De tous biens plaine

This edition brings together for the first time the complete set of twenty-eight settings based on Hayne van Ghizeghem’s “De tous biens plaine,” one of the most famous chansons of the later fifteenth century. Hayne’s original song circulated in at least twenty-six notated sources and was expanded to four voices by the addition of si placet altus parts on at least two occasions. A few of the settings preserve the discant-tenor framework of the original, adding one or more substitute contratenor parts to enhance and enliven the texture. More often, however, the arrangements of Hayne’s rondeau quatrain adopt a cantus prius factus from the original, around which they construct new—and often quite animated—polyphony. Like the families of settings of “D’ung aultre amer,” “J’ay pris amours,” and “Fors seulement,” the arrangements of Hayne’s song have long been recognized as a particularly important reference point for late-fifteenth-century musical culture.