[+] Pesce, Dolores. "Beyond Glossing: The Old Made New in Mout me fu grief/Robin m'aime/Portare." In Hearing the Motet: Essays on the Motet of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, ed. Dolores Pesce, 28-51. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1997.
The motet Mout me fu grief/Robin m'aime/Portare illustrates how composers of the late thirteenth century used and combined borrowed texts and tunes. The motetus is the rondeau Robin m'aime; the tenor uses a Portare chant fragment that contains a dual focus between the pitches c and g; and the triplum contains four fragments borrowed from an earlier motet. In Mout me fu grief/Robin m'aime/Portare, the tonal plan of the motet is informed by the motetus, causing changes to be made in the tenor and triplum. Although the chant is often thought to be the "immutable foundation" upon which a motet is constructed, evidence shows that composers thought of it as merely one strand in the polyphonic web. The texts of this motet interact in such a way as to suggest linkages between Mary and the Cross, joy and sorrow, and the Song of Songs tradition of human love as a metaphor for divine love.
Works: Anonymous: Mout me fu grief/Robin m'aime/Portare (30-40).
Sources: Alleluia Dulce lignum (29-34, 38-40); Adam de la Halle: Robin m'aime (28, 30-31, 37-38); Four passages from Montpellier, Bibliothèque Interuniversitaire, Section Médecine, MS H.196 3, 37 (36-37).
Index Classifications: Polyphony to 1300
Contributed by: Felix Cox
