Claude Gervaise wrote three- and four-part chansons. Those in four parts are freely composed in a progressive style while the three-part chansons use borrowed material in the tradition of earlier pedagogical tricinia. These traditional pieces are composed in one of three ways: 1. use of a cantus firmus plus completely new material; 2. combination of cantus firmus with parodied material from the model with little or no concern for originality; 3. combination of cantus firmus and parodied material with significant original contributions. Gervaise's three-part compositions fall in this last category. Gervaise may have learned these particular borrowing techniques from Thilman Susato's Premier livre of 1544. Gervaise wrote these chansons for the inexperienced singer yet retained his artistic integrity in the process. Like no other composer of sixteenth-century chansons, Gervaise borrows his material according to a consistent set of compositional principles.

Works: Gervaise: Aultant que moy (366), Mon Pencement (367), M'amye est tant honneste (368), Au temps heureux (369), D'Amour me plains (369), Si l'on doibt prendre (370), Las! je sçay bien (370).

Index Classifications: 1500s

Contributed by: John F. Anderies