In the last years of the nineteenth century a little book entitled Huit chants héroïques de l'ancienne France appeared, an anthology of eight songs spanning the twelfth to the eighteenth centuries whose theme was France at war. The editor of this unassuming collection was a student at the prestigious Ecole des Chartes and an up-and-coming scholar of medieval music; Pierre Aubry was soon to coin the term musicologie, thus becoming, strictly speaking, the first musicologist. In the preface of Huit chants, Aubry's guest author, philologist Gaston Paris, narrated the courage of the countless and nameless men and women who comprised ‘the invincible force of … a nation which has been fighting and singing for ten centuries’. Paris also provided a roster of known heroes including Roland, still the subject of French stage works and songs. Aubry opened Huit chants with two medieval crusade songs, the first simply entitled ‘Chant d'une fiancée’ (‘Song of a betrothed woman’). Its author was given as an anonymous trouvère (‘trouvère inconnu’) standing in for all brave French warriors and their longsuffering lovers at home.