Chapter 6Chapter 6

TroubadouTroubadours & rs &

TrouvTrouvèresères

Troubadours & TrobairitzTroubadours & Trobairitz

• Poetry in French, German, Italian, & Spanish appear for the first time.– some meant to be recited, some sung

• Southern France was the center for this new courtly art.

• Poet-musicians who flourished at this art were known as troubadours (men) and trobairitz (women).– both terms derived from French verb “trobar” (to find)

TrouvTrouvèresères

• Spoke in the native language of southern France– langue d’oc.

• By early 13th century this art had spread to Northern France and now called trouvères (both male and female).

• Language of Northern France was langue d’oil.

• Social standing varied of these troubadours– Some were noblemen and noblewomen– Some were humble servants of aristocrats. – Not stereotypical carefree wandering minstrel.

Countess Beatriz de DiaCountess Beatriz de Dia

• Around 1175 she composed the sole song by a trobairitz to survive today: – Chantar m’er (I must sing).

• It conveys the sentiment of disappointment in love from the perspective of a woman.

• It also exhibits a repetitive formal plan

(ABABCDB).

Eleanor of AquitaineEleanor of Aquitaine (c1122-1204) (c1122-1204)

• Duchess of Aquitaine and successively queen of France and then England – most remarkable women of the high Middle Ages.

• More than any other place, the art of trouvères flourished at her court.

• Was both a powerful political figure and a great patroness of poets and musicians.

• Late in her life her court was centered at the castle of Chinon – in southwestern France.

The Angevin kingdom of which Eleanor of Aquitaine was queen

Bernart de VentadornBernart de Ventadorn • Bernart de Ventadorn (c1135-c1195)

– troubadour patronized by Eleanor at Chinon, who composed songs about her.

• Wrote Can vei la lauzeta (When I see the lark) as an embittered complaint against Eleanor, because she had betrayed him.

• Ultimately, withdrew from Chinon and entered a monastery.

• Similarly, Eleanor in her last years entered the convent at Fontevraud near Chinon, where she died and was buried.

Tomb of Eleanor of Aquitaine Tomb of Eleanor of Aquitaine at Fontevraud Abbeyat Fontevraud Abbey

Notice that Eleanor holds a book to symbolize that she is a learned woman. Notice also that to her right is buried her son King Richard (Lionheart).

King Richard I of EnglandKing Richard I of England (1157-1199)

• A monarch and trouvère– he to set music poetry written in the langue d’oïl (of the north of

France).

• His beautiful chanson (French secular court song) Ja nus hons pris ne dira (Truly, a captive doesn’t speak his mind) – laments the fact that he was captured returning from a crusade

and that his friends have failed to pay his ransom.

• The chanson is composed in AAB form and in what later music theorists will call Aeolian mode.

• In addition to the troubadours and trouvères in France, comparable songsters could be found in Germany, where they were called Minnesingers.

• The court of Alfonso the Wise (king of Castile, Spain) was a center for the cultivation of the cantiga (a secular monophonic song in Spanish or Portugese).