oa Text and Context in the Leuven Chansonnier

Examination of the texts of the Leuven Chansonnier songs shows a higher than usual emphasis on the standard sentiments of courtly love, mirroring the social norms of the time and highlighting men’s greater freedom of movement, expression, and access to anger. Support is also found for David Burn’s suggestion that the original recipient may have been female: the large number of songs in a woman’s voice, including several less well-known works; the presence of a rare female version of Tout a par moy; and the positioning of several of the songs in both the manuscript proper and the index. A wider consideration of women’s songs highlights the disproportionate percentage of these among the most popular French models for art-song reworkings, the unexpectedly significant position of female-voiced songs in Ockeghem’s output, and the possibility of a personal connection between female voice and male composer in pieces with named composers.