Hugues de Berzé (EN)

Hugues de Berzé, de Bregi, *probably between 1150 and 1155, †before 8 August 1220, French trouvère. He was from Berzé-le-Châtel near Mâcon (Saône-et-Loire department) in Burgundy. According to Geoffroi de Villenhardouin’s Conqueste de Constantinople (after 1207 or 1212–18), “Hues ae Bregi li peres et li fils” attended the council at Cîteaux in September 1201 and pledged to take part in the Fourth Crusade. In 1202, Hugues set out on a journey to Constantinople; he was certainly still in the Middle East in 1204–05. He returned to France around 1216. As indicated by the dedication of the song Lonc tens ai servi en balance and the text of Bernant, di moi Fouquet qu’en trient a sage, among Hugues’s friends were Huon de Saint-Denis and the troubadour Folquet de Romans. Hugues may also have been acquainted with the troubadour Guiot de Provins, who was in the service of Count Geoffroi (?) de Mâcon, whose Bible he imitated in La bible au seigneur de Berzé. Hugues’s connections with Provencal authors are further supported by the fact that his chanson de croisade S’onques nus hom por dure departie, along with a few other French songs, has been preserved in Provencal sources.

Among the songs of Hugues, the oldest trouvère from Burgundy, the most outstanding work is considered to be the chanson de croisade S’onques nus hom por dure departie, which has been preserved in as many as 16 French and Provençcl manuscripts (including 10 sources with melodies). The song texts usually have a strophic structure akin to sequential forms, consisting of isometric stanzas of 7 or 8 lines, with individual lines typically comprising 10 syllables. Their musical arrangements take the form ABCDEB1C1D1 (S’onques nus hom por dure dpartie), AA1B B1CDED1 (Encor ferai une chancon perdue) or ABB1 (the remaining pieces) and are characterised by a predominantly ascending melodic direction. The song Ausi eon cil qui cuevre sa pesance, preserved in one of the manuscripts in a mensural version, is in the third rhythmic mode. Hugues is also attributed with the moralising poem La bible au seigneur de Berzé, which condemns the actions of the clergy and the laity.

Literature: K. Engelcke Die Lieder des H. de Brégy, Rostock 1885, reprint “Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literatur” LXXV, 1886; J. Bédier, P. Aubry Les chansons de croisade, Paris 1909; F. Gennrich Das Frankfurter Fragmente einer altfranzösischen Liederhandschrifi, “Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie” XLII, 1922; F. Gennrich Grundriss einer Formenlehre des mittelalterlichen Liedes als Grundlage einer musikalischen Formenlehre des Liedes, Halle 1932, reprint Tübingen 1970; F. Lecoy Pour la chronologie de Hugues de Berzé, “Romania” LVII, 1942/43; Troubadours, Trouvères, Minnesang und Meistergesang, ed. F. Gennrich, «Das Musikwerk» II, Cologne 1951, English translation 1960 (includes Lonc tens ai servi en balance).