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Le Tournoi de Chauvency, written circa 1285 by the French poet Jacques Bretel, is a narration of a courtly celebration in the Lorraine region of France, and the inspiration for “The Night’s Tale”. Our performance evokes a day’s festivities at the chateau of Chauvency. Daylight is the domain of men, who joust and fight in ritual encounters; when night falls, women converse in music and dance, far from the masculine violence of the daytime. Mutual desire aroused during the day culminates in the evening’s rites — aggressive and courtly, passionate and playful.

Program Notes
by Anne Azéma

Tonight’s performance has its roots in Europe, and is the fruit of a residency for Anne Azéma and the Aziman Ensemble at the Arsenal of Metz, France. This musical production, as well as its first staged version, Le Tournoi de Chauvency, is centered around a rare and important manuscript from the Metz region. “The Night’s Tale” was created in 2007 in Metz, and was a coproduction of several institutions: L’Arsenal, Le Couvent, K617, Fondation Banque BNPParibas, France Telecom, Le Grand Théatre Luxembourg, and the Festival of Bar le Duc, and others.

Why the focus on the Tournoi de Chauvency?

The first reason is the intrinsic interest of the manuscript — Oxford Bodleian, Douce 308 – that contains the Tournoi. This manuscript is an important source for the understanding of medieval society, from many points of view — literary, historical, visual, aesthetic, and musical. It reveals much about medieval love relationships, and their social context. The Tournoi text, a rhymed narrative of over four thousand lines, relates with verve and evident relish a weeklong program of combats and jousts, and the amorous exchanges of a privileged, youthful European «crowd». Within this narrative are to be found the keys to a vastly important code of behavior, what we now call the system of Courtly Love.

Meaning, more precisely, what? Briefly, this system or code signifies something new in feudal society: the possibility of a love relationshiop between two equal partners. Unlike the more rigid and tribal view of marriage so widespread in medieval society, in this ethos one partner or the other is free to accept or refuse the suit of the other.

The tournament or ritual combat – whether it be physical or metaphorical – is, within the Courtly Love framework, one of the steps which can lead the two partners to the plenitude of a shared love. “Love makes one heart from two,” says Jacques Bretel, author of the Tournoi de Chauvency.

The steps required towards this yearned-for union are:

• Waiting for the Other, he or she who can ask the key question (Homage)
• The Test through combat or struggle (physical or poetic/spiritual)
• And finally the response, the Gift, freely offered, permitting a union in Love.

These steps correpond, approximately, to the different chapters of our program.

There are certain constants in human nature. Our own society, justly preoccupied with increasing the chances for equality in so many domains, can take inspiration from this audacious-for-its-time medieval experiment, and its blend of old and new insights into a universal quest.

Yet another reason for our interest in the Tournoi is its vivid, evocation of music, dance, and festivity. But for all that, the manuscript itself contains not a single scrap of notated music. To make our project function in the here and now, the source itself urges us on. It obliges us, performers already familiar with many dimensions of medieval music, to push our inquiries still further, and to create something new based on the skills we have already acquired in more familiar, less enigmatic contexts. Important among these is the practice, widespread already in the Middle Ages, of adapting or « twinning » new texts to already-existing medieval melodies. Using this and other techniques we set out to create a new performance piece, meant to give delight and pleasure, guided every step of the way by Jean Bretel’s narrative, so generous and detailed in its descriptions of the festive music and dance at Chauvency circa 1310.

We cannot, of course, recreate with total precision the music of 1310. Even as we procede with as much care and respect for our sources as possible, using Douce 308 and other related manuscripts of the period, we hope to avoid the pitfalls of pseudo-historicism. Many decisions about performance style and manner must, of necessity, be supplied by the performers and by the Artistic Director; we embrace the large responsibility of making such decisions with humility, but also with enthusiasm and joy. What we present to you is a work for our time, drawing, we hope, on the incredible life force that emerges from the manuscript’s folios, redirecting this magnificent force, to the best of our abilities, into our own ears, minds, and hearts.

Anne Azéma, 2007 – 2016 -2020
Translation: Joel Cohen