Vernacular Song examples

Question 1

St Germain des Pres chansonnier/song book

Answer 1

Troubadour MS X
Trouvère MS U
352 lyric songs, less than half notated
All the songs apart from one in St Germain belong to the central troubadour/trouvère canon
No specific motif, but a 3-note group of falling 2nd > falling 3rd occurs 1x here, 30x in l’Arsenal and 6x in Cangé
Includes a lot of lacunae, which is striking for a trouvère work

Question 2

St Germain des Pres chansonnier/song book

Answer 2

Modest, not for royal library
No illuminations
Blank spaces, crossing out
Blanks filled by another scribe, who used a backward sweep on upright
Falsa musica- copying errors
Faulty accidentals, inserting flats to ‘correct’ tritones

Question 3

Jaufre Rudel

Answer 3

Fictitious account of troubadour
Nobleman and prince, composed songs about his love interest the Countess, whom he never saw
Good music but poor poetry- vida
Recovered sense of hearing and smell when he saw her
Fin’amors- how love and poetry are combined in a courtly manner

Question 4

Bloch and Duby

Answer 4

Marxist/feudal approach
Poetry addressed to unattainable women was aimed at aristocratic sons

Question 5

Huchet and Cholakian

Answer 5

Psychoanalytical approach
Male control and inter-male rivalry

Question 6

Zink and Kay

Answer 6

Troubadour lyric constantly shifts between personal and general
Investigates complexity

Question 7

Muset

Answer 7

Trouvère
Unclear distinction between the trouvères as poet-musician or jongleur
Muset was a jongleur (professional instrumentalist/singer/entertainer) but became known as ‘poet-composer’ because of his talent

Question 8

Thibaut IV of Champagne

Answer 8

Trouvère
King of Navarre
High social status, poet-musician

Question 9

Troubadour- musical sources

Answer 9

36 manuscripts from 13th to 16th century
Many troubadour MS do not have melodies attached, but were performed with music- oral tradition

Question 10

Trouvère- musical sources

Answer 10

24 manuscripts from 13th to 16th century
Divided into families by content, order of content, textual variants
Eg Arsenal family is special because there are not many variants among the melodic readings, so they were copied from similar sources
Variants can be explained by oral tradition

Question 11

Cangé chansonnier/song book

Answer 11

Main source of information about trouvère rhythm
Symbols for longs and breves, but there is no distinguishing between notes occurring in ligatures
Mainly mensural notation and rhythm

Question 12

Bernart de Ventadorn

Answer 12

Important early troubadour in C12
Vida- humble origins, foot soldier, but this is told in a satirical tone
More melodies survived than any other C12 poet
4 songs contrafacted
Other troubadour melodies were through composed, but he pioneered repeated sections, ABABX form
Can vei- one of the first troubadours to do ‘tonality’

Question 13

Can vei

Answer 13

Song by Bernart de Ventadorn (troubadour)
Love interest has deceived him, laments that the ‘real woman’ he wants cannot be a ‘domna’
Ending tornada- doom, finding out she is not what he really wanted
Compares himself to a lark flying towards the sun, unattainable
Slightly tonal, first and last note is D, movement to and away from tonic
Restrained and plain text, few ligatures, only small flourishes, reflects how the woman is bound by his ideals

Question 14

Troubadour MS H

Answer 14

Early manuscript in C13
4 main scribes- collaborative
1. All-rounded
2. Fidelity of text- corrections
3. Artistic- illuminations
4. Owner- adds one song
Emphasis on tensos- collaborative process

Question 15

Troubadour MS O

Answer 15

Written for King of Navarre
Typical deluxe MS for a king or local lord
Only a few rhythmic modes

Question 16

Ar em

Answer 16

Canso by Azalais de Porcairagues (trobairitz)
Lack of thematic unity- debate among readers and editors
Nature opening- dormancy, procreation, trobairitz’ poetic creativity
Frequent use of metaphors in trobairitz works
Elements of planh and canso are used unconventionally throughout- less coherence
Assag (sexual test by domna on lover) 2x, female supremacy

Question 17

Estat ai

Answer 17

Canso by Contessa de Dia (trobairitz)
Questions mezura and troubadours’ courtly code
Specifically names the husband
Usually he would be in the mass of jealous ones and false flatterers, but here she articulates her own preferences
Therefore, the man is not a foil

Question 18

Na Maria

Answer 18

Canso by Bieiris de Romans (trobairitz)
Sexuality explored- to a woman
Role reversal- she uses terms a troubadour would address a domna with
This is done using unexpected literary schemes
Sankovitch 1999- ‘linguistic cross-dressing’, unconventionality ‘erases the “manliness” of the discourse’

Question 19

Tenso between Lombarda and Bernart Arnaut

Answer 19

Arnaut woos Lombarda by changing his name to Lombard
Possession of her and his properties in Lombardy, objectifies Lombarda
He mentions other women, Allamanda and Giscarda, but Lombarda brings them and confronts him with them, herself and her mirror, which she uses for self-reflection, how her heart should not be “silent”
Therefore, she makes fun of troubadours’ courtly conventions at the end

Question 20

Azalais d’Altier

Answer 20

Trobairitz
Significant that she self-titles- names herself as the author of a poetic letter
In this letter, she takes on a masculine role and mediates on behalf of a male lover who has quarrelled with his lady

Question 21

Anonymous trobairitz poems

Answer 21

Tenso between Na Carenza and Na Alaisiana Iselda
Names 3 women instead of 2

Some women are barely named at all- eg Isabella in Elias Cairel’s vida is only mentioned once in his tenso with her

Question 22

Politically active and socially powerful women

Answer 22

Eleanor of Aquitaine
Ermengarde of Narbonne
However, these were special cases

Question 23

Marcabru

Answer 23

Actually a woman
‘Amador/amor/traitor’ criticises courtly troubadours
Song preserved under Raimon Jordan’s name, because the subject of the poem interested him
Does this force men to look misogynistic in the cultural sphere?