Caron's Chansons

This page contains links to diplomatic editions of Caron's songs and accompanying notes. You should also refer to the catalogue of works for transmission details of each song.

Editorial principles

The editions are presented in computer-generated mensural notation representing as close as possible the original notation. Editorial additions consist of small accidentals added above the notes to indicate instances of what today is generally referred to a musica ficta (although many accidentals of this type indicate the either the hard or soft hexachord in musica recta). Text underlay is editorial and does not attempt to present the underlay in the original. Underlaid text in italics is not found in the source but has been supplied by the editor. A general editorial principal that is open to debate is the underlaying of all voices with text. While there are no unequivocal indications for most of Caron's (and most mid- to late- fifteenth century) chansons as to whether lower lines were performed vocal or instrumentally, the use of imitation across lines invites speculation that all lines were sung to the same text. The actual performance forces suitable for performing these chansons is not at issue here, although the editor suggests vocal performance across all lines with one or two voices per line.

Texts have been edited by the addition of marks of elision, e.g. maves to m'aves. Original orthographies in pertinent sources have be retained. Modern French diacritical marks, however, are avoided. The first word beginning a text is capitalised and punctuation is always editorial.

Sound files of the following Chansons are available.

  1. Accueilly m'a la belle — [Diplomatic edition (PDF, 46.75 KB)]
  2. C'est temps perdu [Diplomatic edition (PDF, 58.74 KB)]
  3. Mort ou mercy [Diplomatic edition (PDF, 29.38 KB)]
  4. O vie fortunee [Diplomatic edition (PDF, 72 KB)]
  5. Pour tant se mon voloir s'est mis [Diplomatic edition (PDF, 85.25 KB)]
  6. Se brief je puys madame voir [Diplomatic edition (PDF, 92.75 KB)]
  7. S'il est ainsi que plus je ne vous voye [Diplomatic edition (PDF, 99 KB)]
  8. Vous n'aves point le cueur certain [Diplomatic edition (PDF, 70.87 KB)]

Legal Notice: These editions are provided free of charge to users and remain the intellectual property of Jason Stoessel. Their reproduction is permitted for purposes of personal research and use in educational contexts. Their reproduction in commercial publications of any type is prohibited by Australian Legislation without prior written approval from the editor. Permission to use these editions for musical performances is freely granted but permission must be sought from the editor for their use in commercially recorded performances.