Jehan Erart (c.1200/10–1258/9) was a trouvère

Trouvère

Trouvère , sometimes spelled trouveur , is the Northern French form of the word trobador . It refers to poet-composers who were roughly contemporary with and influenced by the troubadours but who composed their works in the northern dialects of France...

 from Arras

Arras

Arras is the capital of the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. The historic centre of the Artois region, its local speech is characterized as a Picard dialect...

, particularly noted for his favouring the pastourelle

Pastourelle

The pastourelle is a typically Old French lyric form concerning the romance of a shepherdess. In most of the early pastourelles, the poet knight meets a shepherdess who bests him in a wit battle and who displays general coyness. The narrator usually has sexual relations, either consensual or...

genre. He has left behind eleven pastourelles, ten grand chant

Grand chant

The gran chan or, in modern French, chanson courtoise or chanson d'amour, often abbreviated chanson, was a genre of Old French lyric poetry devised by the trouvères. It was adopted from the Occitan canso of the troubadours, but scholars stress that it was a distinct genre...

s, and one serventois.

Erart's presence at Arras can be deduced from his own writings. He was patronised by the wealthy bourgeoisie. In his serventois, a complainte on the death his patron Gherart Aniel, he asked Pierre and Wagon Wion to help him obtain the patronage of the bankers Henri and Robert Crespin. His relationship with two Arras trouvères is apparent in his lyrics, Guillaume le Vinier

Guillaume le Vinier

Guillaume le Vinier was a French trouvère and poet. He was the older brother of Gilles le Vinier. He wrote over thirty essays, many accompanied by melodies, including jeu parti and partimen with Andrieu Contredit d'Arras.-References:...

 and Jehan Bretel

Jehan Bretel

Jehan Bretel was a trouvère. Of his known oeuvre of probably 97 songs, 96 have survived. Judging by his contacts with other trouvères he was famous and popular...

. He is also mentioned in a work of Guibert Kaukesel

Guibert Kaukesel

Maistre Guibert Kaukesel or Hubert Chaucesel was a trouvère from Arras, where he is named as a canon in a document of the Cathédrale Notre-Dame in 1250. His title indicates he was probably a master of arts...

, a canon of Arras.

The chief characteristic of Erart's poetry is his preference for short lines, mostly penta-, hexa-, hepta-, and octosyllabic, as opposed to the traditional decasyllable

Decasyllable

Decasyllable is a poetic meter of ten syllables used in poetic traditions of syllabic verse...

, which does occur in his chansons "Pré ne vergier ne boscaige foillu" and "Encoire sui cil ki a merchi s'atent" and his serventois "Nus chanters". Musically, Erart is syllabic

Melisma

Melisma, in music, is the singing of a single syllable of text while moving between several different notes in succession. Music sung in this style is referred to as melismatic, as opposed to syllabic, where each syllable of text is matched to a single note.-History:Music of ancient cultures used...

, with a preference for major modes and refrain

Refrain

A refrain is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse; the "chorus" of a song...

s. His chansons are composed mainly in isometre

Isometre

Isometre is a music theory term describing the use of pulse without regular meter. See also: homorhythm. The music is currently used in the psalmsongs of the Orthodox Reformed Churches in the Netherlands, based on the rhythm made by Petrus Datheen , as well as some other churches....

, but his pastourelles are predominantly heterometric

Heterophony

In music, heterophony is a type of texture characterized by the simultaneous variation of a single melodic line. Such a texture can be regarded as a kind of complex monophony in which there is only one basic melody, but realized at the same time in multiple voices, each of which plays the melody...

. His music is conservative and rarely exceeds a ninth in range.

There are two death notices for Erart in the necrology of the Confrérie des jongleurs et bourgeois d'Arras

Confrérie des jongleurs et bourgeois d'Arras

The Confrérie des jongleurs et bourgeois d'Arras was a fraternity of jongleurs founded in Arras in or around 1175. As its name implies, it was intended for jongleurs and the bourgeoisie, not just the knightly class. It also did not hold poetic contests...

. One records a Jehans Erardi dying in 1258 while another records Jehan Erart dying in 1259. It is possible, when considering that his works are preserved in two different sections of the Chansonnier du Roi, that there were two Jehan Erarts, but this is not likely. Three songs attributed to Jehan Erart in one manuscript probably belong to Raoul de Beauvais

Raoul de Beauvais

Raoul de Beauvais was a trouvère from northeast of Paris. His period of activity is estimated based on his works being clumped with those of other mid-13th-century trouvères in the chansonniers. Six songs are attributed to him, with three also being attributed to Jehan Erart...

.