Jehan de Lescurel

As a cleric at Notre Dame Jehannot was hanged for debauchery. He left a number of ballades and other vocal work dominated by the monophonic setting. An exception to this was the rondeaux "A vous, douce debonaire" scored for three voices. His "diz entes" (long poems with nine-line stanzas) were arranged in triple time. The ballades, however, were poems of six to ten lines with a refrain consisting of one to two lines. Characteristics of his music included quickly repeated single notes with an occasional flair for word painting. The literal texture of his melodic shaping (i.e., curves in the melodic line) were used to convey the love that was stated in the textual materials. Modally Jehannot preferred the Lydian (and the Hypolydian on C) and to some extent The Dorian. ~ Keith Johnson