The Chansonniers of Nicholas Du Chemin (1549-1551): A Digital Forum for Renaissance Music Books

FAIN: HD-50422-08

Haverford College (Haverford, PA 19041-1392)
Richard Freedman (Project Director: April 2008 to November 2010)

Development of an open source bilingual database and collaborative digital forum to facilitate research and scholarly exchange about Renaissance music.

The digital environment offers much that might advance the study, teaching, and performance of early music. Focusing on a neglected but important repertory of chansons from mid-sixteenth-century Paris, this unique project will put old books before a diverse audience of modern scholars and musicians in ways that will prompt renewed understanding of these cultural artifacts and their meanings. Our work will advance scholarship and serious study of Renaissance music in several related ways, offering a searchable image archive, an innovative electronic display for music books, commentaries and examples, and tools for research, transcription and collaboration.

Associated Products

Les livres de Chansons nouvelles de Nicolas Du Chemin (1549-1568) (Web Resource)
Title: Les livres de Chansons nouvelles de Nicolas Du Chemin (1549-1568)
Author: Philippe Vendrix
Author: Richard Freedman
Abstract: Focusing on a neglected but important repertory of polyphonic songs from mid-sixteenth-century France, this unique project puts old books before a diverse audience of modern scholars and musicians in ways that will prompt renewed understanding of these cultural artifacts and their meanings. It is dedicated to sixteen sets of books expertly crafted by the Parisian printer Nicholas Du Chemin between 1549 and 1568. In them, we can trace changing literary tastes, musical fashions, and above all the impact of the relatively new medium of printing on musical culture of the day. Here readers will find facsimiles of all sixteen sets of books, plus modern transcriptions, scholarly commentaries, and tools for research. There are also links to related projects sponsored by the CESR, including a broader database of the sixteenth-century chanson repertory, a project devoted to the reconstruction of pieces with missing voice parts, and another devoted to the study and editing of the literary texts of the chansons themselves. All of this has been assembled under a number of headings designed to encourage researchers, students, and performers to explore the rich world of the chanson at mid century. We invite readers to make productive use of these resources, and to tell us about what you have learned from them.
Year: 2010
Primary URL: http://ricercar.cesr.univ-tours.fr/3-programmes/EMN/duchemin/index.htm

The Chansonniers of Nicolas Du Chemin: A Digital Forum for Renaissance Music Books (Article)
Title: The Chansonniers of Nicolas Du Chemin: A Digital Forum for Renaissance Music Books
Author: Philippe Vendrix
Author: Richard Freedman
Abstract: Report on the methods and challenges of a new digital archive for the study of sixteenth-century music books. Documents methods, challenges, and standards in the context of the Music Encoding Initiative (MEI) and related XML-based standards.
Year: 2011
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Die Tonkunst. Magazin für klassische Music und Musikwissenschaft, Jhrg 5 (2011), 284-88.
Publisher: Henle (Munich)

Filling the Gaps (Article)
Title: Filling the Gaps
Author: Theodore Dumitrescu
Author: Richard Freedman
Abstract: Report on a conference-workshop devoted to the reconstruction of fragmentary repertories of Renaissance music, held at the CESR in Tours, France in October 2010.
Year: 2011
Primary URL: http://em.oxfordjournals.org/content/39/1.toc
Primary URL Description: Website for Early Music (Oxford University Press)
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Early Music 39 (2011), 140-42.
Publisher: Oxford University Press

The Renaissance Chanson Goes Digital: digitalduchemin.org (Article)
Title: The Renaissance Chanson Goes Digital: digitalduchemin.org
Author: Freedman, Richard
Abstract: The sixteen volumes of four-voice Chansons nouvelles published in Paris by Nicolas Du Chemin between 1549 and 1568 contain some 380 chansons by composers like Clément Janequin, Claude Goudimel, Etienne Du Tertre and two dozen of their contemporaries. Yet the full richness of the Du Chemin series remains largely unexplored by musicologists on two counts: large portions of it have never appeared in modern notation or score, and the final five books of the series survive in an incomplete state (with two of four original voice parts missing). The Lost Voices Project explores the missing voices through the stylistic profile of the corpus as a whole. A thesaurus of musical devices provides a common vocabulary for a searchable database of thousands of analytic observations about the complete pieces. These in turn provide the foundation for dozens of reconstructions of the missing parts. All of this material is presented in a dynamic interface (using the Music Encoding Initiative standard and other open-source tools) that permits users to sort and display the results of their searches, from individual analytic observations to entire pieces (including dynamic presentation of variant readings, emendations, and alternative reconstructions). Users accounts provide space for private notes and public discussions about individual works. Downloadable facsimiles, engraved modern editions of the complete chansons, and MP3 recordings of the set round out the project.
Year: 2014
Primary URL: http://em.oxfordjournals.org/content/42/4/567
Access Model: Subscription
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Early Music
Publisher: Oxford University Press

Musicology Now (American Musicological Society News Blog) (Blog Post)
Title: Musicology Now (American Musicological Society News Blog)
Author: Holoman, Kern D.
Abstract: Report on The Lost Voices Project and its novel approach to collaborative work in musicology.
Date: 9/26/2014
Primary URL: http://musicologynow.ams-net.org/2014/09/lost-voices.html
Website: Musicology Now (American Musicological Society)

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