The Roman de Fauvel, translated as The Story of the Fawn-Colored Beast, is a 14th century French poem accredited to French royal clerk Gervais du Bus, though probably best known for its musical arrangement by Philippe de Vitry in the Ars Nova style. First published in Paris in 1314, the piece serves as an allegorical criticism of church and state, using the metaphor of a horse becoming the ruler of his master's house upon a kind whim from Dame Fortune. The poem, though banned at the time for being seditious and heretical, was wildly successful and still copied into the 15th century. Twelve manuscripts have survived, many of which are in remarkably good condition, because they were stowed away securely due to their illegality.
Following in the literary tradition of the thirteenth century, the Roman de Fauvel is often compared with the Roman de la Rose.
The Roman de Fauvel is laden with allegories and political satire. The donkey's name, which when broken down forms fau-vel, or "veiled lie", also forms an acrostic in which each letter stands for one of the seven deadly sins: Flatterie (Flattery), Avarice (Greed), Vilenie (Guile), Variété (inconstancy), Envie (Envy), and Lâcheté (Cowardice).
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Fauvel, an ambitious but foolish horse, decides that he is unsatisfied with his residence in the stable and moves into the largest room of his master's house. Upon moving there, he changes it to suit his needs and has a custom hayrack built. Dame Fortune, the goddess of Fate, smiles upon Fauvel and appoints him leader of the house. Subsequently, Church and secular leaders from many places make pilgrimages to see him, and bow to him in servitude, symbolizing Church and state rulers quickly bowing to Sin and corruption.
Upon receiving Dame Fortune's smile, Fauvel travels to Macrocosmos and asks for her hand in marriage. She denies him, but in her stead she proposes he wed Lady Vainglory. Fauvel agrees, and the wedding takes place, with such guests present as Flirtation, Adultery, Carnal Lust, and Venus, in a technique similar to that of the Morality plays of the 15th and 16th centuries.
Finally, Dame Fortune reveals that Fauvel's role in the world is to give birth to more iniquitous rulers like himself, and to be the preceder of the Antichrist, eventually to bring about the end of the world.
Of all the surviving manuscript versions of Le Roman de Fauvel, BN fr. 146 has attracted the most musicological attention due to hundreds of interpolated musical items woven into a complex mis-en-page together with text and image. The large volume compiled by a certain Chaillou de pesstain expands Gervais' original poem as well as 169 interpolated and notated musical pieces, some of which has been thought to have been composed by Philippe de Vitry. While these pieces were once thought of as arbitrarily selected repertory for textual "accompaniment" (Paris, 1898; Langfors, 1914; Gagnepain, 1996), recent scholarship (such as "Fauvel Studies" and Dillon's "Music-Making") has tended to focus on the ingenious intertextual/glossing role(s) played by musical notation - both visual and aural - in augmenting and diversifying the (political) themes of Gervais' admonitio (Herbelot, 1998). Amongst other curious discoveries are the inclusion of numerous "false" chants (Rankin) interspersed between actual liturgical material, perhaps a direct musical play on the deceptive qualities of its equine trickster. Much attention has also been paid to fr. 146's numerous polyphonic motets, some of which (In Nova Fert, for example) exhibit red notation of newer mensural notational innovations generally described under the umbrella of ars nova.
Although the text of the Roman de Fauvel is not particularly well known, the music has been frequently performed and recorded. The question of how the entire work would have been read or staged in the 14th century is the subject of academic debate. Some have suggested that BN146, the copy with additional 3000 verses and 169 musical pieces, could have been intended as a theatrical performance (Dankh, Herbelot). This hypothesis is of course in contradiction with the concurrent opinion that the Roman de Fauvel is mainly an anthology (Gagnepain).
The copy designated BN146 is attributed to Chaillou de Pesstain. Its particular value resides in the additional 3000 verses and 169 musical pieces (56 in Latin and 113 in French) which constitute a veritable anthology of thirteenth and early fourteenth century music (this includes Latin and French liturgical and devotional, sacred and profane, monophonic and polyphonic, chant, old and new music). The BN146 has often been said to mark the beginning of the stylistic period Ars Nova.
The first recording of the work has been made in 1972 by the Studio der Fruehen Musik (Studio of Early Music) on the EMI Reflexe - label, directed by Thomas Binkley. This recording is currently available as part of a 5-CD box-set on the Virgin-label. The speaker of the verses uses the original old-French, including some now very odd-sounding pronouncing of -still familiar- French words. The musical interludes have some, especially for that time, poignant dissonances/counterpoint; which likely serve to illustrate the mocking nature of the whole Roman.