Abstract

In this essay, the author addresses the question of melodic variance in Old French song from the perspective of editing such songs in ways that not only preserve but highlight variance as a core aesthetic principle. In so doing, he attempts to show how music and text must gain equal attention in editorial matters—the two may never be separated at any time, except in the most artificial and provisonal ways—in determining significant variance. He then turns attention to how such principles might be made more apparent in critical editions of trouvère lyric. In conclusion, he posits that variance must not be hidden in notes and marginalia, but rather pushed to forefront of the editorial enterprise, as variance becomes the foundational principle on which the trouvère art is—somewhat paradoxically—built.

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