Robert de Reims

Known as “La Chièvre de Reims,” Robert de Reims was among the earliest trouvères—poet-composers who were contemporaries of the troubadours, but who wrote their works in the northern dialects of France. This critical edition provides new translations into English and Modern French of all the songs and motets attributed to him, along with the original texts, the extant melodies, and a substantive introduction.

Active sometime between 1190 and 1220, Robert de Reims was an influential figure in the literary circles of Arras. There are thirteen compositions set to music attributed to him, including nine chansons (songs) and four polyphonic motets that show broad dissemination in the thirteenth century and beyond. Robert’s work is exceptional on a number of fronts. His poetry is known for acoustic luxuriance and expertise in rhyming, grounded in the play of echoes and variations. He is the earliest trouvère known to have composed a sotte chanson contre Amours (silly song against Love), and his lyrics feature the first specimens of intensive echo rhyming. Located clearly at the nexus of monophonic song and polyphony, Robert’s corpus also poses the intriguing question of trouvère participation in the development of the polyphonic repertory.

The case of Robert de Reims jostles and tempers the standard history of the chanson and the motet. Accessible and instructive, this trilingual critical edition of his complete works makes the oeuvre of this innovative and consequential trouvère available in one volume for the first time.