1529 and can now be found in Copenhagen.[l] This printing contains two different settings of “Jouyssance” for cantus and lute accompaniment of the tenor and bassus. This version is also significant in that it contains the cantus in mensural notation, much like that shown in the Magdalene painting.

The Meiningen and Leningrad paintings point toward a possible two-voice performance of “Jouyssance.” In these, the flautists play the tenor and the singers perform from the cantus sheet music. This is also a significant offering of iconography. No arrangement of the tenor and cantus is known, but by looking at these paintings and the Copenhagen manuscript reasons that a duet of the tenor and cantus would make sense.[li] These parts do fit together in both a contrapuntal and harmonic manner.[lii]

The information gathered from the musical iconography of these paintings is used to support many theories and ideas concerning the history of Claudin and Marot’s chanson “Jouyssance vous donneray.” Through an analysis of this, more is also understood concerning the place in history of composer, poet, and the painters. To understand the implications and meanings of the Master of the Female Half-Lengths’ paintings, we are forced to delve into the history of this period’s music, art, and society for answers. Unfortunately, what is found will never comprehensively explain their importance.

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[i] H. Solin Slim, “Paintings of Lady Concerts and the Transmission of ‘Jouissance vous donneray,’” Imago

Musicae I, Ed. Tilman Seebass (Dunham: Duke University Press, 1984) 51.

[ii] Slim 51.

[iii] Slim 51.

[iv] Slim 51.

[v] Isabelle Caseaux, The Secular Music of Claudin de Sermisy (Ann Arobor: University Microfilms, Inc.,

1970) 72.

[vi] Slim 56.

[vii] Slim 56.

[viii] Slim 51-54.

[ix] Slim 56.

[x] Slim 56.

[xi] Isabelle Caseaux, “Sermisy, Claudin de,” The New Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Ed.

Stanley Sadic (Washington D.C.: Grove’s Dictionaries of Music, Inc., 1980) 174.

[xii] Donald Jay Grout and Claude Palisca, A History of Western Music (New York: W.W. Norton and

Company, 1996) 207.

[xiii] Jane A. Bernstein, ed., French Chansons of the Sixteenth Century (University Park: The Pennsylvania

State University Press, 1985) 17.

[xiv] Bernstein 17.

[xv] Grout and Palisca 208.

[xvi] Grout and Palisca 208.

[xvii] Caseaux, Secular 5.

[xviii] Caseaux, “Sermisy” 171.

[xix] Caseaux, Secular 2.

[xx] Caseaux, “Sermisy” 171.

[xxi] Bernstein 17.

[xxii] Frank Dobbins, “Marot, Clement,” The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley

Sadic (Washington D.C.: Grove’s Dictionaries, Inc., 1980) 695.

[xxiii] Bernstein 17.

[xxiv] Bernstein 17.

[xxv] Bernstein 17.

[xxvi] Bernstein 86.

[xxvii] Bernstein 95.

[xxviii] Bernstein 66.

[xxix] Slim 54.

[xxx] Slim 56.

[xxxi] Slim 58.

[xxxii] Slim 58.

[xxxiii] Slim 51.

[xxxiv] Slim 52.

[xxxv] Slim 54.

[xxxvi] Slim 54.

[xxxvii] Slim 54.

[xxxviii] Slim 51.

[xxxix] Slim 52.

[xl] Slim 58.

[xli] Slim 58.

[xlii] Slim 52.

[xliii] Slim 52.

[xliv] Slim 60.

[xlv] Slim 60.

[xlvi] Slim 58.

[xlvii] Slim 62.

[xlviii] Slim 62.

[xlix] Slim 62.

[l] Slim 62.

[li] Slim 62.

[lii] Slim 62.