Cueurs desolez: Josquin, La Rue and a lament for Anne de Foix

Abstract

Abstract Two different courtiers are mourned in laments with similar texts that begin ‘Cueurs desolez’. One is a complete rondeau that appears anonymously in a chansonnier of Margaret of Austria, and Pierre de La Rue is the probable composer. The other musical setting is ascribed to Josquin, which provides only the text of a rondeau refrain. The complete text survives in a poetry collection prepared at the French royal court around 1510, Lille, Bibliothèque Municipale, Ms. 402. The full text reveals an acrostic on the family title of Anne de Foix (d.1506), and the rondeau is apparently a lament for her. Josquin is unlikely as the composer, but the newly identified dedicatee sheds fresh light on chronology for the two laments. The study offers a brief survey of acrostics in chanson poetry, and examines particular cases of acrostics and word play in the chansons of Dionisius Prioris. The latter is proposed as a possible composer of the lament for Anne de Foix.