Guiot de Dijon

Guiot de Dijon (fl. 1215–25) was a Burgundian trouvère. The seventeen chansons ascribed to him are found in two chansonniers: the Chansonnier du Roi and the less reliable Berne Chansonnier. According to the online edition of the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Guiot was "technically fluent [and] successfully used a wide variety of poetic structures[, but] is seldom imaginative."

Guiot, presumably from Dijon, was patronised by Erard II de Chassenay, who participated in the Fifth Crusade but was back in Europe in 1220.

Four of Guiot's songs—Amours m'a si enseignié, Quant je plus voi felon rire, Joie ne guerredon, and Quant li dous estés—have two distinct melodies in the chansonniers, and it is impossible to determine which, if either, is Guiot's invention. One late setting of Quant je plus is notable among trouvère melodies for being through-composed and in Franconian notation. Overall, Guiot's melodies are usually identified as those appearing in bar form, which all end on the same note and have a common tessitura.

Guiot probably modelled Chanter m'estuet, coment que me destraigne after the Occitan song Si be·m sui loing et entre gent estraigna by the troubadour Peirol. The song Penser ne doit vilanie sometimes attributed to him served as a model for the anonymous De penser a vilanie.

List of songs

In only two cases is the ascription of a song to Guiot corroborated by a second source. Usually an ascription in a single source is contradicted by other ascriptions in other sources. The ascriptions of at least two songs without competing attributions have been doubted by modern scholars: Chanter m'estuet pour la plus bele and Chanterai por mon corage.

Generally attributed

• Amours m'a si enseignié
• Bien doi chanter quant fine Amour m'enseigne, no music
• Chanter m'estuet, coment que me destraigne
• Chanter m'estuet pour la plus bele, no music
• Chanterai por mon corage, unique setting in the Chansonnier Cangé
• Helas, qu'ai forfait a la gent
• Li dous tens noviaus qui revient, no music
• Quant je plus voi felon rire

Uncertain authorship

• De moi douloureus vos chant
• Joie ne guerredon d'amours
• Penser ne doit vilanie
• Quant li dous estés define
• Quant voi la flor botoner, no music
• Uns maus k'ainc mes ne senti

References

• Karp, Theodore C. "Guiot de Dijon." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Accessed 20 September 2008.