Troubadour

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For other uses, see Troubadour (disambiguation).
A troubadour composing lyrics, Germany c.1300
A troubadour composing lyrics, Germany c.1300

A troubadour (a French adaptation of the Occitan word trobador) was a composer and performer of songs during the High Middle Ages in Europe. The tradition began to flourish during the 11th century. The earliest troubadour whose work survives is Guilhem de Peitieus (Guillaume d'Aquitaine or William IX, Duke of Aquitaine, 1071 - 1127). However, Peter Dronke, author of The Medieval Lyric, notes that "[his] songs represent not the beginnings of a tradition but summits of achievement in that tradition."[1] His name has been preserved because he was a Duke, but his work plays with already established structures; Eble le chanteur is often credited as a predecessor, though none of his work survives. The style flourished in the 11th century and was often imitated in the 13th. Many troubadours traveled for great distances, aiding in the transmission of trade and news.

The texts of troubadour songs deal mainly with themes of chivalry and courtly love. Many songs addressed a married lover, perhaps due to the prevalence of arranged marriages at the time. The aubade formed a popular genre.

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[edit] Etymology

A modern-day troubadour (Owain Phyfe) plays for an audience at a Renaissance fair in 2003.
A modern-day troubadour (Owain Phyfe) plays for an audience at a Renaissance fair in 2003.

The etymology of the word troubadour is controversial. In general, the argument breaks into two camps.

The literates in French argue that the root of the word can be found in the langue d'oc verb trobar, 'to compose, invent, or devise'. (see all French Dictionnaries Académie Française, Larousse, Robert). Others posit an Arabic origin in the word tarrab, 'to sing' (see María Rosa Menocal: The culture of translation).

For the French linguists, Troubadour derived from occitan trobador, literally means «finder», the one who finds after a research. The occitan verb trobar comes from vulgar Latin tropare verbal form for tropus «rhetoric, figure of speech», itself built on the Greek τρόπος «turn, manner».[2] Defenders of a mediolatin origin of court poesy (Reto Bezzola, Peter Dronke) and musicologists (J. Chailley) support the idea that French verb trouver (English to find), properly means «inventing a trope». The trope is a speech where the words are used with a meaning different from their common signification, as a poetic use of metaphor and metonymy. This poem was originally inserted in a serial of modulations ending a liturgic song. Then the trope became an autonomous piece organized in stanza form.[3]

Some proponents of the second theory argue, on cultural grounds, that both etymologies may well be correct, and that there may have been a conscious poetic exploitation of the phonological coincidence between trobar and the triliteral Arabic root TRB when sacred Islamic (sufi) musical forms focused on the love theme were first exported from Al-Andalus, i.e. Moorish (Islamic) Spain, to Southern Europe. It has also been pointed out that the concepts of "finding", "music", "love", "ardour", i.e. the precise semantic field attached to the word troubadour, are allied in Arabic under a single root (WJD) that plays a major role in sufic discussions of music, and that the word troubadour may in part reflect this.[4]

The word troubadour is used to designate poet-musicians who spoke the langue d'oc; their style spread to the trouvères in the north of France, who spoke langues d'oïl. This other form is really similar to the French verb trouver meaning to find, outpointing the relevance of the Latin etymology.

[edit] Works

Bernart de Ventadorn, medieval french troubadour from a 13th century manuscript of troubadour music
Bernart de Ventadorn, medieval french troubadour from a 13th century manuscript of troubadour music

Some of the troubadours' works have survived, and is currently preserved in manuscripts known as chansonniers (songbooks).Troubadours with surviving works include Adam de la Halle, Bernart de Ventadorn, Arnaut Daniel and Jaufré Rudel.

Troubadour songs were usually monophonic. Fewer than 300 melodies out of an estimated 2500[5] survive—most of which were composed by the troubadours themselves. Other troubadours set their poems to already existing pieces of music; Raimbaut de Vaqueyras wrote his Kalenda maya (The Calends of May) to music composed by jongleurs at Montferrat.

Troubadours usually followed some form of "rules", illustrated in Leys d'amors (compiled in 1340). The commonly used verse form of the troubadours was the canso, consisting of five or six stanzas with an envoi. Other variances of verse form seen in surviving works include

  • Dansa, or balada, a dance song with a refrain
  • Pastorela, telling the tale of the love request by a knight to a shepherdess
  • Alba (morning song), lovers are warned by a watchman that morning approaches and that their spouse may discover them.
  • Escondig, a lover's apology
  • Gap, a challenge
  • Planh, a lament
  • Sirventes, a satirical poem devised to a melody
  • Descort, discordant in verse form or feeling
  • Trobar clus, a cryptic poem.
  • Jeu parti, tenso, partimen or débat, a poem in the form of a debate (usually on love) between two poets

The poetical debate often extended beyond the confines of a single poem. A difficult question of love or social behaviour, raised by one poet, would frequently arouse replies and commentaries by others.

[edit] Similar art forms and artists

A complementary role was filled at the same period by performers known as joglares in Occitan, jongleurs in French (minstrels in English). Jongleurs are often addressed in troubadour lyrics. Their profession was that of popular entertainer; as such jongleurs sometimes performed troubadour compositions but more often other genres, notably chansons de geste (epic narratives).

The German Minnesingers are closely related to, and inspired by, troubadours, but have distinctive features of their own.

Other Forms

Troubadour known as Troubadou in the Haitian culture, is a form of music. It precedes Kompa or Compas and is currently going through a revival

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Peter Dronke, The Medieval Lyric, Perennial Library, 1968. p. 111.
  2. ^ French Dictionnary, Petit Larrousse Illustré (1983)
  3. ^ Troubadour (Observatoire de terminologie littéraire, Université de Limoges, France).
  4. ^ See Idries Shah, The Sufis.
  5. ^ The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music edited by Stanley Sadie. Macmillan Press Ltd., London.

[edit] External links

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