Troubadour

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A troubadour (IPA: [tɾuβaˈðuɾ], originally [tɾuβaˈðoɾ]) was a composer and performer of Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). The troubadour school or tradition began in the eleventh century in Occitania, but it subsequently spread into Italy, Spain, and even Greece. Under the influence of the troubadours, related movements sprang up throughout Europe: the Minnesang in Germany, trovadorismo in Galicia and Portugal, and that of the trouvères in northern France. Dante Alighieri in his De vulgari eloquentia defined the troubadour lyric as fictio rethorica musicaque poita: rhetorical, musical, and poetical fiction. After a "classical" period around the turn of the thirteenth century and a mid-century resurgence, the art of the troubadours declined in the fourteenth century and eventually died out around the time of the Black Death (1348).

The texts of troubadour songs deal mainly with themes of chivalry and courtly love. Most were metaphysical, intellectual, and formulaic. Many were humorous or vulgar satires. Works can be grouped into three styles: the trobar leu (light), trobar ric (rich), and trobar clus (closed). Likewise there were many genres, the most popular being the canso, but sirventes and tensos were especially popular in the post-classical period, in Italy, and among the female troubadours, the trobairitz.

Contents 1 Etymology of name 1.1 Latin 1.2 Arabic 2 Origins 3 History 3.1 Early period 3.2 Spread 3.3 Classical period 3.4 Decline 4 Lives 4.1 Trobadors and joglars 4.2 Vidas and razos 4.3 Podestà-troubadours 4.4 Trobairitz 5 Works 5.1 Schools and styles 5.2 Genres 5.3 Performance 5.4 Poetry 5.5 Music 6 Legacy 6.1 Transmission 6.2 Table of parchment chansonniers 7 References 7.1 Sources 7.2 External links 7.3 Notes

[edit] Etymology of name

The word "troubadour" and its cognates in other languages—trov(i)èro and then trovatore in Italian, trovador in Spanish, trobador in Catalan—are of disputed origin.

[edit] Latin

The English word "troubadour" comes by way of Old French from the Occitan word trobador, the oblique case of the nominative trobaire, a substantive of the verb trobar, which is derived from the hypothetical Late Latin *tropāre, in turn from tropus, meaning a trope, from Greek τρόπος (tropos), meaning "turn, manner".^[1] Another possible Latin root is turbare, to upset or (over)turn. Trobar is cognative with the modern French word trouver, meaning "to find". Whereas French trouver became trouvère, the nominative form, instead of the oblique trouveor or trouveur, the French language adopted the Occitan oblique case and from there it entered English.^[1] The general sense of "trobar" in Occitan is "invent" or "compose" and this is how it is commonly translated. A troubadour thus composed his own work, whereas a joglar performed only that of others. This etymology is supported by the French dictionaries Académie Française, Larousse, and Petit Robert.

Not surprisingly, the Greek → Latin → Occitan → French → English hypothesis has been widely supported by those who find the origins of troubadour poetry in classical Latin forms or in medieval Latin liturgies, such as Peter Dronke and Reto Bezzola.

[edit] Arabic

There is a second, less traditional and less popular, theory as to the etymology of the word trobar. It has the support of some, such as María Rosa Menocal, in the camp which seeks the troubadours' origins in Arabic Andalusian musical practices. According to them, the Arabic word tarrab, "to sing", is the root of trobar.

Some proponents of this 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 Sufi Islamic musical forms with a love theme were first exported from Al-Andalus to southern France. It has also been pointed out that the concepts of "finding", "music", "love", and "ardour"—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.^[2]

[edit] Origins

The early study of the troubadours focussed intensely on their origins. No academic consensus was ever achieved in the area. Today, one can distinguish at least eleven competing theories (the adjectives used below are a blend from the Grove Dictionary of Music and Roger Boase's The Origins and Meaning of Courtly Love):

1. Arabic (also Arabist or Hispano-Arabic)
   Ezra Pound, in his Canto VIII, famously declared that William of Aquitaine "had brought the song up out of Spain / with the singers and veils..." referring to the troubadour song. The hypothesis that the troubadour tradition was created, more or less, by William after his experience of Moorish arts while fighting with the Reconquista in Spain was championed by Ramón Menéndez Pidal in the early twentieth-century, but its origins go back to the Cinquecento and Giammaria Barbieri (died 1575) and Juan Andrés (died 1822). Meg Bogin, English translator of the trobairitz, held this hypothesis. Certainly "a body of song of comparable intensity, profanity and eroticism [existed] in Arabic from the second half of the 9th century onwards."^[3]
2. Bernardine-Marianist or Christian
   According to this theory, it was the theology espoused by Bernard of Clairvaux and the increasingly important Mariology that most strongly influenced the development of the troubadour genre. Specifically, the emphasis on religious and spiritual love, disinterestedness, mysticism, and devotion to Mary would explain "courtly love". The emphasis of the reforming Robert of Arbrissel on "matronage" to achieve his ends can explain the troubadour attitude towards women.^[4] Chronologically, however, this hypothesis is hard to sustain (the forces believed to have given rise to the phenomenon arrived later than it). But the influence of Bernardine and Marian theology can be retained without the origins theory. This theory was advanced early by Eduard Wechssler and further by Dmitri Scheludko (who emphasises the Cluniac Reform) and Guido Errante. Mario Casella and Leo Spitzer have added "Augustinian" influence to it.
3. Celtic or Chivalric-Matriarchal
   The survival of pre-Christian sexual mores and warrior codes from matriarchal societes, be they Celtic, Germanic, or Pictish, among the aristocracy of Europe can account for the idea (fusion) of "courtly love". The existence of pre-Christian matriarchy has usually been treated with scepticism as has the persistence of underlying paganism in high medieval Europe.
4. Classical Latin
   The classical Latin theory emphasises parallels between Ovid, especially his Amores and Ars amatoria, and the lyric of courtly love. The aetas ovidiana that predominated in the eleventh century in and around Orléans, the quasi-Ciceronian ideology that held sway in the Imperial court, and the scraps of Plato then available to scholars have all been cited as classical influences on troubadour poetry.^[5]
5. (Crypto-)Cathar
   According to this thesis, troubadour poetry is a reflection of Cathar religious doctrine. While the theory is supported by the traditional and near-universal account of the decline of the troubadours coinciding with the suppression of Catharism during the Albigensian Crusade (first half of the thirteenth century), support for it has come in waves. The explicitly Catholic meaning of many early troubadour works also works against the theory.
6. Liturgical
   The troubadour lyric may be a development of the Christian liturgy and hymnody. The influence of the Song of Songs has even been suggested. There is no preceding Latin poetry resembling that of the troubadours. On those grounds, no theory of the latter's origins in classical or post-classical Latin can be constructed, but that has not deterred some, who believe that a pre-existing Latin corpus must merely be lost to us.^[6] That many troubadours received their grammatical training in Latin through the Church (from clerici, clerics) and that many were trained musically by the Church is well-attested. The musical school of Saint Martial's at Limoges has been singled out in this regard.^[7] "Para-liturgical" tropes were in use there in the era preceding the troubadours' appearance.
7. Feudal-social or -sociological
   This theory or set of related theories has gained ground in the twentieth century. It is more a methodological approach to the question than a theory; it asks not from where the content or form of the lyric came but rather in what situation/circumstances did it arise.^[8] It includes the prevailing Marxist theory. Under Marxist influence, Erich Köhler, Marc Bloch, and Georges Duby have suggested that the "essential hegemony" in the castle of the lord's wife during his absence was a driving force. The use of feudal terminology in troubadour poems is seen as evidence. This theory has been developed away from sociological towards psychological explanation.
8. Folklore or Spring Folk Ritual
   According to María Rosa Menocal, Alfred Jeanroy first suggested that folklore and oral tradition gave rise to troubadour poetry in 1883. According to F. M. Warren, it was Gaston Paris, Jeanroy's reviewer, in 1891 who first located troubadour origins in the festive dances of women hearkening the spring in the Loire Valley. This theory has since been widely discredited, but the discovery of the jarchas raises the question of the extent of literature (oral or written) in the eleventh century and earlier.^[8]
9. Medieval Latin or Mediolatin (Goliardic)
   Hans Spanke analysed the intertextual connexion between vernacular and medieval Latin (such as Goliardic) songs. This theory is supported by Reto Bezzola, Peter Dronke, and musicologist J. Chailley. According to them, trobar means "inventing a trope", the trope being a poem where the words are used with a meaning different from their common signification, i.e. 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.^[9] The influence of late eleventh-century poets of the "Loire school", such as Marbod of Rennes and Hildebert of Lavardin, is stressed in this connexion by Brinkmann.^[10]
10. Neoplatonic
    This theory is one of the more intellectualising. The "ennobling effects of love" in specific have been identified as Neoplatonic.^[11] It is viewed either as a strenth or weakness that this theory requires a second theory about how the Neoplatonism was transmitted to the troubadours; perhaps it can be coupled with one of the other origins stories or perhaps it is just peripheral. Käte Axhausen has "exploited" this theory and A. J. Denomy has linked it with the Arabist (through Avicenna) and the Cathar (through John Scotus Eriugena).^[12]

[edit] History

[edit] Early period

The earliest troubadour whose work survives is Guilhem de Peitieus (1071–1127). Peter Dronke, author of The Medieval Lyric, however, believes that "[his] songs represent not the beginnings of a tradition but summits of achievement in that tradition."^[13] His name has been preserved because he was the Duke of Aquitaine, but his work plays with already established structures; Eble II of Ventadorn is often credited as a predecessor, though none of his work survives. Orderic Vitalis referred to Guilhem composing songs about his experiences on his return from the Crusade of 1101 (c. 1102). This may be the earliest reference to troubadour lyrics.

Orderic also provides us what may be the first description of a troubadour performance: an eyewitness account of William of Aquitaine in 1135.

Picauensis uero dux ... miserias captiuitatis suae ... coram regibus et magnatis atque Christianis coetibus multotiens retulit rythmicis uersibus cum facetis modulationibus. (X.21)
Then the Poitevin duke ... the miseries of his captivity ... before kings, magnates, and Christian assemblies many times related with rhythmic verses and witty measures.^[14]

[edit] Spread

The first half of the twelfth century saw relatively little recorded troubadours. Only in the last decades of the century did troubadour activity explode. Almost half of all troubadour works survive from the period 1180–1220.^[15]

The troubadour tradition seems to have begun in western Aquitaine (Poitou and Saintonge) and Gascony, from there spreading over into eastern Aquitaine (Limousin and Auvergne) and Provence. At its height it had become popular in Languedoc and the regions of Rouergue, Toulouse, and Quercy (c. 1200). Finally, in the early thirteenth century it began to spread into first Italy and then Catalonia, whence to the rest of Spain. This development has been called the rayonnement des troubadours.^[16]

[edit] Classical period

[edit] Decline

[edit] Lives

See also: List of troubadours and trobairitz

The 450 or so troubadours known to us came from a variety of backgrounds. They made their living in a variety of ways, lived and travelled in many different places, and were actors in many types of social context. The troubadours were not wandering entertainers. Typically, they stayed in one place for a lengthy period of time under the patronage of a wealthy nobleman or woman. Many did travel extensively, however, sojourning at one court and then another.

[edit] Trobadors and joglars

[edit] Vidas and razos

See also: Vida (Occitan literary form) and Razó (Occitan literary form)

[edit] Podestà-troubadours

[edit] Trobairitz

Main article: Trobairitz

[edit] Works

[edit] Schools and styles

There have been three main styles of Occitan lyric poetry identified: the trobar leu (light), trobar ric (rich), and trobar clus (closed, hermetic). The first was by far the most common: the wording is straightforward and relatively simple compared to the ric and literary devices are less common than in the clus. This style was the most accessible and it was immensely popular. The most famous poet of the trobar leu was Bernart de Ventadorn. The most difficult style on the other hand was the last. The trobar clus regularly escapes modern scholarly interpretation. Words are commonly used metaphorically and symbolically and what a poem appears to be about on its surface is rarely what is intended by the poet or understood by audiences "in the know". The clus style was invented early by Marcabru but only favoured by a few masters thereafter. The trobar ric style is not as opaque as the clus, rather it employs a rich vocabulary, using many words, rare words, invented words, and unusual, colourful wordings.

Modern scholars reocgnise several "schools" in the troubadour tradition. Among the early is a school of followers of Marcabru, sometimes called the "Marcabrunian school": Bernart Marti, Bernart de Venzac, Gavaudan, and Peire d'Alvernhe. These poets favoured the trobar clus or ric or a hybrid of the two. They were often moralising in tone and critical of contemporary courtly society. Another early school, whose style seems to have fallen out of favour, was the "Gascon school" of Cercamon, Peire de Valeira, and Guiraut de Calanso. Cercamon was said by his biographer to have composed in the "old style" and Guiraut's songs were d'aquella saison ("of that time"). This style of poetry seems to be attached to early troubadours from Gascony and was characterised by references to nature: leaves, flowers, birds, and their songs. This Gascon "literary fad" was unpopular in Provence in the early thirteenth century, harming the reputation of the poets associated with it.

[edit] Genres

Troubadours, at least after their style became established, usually followed some set of "rules", like those of the Leys d'amors (compiled in between 1328 and 1337). Initially all troubadour verses were called simply vers, yet this soon came to be reserved for only love songs and was later replaced by canso, though the term lived on as an antique expression for the troubadours' early works and was even employed with a more technically meaning by the last generation of troubadours (mid-fourteenth century). The early troubadours developed many genres and these only proliferated as rules of composition came to be put in writing. The known genres are:

• Alba (morning song)— the song of a lover as dawn approaches, often with a watchman warning of the approch of a lady's jealous husband
• Canso, originally vers, also chanso or canço— the love song, usually consisting of five or six stanzas with an envoi
• Cobla esparsa— a stand-alone stanza
• Crusade song— a song about the Crusades, usually encouraging them
• Dansa, or balada— a dance song with a refrain
• Descort— a song heavily discordant in verse form and/or feeling
• Ensenhamen— a long didactic poem, usually not divided into stanzas, teaching a moral or practical lesson
• Enuig— a poem expressing indignation or feelings of insult
• Escondig— a lover's apology
• Estampida— a late thirteenth-century dance song
• Gap— a boasting song, often presented as a challenge, often similar to modern sports chants
• Partimen— a poetical exchange between two or more poets in which one is presented with a dilemma by another and responds
• Pastorela— the tale of the love request of a knight to a shepherdess
• Planh— a lament, especially on the death of some important figure
• Salut d'amor— a love letter addressed to another, not always one's lover
• Sestina— highly-structure verse form
• Sirventes— a political poem or satire, originally put in the mouth of a paid soldier (sirvens)
• Sonnet— an Italian genre imported into Occitan verse in the thirteenth century
• Tenso, also tenson, later tenço— a poetical debate which was usually an exchange between two poets, but could be fictional
• Torneyamen— a poetical debate between three or more persons, often with a judge (like a tournament)

All these genres were highly fluid. A cross between a sirventes and a canso was a meg-sirventes (half-sirventes). A tenso could be "invented" by a single poet; an alba or canso could be written with religious significance, addressed to God or the Virgin; and a sirventes may be nothing more than a political attack.

Most "Crusading songs" are classified either as cansos or sirventes but sometimes separately. Some styles became popular in other languages and in other literary or musical traditions. In French, the alba became the aubade, the pastorela the pastourelle, and the partimen the jeu parti. The sestina became popular in Italian literature. The troubadours were not averse to borrowing either. The planh developed out of the Latin planctus and the sonnet was stolen from the Sicilian School. Interestingly, the basse danse (bassa dansa) was first mentioned in the troubadour tradition (c. 1324), but only as being performed by jongleurs.

[edit] Performance

A complementary role to that of the troubadour 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).

[edit] Poetry

[edit] Music

Troubadour songs were usually monophonic. Fewer than 300 melodies out of an estimated 2500^[17] survive. Most were composed by the troubadours themselves. Other troubadours set their poems to pre-existing pieces music. Raimbaut de Vaqueyras wrote his Kalenda maya (The Calends of May) to music composed by jongleurs at Montferrat. Troubadours sing tales of bravery and stories about life and death. The most common kinds of songs they sang were: morning songs; political poems; dirges; and disputes. Their favorite kinds of songs were about courtly love, war, and nature.

[edit] Legacy

Main article: Occitan literature

[edit] Transmission

Some 2,600 poems or fragments of poem shave survived from around 450 identifiable troubadours. They are largely preserved in songbooks called chansonniers made for wealthy patrons.

[edit] Table of parchment chansonniers

Image	Troubadour manuscript letter	Provenance (place of origin, date)	Location (library, city)	Manuscript name/number	Notes
	A	Lombardy, 13th century	Biblioteca Vaticana, Rome	Latin 5232
	B	Occitania, 13th century	Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris	BN f.f. 1592
	C	Occitania, 14th century	Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris	BN f.f. 856
	D	Lombardy, 12 August 1254	Biblioteca Estense, Modena	Kg.4.MS2=E.45=α.R.4.4	Poetarum Provinciali.
	E	Occitania, 14th century	Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris	BN f.f. 1749
	F	Lombardy, 14th century	Biblioteca Vaticana, Rome	Chigi L.IV.106
	G	Lombardy or Venetia, late 13th century	Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan	R 71 sup.	Contains troubadour music.
	H	Lombardy, late 13th century	Biblioteca Vaticana, Rome	Latin 3207
	I	Lombardy, 13th century	Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris	BN f.f. 854
	J	Occitania, 14th century	Biblioteca Nazionale, Florence	Conventi Soppressi F.IV.776
	K	Lombardy, 13th century	Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris	BN f.f. 12473
	L	Lombardy, 14th century	Biblioteca Vaticana, Rome	Latin 3206
	M	Lombardy, 14th century	Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris	BN f.f. 12474
	N	Lombardy, 14th century	Pierpont Morgan, New York	819	The Philipps Manuscript.
	O	Lombardy, 14th century	Biblioteca Vaticana, Rome	Latin 3208
	P	Lombardy, 1310	Biblioteca Laurenziana, Florence	XLI.42
	Q	Lombardy, 14th century	Biblioteca Riccardiana, Florence	2909
	R	Toulousain or Rouergue, 14th century	Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris	BN f.f. 22543	Contains more troubadour music than any other manuscript. Perhaps produced for Henry II of Rodez.
	S	Lombardy, 13th century	Bodleian Library, Oxford	Douce 269
	Sg	Catalonia, 14th century	Biblioteca de Catalunya, Barcelona	146	The famous Cançoner Gil. Called Z in the reassignment of letter names by François Zufferey.
	T	Lombardy, late 13th century	Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris	BN f.f. 15211
	U	Lombardy, 14th century	Biblioteca Laurenziana, Florence	XLI.43
	V	Catalonia, 1268	Biblioteca Marciana, Venice	fr. App. cod. XI
	W	perhaps Artois, 1254–c.1280	Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris	BN f.f. 844	Also trouvère manuscript M. Contains the chansonnier du roi of Theobald I of Navarre. Possibly produced for Charles I of Naples. Contains troubadour music.
	X	Lorraine, 13th century	Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris	BN f.f. 20050	Chansonnier de Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Also trouvère manuscript U and therefore has marks of French influence. Contains troubadour music. Owned by Saint-Germain-des-Prés in 18th century.
	Y	France/Lombardy, 13th century	Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris	BN f.f. 795
	Z	Occitania, 13th century	Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris	BN f.f. 1745

[edit] References

[edit] Sources

[edit] External links

• Literary Encyclopedia: Troubadour.
• Said I. Abdelwahed. Troubadour Poetry: An Intercultural Experience.

[edit] Notes