Relocating the Thirteenth-Century Refrain: Intertextuality, Authority and Origins

Abstract

This article provides a revisionist account of thirteenth-century refrain use, challenging the presumed connection between the refrain and oral song traditions. The distribution patterns in the surviving sources reveal no strong connection between refrain use and the rondet, the song genre often posited as the refrain's point of origin. Further, a significant corpus of refrains circulated only within the motet repertory, independently of monophonic song. Close comparison of refrain concordances in surviving sources reveals careful attention on the part of composers and scribes to the preservation of their melodic identity. Together, these findings suggest new contexts for understanding the refrain. The author relocates refrain use within clerical practices of quotation, particularly auctoritas, exploring case studies in which refrains are interpreted exegetically. In motets, chansons avec des refrains and a vernacular translation of Ovid's Ars amatoria, refrains are treated as sources of vernacular knowledge and objects of commentary.