Medieval France
(fl. ca. 1185–1210). The most illustrious early trouvère, born into the lower nobility of Champagne, Gace has been credited with the most extensive corpus of monophonic compositions in Old French. The over eighty texts, the great majority surviving with their melodies, are almost all courtly chansons in a style derived from the Provençal tradition. Their usual theme, persistent but unrequited and despairing love for a socially superior lady, is often interwoven with the theme of poetic and musical creation: loving and singing express each other. Though almost nothing is known of Gace’s life, it is clear that his circle included other major lyric poets and that his patrons—Marie de Champagne, first of all—were among the most powerful feudal figures of his time. Textual and melodic evidence shows that he was widely admired and emulated by both contemporary and later trouvères, in Germany as well as France.
Samuel N.Rosenberg
[See also: TROUVÈRE POETRY]
Gace Brulé.
Gace Brulé, trouvère champenois: édition des chansons et étude historique, ed. Holger Petersen Dyggve. Helsinki, 1951.
——. The Lyrics and Melodies of Gace Brulé, ed. and trans. Samuel N.Rosenberg, Samuel Danon, and Hendrik van der Werf. New York: Garland, 1985.
van der Werf, Hendrik, ed. Trouvères-Melodien I. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1977, pp. 315–554.
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