10/19/2011 5:52:00 PM
October 2011. Draft Specifications for TEI project on Du Chemin Chanson Texts
Oct 19 2011 Meeting:
David Fiala, Richard Freedman, Vincent Besson, Toshinori Uetani
I. Goals: TEI encodings and texts of Du Chemin chansonniers.

In the NEH grant proposal, we promised to edit the texts of the chansonniers,
building on the work that David Fiala has already done with his students in
Filemaker. The main goals of this work included:

A. Editions of the texts, in a regularized form representing our editorial
consensus on the 'best text' of the chanson. These will correspond to the base
texts used in our modern editions.

B. "Critical" treatment of the texts, in various ways permitted by time and
resources. This work aims to show:
o
1. Each text really has four "instances" in each Du Chemin chansonnier
(S,A, T, B). How do the literary texts in the various voice parts of the Du
Chemin books differ from each other in terms of orthography,
punctuation?
o
2. Republications of the same chanson. In the case of those musical
settings that also appear in _other_ musical books of the sixteenth
century, how do the readings of the literary texts we find there compare
with Du Chemin's editions?
[In any case we will be looking at these
republications to compile critical notes on the _music_ too.]
o
3. Non-musical sources of the texts. Of the 380 chansons in the Du
Chemin corpus (16 books of chansons nouvelles), about 60 of the poems
(perhaps 20%) also appear in various non-musical sources. How do the
texts of these sources compare with those as set to music in Du Chemin's
books?

1. One approach for this part of the project would be to edit _only_
those texts from Du Chemin that also appear in some literary
source (that is: 60 texts)

2. Another approach would be to select a small number of
_important_ literary sources to be edited in their entirety by the
Newberry team, and also presented in digital form.

C. Research Questions. Taken together, the "best text" and the "critical"
versions will allow us to open the project to various sorts of research questions,
such as:
o
1. Analysis and interpretation of the musical setting. Seeing the poem in
a line-by-line format, with basic analysis of rhyme scheme and meter can
be an important aid to analysis and interpretation.
o
2. Comparison of settings of the same poem by different composers.
o
3. Citation and quotation. Comparison of chansons related by chansonresponse-replique tradition. We might also discover new pieces related in
this way, since we can search for individual lines throughout poems, and
just incipits. [Note that the MEI system will later on allow discovery of
_musical_ quotation and citation.]
o
4. Extra stanzas that do not otherwise appear in the chansonnier.
o
5. Cases in which the chanson text is a _refrain_ of some longer poem
(like a rondeau).
o
6. Publication history of the texts, and how they circulated.

Did they appear first in musical books, and then in literary
anthologies? When reprinted, how did they change? Any
relationship between the organization of the musical sources and
the literary ones?

In cases where the literary text was published first, in what context
did it appear? Are there other stanzas? Is it part of a narrative?

Are there illustrations or other "presentational" qualities of the
literary texts that reveal something about the readers and users of
these sources?

D. Visualization. Looking ahead to the encoding and presentation in digital
form . . .We would like to be able to see/compare any of these with 'choice'
functions:
o
Text as determined by modern editor (that is, corresponding to the base
text presented in the musical edition)
o
Text as "presented" in chansonnier, that is, already interpreted via certain
types of division, repetition, prolongation.
o
Text as it appeared in some sixteenth-century literary (non musical)
source, which might or might not correspond to the "musical" treatment
o
Views that could highlight differences, such:

Ways in which the "musical" poem departs from printed ones (like
variants, or extra verses)

Ways in which the musical poem departs among the individual
voice parts (orthography or punctuation, or wording)
o

Views that could highlight similarities, such as:

Citation and quotation (of text)

Similar form, or rhyme scheme, or refrain structure

Similar poetic or literary themes
E. Research notes.
o
It should also be possible to for readers to keep or use the results of their
searches in various ways--as part of research notes, and perhaps as
"quotable" texts in publications.

_Cite_ specific texts, and cite particular views (could thus appear
as a quotation in some other argument)

_Collect_ texts of interest.

II. Editorial principles as of 2010

We have already articulated our policies for our editions of the chansons done
during 2010 and 2011. How should these change for the next stage of work?
o
For our musical editions: See Document:
EditorialPrinciplesDuChemin_05.docx
o
For the text editions: See Document:
EditorialPrinciplesDuChemin_05.docx
III. Mark-up principles for 2011-13.

A. Features of the text as it appears in the chansonnier could include:
o
Original . . .

title pages

composer attribution, voice part designation, pagination, collation

decorative initials

orthography of literary text

punctuation

capitalization

accents

"e" 'barré'

internal repetition of words in each voice part.

signs for repetition to be supplied by the performer, but no
indication of which words

line breaks (really, these are determined by music!)
o
A regularized version, according to majority rules as we employ in edited
chanson.
o
Analytic information (meta-data?)

analysis of rhyme, meter

analysis of musical form (repetition of music for parallel verses or
couplets, reprises)

B. Features of literary sources we might want to encode
o

Original . . .

title pages

pagination, collation

decorative initials

illustrations

orthography of literary text

punctuation

capitalization

accents

all stanzas of poems

line breaks
C. The overall schema should also include fields that would allow us to
o
Integrate any TEI encoding with MEI or MusicXML encodings, linked in
some way by special fields as "related".
o
Allow reference to digital images, both of literary sources, and of our Du
Chemin sources.
o
References to other CESR tools, like the Ricercar projects, and BVH.
o
Spaces for bibliographical references to discussion of these
texts/compositions.
o
References to recordings.
10/19/2011 5:52:00 PM
10/19/2011 5:52:00 PM