Gennrich's Bibliographisches Verzeichnis der franzosischen Refrains: tiger or fat cat?

Gennrich's Bibliographisches Verzeichnis der franzosischen Refrains: tiger or fat cat? Aims The aim of this paper is to investigate the way scholars have interpreted the term 'refrain', which appears in French c. 1260, and compare this with what actually happens in the manuscripts. The author will examine what light a previously little-exploredfieldof scholarship, the textual punctuation in motet manuscripts, might shed on this whole problematical area. These evasive, elusive examples of piracy, the 'refrains', reveal as much about aspects of motet composition as they do about cultural transmission. What is more, they reveal a complex interweaving between these areas. Criteria for Classification The refrain is of great importance in any study of the thirteenth-century French motet, since so many motets contain refrain lines. A study of the refrain is crucial to the establishment of certain text lines, their lengths and rhyme schemes. However, despite studies by so many scholars, no consensus has been reached on what constitutes a refrain in the motet and what does not.1 There is 'Karl Bartsch, Geistliche Umdichtung weltlicher Lieder, Zeitschrift fiir romanische Philologie 8, 1884, 570-85; idem, Recensionen und Anzeigen, Zeitschrift fiir romanische Philologie 8, 1884, 456-64; Nico H. J. van den Boogaard, ed., Rondeaux et refrains du XHe siecle au debut du XTVe, Paris, 1969; Maureen B. McC. Boulton, Lyric Insertion in French Narrative Fiction in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Oxford, 1979; Maria V. Coldwell, Guillaume de Dole and Medieval Romances with Musical Interpolations, Musica Disciplina 35, 1986, 55-86; Eglal Doss-Quinby, Les Refrains chez les trouveres du Xlle siecle au debut du XP/e, Ph. D. dissertation, N e w York University, 1982; Mark Everist, The Refrain Cento - Myth or Motet?, paper presented at the conference Notre Dame et son Rayonnement, Royaument, 3-5 July, 1987; idem, The Rondeau Motet: Paris and Artois in the Thirteenth Century, Music and Letters 69, 1988, 1-22; Maria V. Fowler, Musical Interpolations in Thirteenth- and Fourteenth-Century French Narratives, Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University, 1979; Friedrich Gennrich, Bibliographisches Verzeichnis der franzosischen Refrains, des 12. und 13. Jahrhunderts, Langen, 1964; idem, Refrain-Studien, Zeitchrift fur romanische Philologie 71, 1955, 365-90; idem, ed., Rondeaux, Virelais und Balladen aus dem Ende des XII., dem XIII. und dem ersten Drittel des XIV. Jahrhunderts mit dem iiberlieferten Melodien, vol. 2, Materialen, Literaturnachweise, Refrainverzeichnis, Halle a.S., 1921-27, 2; Susan Johnson, The Role of the Refrain in Old French Lyric Poetry, Ph. D. dissertation, Indiana University, 1983; Anne Ladd, Lyric Insertions in Thirteenth-Century French Narrative, Ph. D. dissertation, Yale University, 1973; Rudolf Meyer, Die in unseren Motetten enthaltenen Refrains, in Albert Stimming, Die altfranzosischen Motette der Bamberger Handschrift, Gesellschaft fur romanische Literatur, vol. 13, Dresden, 1906, 141-84; Herta Orenstein, Die Refrainformen im Chansonnier de I'Arsenal (Paris, Bibliotheque de I'Arsenal 5198) - Ein Beitrag zur Formenlehre der Troubadour- und Trouvere-Melodie, Musicological Studies vol. 19, New York, 1939; Gaston Raynaud, Bibliographie des chansonniers francais desXllle et XTVe siecles, comprenant la description de tous les manuscrits, la table des 74 R. Smith stiU a need to identify and give a complete account of the refrains, for Romance scholars have not as yet studied all aspects or formed a complete list. Recent research shows that many scholars have tended to accept those verses as 'refrains' merely by virtue of their having been given refrain numbers by Boogaard and Gennrich. Yet the identification, classification and functioning of refrains pose complex philological and musical problems.2 Gennrich has listed many verses which he has taken to be refrains without giving his criteria for inclusion, and both Boogaard and Gennrich have rejected some without reason. Suggestions need to be made towards establishing valid criteria. Where possible, refrains in this paper will be given with Boogaard and Gennrich numbers; for example, Rf. 750/1406 refers to refrain No. 750 in Boogaard's list, and refrain No. 1406 in Gennrich's. All refrains are marked by italics. Naturally, the first question to ask is what is a 'refrain?' In rondeaux (and virelais of the type which has common features with them), this term is applied to the line or couplet which is...