Josquin's Je me complains should be interpreted as a mock lament because the last line of text and music is a quotation from a bawdy ditty La belle Tricotée, a tune famous since medieval times. The tune Josquin borrows is also used in three other works, all of which are written to different words but in most cases hold the text "la tricotée fut par matin levée" in common. These pieces include the tenor part of a three-voice chanson from the mid-fifteenth century in Bologna Q. 15, a contratenor part from a three-voice quodlibet in Escorial IV.a.24, and an upper voice of La tricotea Samártin la vea, a Spanish reworking of the tune. The term "tricotée" has often been translated as "knitting," but it is actually a term applied to a lively dance from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries.

Works: Josquin: Je me complains (1-8); Anonymous: Belle tenes moy la promesse/La triquotée est par matin levée (3), Rolet ara la tricoton/Maistre Piere/La tricotée (3), La tricotea Samártin la vea (3-4).

Sources: Anonymous: La belle Tricotée (1-8).

Index Classifications: 1400s

Contributed by: Mary Ellen Ryan