Unit 4: Chanson

Question 1

Chanson background and origins

Answer 1

• secular monophonic songs flourished in the 12th and 13th centuries
• significant number of schansons wer ecomposed by aristocratic poet-musicians known as trouvères and troubadours, using langue d’oc (in the south of France) and langue d’oïl ( in the north)
• recorded in songbooks called chansonniers

Question 2

Chanson characteristic features

Answer 2

• monophonic texture
• modal melodies
• often in strophic form
• instrumental accompaniments were often improvised rather than notated
• texts expressed the conventions of the courtly love tradition associated with the age of chivalry

Question 3

chanson

Answer 3

• chanson is French for “song”
• secular song with French text
• monophonic chansons were composed in the 12th and 13th centuries and often performed with improvised accompaniment
• from the 14th century on, polyphonic settings were generally referred

Question 4

trouvère

Answer 4

• French for “finder” or “inventor”
• aristocratic poet-musicians
• composed and performed original poems and songs, often on the subject of courtly love
• lived and worked in northern France

Question 5

(troubadour)

Answer 5

• aristocratic poet-musicians
• composed and performed original poems and songs, often on the subject of courtly love
• loved and worked in southern France

Question 6

strophic form

Answer 6

• a song structure in which the same music is performed for each verse of the poem
• as a result: little connection can be achieved between the words and music