This is an overview of all known French Chansons from the Renaissance that have been intavolated for lute, from the songs of Ockeghem or Ghizeghem in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries to composers at the end of the sixteenth century when a new genre, the Air de Cour, made its appearance. Airs de Cour are in not included in this index, except for the ones from the first lute edition with Airs de Cour by Adrian Le Roy (Le Roy, Livre d’Airs de Cour miz sur le Luth, 1571)[1]. Intabulations of psalms on a French text are also not included (Goudimel, Vallet, etc.).
The melodies of some French Chansons live on in Dutch or German titles. Examples can be found, among others sources, in the Thysius manuscript (i.e.Pour ung plaisir qui si peu dure/Schoon lief ghij sijt prijs waert alleyne) or with Neusidler (“Qui belles amours/Ach unfal wes zeigstu mich”)[2]. For each song, the first printed vocal source is credited whenever possible. This does not necessarily mean that this source has actually been used for the current intabulation.
There will be an update on a regular base.
[1] The same pieces are repeated in the third book of Le Roy’s “A briefe and plaine instruction” from 1574, “conteinyng diverse Psalmes and many fine excellente Tunes, sette for the by A.R.the aucthour thereof”. Some pages in Le Roy 1571 are missing in the only known existant print of the book now kept in Brussels Conservatory Library.
[2] Although there is only one intabulation of “Ma peine n’est pas grande” by Clément Janequin (S-Uu Vok.mus.i Hs.76b), its superius lives on in many Buffon melodies.
The works are arranged alphabetically according to their standardized title.
Tom Van Eygen, november 2025 (version January 2026)