Jehan de Lescurel

[1] Jehan's extensive surviving oeuvre is an important and rare examples of the formes fixes before the time of Guillaume de Machaut; it consists of 34 works: 20 ballades, 12 rondeaus and two long narrative poems, diz entés.

All but one of his compositions is monophonic, representing the end of the trouvère tradition and the beginning of the polyphonic ars nova style centered around the formes fixes.

[3] For many years, scholars assumed he was the 'Jehan de Lescurel' who had been hung on 23 May 1304 along with three other young clerics of Notre Dame, including Oudinet Pisdoé, for "debauchery" and "crimes against women".

[1][3] Recent research has shown that "Jehan de Lescurel" was a rather common name in early fourteenth-century Paris, and there is no other clear link between the composer and cleric.

The songs are virelais, ballades, rondeaux; they include word painting more in the style of the later 14th-century composers than those of the 13th century; they are simple, charming, and debauchery is not a prominent theme.