- Jeu parti
Jeu parti [Fr.;
Provençal "joc partit," “partimen ”] . A debate or dialogue in the form of a poem. According to Guilhem Molinier, the author of "Las leys d'amors," a 13th-century treatise on how to write poetry in the style of thetroubadour s, there is a clear difference between a partimen and a "tenso ": in a partimen the first speaker presents a problem with two possible solutions, leaving his opponent the choice of which solution to defend while taking it upon himself to defend the opposite side; thus, the participants each defend a theory not out of conviction but for the sake of discussion. The theorist admitted that the two terms were often used the wrong way.Not only did the troubadours and
trouvère s not use the two terms as described, they also did not distinguish between the twogenre s. It is thus better to examine jeux-partis as they are grouped together in those troubadour and trouvère sources that present the poems by genre. A jeu-parti is a debate or discussion, usually between two authors who contribute alternate strophes. In some poems the debate is as described in "Las leys d'amors". In others the discussion is in a question and answer form, or the first speaker presents his own opinion, immediately challenging his opponent to take a different point of view.Jeux-partis deal with a variety of topics, but that of love, especially courtly love, occurs frequently. In most debates the opponents are addressed by name, many being well-known troubadours or trouvères; in other instances the poet introduces two apparently imaginary debaters, or initiates a debate between himself and an imaginary opponent. Each opponent usually contributes three stanzas and an envoi in which he appeals to someone to be his judge; in some poems the two participants appeal to the same person, but more often than not each participant chooses his own judge.
Some 200 Old French jeux-partis survive, about half of them with music. Their musical style is indistinguishable from that of trouvère songs in general; and since all of them are strophic, the music does not reflect the form of the debate.
Bibliography
*
Alfred Jeanroy , "Les origines de la poésie lyrique en France au Moyen-Age" (Paris, 1899, 3/1925)
*A. Långfors, A. Jeanroy and L. Brandin, eds.: Recueil général des jeux-partis français (Paris, 1926)
*Alfred Jeanroy: "La poésie lyrique des troubadours" (Toulouse and Paris, 1934/"R"), ii, 247–81
*J. H. Maillard and J. Chailley: Anthologie de chants de trouvères (Paris, 1967)
*M. F. Stewart: 'The Melodic Structure of Thirteenth-Century "Jeux-partis,"' AcM, li (1979), 86–107
*S. N. Rosenberg: 'Jeu-parti,’ Medieval France: an Encyclopedia (New York, 1995), 495
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