Colart le Boutellier was a well-connected 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...

. There are no references to him independent of his own and others' songs, found in the chansonnier

Chansonnier

A chansonnier is a manuscript or printed book which contains a collection of chansons, or polyphonic and monophonic settings of songs, hence literally "song-books," although some manuscripts are so called even though they preserve the text but not the music A chansonnier is a manuscript or...

s. One of these (F-Pn

Bibliothèque nationale de France

The is the National Library of France, located in Paris. It is intended to be the repository of all that is published in France. The current president of the library is Bruno Racine.-History:...

 fr

Old French

Old French was the Romance dialect continuum spoken in territories that span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from the 9th century to the 14th century...

.12615) depicts the known coat-of-arms used by the Boutillier family, one of the petty noble clans of Arras, and assigns it to Colart. Another manuscript (F-Pn fr.844) does not show any arms for Colart and it can be surmised that he was in fact a member of one of the middle-class families of the same name that could then be found in Arras. He may have been a relative of Robert le Boutellier, who judged a jeu parti

Jeu parti

Jeu parti [Fr.; Occitan 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 the troubadours, there is a clear difference between a partimen and a tenso: in...

 between Thomas Herier

Thomas Herier

Thomas Herier, Erier, Erriers, or Erars was a Picard trouvère associated with the "Arras school".Herier is not mentioned in contemporary documents and all that is known about him is derived from his works. He composed a jeu parti with Gillebert de Berneville and possibly another with Guillaume le...

 and Gillebert de Berneville.

Two of his songs, Aucunes gens m'ont mout repris and Quant voi le tens del tout renouveler, Colart dedicated to a certain "Maître Guillaume" (William the master, i.e. teacher or one with a master's degree). This Guillaume is probably identical to the trouvère Guillaume li Vinier, with whom Colart exchanged a jeu parti, his only one: Guillaume, trop est perdus. Colart "sent" (i.e. dedicated) a song each to 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...

 (Ne puis laissier), Jehan de Nuevile

Jehan de Nuevile

Jehan de Nuevile was the second son of the Eustache de Nuevile, a minor nobleman with land in Neuville-Vitasse, near Arras. Jehan succeeded to the patrimony on the death of his elder brother, Eustache. He himself was dead by 1254, when his younger brother, Gilles, appears as lord at Neuville...

 (Je ne sai tant merci crier) and Phelippot Verdière (Je n'ai pas droite). Jehan de Nuevile dedicated one to Colart in return. Colart also received dedications from Gillebert de Berneville, 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...

 and Henri Amion. Je n'ai pas droite was used as the model for an anonymous song, Se j'ai du monde la flour. His Loiaus amours was a model for another anonymous song, Grant talent ai qu'a chanter, and provided the basis for a contrafactum

Contrafactum

In vocal music, contrafactum refers to "the substitution of one text for another without substantial change to the music"....

 by the Chastelain de Couci, La douce vois du rossignol salvage.

Thirteen songs by Colart are preserved in manuscripts. He preferred 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....

, bar form

Bar form

Bar form is a musical form of the pattern AAB.-Original Use:The term comes from the rigorous terminology of the Meistersinger guilds of the 15th to 18th century who used it to describe their songs and the songs of the predecessors, the minnesingers of the 12th to 14th century...

 and G modes. He "often drew material from the pedes in the cauda

Cauda

The Cauda is a characteristic feature of songs in the Conductus style of a cappella music which flourished between the mid-12th and the mid-13th century. The conductus style placed strict rules on composition, and some such rules were devoted to the cauda, which came at the penultimate syllable of...

".

Songs, listed by incipit

Incipit

Incipit is a Latin word meaning "it begins". The incipit of a text, such as a poem, song, or book, is the first few words of its opening line. In music, it can also refer to the opening notes of a composition. Before the development of titles, texts were often referred to by their incipits...

• Amours et bone esperance
• Aucunes gens m'ont mout repris
• Ce qu'on aprent en enfance
• Guillaume, trop est perdus
• J'avoie lessié de chanter
• Je n'ai pas droite ochoison
• Je ne sai tant merci crier
• Li beaus tens d'esté
• Loiaus amours et desiriers de joie
• Merveil moi que de chanter
• Ne puis laissier que je ne chant
• Onques mais en mon vivant
• Quant voi le tens del tout renouveler