Troubadours, trouvères.

Lyric poets or poet-musicians of France in the 12th and 13th centuries. It is customary to describe as troubadours those poets who worked in the south of France and wrote in Provençal, the langue d’oc, whereas the trouvères worked in the north of France and wrote in French, the langue d’oil.

I. Troubadour poetry

1. Introduction.

The troubadours were the earliest and most significant exponents of the arts of music and poetry in medieval Western vernacular culture. Their influence spread throughout the Middle Ages and beyond into French (the trouvères, see §II below), German, Italian, Spanish, English and other European languages.

The first centre of troubadour song seems to have been Poitiers, but the main area extended from the Atlantic coast south of Bordeaux in the west, to the Alps bordering on Italy in the east. There were also ‘schools’ of troubadours in northern Italy itself and in Catalonia. Their influence, of course, spread much more widely. Pillet and Carstens (1933) named 460 troubadours; about 2600 of their poems survive, with melodies for roughly one in ten.

All known troubadours are listed in the Bibliographie (1933) of Pillet and Carstens; and their poems, with individual sources, are given alphabetically beneath each name. A standard reference work, with an anthology of poems by 122 poets, is de Riquer’s Los trovadores (1975). Among the best general introductions to the songs of the troubadours are those by Davenson (1961), Topsfield (1975), Di Giralamo (1989), Akehurst and Davis (1995) and Gaunt and Kay (1999). The anthologies of Hill and Bergin (1941) and Goldin (1973) are useful guides for English readers; the translations of Ezra Pound (1953) are classics of their kind.

2. Social status.

The romantic idea of the troubadour current in the 19th century is slowly fading before the careful and more realistic appraisal built up by scholars over the years. So far from being a carefree vagabond ‘warbling his native woodnotes wild’, the troubadour was characteristically a serious, well-educated and highly sophisticated verse-technician. Admittedly a good deal of the blame for the blurred and rosy picture must be laid at the door of the Middle Ages themselves. The earliest lives of the troubadours are the vidas compiled in the 13th and 14th centuries; they are highly romanticized fictions derived, for the most part, simply from the surviving poems. The following account of the troubadour Jaufre Rudel (trans. Topsfield) is typical :

Jaufre Rudel of Blaye was a very noble man, prince of Blaye. And he fell in love with the countess of Tripoli, without seeing her, for the good that he heard of her from the pilgrims who came from Antioch. And he composed many songs about her with good tunes and poor words. And through his desire to see her, he took the cross, and set out to sea; and sickness came upon him on the ship, and he was brought to Tripoli, into an inn, as if he were dead. And this was told to the countess and she came to him, to his bed, and took him in her arms. And he knew that she was the countess and forthwith he recovered his hearing and sense of smell, and praised God for having kept him alive until he had seen her. And so he died in her arms. And she caused him to be buried with great honour in the house of the Temple; and then, on that same day, she took the veil for the grief she had at his death.

Fictional though this account no doubt is, it conveys an important truth: the art of the troubadours was one in which music and poetry were combined in the service of a courtly ideal, the ideal of fin’ amors.

Jaufre Rudel was well placed in courtly society; he was ‘prince of Blaye’, i.e. at least the lord of a castle. But others were even higher in the social scale. Guillaume IX of Aquitaine, generally described as ‘the first of the troubadours’, was a duke, and his granddaughter, Eleanor of Aquitaine, married first King Louis VII of France and soon afterwards Henry of Anjou, later Henry II of England. Raimbaut d’Aurenga was another high-ranking noble; he held numerous castles. At the other end of the social scale, Cercamon (fl 1137–49) rose from being a joglar, i.e. an instrumentalist and singer, a professional and normally itinerant musician. Aimeric de Peguilhan is said to have been the son of a citizen of Toulouse, a draper; Marcabru, a foundling (although this is unreliable); and Bernart de Ventadorn, the son of the castle’s baker (more recent research suggests he was in fact a younger son of the house of Ventadorn and later an abbot). Whatever a troubadour’s origins, he had to become cortes et enseignatz (courteous and accomplished) if he was to succeed.

3. ‘Fin’ amors’.

The topic of ideal love, though hardly new in the 12th century, and not the exclusive preserve of western European poets, has long been seen as the distinctive contribution of the troubadours to Western literary culture. The modern term ‘courtly love’, apparently first coined by Gaston Paris in the late 19th century, enjoyed an undisputed period of dominance until the 1960s. Thereafter, it was subjected to questioning and re-evaluation, from which emerged a more nuanced and detailed understanding of the relationship between love as it is described in all its variety in medieval poetry and prose, and the changing social and ecclesiastical structures of love and marriage in the Middle Ages. Fin’ amors is no longer seen as an exclusively literary phenomenon, but as a powerfully influential cultural element in medieval society that deserves the broadest historical scrutiny (Duby, 1981; Brundage, 1987; Harvey, 1989; Paterson, 1993).

The medieval terms fin’ amors (refined or pure love) or Chaucer’s ‘gentil lovyng’ reveal the aspirations central to the type of love described by troubadour poetry. Refinement (gentilesse) is the essence of this experience (or rather this complex of experiences). The lover seeks refinement through the experience of being a worthy lover; he is impelled by joi: ‘en joi d’amor ai et enten/la boch’ e·ls· olhs e·l cor e·l sen’ (‘in love’s joy I hold and direct my mouth, my eyes, my heart, my understanding’; Bernart de Ventadorn, trans. Press). The features of fin’ amors that relate it to other manifestations of romantic love throughout the centuries are the longing, the secretiveness, the sense of illumination, the almost manic-depressive succession of moods; the distinguishing feature of fin’ amors is the emphasis on the social and personal benefits of love. Thus, Bernart de Ventadorn again:

Ben es totz om d’avol vida
c’ab joi non a son estatge
e qui vas amor no guida
so cor e so dezirer

(Every man who does not dwell in a state of joy and does not direct his heart and his desire towards love, leads a base life; trans. Topsfield).

Love is the source of all goodness – fin’ amors, fons de bontat; the quasi-religious sentiment and phraseology are common (for a comprehensive account, see Topsfield). Paris’s word ‘courtly’ is helpful in so far as it points to the complex relation between the lover and his social environment: he is required to observe discretion and practice decorum, qualities which are defined by the courtly culture to and for which he speaks.

The ideal love put forward by the troubadours is remarkable for its analytical intensity; it is also full of tension and contradiction. There is an intriguingly dissonant yet insistent relation between the sacred and profane, between the noble and the ironic and obscene, between idealism and the messy social realities of aristocratic separation, divorce and remarriage exemplified, for instance, in the life of Eleanor of Aquitaine, who, along with her daughter, Marie de Champagne, was an important patron of poets and composers in the 12th century. As far as religion is concerned, fin’ amors seems, at first sight, an outright denial, a blasphemous assertion of human desires against the eternal truths of Christian love or caritas. But the rapprochement is equally striking. This ecstatic love which exalts the worth of the individual is, allowing for the difference in its object, analogous to the love celebrated by many 12th-century devotional writers (such as Bernard of Clairvaux and Richard of St Victor).

Another area of tension is that between the kinds of power ascribed to women in many troubadour love songs and the powerful social constraints that existed not only for women but also for the less socially elevated troubadours. No other group of poets give women so exalted a definition within so tightly circumscribed a context of female suppression. Renewed attention to the women troubadours, the trobairitz, has encouraged some scholars to argue that an independent female perspective can be isolated; others, however, argue that the troubadours largely worked in self-contained masculine circles in which women were not exalted but excluded. The question of how we are to understand the distribution of power, agency and responsibility between the sexes in troubadour writing remains open. The trobairitz were a small group of women composers who belonged to the nobility. They flourished between 1170 and 1260. Their songs are a remarkable survival. In modern editions, the number of texts offered range from 23 to 46, compared to some 2,500 texts by male authors. Few trobairitz are named, and difficult judgments have to be made about the ascription of anonymous songs. They wrote mainly in two genres, the canso and the debate poem (tenso). Perhaps the most celebrated figures are the Comtessa de Dia and Castelloza, each of whom left four cansos. Only the song survives with music: the canso, A chantar m'er de so qu'ieu non volria, by the Comtessa de Dia.

4. Critical approaches.

In the 100 years following the origins of modern medievalism in the 19th century, much attention was given to the genesis of troubadour lyric and of the experiences conveyed in it. It is perhaps not too much to say that nearly all approaches to troubadour lyric – formal, technical, generic, historical, anthropological – were assumed with that overarching quest to discover a point of origin for modern, nationalist histories of attitude and sentiment. No single theory won general acceptance, no doubt because the questions that needed to be posed are complex (‘origins’ cannot, for instance, be sharply distinguished from ‘influence’) and the answers could not but be equally so. The principal hypotheses are: (i) Arabic; (ii) Celtic; (iii) Cathar; (iv) liturgical; (v) Christian; (vi) classical Latin; (vii) ‘goliardic’, that is, medieval Latin; (viii) feudal–social; (ix) folklore (for a succinct and judicious summary see Davenson, supplemented by Axhausen and Dronke). The most substantial of these point to some important connections: for instance, a body of song of comparable intensity, profanity and eroticism existing in Arabic from the second half of the 9th century onwards; the para-liturgical Aquitanian versus found in tropers associated with St Martial de Limoges; the influence of Ovid, especially his Amores and Ars amatoria; the deep and extensive links (analysed by Spanke, 1936) between vernacular and medieval Latin songs.

More recently, however, the intense preoccupation with origins has diminished. It has largely been replaced, firstly, by a fresh examination of the social and historical contexts for troubadour song. Stimulated by the influential Marxist approach of Erich Köhler, who insisted on the deeply rooted analogy between feudal social structures and the psychology of love, Bloch, Duby and others have emphasized the essential hegemony, in the aristocratic château or royal court, of the woman, originally and primarily the seignor’s wife, in the posited absence of her lord and master. The use of feudal terms to describe relationships (the lady, dompna, is also referred to as midons, my lord) is marked; Duby, in particular, further identifies younger, potentially disaffected aristocratic sons, not immediately in line to inherit, as the kind of audience for whom poetry addressed to an unattainable female object of desire would be an explicable and powerful fantasy. Developing this in psychoanalytical terms, Huchet and Cholakian have moved away from sociological explanations for feudal imagery, seeing it instead as an expression both of male anxiety about the loss of social and erotic control, and of inter-male rivalry.

A second area of interest concerns the highly allusive and self-referential nature of the poetry (Gruber, Meneghetti). This builds on but also reacts against the extensive work carried out in the 1960s and 70s on the formal, technical complexity of troubadour (and trouvère) verse (see Dragonetti, Zumthor and below). Gruber’s detailed attention – in semantic, metrical and musical terms – to the intertextual relationships between clusters of songs and groups of authors, has turned scholarly emphasis away from formalism as an end in itself and towards a revised, newly historical sense of the competitive, personal circmstances in which troubadour songs were composed. Meneghetti, likewise, in analysing the early reception of troubadour lyric, reinforces our understanding of the primacy of debate and dialogue in its construction.

Perhaps ironically, given that intertextuality was originally a way of bypassing critical approaches that relied on Romantic notions of authorship and intention, it seems that studies of the intertextuality of troubadour lyric have stimulated a renewed interest in the subjective dynamics of troubadour rhetoric (Zink, Kay). Allowing for a coincidence between the intertextual and the historical has enabled discussion of the speaking/singing voice to include a more nuanced and rhetorically subtle approach to autobiography. The ‘subject’ of troubadour lyric is now seen as a complex, shifting rhetorical position, open to irony and parody, capable of sliding disarmingly between the personal and the general.

5. Genres, themes, motifs.

The numerous recurrent motifs of troubadour love-poetry include love and courtesy; love and the hostile spies (the lauzengiers); the ‘service’ of love and the idolatry of the lady; resistance to sensual desires; the deception and despair of love; love-sickness and death; the joy of love (especially as a source of creative inspiration); the lady’s power; the personification of love as attacker, or god; and so on. The need to express these and many other motifs in succinct and recognizable form led to the establishment of genres, distinguished not so much by form as by content or implied situation. Thus the lovers’ desire never to be separated is epitomized in the alba or dawn-song: the lovers in their happiness do not notice the night has passed until alarmed by the song of the birds, by the nightwatchman, or by a confidant. Although in the earliest generation of troubadours there is little evidence that poets attributed much importance to generic distinctions, the main genres are as follows: (i) vers: the term most frequently used by troubadours (c1100–50) to describe their songs, possibly derived from the liturgical versus (Chailley); it was applied without much discrimination of type or topic (although in the late 12th century it came to be used more specifically of moralizing poems in the style of Marcabru). After the 1150s, poetry divides into two principal kinds: (ii) canso: a courtly love-song, the central type of Occitan lyric which allowed a wide variety of predominantly serious content and high style (e.g. Bernart de Ventadorn, Can vei la lauzeta mover); and (iii) sirventes: a song usually satirical on a political, moral or literary topic devised to a borrowed melody, i.e. a contrafactum (e.g. Bertran de Born, D’un sirventes no motz cal far; he acknowledged having used a melody by Giraut de Bornelh). Other principal genres are, in the terminology of the period: (iv) tenso, partimen, joc-partit: songs of various kinds in debate form, often involving therefore, two participants by name, but not necessarily being joint compositions (e.g. Peirol, Quant amors trobet partit – a debate between the poet and Love; Aimeric de Peguilhan, Amics n’Albertz, tensos soven – a debate between Aimeric and Albert de Sisteron); (v) pastorela: a courtly song in mock-popular style presenting an amorous encounter between a knight and a shepherdess (e.g. Marcabru, L’autrier jost’ una sebissa); (vi) dansa: a mock-popular song based on a dance form (not commonly extant, but represented by the famous A l’entrada del tens clar); (vii) descort: in some sense a ‘discordant’ song; ‘The stanzas must be individual, disagreeing and variable in rhyme, melody [so] and in languages’ (Las leys d’Amors). Another explanation stresses the ‘discord’ of the speaker’s feelings. Raimbaut de Vaqeiras wrote a descort in five languages. Modern analysis relates the descort to the French lai, an ‘irregular’ sequence type (Gennrich, 1932); (viii) escondig: a canso consisting of a lover’s apologia for behaviour which has offended his lady (e.g. Bertran de Born, Ieu m’escondisc, domna, que mal no mier); (ix) planh: a lament on the death of a king or other important personage (e.g. Cercamon, Lo plaing comenz iradamen, ? on the death of Count Guillaume VIII of Poitou); see also Planctus; (x) gap: ‘a poem, sometimes in bawdy style, of self-praise, challenge or confrontation’ (Topsfield), though whether this term was ever used in the medieval period to denote a distinct genre has been questioned.

6. Style and technique.

There can be few repertories of poetry so selfconscious as that of the troubadours. The discussion of technique plays an important part in the poems themselves; and for sheer virtuosity the poets surpass all other lyric poets of the Middle Ages with the exception of Dante. It is surely no accident that societies in which literary technique was so prized emerged in time as ‘literary societies’ in the narrow sense; the court became a Puy. The surviving Occitan treatises are, for the most part, manuals of technique – the Doctrina de compondre dictats, Uc Faidit’s Donatz proensals, and above all the huge Leys d’amors (1356, but summing up a whole tradition). The ‘company of the Seven Troubadours of Toulouse’ systematized the whole corpus and awarded the titles of Bachelor and Doctor in gai-savoir (joyful learning). Estimates vary slightly; but, for example, van der Werf (1972) deduced from the comprehensive analyses in Frank (1953–7) 1575 different metrical schemes of which 1200 are used only once. An indispensable and accessible guide to versification in troubadour song may be found in Chambers (1985).

Most troubadour songs are strophic (the descort is an exception); that is to say, the stanzaic pattern is repeated throughout the song and, with it, the melody of the first verse. The stanzaic pattern is normally described in modern analyses by rhyme and number of syllables, with a superior stroke indicating a ‘weak’ (or ‘feminine’) ending; see Table 1. Certain basic shapes are more common than others: in particular, the canso tends to be in the form α α β. The terminology of Dante (from his unfinished De vulgari eloquentia, c1305, ed. Mengaldo, 1968, the most important single treatise on vernacular poetry) is often used to describe the different parts of the canso. The α sections together constitute the frons, and individually each is called pes (plural pedes); the β section is called the cauda (or sirima) and is treated with the utmost variety (when divided into two symmetrical parts these are called voltae). Gaucelm Faidit’s song (see Table 1) has a four-line frons divided into two pedes (ab ab) and a nine-line unsymmetrical cauda. (As will be observed below there is no necessary connection between the metrical and the melodic structure of a stanza, but a basic shape α α β is usually observed in the music.)

table 1

(Frank, 1953, no.373; Gaucelm Faidit)

The poet’s ingenuity is further demonstrated in the relationship between the different stanzas. This can vary considerably, not in number of syllables but in rhyme. The norm for the canso is to have five, six or seven stanzas (coblas in Occitan terminology) with one or more shorter tornadas or envois. Various basic schemes can be identified: (i) repetition of the same rhyme scheme and sounds but with different rhyme-words in each stanza (by far the most common); (ii) the same, but with some end-words of the first stanza not finding their ‘answer’ within that stanza but waiting to be answered in the second and subsequent stanzas; (iii) repetition of the same rhyme scheme, but with the sounds changing every two or three stanzas (coblas doblas, coblas ternas); (iv) repetition of the same rhymes but with a different scheme in each stanza (uncommon). Procedures such as the last-mentioned culminate in the tour de force of the sestina. Arnaut Daniel’s Lo ferm voler is the first and most famous example: the rhyme-words of the first stanza (intra, ongla, arma, verga, oncle, cambra) are repeated in a different, and calculated, order in each of stanzas 2–5; the three-line tornada contains all six words. Other links between canso stanzas depend on devices such as (i) coblas capfinidas – the last line of one stanza is linked verbally with the first line of the next; (ii) coblas capcaudadas – a variety of (i) depending on the rhyme-word; and (iii) coblas retrogradas – the rhyme-words, or rhyme sounds, of one stanza are inverted in the next.

The pre-eminent place occupied by sheer technical accomplishment in the aesthetic of troubadour verse is evident from Dante’s treatise. He named the three elements which must be studied in the composition of the perfect highly-wrought stanza as follows (De vulgari eloquentia II, ix.6): cantus divisionem, the formal melodic structure of the stanza; partium habitudinem, the harmonious putting-together, or proportioning, of lines and rhymes; numerum carminum et sillabarum, the ‘harmony’ of lines and syllables. The key term in Dante’s discussion is armonia, harmoniousness, a concord of sounds.

These classifications and codifications are all of a piece with the view of poetry as a branch of rhetoric which culminated in the seconde rhetorique of Machaut, Froissart and Deschamps (second half of the 14th century) with its extraordinarily elaborate analysis of the formal components of verse. Early comments on technique occur chiefly in the poems themselves. Among the terms the poets use are trobar naturau, trobar clar, trobar clus, trobar ric, trobar braus, trobar leu and trobar prim, all referring to different styles of writing (trobar: ‘invent’). The meaning of these and other terms has been and still is hotly disputed (for full discussion see Paterson, 1975). The most puzzling terms are clus and ric. Clus is used, for example by Giraut de Bornelh, to describe a difficult style which he is discarding in favour of trobar leu (Lat. levis: ‘light’, ‘easy’) and can refer, variously, to a style applying embellishment (the ornatus difficiles of medieval rhetoric) to an essentially simple theme, or to a style of deliberate and riddling ambiguity (? with an esoteric purpose and a select audience in mind) or, more broadly, to difficult poetic content which only gradually reveals its meaning to the reader. Ric is used by Raimbaut d’Aurenga in revealing conjunction with car: ‘I know how to couple and lace words and music together so graciously that no one can compete with me in the precious noble style’ (del car ric trobar; trans. Paterson). Arnaut Daniel, whom of all the troubadours Dante most admired, never used the term ‘clus’ and yet wrote, in his famous sestina Lo ferm voler, a poem of extraordinary density of meaning and complexity of pattern.

To search for a consistent terminology is vain; but the search is in itself rewarding since it uncovers the complexities of selfconscious technical experimentation which are at the heart of the enterprise. There are, of course, troubadours who do not talk much about their style and write poems of an apparently artless directness; Bernart de Ventadorn is one of these:

Lo tems vai e ven e vire
Per jorns, per mes, e per ans;
Et eu, las, no·n sai que dire,
C’ades es us mos talans

(The time comes and goes and runs its round in days, in months, in years; and I, alas, know not what to say of that for my longing is ever one; trans. Press.)

But one should not be deceived into thinking that this apparent artlessness, a trobar clar, does not itself conceal art.

The words and phrases that best sum up the technique of troubadour verse are images of forging (il miglior fabbro), of polishing (trobar prim), of interlacing (entrebescar les motz), of locking together (motz serratz), of carving, planing, filing (see Arnaut Daniel, En cest sonet coind’ e leri) and so on. It is an art of maestria, an art that ‘masters’ its materials.

II. Trouvère poetry

1. Introduction.

The trouvères (a French form of the word troubadour) provide the earliest surviving view of the troubadours: with the exception of a single manuscript dating from around 1100, the earliest physical evidence of troubadour song occurs in mid- to late 13th-century manuscripts copied by trouvères and contemporary clerks; some of our biographical knowledge, often sketchy and unreliable, comes from the vidas and razos composed by trouvères and scribes, and circulated with the songs from the second half of the 13th century onwards. The earliest known treatises on vernacular poetry likewise date from the 13th century. Yet the crucial mediating role of the trouvères involved their own eclipse: they are often discussed only as a footnote to their more exotic predecessors. Once again, this is in part a consequence of the importance attached to the troubadours as originary: the very word ‘original’ has talismanic significance for the art of the troubadours in a way that it could never have for those who followed. Nonetheless, the writings of the trouvères have a peculiarly interesting place in their 13th-century context. In a position, historically, to look back at the troubadours, they did not merely imitate them, but subjected them to analysis, parody and ceaseless reinvention, not least in their efforts to commit their songs to written record. This was a period of generic invention and transition, where ‘lyric’ genres were brought into direct confrontation and collaboration with romance. Furthermore, the social conditions of vernacular writing shifted markedly throughout the century, so that aspirations towards notions of courtliness were produced from within selfconsciously urban environments, notably that of Arras and its surrounding region. This created a layered and ambiguous approach (or set of approaches) to the conventions and mannerisms of courtly writing, and a newly subtle sense of the relation of the past to the present.

The French of the trouvères was not yet a standardized language based on an acknowledged cultural centre, Paris, but rather a collection of related, regional languages: those of Champagne, Picardy, Normandy and England were the most fruitful from the literary point of view. One of the first of the trouvères, Chrétien de Troyes, came from the district of Champagne; he was also, unlike other trouvères, a great narrative poet. This fact alone should suggest that the common account of trouvère poetry as derivative from that of the troubadours cannot be more than partly true; a ‘great clerk’ like Chrétien did not need models from the south. Other important trouvères include Blondel de Nesle (fl c1175–1210), Chastelain de Couci (fl c1170–1203; d 1203), Colin Muset (fl c1230–60), Conon de Béthune (fl c1180–c1220; d1220), Gace Brule (c1159-after 1212), Gautier de Coincy (1177/8–1236), Gautier de Dargies (c1170-after 1236), Gautier d’espinal (d before July 1272), Gillebert de Berneville (fl c1255); Gontier de Soignies (fl c1180–1220), Guiot de Dijon (fl c1200–30), Perrin d’angicourt (fl c1245–50), Philippe de Remy (c1205–c1265), Raoul de Soissons (c1215–1272), Richard de fournival (1201–c1260), Thibaut iv, Roi de Navarre (1201–53); and, in addition, a whole group of trouvères centred on Arras that included Adam de la Halle (c1240–88), Andrieu contredit d’arras (d c1248), jehan le Cuvelier d’arras (fl c1240–70), Guillaume le Vinier (fl c1220–45; d1245), Audefroi le Bastart (fl c1200–1230), Jehan Bretel (c1200–1272), Jehan Erart (d c1259) and Moniot d’arras (fl c1250–75) (many other trouvères have articles in this dictionary).

Some 2130 poems are listed in the standard bibliography by Raynaud (rev. Spanke, 1955) of which at least two-thirds have melodies, often surviving in several chansonniers (for an anthology of 217 texts and their melodies, see Rosenberg and Tischler, 2/1995, from which the above dates are taken). Raynaud-Spanke’s work has received an important update in Linker (1979). The full extent of the northern French song repertory cannot be gauged unless a large number of so-called refrains (see Refrain) are also taken into account. The total includes a few songs found in English sources. Unfortunately no single English (i.e. Anglo-Norman) chansonnier survives, though it is difficult to believe that they did not exist in a country where the royal court and many aristocratic households were French-speaking for three centuries. The annotated bibliographies by Doss-Quinby (1994) and Switten (1995) are essential research guides.

2. Social status.

The Occitan distinction between troubadour and joglar holds in the north of France between trouvère and jongleur. The trouvère was the poet-musician, often of high birth (Thibaut IV de Champagne was King of Navarre); the jongleur was usually itinerant, a professional instrumentalist, singer, entertainer and so forth. Once again, the distinction is not altogether firm and clear; Colin Muset was a jongleur who through force of talent became known as poet and composer. And the conditions of writing in Arras and its environs, better described as ‘civic’, even bourgeois, rather than courtly, caused various kinds of social distinction to become more fluid (see Ungureanu, 1955, and Berger, 1981). This is perhaps best seen in the nature of the literary societies that flourished in Arras: the confrérie (a large guild of jongleurs and bourgeois citizens) and the puy (which included poets from aristocratic families and elected a yearly prince). Adam de la Halle, for instance, one of the greatest trouvères, composed for both societies; his works demonstrate the shifting perspectives between the courtly, urban and clerical that are characteristic of Arrageois productions.

3. ‘Fine amour’.

Fine amour is the cousin of fin’ amors. That the trouvères learnt directly from the troubadours is certain. Some instances of literary and perhaps also personal contact between them include Chretien’s knowledge of Raimbaut d’Aurenga and Bernart de Ventadorn, and the links between Gaucelm Faidit and Raimbaut de Vaqeiras and certain trouvères. The occasional occurrence of chansons in Occitan and in French alongside each other in the same manuscript would be sufficient evidence that the two repertories were not totally distinct. A direct link is suggested, moreover, by circumstantial evidence, such as the activities and influence of Eleanor of Aquitaine and her daughters. Moreover the crusades, mingling together as they did men from the north and south, and the fact of a widely travelling minstrel profession, are also likely to have been influential.

Even more when reading trouvère than troubadour poetry we have the sense of inhabiting an imaginative world in which the concerns are explicitly personal and individual but implicitly public and social. For example, Chastelain de Couci (R.700, stanza 3) addressed his (real or imagined) obdurate lady:

Quant je regart son debonaire vis,
Et je la pri sens bel respons avoir,
N’est merveille s’en l’esgart m’esbahis,
Quant g’i conois ma mort et sai de voir.
Puis ke merchis ne m’i deigne valoir,
Ne sai ou nul comfort praigne;
Car ses orgueus m’ochit et li mehaigne
Ha douche riens crueus, tant mar vos vi,
Quant por ma mort nasquistes sens merchi

What the poem ostensibly does is to express the lover’s despair at the lack of bel respons in his lady, her lack of pity for him. What it also does is to draw the audience’s attention to a general delicacy and refinement of feeling on the poet’s part, to his verbal skill (for example the rhetorical dexterity of the juxtaposition of mort and nasquistes in the last line) and generally therefore to his eloquence, the social grace most to be prized in a courtier. To love (or to pretend to love) such a lady is a sentimental education and its own reward.

The invention of a good song is in itself a sign that love is converting a vilain into a civilized being. Consequently, it is almost de rigueur for a poet to insist on the source of his creative inspiration: De joli cuer chanterai (‘I shall sing out of the happiness of my heart’, R.66); Chanter me fait por mes maux alegier/Tres fine Amor (‘Most refined Love makes me sing to alleviate my woes’, R.1251).

4. Genres, themes, motifs.

The genres of trouvère poetry closely resemble those of the troubadours; but some, like the sirventes, have dropped out, while others have acquired a new popularity. Among the latter the Jeu-parti (related to Occitan joc-partit and other debate poems) is prominent, especially at Arras. The jeu-parti, a sung debate between two trouvères, is essentially a literary–social diversion. Typical of the topics debated is: ‘If you are in love with a lady, would you prefer her to love you deeply while being married to someone else, or to be your own wife and love another man?’. The genre occasionally turns to parody and mocks itself with absurd questions; but whether serious or playful, it palpably serves the purpose which much other courtly poetry served – social entertainment. Even the favourite genre of all, the chanson d’amour (Occitan canso), has a social raison d’être: it demonstrates the poet-lover’s eloquence and elegance, giving him a chance to play in public with the finer shades of commonplace feeling.

The pastourelle (Occitan pastorela) is well represented: Raynaud’s Bibliographie (nos.1694ff) lists a dozen songs beginning L’autrier chevauchoie (‘The other day as I was riding out’); such an opening is the key to the genre. The Lai is formally related to the Occitan descort. This ‘lyric’ lai with music was originally connected with the French narrative lai, of which Marie de France (fl 1160–85) was the greatest exponent; both the lyric (sung) and the narrative (spoken) forms seem to have roots in Celtic oral tradition (see Maillard, 1963). A genre unique to the trouvère repertory is a special type of ‘refrain-chanson’. Songs with refrains, in the ordinary sense, occur also in troubadour manuscripts (Reis glorios is one of them); since the music is strophic, the refrain is a verbal phenomenon only. But the trouvère chanson avec des refrains is one in which the strophic repetition of the music is broken into verse by verse by the insertion of extraneous refrains (courtly tags with tunes attached to them; see Refrain). Another unique genre is the (now so-called) Chanson de toile, weaving-song (old French chanson d’histoire). Several examples are cited in the early 13th-century Roman de la rose by Jean Renart. Like the pastourelle, it is a courtly, mock-popular song, rather than the genuine popular article: a lady (Bele Yolanz, Bele Doette and so on) sits at her loom bewailing the absence of her lover (fig.6). Other genres include the chanson de femme, chanson de mal marié and rondet de carole, and the rondeau, rotrouenge and sotte chanson. Finally, there are in the trouvère repertory a considerable number of religious chansons, especially crusade songs and songs to the Virgin. A principal and pioneering exponent of the religious chanson was Gautier de Coincy, whose songs are found for the most part inserted between the books of his collection Les Miracles de Nostre-Dame.

The themes and motifs of trouvère poetry are dominated by the topic of fine amour. The marked continuity of the discourse over 150 years – the constant references to the divine perfection of the lady; the lover’s entire surrender of himself to her; the sweet suffering (li dous mal) of love; the prayers for reward (guerredon); the despair when reward is not forthcoming – has lent itself to structuralist analysis, notably that by Zumthor. In his highly influential studies, trouvère (and indeed troubadour) art is essentially a closed, ‘circular’ system, broadly static and collective, in which the speaking voice, the ‘I’, functions purely grammatically as a generalized stylistic device rather than as a personal expression of individual feeling. While Zumthor is undoubtedly drawing attention to a central feature of trouvère verse, that is, the use of formulaic language, it is clear that issues of authorship, elided in Zumthor’s account, are also paramount in this period. Examination of the use of formulaic material, notably in the widespread citation of refrains among the whole spectrum of 13th-century writing, shows that poets and composers were fascinated by the boundaries between genres. They consistently explored and sought to redefine the distinction between collective and individual forms of language, between past generic modes and new ones, between music and speech. There was a new attempt to consider the role of authorship: not only are the troubadours themselves given historic status as named authors, but trouvère compositions are also, especially by the end of the 13th century, copied into manuscripts in ways that draw attention to the name and rank of their authors. The most striking example of this is the ‘Adam de la Halle’ manuscript (F-Pn fr.25566), the first known case of a vernacular author being granted the accolade of a complete-works collection.

5. Words and music.

The relation between words and music in trouvère and troubadour song is of primary significance. The area of greatest debate is undoubtedly that of rhythm: the theory of modal rhythm proposed in the early 20th century remains controversial, and debate about different approaches to rhythmic transcription persists. However, support for the theory of modal rhythm has gradually declined in favour of non-mensural notation in modern transcriptions of the songs. In particular, the work of Hendrik van der Werf and John Stevens has encouraged a more flexible approach to rhythm, including isosyllabism, and, especially in the case of Stevens, a far more searching and sympathetic examination of the medieval notation itself in all its variety and idiosyncrasy.

The very diversity of manuscript presentation of the songs, and the lack of unambiguous comment in medieval theoretical writing, means that many fundamental questions about versification and form, especially as they apply to the music and the words together, are unresolved. It is not clear, for instance, whether editors are right to seek to tidy up the stanzaic patterns of individual songs according to a notion of assumed regularity of rhyme, metre or syllable count, when the manuscript sources of those songs show no such regularity. Marshall has argued convincingly that certain forms and genres, notably the lai and descort, have been misrepresented in modern editions by the refusal to respect principles of irregularity and disharmony discerned from manuscript evidence.

The question of how the melody collaborates with the words is especially problematic: does one define a song by its text or its melody? Different manuscripts often present different combinations of text and melody, and often only the first stanza is presented with music, leaving open the question of how a modern editor or performer is to coordinate subsequent stanzas (and their metrical irregularities) with the opening melodic statement. One way forward, as signalled by Marshall and Stevens, is to return with renewed vigilance to the manuscripts themselves to try to gain a better grasp of medieval editorial principals, including layout, punctuation and notation. It always has to be borne in mind, moreover, that the manuscript sources are rarely contemporary with the composition of the songs, but offer an editorial perspective from the second half of the 13th century. The relative paucity of surviving troubadour melodies (approximately a tenth of the texts are copied with music) compared to those for trouvère songs (about two-thirds have music) has no obvious or single explanation. Music was not generally transmitted as widely as texts because (as now) it required specialist skills both in copying and in reading the notation: we cannot assume, then, that in all cases where music does not survive, it was not intended. Much of it must have circulated only orally, and proved hard to recover for those compiling songs some 150 years after their composition. On the other hand, especially in some of the later Italian troubadour chansonniers where there is no preparation for music, the words of the songs evidently had independent value for the compilers and their patrons.

Closer study of the manuscripts promises more than merely editorial benefits. A broader approach to manuscript studies has encouraged more acute observation of the ways in which the physical processes of writing themselves shape and constrain the ways in which text and music are conceived. There is much still to be learnt about the influence that the manuscript presentation of a song has upon the relation between words and music, and upon the potential performance of that song.

6. Style and technique.

The trouvères, like the troubadours, were highly selfconscious verbal artists. Dragonetti (1960) described and analysed the ‘rhetoric’ (ars rhetorica, in the medieval sense) of the trouvères, a ‘rhetoric’ learnt in the schools and transferred from Latin to the vernacular. The heading of ‘easy ornament’ allows for figures of repetition, of antithesis, of interrogation and of sententious statement; ‘difficult ornament’ includes feudal metaphors, symbols of reward, religious metaphor and so on. There is a rhetoric of the introduction (exordium) and a rhetoric of the conclusion (l’envoi). The stanza patterns and rhymes are similarly complex and selfconscious – artificial and calculated in the best sense. It is seldom that one finds a trouvère chanson that cannot be precisely accounted for, indeed counted, numerically. There is wide variation of strophe, line length and rhyme.

An appreciation of the art of trouvère composition needs to take into account both the extraordinary prominence given to the topic of ideal love, and the way this topic gained an extraordinarily inventive range of formulations. Conditions of increasing literacy encouraged and enabled scribes to reflect widely on the question of how to represent vernacular compositions in written form, an effort which in turn gave these compositions an independent written authority. Starting with the cleverly sardonic Jean Renart, who set some 46 pieces by a wide range of troubadour and trouvère poets into his Roman de la rose, trouvère writing was characteristically a type of writing that did not stand on its own, but was always set into relief by other genres, other registers, other authors. This was a period in which language, and particularly courtly language, was examined intensively by juxtaposing it with lower, more ‘popular’ styles. The genre of the pastourelle is a prime example.

The legacy of both the troubadours and the trouvères was immensely influential within Western medieval culture. Music historians have a great deal to learn from studying their poetry. They will become aware, above all, of a highly selfconscious, historically sensitive artistry, in which great refinements of verbal expression are brilliantly sought and achieved.

III. Music

Neither the troubadours nor the trouvères regarded their poetry as a self-sufficient art. Their verse achieved life mainly through the performance of the singer. Indeed, Folquet de Marseille wrote that ‘a verse without music is a mill without water’. In De vulgari eloquentia, Dante stated that the cantio (chanson) ‘is the action or passion itself of singing, just as lectio is the passion or action of reading’; poetry is a ‘rhetorical fiction musically composed’, and a chanson ‘nothing else but the completed action of one writing words to be set to music’. Unfortunately, surviving information concerning the music of the troubadours and trouvères is far less plentiful and far more equivocal than information concerning the poetry.

For a full description of troubadour and trouvère sources, see Sources, MS, §III.

1. Manuscript sources.

The major sources of troubadour poetry include approximately three dozen manuscripts and sizable fragments from the 13th to 16th centuries. Of these, only two (F-Pn fr.22543 and I-Ma R71 sup.) survive with music, and then only for a portion of their contents. A further group of troubadour poems and melodies is found in two sources devoted primarily to the art of the trouvères, the Manuscrit du Roi (F-Pn fr.844) and the Chansonnier de St Germain-des-Prés (F-Pn fr.20050; fig.6). Depending on the criteria of individual scholars, music survives for approximately 300 of more than 2500 troubadour poems and is perhaps recoverable for an additional small handful. Usually this music is known from only one source, though about 50 chansons are accompanied by music in two, three or four sources.

The major sources for trouvère poetry comprise about two dozen manuscripts and sizable fragments from the 13th and 14th centuries. All but a few survive with music. Thus it is not unusual for a well-known work to be accompanied by music in ten or more sources. Comparison of different readings reveals that many poems were set two, three and even four times. Since no catalogue of these multiple settings is yet available, it is not possible to estimate accurately the size of the trouvère musical repertory even though we know that most of the nearly 2100 poems survive with music. Since the manuscripts often attribute to the same trouvère a poem surviving with different melodies, one may conclude that the rubrics refer primarily to the poet and not the composer. Generally it is assumed that the poet and the composer of the only surviving melody (or of the melody taken to be oldest) were one and the same person. This seems likely to be true in most cases, although irrefutable proof is lacking.

In three kinds of case an identification of the later settings may be made with reasonable security. Sometimes (e.g. in the Manuscrit du Roi) staves left blank by the original scribe have been filled in by another hand, and the music does not correspond to that contained in any other source. At other times (also in the Manuscrit du Roi) there are late additions to the main corpus of the manuscript. In still other instances (e.g. in F-Pn fr.1591 and 24406) there are large concentrations of melodies unrelated to those contained in any other source. Moreover, in dealing with unica that are either late additions to a manuscript corpus or are contained in manuscripts with large numbers of late settings, it would be rash to assume that the melodies were necessarily those originally designed for the poems in question. There are also examples that may survive in one source each, for which neither manuscript evidence nor stylistic evidence indicates securely which of the melodies, if either, was the original. The same is true for a small number of troubadour melodies. It is exceptionally rarely that we are able to determine the composer of any of the late settings, although it can be shown that in GB-Lbl Eg.274 the melody accompanying La douce vois du rossignol salvage (R.40) originally accompanied Loiaus amours et desiriers de joie (R.1730) by Colart le Boutellier. It is not possible to estimate accurately the date of composition for the late settings; many were probably roughly contemporaneous with the compilation of the sources containing them (c1275–c1310) and some may perhaps have been the work of the scribes themselves.

For both the troubadours and the trouvères, the symbiotic relationship between poetry and music remained a flexible one until the end of the 13th century. Not only was it possible to replace the melody for a given poem, but it was frequent practice to pay homage to an admired poem and melody by imitating the structure of the poem while retaining the melody with which it was associated. The survival of numerous contrafacta thus documents the influence of several of the troubadours and trouvères, as well as the fame of certain individual works. Bernart de Ventadorn’s Can vei la lauzeta mover furnished the point of departure for no fewer than five works: Sener, milas gracias (inserted into the Provençal mystery play of St Agnes); two anonymous trouvère poems, Plaine d’ire et de desconfort (R.1934) and Amis, qui est li mieus vaillant (R.365); the Latin song Quisquis cordis et oculi and its trouvère reworking, Li cuers se vait de l’oil plaignant (R.349), both attributed to the Chancelier de Paris. A sizable majority of the songs to the Virgin by various trouvères (mostly anonymous) are contrafacta, while the jeux-partis also include a significant though far smaller number.

Whereas a remarkable degree of constancy exists in the transmission of Gregorian repertory surviving in hundreds of manuscripts, there is a striking degree of variability among troubadour and trouvère melodies within a manuscript corpus that is far smaller in numbers as well as in chronological and geographical distribution. Even when various manuscripts contain related settings of the same poem, these may vary widely. Some variants are seemingly of minor consequence, involving matters of ornamentation or the distribution of notes among the various syllables. Others, however, may involve the replacement of one or more melodic phrases, and sometimes the replacement of the entire concluding section, the cauda (this may comprise as many as six lines of a ten-line poem). Even the replacement of a single phrase may bring about a changed repetition pattern; and significant modal and formal alterations may come about through consistent treatment of changes of detail. The variability of the melodic tradition is of course best documented within the trouvère repertory, which includes a large number of melodies surviving in multiple readings. However, those limited comparisons that can be made within the troubadour repertory suggest that the same general principles applied there too.

The need to account for this variability provides one of the central problems in troubadour and trouvère studies, the investigation of the transmission of these two repertories. Several different possibilities may be envisaged. At one extreme one might posit that the melodies were transmitted entirely through writing and that the variants observed are to be attributed to a combination of editorial reworkings by successive scribes and of errors committed in the copying process. At the other extreme one might posit that the melodies were transmitted only orally until the moment at which they were set down in the manuscripts that survive. It can be shown that neither extreme is correct, but scholars do not agree concerning the relative degree of importance of oral versus written transmission.

As to F-Pn fr.22543 (fig.7), the chief source of troubadour music, melodies are given for less than a fifth of the more than 900 lyric works it contains, the music occurring in irregularly scattered fashion. It would seem likely that the scribe was able to enter only those melodies that were known to him personally. Had he been working from a model containing most of the music, he would surely have provided melodies for a far greater number of poems. Nevertheless, the accuracy of these conclusions cannot be fully tested owing to the paucity of source material available.

Trouvère manuscripts, however, are more numerous and can be divided into several distinct families. These are characterized in general by striking similarities of content, order of content, and common textual variants. The chief members of the largest family are F-Pa 5198, Pn fr.845, 847 and n.a.fr.1050; but the family also includes two fragments as well as the lost Chansonnier de Mesmes (see Karp, 1962) and at least one more distantly related member. A second family, more important by virtue of the generally greater trustworthiness of its attributions and readings, consists of two distinct branches that are often treated separately: F-Pn fr.844 and 12615 (Chansonnier de Noailles), and AS 657 together with I-Rvat Reg.lat.1490. A third family includes the Chansonnier de St Germain-des-Prés and a small group of manuscripts without music.

Within the Arsenal family, variants among the melodic readings are quite infrequent and are, for the most part, of minor consequence. This one family thus stands in strong contrast to others, and it is agreed that its members were unquestionably copied from a common archetype. On the other hand, the Chansonnier de St Germain-des-Prés presents in its opening section (the later portions do not contain music) a situation comparable to that discussed with regard to the troubadour source, F-Pn fr.22543. Again the conclusion seems warranted that each scribe entered only melodies known to him personally. But this conclusion cannot be established beyond question since intrafamily melodic comparisons are not available.

The greatest area of uncertainty regarding the transmission of trouvère melodies thus concerns the second of the families mentioned and other manuscripts not closely related to the three main families. Similarities of order of contents show that the Manuscrit du Roi and the Chansonnier de Noailles were heavily indebted to some form of common original, as were the Arras and Rome chansonniers. This is borne out also by a study of textual variants. Oral transmission of the texts in the stage immediately preceding the construction of these two pairs of manuscripts is highly unlikely. Nevertheless, while the melodies of these manuscripts are normally clearly related in their readings, they also present a disconcerting number of variants. It has been suggested that after the texts had been copied out, scribes familiar with the music set down the melodies in the forms known to them. On the other hand, it has also been contended that in most cases the melodies were copied along with the texts – not ruling out the likelihood of oral transmission at earlier stages. The first alternative lays stress on the importance of oral tradition in medieval culture as a whole, and provides the simplest explanation of the numerous variants. The second, by contrast, concentrates on the explanation of consistent similarities of variants, particularly of exceptional musical readings. It is claimed also that when the choice of texts, their order and their actual readings have been predetermined by access to written models, it is more likely that access to written models was available for the music as well. Recognizing the extent of editorial revision that is occasionally present within the Arsenal family of manuscripts (ex.1), this alternative would stress scribal reworking, combined in certain instances with scribal errors, in accounting for intrafamily variants.

2. Modality.

From the standpoint of variety of modal construction, the repertory of the troubadours and trouvères is undoubtedly the richest in the Middle Ages. Compared with the great melodic treasure of Gregorian chant, a wider variety of accidentals is employed, there is greater contrast between extremes of range, a larger number of ways in which the final may relate to the melodic ambitus, and a larger variety of finals.

The trouvère manuscripts contain not only the B

and B

known to the Guidonian system and chant, but also E

, F

, C

, and even isolated instances of G

. Several problems are attendant on the inconsistent use of symbols for accidentals. In the first place, conflicting accidentals – e.g. notated B

versus notated B

– may appear in different readings of the same passage. Secondly, the manuscripts are not uniform in their use of the various accidentals. F-Pn fr.846 (the Chansonnier Cangé) is, for example, the most prolific in the use of sharps. Very often these occur not at the most expected places but at the places where they might most easily be omitted by the performer, not for the subsemitone to a G final, but for the upper, unresolved 7th to such a final or to specify the outline of a melodic tritone. The Arsenal family of manuscripts, on the other hand, ignores sharps entirely, even when notating melodies with finals on G that appear in major-sounding modes in other manuscripts. The use of E

and C

is infrequent in all sources.

The narrowest extreme of range for troubadour and trouvère music is to be found in melodies such as the Manuscrit du Roi reading of Conon de Béthune’s L’autrier avint en cel autre päis (R.1574; ex.2). The melody, which comprises repetitions of two versions of a single phrase, unfolds within the compass of a 4th. On the other hand, the same manuscript presents a late setting of a poem by Gautier de Dargies, Se j’ai esté lonc tens hors du päis (R.1575; ex.3), that extends over the range of a 16th. The melody begins with the final, climbs to the upper octave within the first phrase, and continues to climb with few turnings until the peak of the second octave is reached in the middle of the third phrase. A range of just under two octaves is found in Be·m pac d ’ivern e d’estiu by Peire Vidal. On the whole, most melodies unfold within the range of a 7th to 10th. The more restricted melodies within this group are, however, active primarily within the interval of a 5th, the extremes of ambitus being reached through one or two notes that lie outside the normal activity of the melody. When ranges of a 10th or more are found – they are common in the works of Gautier de Dargies – these normally arise through the combination of plagal and authentic ranges. The melodic development of the Manuscrit du Roi setting of Se j’ai esté, which, apart from the subfinal, is entirely above the final, is rare among such melodies.

The medieval theoretical descriptions of the melodic modes underlying Gregorian chant distinguish as a matter of course between authentic and plagal forms. In the former, the final is located at the lower extreme of the octave ambitus, though provision for a subfinal is also made. In the latter, the final is a 4th above the lowest point of the octave range, although again provision may be made for decorative notes exceeding this compass by a step at either end. These constructions are also the ones most frequently to be found in the troubadour and trouvère repertories. However, in addition to these, and to previously mentioned examples that either fall within the range common to both plagal and authentic forms or extend to combine these ranges – both types being observable also in chant – there are less typical examples. In a small but noticeable group, the basic octave is divided in such a fashion that the final is located a 5th rather than a 4th above the lowest note. Less often the final may be located at a still higher point within the compass. The melody to J’oi tout avant blasmé (R.769; ex.4), by Gilles de Vies Maisons, develops within the octave g–g', extended at one point by the use of the upper a'. Quite unexpectedly, the melody ends on f', a note which had been used as the initial of lines 1, 4 and 5, but which had not been employed previously as a cadential final.

The finals employed in troubadour and trouvère melodies include all the normal ones found in the chant repertories, i.e. all the diatonic degrees. Finals on D, G, F and C are the most frequent, the last three often being equivalent to one another. The number of troubadour and trouvère melodies ending on E is much smaller than the number of chant melodies in the 3rd and 4th modes. However, such melodies may be found, as well as melodies ending on B. On the other hand, transpositions of melodies in different sources in such a fashion that the same melody may end on two or three different finals is more frequent than seems to be true for chant. Moreover, the octave positions of the finals are more variable in secular monophony than they are in chant; the high f' on which J’oi tout avant blasmé ends is not the F final of modes 5 and 6. One may even find an exceptional, surprising example of a trouvère melody ending on B

(ex.5).

The role of the final in the construction of troubadour and trouvère melodies is variable. There are many melodies with a powerful sense of tonal gravity throughout that leads inexorably to the final, whose central role has been clearly established from the beginning. But there are also many in which the melody seems to oscillate between two centres – usually a whole tone apart – in such a fashion that either could be used satisfactorily as a point of final repose. There is a third group in which there seems to be a shift from one clearly defined tonal centre at the beginning to another that governs the final phrases. For example, the late setting of Fine Amours claime en moy par heritage (R.26) by Pierre de Craon in F-Pn fr.1591 begins in what one might term F major. The openings of the first four lines and the cadences of lines 2 and 4 outline the F triad, while lines 1 and 3 reach an open cadence on the subfinal. Line 5, however, cadences on B

, and in line 6 an E

is notated. The importance of B

, and of the notes of the B

triad increases and the final cadence on B

, preceded by a descent from a notated E

, seems quite natural (ex.5).

In this and in comparable melodies there is the equivalent of modulation, though not with the harmonic implications and sense of tonal distance and tonal order found in works written after 1650. Lastly, there are many melodies in which the final plays an insignificant role in the melodic construction and in which the choice of final is indeed unexpected. Often these melodies are similar in principle to those of preliterate societies that have been described by Sachs as pathogenic. In other words, the melodies begin at a comparatively high pitch level and lose tension gradually, descending as they go, and reaching a point of final repose at a low level on a tone that may not have appeared at all until the last phrase or two. Another melodic characteristic described by Sachs and to be found in these repertories is the use of chains of 3rds. Sometimes these provide the underlying structure of a basically conjunct melody. At brief moments, however, they may surface in stark succession (see ex.4, lines 2, 4 and 7).

The relationship between the final and the other notes of a melody does not necessarily remain invariable among the different readings of a given melody (a few chants were analysed variously by medieval theorists and some Old Roman chants end on different finals in different manuscripts). The problem of modal variability in troubadour and trouvère music extends to almost a quarter of the repertory. The outward manifestations are various. Transpositions combined with varying uses of accidentals may alter the relationship between adjacent degrees. Or there may be only partial transposition, involving one or more phrases, altering the relationship between these phrases and those that are untransposed. ‘Partial transposition’ occurs also in chant. There its purpose is to avoid the notation of chromatic notes not within the Guidonian gamut; this seems not to be a factor in trouvère music, however. Sometimes one may find one or a series of changed cadential figures, causing the melody to end on a different note, even though most or all phrases may be at comparable levels with their counterparts.

Just as the troubadour and trouvère poets made considerable use of stock imagery and stock situations, so also the composers made frequent use of standard melodic outlines. On the whole, these are handled with greater freedom than the standard formulae employed in chants such as the gradual, and they do not necessarily have any fixed modal function. For example, not only do recitations appear on scale degrees that do not fill those functions in chant, but a recitation on the same tone may be used in melodies or readings having different finals.

There is no universally accepted vocabulary for the description of the modal usage of the troubadours and trouvères. In the past, many authors have used the vocabulary of the church modes to describe these melodies, adding also either the terms ‘Ionian’ and ‘Aeolian’ or ‘major’ and ‘minor’. In many instances the vocabulary is apt. There are melodies, especially those with D finals, that loosely follow Gregorian procedures and use variants of Gregorian phrases. But there are even larger numbers that belong to other realms of melodic expression. Johannes de Grocheo, the only medieval theorist to treat of secular monophony in any detail, commented on the fact that the musicians of his day did not use the terminology of the church modes in discussing secular music, but the underlying significance of his remark is not entirely clear. The statement may have been mere reportage: although one might have used the vocabulary of the church modes, this was not done. Or it may have been intended pragmatically: since there was no need to connect these melodies to a standard series of recitation tones, as in chant, there was no practical value to such terminology. Finally, the statement might be a tacit acknowledgment of the many ways in which this repertory exceeds the technical characteristics of the Gregorian modal system. At present most scholars deal with the modal analysis of trouvère songs by discerning the chief tonal centres of each melody and describing the intervallic relationships among them.

3. Form.

The troubadour and trouvère poets prided themselves on an originality of structural detail that was achieved primarily within the confines of a few basic patterns. Through the governance of verse lengths and the order of rhyming syllables, any given pattern was susceptible of innumerable variations. Similarly, there was considerable variety of formal detail in the melodies, even though these rest for the most part on a few standard schemes. This variety is easily overlooked in the examination of repetition patterns, but the subtle variation of line lengths that plays such an important part in the flexibility of poetic form has similar influence on the balance between constituent musical phrases.

Nearly all troubadour and trouvère poems continue the format of the initial strophe throughout. These texts receive strophic settings in all but exceptional cases. In the Manuscrit du Roi there are three late settings in Franconian mensural notation with fresh music for each strophe. In two of these the content of the individual strophes is non-repetitive, while in the third each strophe follows an AAB pattern. In each of the three examples all strophes end on the same final.

There is, however, a modest group of poems that do not observe the same poetic structure from one strophe to the next. Rather fewer than 100 works of this kind, termed variously lais or descorts, are known (see Lai). A few are known merely through citations; some survive without music, others with music incomplete. The genre is often compared with the sequence, although the pattern of strict repetition in paired versicles rarely obtains. Repetition may be varied, in irregular patterns, and often more than twofold statements are involved. The details of the repetition patterns are individual to each work.

The constitution of the strophic works also exhibits considerable variety. In a handful of troubadour poems and in still fewer trouvère poems, there is no internal rhyme to the strophe, but only correspondence of rhyme between comparable lines of each successive strophe. Normally, however, internal rhyme is a central formal element in the strophe. There are various classes of rhyme schemes, but by far the largest are those opening with quatrains that rhyme either abba or abab and at the same time display equivalence of length between the a lines and between the b lines. Usually poems of the former class are set either by melodies devoid of phrase repetition or by melodies with repetition that is incidental rather than central to the construction. This class is proportionately much more frequent among troubadour poems surviving with music than among their trouvère counterparts. The latter group, on the other hand, is typically set by melodies that reflect the parallelism between the opening pairs of lines in their repetition pattern. Each musical statement AB (and, by transfer, each ab rhyme pair) is termed a pes, and the freely patterned concluding section a cauda. The form is often termed Bar form, although this word originated in conjunction with later German secular monophony. It is this form that underlies the majority of the trouvère repertory and a sizable portion of the troubadour repertory.

Although the average pes comprises two phrases, there are a number of examples with three, and even some with four. There are fewer variants in the transmission of the pedes than in the caudas, and repetition is normally carried out fairly strictly. However, the second element of the initial pes may end with some form of open cadence, while its later counterpart ends on the final. In a smaller number of instances, the reverse holds true, the cadence to the second phrase of the second pes avoiding the final in order to provide a smoother transition to the following cauda. In rare exceptions, such as Mout me merveil de ma dance dame et de moi (R.1668) by Guiot de Provins, the relationship between the two pedes is established solely by means of extensive musical rhyme.

The cauda is basically a section that develops freely according to the ingenuity of the composer. There may be re-use of material from the pedes, or no reference to earlier material. Phrase repetition may be employed or avoided. If present, it may be literal or varied; on the whole, the latter is preferred to the former. Motivic development may occur. But there is no practice that constitutes a standard expectation. A subdivision of bar form has been suggested on the basis of the treatment of repetition in the cauda, but this does not appear to correspond to any basic difference of concept held by the medieval artists themselves.

Bar form may be employed also – as a departure from the norm – for poems with opening quatrains that rhyme abba. It may, in addition, be adapted to poems that open with a succession of a rhymes (this class, including the pastourelles and rotrouenges which are among the early segments of the trouvère repertory, is otherwise accompanied by melodies that repeat the opening phrase). On the other hand, there are many late settings of poems that open with abab rhymes and yet do not employ bar form. This form is also often absent from poems having strophes with fewer than eight lines (see ex.4).

Scholars have noted that the melodic form of trouvère and troubadour compositions rarely corresponds throughout to the rhyme pattern of the verse. Such correspondence may be found exceptionally in works such as ex.2, but the functions of rhyme patterns and of melodic phrase-repetition are sufficiently divergent that attempts to mirror the rhyme scheme by the musical repetition pattern would result in the impoverishment of the melodic invention. In normal circumstances there is correspondence between the larger divisions of the poetic and musical forms and between poetic and musical phrase lengths. But each of these correspondences may be disregarded among exceptional works. Conon de Béthune’s Chançon legiere a entendre (R.629), for example, has strophes of seven lines, with pedes of two lines each, thus dividing the strophe 2–2/3. The late setting in F-Pn fr.1591, on the other hand, exhibits the repetition pattern ABC–AB¹/DE, dividing the strophe 3–2/2. The musical division between the fifth and sixth lines is emphasized both by the leap of a 6th and by the exploration of a new and higher tessitura (ex.6). In such exceptional works, the main dividing-point of the musical structure may occur a line – or rarely two lines – earlier or later than the corresponding structural point in the poetry.

Conflicts between poetic and musical phrase lengths also occur in a small group of exceptional works. A brief instance may be noted in ex.6. Since line 4 lacks the feminine ending of line 1 and thus requires less musical material, the cadence of line 1 recurs in the repeat not in its original placement, but as the opening unit underlying line 5, subsequent material being shifted forward one unit by this displacement. One of the more extensive illustrations of such conflict is provided by the Arras setting of Gautier de Dargies’ Cançon ferai mout marris (R.1565). An irregular poetic structure, 7a 7b 7b 3a (sic) 8a 8b 10b, is accompanied by a much more regular musical structure with a repetition pattern, ABC–ABC¹/D, the musical phrases consisting of 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 8 and 7 syllables each (ex.7). It might be thought that melodies such as this were designed originally to accompany other poems with structures equivalent to the music, but no evidence to support such conjecture has been discovered. Knowledge that musical phrase length is not automatically determined by poetic line length makes urgent a closer examination of musical phrase structure and of relationships between successive phrases, an area thus far neglected. Many phrases seem to be constructed as indivisible units, though some consist of similar or identical halves. The interior points of division do not necessarily coincide with points of division in the poetic thought. Occasionally considerable artistry may be displayed in the handling of internal details of phrase construction. For example, the melody setting lines 1 and 3 of Gautier de Dargies’ Autres que je ne suel fas (R.376; ex.8) is treated as if it were made up of three sections. In line 5, the second and third sections are replaced by new material. In line 7, the first replacement is retained, while there is a varied return to the third section of lines 1 and 3. In line 10, there is a return to a varied form of the second section, while the third reverts again to a variation of the cadence to line 5.

Troubadour and especially trouvère musical forms may be modified through the use of refrain structures. In the chansons avec des refrains of the trouvères, each stanza ends with a different refrain with different music. Manuscripts of the Arsenal family generally provide space for the music of only the first strophe. Other manuscripts may provide space for the music for all refrains, but do not consistently furnish all the music. Tonal shifts may occur from strophe to strophe when not all end with the same final. More frequently, however, there is one refrain common to all strophes. This refrain may consist of a single word that is either part of a larger line or forms a poetic line of reduced size. Or the refrain may comprise one or more lines of normal length. Some refrains include nonsense syllables. The refrain may occur at an interior point in the strophe or at the end. In either event, the device is primarily poetic rather than musical, although it may result in the highlighting of a musical passage. When the refrain occurs at the end of a work in bar form, the equivalent of a ballade is created. It is questionable, however, whether early examples of such form were regarded as a category apart, and the point of transition to the ballade proper appears obscure. The formes fixes – the rondeau, virelai and ballade – begin to appear within the troubadour and trouvère repertories, but stand at the periphery. Most examples are either by such late figures as Adam de la Halle or are late additions, such as occur in the Manuscrit du Roi, to a previously completed manuscript corpus. Similarly, though echoes of the laisse structures of the chanson de geste may be found in certain highly repetitive melodies, the practice of the epic poets does not enter into the central core of troubadour and trouvère art.

4. Rhythm.

Although Franconian mensural notation had been developed by the decade following 1250, and although most surviving troubadour and trouvère manuscripts were compiled after this period, only a small proportion of these two repertories survives in any form of mensural notation. The Chansonnier de St Germain-des-Prés used Messine neumes (see fig.6), while the other sources used mainly the standardized square forms of contemporary chant notation (see fig.7). Among medieval theorists, only Johannes de Grocheo discussed secular monophony, and his few remarks concerning rhythm are not sufficiently specific to be unequivocal in meaning. Intense controversy has raged over questions of rhythmic interpretation. On the one hand, it has been argued that when a mensural notation is available and is not employed, this is indicative of the use of free rhythm, while on the other it has been argued that the samples in mensural notation provide the models from which the rhythm of all other melodies may be deduced. It is doubtful that any universal rhythmic system prevailed for the entirety of the two repertories.

The chief source of information concerning trouvère rhythm is the Chansonnier Cangé. Approximately a third of the melodies in this source are presented in whole or in part in a pre-Franconian mensural notation which distinguishes between symbols for longs and breves, but which does not distinguish the values of notes occurring in ligatures or conjuncturae (fig.8). The notation of one work, drawn from the motet repertory, shows that the scribe was familiar with the forms for isolated semibreves and for ligatures with opposite propriety, but these forms are not used elsewhere in the manuscript, even when appropriate. It is difficult to tell why mensural notation appears sporadically and breaks off abruptly within individual works. Not all works that might have been notated mensurally are so written. Non-mensural notation is used for Pour conforter ma pesance (R.237) by Thibaut IV de Champagne even though the melody is notated mensurally in the section devoted to him that prefaces the Chansonnier de Noailles (no other instance of mensural notation is known in the Noailles manuscript). The second most important source of information on both troubadour and trouvère rhythm is the Manuscrit du Roi, which contains a number of late additions to the main corpus in advanced stages of mensural notation. Mensural notation is present also in the Frankfurt fragment, and in three manuscripts of the Miracles of Gautier de Coinci, though again not in consistent fashion. F-Pn fr.1591 appears to contain occasional hints of mensural notation, but these passages may be subject to divergent interpretations. It should be noted that an objective distinction between early mensural and non-mensural notation cannot always be made; in many cases one is able to classify as mensural only those notations that present rhythmic patterns already familiar to the mind. Lastly, there are passages from the trouvère literature that are incorporated into motets with known rhythm.

Implications concerning rhythm have been sought in various passages in Grocheo’s treatise. First, deductions have been based on his division of music into secular song, mensural polyphony and plainchant. Some have argued that since secular song is not classed together with mensural polyphony, Grocheo intended to imply that the rhythm of secular song was free; others have argued that since he had previously defined unmeasured music specifically as ecclesiastical chant, he intended to imply that secular song was measured. Still others claim that the division is faulty, not proceeding according to any one criterion, and that therefore no deduction may be made securely. Secondly, there is a passage in which Grocheo states, ‘If, however, by unmeasurable they mean not very precisely measured, this classification … may stand’. Although this passage relates primarily to a preceding mention of plainchant, it has entered into various discussions of troubadour and trouvère rhythm, and questions concerning the meaning of ‘unmeasurable’ and ‘not precisely measured’ have been raised. It has been pointed out that in early modal theory the perfect long, for example, was regarded as ultra mensuram, beyond measure, and that Grocheo was not necessarily discussing music that could not rightfully be measured according to later standards. Others have seen in the passage an allusion to the possibility of rubato, while still others have seen nothing more than a vague reference to the quasi-mathematical forms of speculation that underlie many early medieval treatises. Finally, there is a passage in which Grocheo states that the cantus coronatus is formed entirely of perfect longs. Ausi com l’unicorne sui (R.2075, by Thibaut IV de Champagne) and Quant li roussignol (presumably Quant li rossignols jolis, R.1559, attributed to both the Chastelain de Couci and Raoul de Ferrieres) are cited as examples of the cantus coronatus. It has not been entirely clear whether Grocheo was indicating the rhythmic values of the individual notes, the values for the text declamation, or merely a generally slow tempo. In addition, it is possible to glean other hints from comparisons made later in the treatise between other forms of music and secular song.

In those troubadour and trouvère melodies surviving in mensural notation, modal rhythm is clearly employed. The first three modes appear in approximately equal proportion, while the last three are used very rarely. By the final quarter of the 13th century, during the twilight of the trouvère movement, modal theory was known at least in a restricted circle centred about the court of the trouvère Charles d’Anjou, whose patronage extended to such figures as Perrin d’Angicourt, Rutebeuf and Adam de la Halle. The lai Ki de bons est, souëf flaire, attributable perhaps to Charles, provides a systematic exposition of modal theory, each of its strophes developing a different mode. The first strophe provides documentation for the rhythmic style ex longis et perfectis mentioned by Johannes de Grocheo and demonstrates that he was apparently referring to the pace of text declamation. The overall progression can be explained most systematically by reference to Franconian modal theory, but the actual rhythms correspond more closely to those described in the theory of Lambertus. The work, however, appears only as a late addition to the Manuscrit du Roi and thus stands only at the periphery of the repertory. Furthermore, it furnishes no information concerning rhythmic theory for the period preceding 1250.

During the decade 1900–10 Aubry, Beck and Ludwig each proposed a theory to the effect that the entire troubadour and trouvère repertories were governed by modal rhythm. Aubry argued that since certain manuscripts contained both motets and secular monophony and since the same notation was employed for both, the notation maintained the same significance throughout, and all pieces were understood to be in modal rhythm. Beck discussed large numbers of works that are notated mensurally and use modal rhythm, and concluded that the rhythm was applicable to all other works in the repertory (unfortunately his musical citations mix indistinguishably works surviving in mensural notation with those that do not and thus must be used with caution). Ludwig based his argument primarily on affinities of construction between the monophonic repertories and the motet repertory. A bitter quarrel over priority of conception arose and so distracted attention from purely scholarly issues that the correctness of the premises and logic of the deductions of the three authors were not examined until the theory had seemingly acquired a life of its own, almost independent of any specific foundation. Meanwhile scholars such as Gennrich had begun to explore exceptions to strict modal usage. However, neither singly nor in any combination do the arguments provide proof that all troubadour and trouvère melodies used modal rhythm. Thus later scholars such as Handschin, Reese and Westrup were noticeably sceptical in reviewing the more extreme claims of modal theory.

The objections that may be raised against modal theory are both historical and stylistic in nature. No explanation of how modal rhythm came to be associated with secular monophony has been furnished, and the appropriateness of such rhythms may be challenged with especial vigour for those works that antedate the evidences of modal rhythm in polyphony. The likelihood that any one principle of rhythmic construction held universal sway for a full two centuries seems dubious. From the stylistic standpoint, the application of modal principles to the more florid of the troubadour and trouvère melodies results in rhythms that appear highly strained and lacking in musical justification. And many scholars, particularly philologists, are deeply disturbed by the numerous instances in which strict application of the modes will force unnatural rhythms and accentuations on the text.

Premises regarding the rhythmic influence of text on music in the troubadour and trouvère repertories underlie much thinking about musical rhythms suitable for the performance of these melodies. From the late 18th-century realizations by La Borde through the early 19th-century transcriptions of John Stafford Smith and Perne, to the later transcriptions of Riemann and then of the adherents of the modal theory, a steady interest in prosody has been shown. However, neither the poetry of the troubadours nor that of the trouvères displays an immutable rhythmic pattern for lines of equal length. The placement of stresses will vary from line to line and from strophe to strophe. Thus no transcription depending upon a fixed rhythmic scheme will arrive at a perfect fit between musical and poetic stresses. Scholars such as Hendrik van der Werf who feel that the melodies’ chief function was to support the texts, that the music was merely a vehicle and not important in itself, advocate a flexible declamatory mode of performance, the rhythm of the melody being shaped anew to meet the demands of each successive strophe. This is, in fact, the only way in which a perfect fit between text and music can be consistently assured. And there are some melodies in which the level of musical interest seems so low that they are suitable for such interpretation. However, there are at least as many with powerful musical personalities. Inasmuch as those melodies surviving in mensural notation show repeated instances in which musical rhythm takes precedence over poetic rhythm, there is little reason to conclude that this did not happen also in non-mensurally notated melodies, whether these are realized modally or in any other, freer system.

More promising are efforts by scholar-performers such as Christopher Page to distinguish between declamatory rhythms suitable for works in ‘high style’ (the grand chanson courtois) and the more symmetrical rhythms adaptable for works in ‘lower style’ (especially those connected with dancing). Nevertheless, it is difficult to establish universals even here inasmuch as several chansons in ‘high style’ survive in mensural notation indicating modal rhythm. It is necessary to allow for the possibility that rhythmic style and interpretation did not remain fixed for all chansons over a period of several generations. Moreover, we may find it profitable to distinguish between measurability as a concept in the mind of the medieval creator-performer and measurability as a guide to the modern scholar’s conception of medieval performance. Experiences with various repertories of the world’s music show that it is possible for performances to be measurable even in the absence of abstract theories of measure from the minds of the performers. One avenue that remains to be explored is the ascertaining of musical stylistic characteristics that would either favour modal interpretation or point in another direction. For the time being, it may be suggested that melodies in which there is a consistent pattern of alternation between single notes and ligatures are the most satisfactory candidates for modal interpretation. Next come those melodies in which the pitch organization proceeds frequently in cells of regular size. Very simple melodies are apt to be neutral. Less suitable for modal interpretation are those melodies in which the phrase openings are simple and there is greater floridity at the cadences, and least suitable are those melodies that are highly florid.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

indexes

G. Raynaud: Bibliographie des chansonniers français des XIIIe et XIVe siècles (Paris, 1884) [vol.ii is supplanted by Spanke, 1955]

I. Frank: Répertoire métrique de la poésie des troubadours, Bibliothèque de l’Ecole des hautes études, cccii, cccviii (Paris, 1953–7)

H. Spanke, ed.: G. Raynauds Bibliographie des altfranzösischen Liedes (Leiden, 1955)

F.M. Chambers: Proper Names in the Lyrics of the Troubadours (Chapel Hill, NC, 1971)

U. Mölk and F. Wolfzettel: Répertoire métrique de la poésie lyrique française des origines à 1350 (Munich, 1972)

R.A. Taylor: La littérature occitane du Moyen Age: bibliographie sélective et critique (New York, 1977)

E. Doss-Quinby, ed.: The Lyrics of the Trouvères: a Research Guide (1970–1990) (New York, 1994)

M. Switten: Music and Literature in the Middle Ages: an Annotated Bibliography (New York, 1995)

editions, collections and facsimiles

K. Bartsch, ed.: Romances et pastourelles françaises des XIIe et XIIIe siècles (Leipzig, 1870/R)

E. Monaci: Facsimili di antichi manoscritti (Rome, 1881–) [incl. facs. of I-Rvat Reg.lat.1490]

P. Meyer and G. Raynaud, eds.: Le chansonnier français de Saint-Germain-des-Prés (Paris, 1892) [facs. of F-Pn fr.20050]

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F. Gennrich, ed.: Rondeaux, Virelais und Balladen aus dem Ende des XII., dem XIII. und dem ersten Drittel des XIV. Jahrhunderts, i (Dresden, 1921); ii (Göttingen, 1927); iii (Langen, 1963)

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J. Beck, ed.: Les chansonniers des troubadours et des trouvères: Chansonnier Cangé, Corpus cantilenarum medii aevi, 1st ser., i (Paris and Philadelphia, 1927/R) [facs. and edn of F-Pn fr.846]

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F. Gennrich, ed.: Troubadours, Trouvères, Minne- und Meistergesang, Mw, ii (1951; Eng. trans., 1960)

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S.N. Rosenberg and H. Tischler, eds.: Chanter m’estuet: Songs of the Trouvères (London, 1981, rev. 2/1995 with M.-G. Grossel)

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M. Switten, ed.: The Cansos of Raimon de Miraval: a Study of Poems and Melodies (Cambridge, MA, 1985)

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general: origins and milieu

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K. Axhausen: Die Theorien über den Ursprung der provenzalischen Lyrik (diss., U. of Marburg, 1937)

R.R. Bezzola: Les origines et la formation de la littérature courtoise en occident, 500–1200 (Paris, 1944–63)

A.R. Nykl: Hispano-Arabic Poetry and its Relations with the Old Provençal Troubadours (Baltimore, 1946)

P. Le Gentil: Le virelai et le villancico: le problème des origines arabes (Paris, 1954)

M. Ungureanu: La bourgeoisie naissante: société et littérature bourgeoises d’Arras (Arras, 1955)

A. Marigo, ed. and trans.: Dante: De vulgari eloquentia (Florence, 1957) [with commentary]

H. Davenson [H. Marrou]: Les troubadours, Le temps qui court (Paris, 1961, rev. 2/1971)

M. Lazar: Amour courtois et ‘fin’ amors’ dans la littérature du XIIe siècle (Paris, 1964)

P. Dronke: Medieval Latin and the Rise of European Love-Lyric (Oxford, 1965–6, 2/1968)

P. Dronke: The Medieval Lyric (London, 1968, 3/1996) [incl. extensive bibliography]

J.H. Marshall: The Razos de Trobar of Raimon Vidal and Associated Texts (London, 1972)

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literary

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D. Scheludko: ‘Ovid und die Trobadors’, Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie, liv (1934), 129–74

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I. Frank: ‘L’art d’éditer les textes lyriques’, Recueil de travaux offerts à M. Clovis Brunel (Paris, 1955), i, 463–75

D. Norberg: Introduction à l’étude de la versification latine médiévale (Stockholm, 1958)

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F. Pirot: Recherches sur les connaissances littéraires des troubadours (Barcelona, 1972)

E. Köhler: Sociologia della fin’amor: saggi trobadorici, ed. M. Mancini (Padua, 1976)

D. Rieger: Gattungen und Gattungsbezeichnungen der Trobadorlyrik: Untersuchungen zum altprovenzalischen Sirventes, Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie, cxlviii (Tübingen, 1976)

P. Bec: La lyrique française au Moyen-Age (XIIe–XIIIe siècles): contribution à une typologie des genres poétiques médiévaux (Paris, 1977–8)

P. Bec: ‘“Trobairitz” et chansons de femme: contribution à la connaissance du lyrisme féminin au Moyen Age’, Cahiers de civilisation médiévale, xxii (1979), 235–62

J.H. Marshall: ‘Pour l’étude des contrafacta dans la poésie des troubadours’, Romania, cccciii (1980), 289–335

G. Duby: Le chevalier, la femme et le prêtre (Paris, 1981; Eng. trans., 1984, as The Knight, the Lady and the Priest: the Making of Modern Marriage in Medieval France)

R.H. Bloch: Etymologies and Genealogies: a Literary Anthropology of the French Middle Ages (Chicago, 1983)

J.H. Marshall: ‘Textual Transmission and Complex Musico-Metrical Form in the Old French Lyric’, Medieval French Textual Studies in Memory of T.B.W. Reid, ed. I. Short (London, 1984), 119–48

P. Zumthor: La poésie et la voix dans la civilisation médiévale (Paris, 1984)

F.M. Chambers: An Introduction to Old Provençal Versification (Philadelphia, 1985)

M.V. Coldwell: ‘“Jongleresses” and “Trobairitz”: Secular Musicians in Medieval France’, Women Making Music: the Western Art Tradition, 1150–1950, ed. J. Bowers and J. Tick (Urbana, IL, 1986), 39–61

I. Kasten: Frauendienst bei Trobadors und Minnesängern im 12. Jahrhundert (Heidelberg, 1986)

J.A. Brundage: Law, Sex and Christian Society in Medieval Europe (Chicago, 1987)

J.-C. Huchet: L’amour discourtois: la fin’amors chez les premier troubadours (Toulouse, 1987)

S. Huot: From Song to Book: the Poetics of Writing in Old French Lyric and Lyrical Narrative Poetry (Ithaca, NY, 1987)

J.H. Marshall: ‘Une versification lyrique popularisante en ancien provençal’, Actes du premier congrès international de l’association internationale d’études occitanes: London 1987, ed. P.T. Ricketts, 35–66

F. Zufferey: Recherches linguistiques sur les chansonniers provençaux (Paris, 1987)

D. Billy: L’architecture lyrique médiévale: analyse métrique et modélisation des structures interstrophiques dans la poésie lyrique des troubadours et des trouvéres (Montpellier, 1989)

W.D. Paden jr: The Voice of the Trobairitz: Perspectives on the Women Troubadours (Philadelphia, 1989)

C. Page: The Owl and the Nightingale: Musical Life and Ideas in France 1100–1300 (London, 1989)

R. Cholakian: The Troubadour Lyric: a Psychocritical Reading (Manchester, 1990)

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F.R.P. Akehurst and J.M. Davis: A Handbook of the Troubadours (Berkeley, 1995)

musical

J.-B. de La Borde: Essai sur la musique ancienne et moderne, ii (Paris, 1780)

J.-B. de La Borde: Mémoires historiques sur Raoul de Coucy; on y joint le recueil de ses chansons en vieux langage, avic la traduction & l’ancienne musique (Paris, 1781)

F. Michel and F.-L. Perne: Les chansons du Châtelain de Coucy (Paris, 1830)

P. Aubry: La rythmique musicale des troubadours et des trouvères (Paris, 1907)

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J.B. Beck: Die Melodien der Troubadours, nach dem gesamten handschriftlichen Material zum erstenmal bearbeitet und herausgegeben, nebst einer Untersuchung über die Entwicklung der Notenschrift (bis um 1250) und das rhythmisch-metrische Prinzip der mittelalterlich-lyrischen Dichtungen, sowie mit Übertragung in moderne Noten der Melodien der Troubadours und Trouvères (Strasbourg, 1908/R)

P. Aubry: Trouvères et troubadours (Paris, 1909, 2/1910; Eng. trans., 1914/R)

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J. Ribera y Tarragó: Historia de la música árabe (Madrid, 1927; Eng. trans., abridged, 1929)

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F. Gennrich: ‘Grundsätzliches zu den Troubadour- und Trouvère-weisen: zu den Singweisen Bernarts von Ventadorn’, Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie, lvii (1937), 31–56

H. Spanke: Deutsche und französische Dichtung des Mittelalters (Stuttgart, 1943)

W. Biber: Das Problem der Melodieformel in der einstimmigen Musik des Mittelalters (Berne, 1951/R)

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H. Husmann: ‘Das Prinzip der Silbenzählung im Lied des zentralen Mittelalters’, Mf, vi (1953), 8–23

H. Husmann: ‘Die musikalische Behandlung der Versarten im Troubadourgesang’, AcM, xxv (1953), 1–20

W. Apel: ‘Rondeaux, Virelais and Ballades in French 13th-Century Song’, JAMS, vii (1954), 121–30

A. Machabey: ‘Problèmes de lyrique médiévale’, Romania, lxxv (1954), 384–9

J. Chailley: ‘Les premiers troubadours et les versus de l’école d’Aquitaine’, Romania, lxxvi (1955), 212–39

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E. Paganuzzi: ‘Sulla notazione neumatica della monodia trobadorica’, RMI, lvii (1955), 23–47

R.H. Perrin: ‘Some Notes on Troubadour Melodic Types’, JAMS, ix (1956), 12–18

J. Chailley: ‘Une nouvelle théorie sur la transcription des chansons des trouvères’, Romania, lxxviii (1957), 533–8

F. Gennrich: ‘Die Deutungen der Rhythmik der Kalenda-maya- Melodie’, Romanica: Festschrift für Gerhard Rohlfs, ed. H. Lausberg and H. Weinrich (Halle, 1958), 181–92

H. Anglès: ‘El canto popular en las melodías de los trovadores provenzales’, AnM, xiv (1959), 3–23; xv (1960), 3–20

A. Machabey: ‘Introduction à la lyrique musicale romane’, Cahiers de civilization mediévale, ii (1959), 203–11, 283–93

J. Maillard: ‘Coûtumes musicales au Moyen-Age d’après le Tristan en prose’, Cahiers de civilization médiévale, ii (1959), 341–53

H. Anglès: ‘Die volkstümlichen Melodien bei den Trouvères’, Festgabe für Joseph Müller-Blattau zum 65. Geburtstag, ed. W. Salmen (Saarbrücken, 1960, 2/1962), 11–18

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H. Anglès: ‘Die Bedeutung der Plika in der mittelalterlichen Musik’, Festschrift Karl Gustav Fellerer Zum sechzigsten Geburrstag, ed. H. Hüschen (Regensburg, 1962), 28–39

T. Karp: ‘Borrowed Material in Trouvère Music’, AcM, xxxiv (1962), 87–101

J. Maillard: Evolution et esthétique du lai lyrique des origines à la fin du XIVe siècle (Paris, 1963)

R.H. Perrin: ‘Descant and Troubadour Melodies’, JAMS, xvi (1963), 313–24

J. Schubert: Die Handschrift Paris Bibl. Nat. fr. 1591: kritische Untersuchung der Trouvèrehandschrift R (Frankfurt, 1963)

T. Karp: ‘The Trouvère Manuscript Traditions’, Queens College Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Festschrift, ed. A. Mell (New York, 1964), 25–52

T. Karp: ‘Modal Variants in Medieval Secular Monophony’, The Commonwealth of Music, in Honor of Curt Sachs, ed. G. Reese and R. Brandel (New York, 1965), 118–29

H. van der Werf: ‘The Trouvère Chansons as Creations of a Notationless Musical Culture’, CMc, no.1, (1965), 61–8

B. Stäblein: ‘Zur Stylistik der Troubadour-Melodien’, AcM, xxxviii (1966), 27–46

H. van der Werf: ‘Deklamatorischer Rhythmus in den Chansons der Trouvères’, Mf, xx (1967), 122–44

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H. Orenstein: Die Refrainformen im Chansonnier de l’Arsenal (Brooklyn, NY, 1970)

H. van der Werf: The Chansons of the Troubadours and Trouvères: a Study of the Melodies and their Relation to the Poems (Utrecht, 1972)

E. Jammers: Aufzeichnungsweisen der einstimmigen ausserliturgischen Musik des Mittelalters, Palaeographie der Musik, i/4 (Cologne, 1975)

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T. Karp: ‘Interrelationships between Poetic and Music Form in Trouvère Song’, A Musical Offering: Essays in Honor of Martin Bernstein, ed. E.H. Clinkscale and C. Brook (New York, 1977), 137–64

I. Parker: ‘Troubadour and Trouvère Song: Problems in Modal Analysis’, RBM, xxxi (1977), 20–37

H.-H.S. Räkel: Die musikalische Erscheinungsform der Trouvèrepoesie (Berne, 1977)

J.A. van Os: ‘Structures mélodiques et rhythme déclamatoire dans la chanson de trouvère’, Langue et littérature françaises du Moyen Age, ed. R.E.V. Stuip (Amsterdam, 1978), 51–62

I. Parker: ‘A propos de la tradition manuscrite des chansons de trouvères’, RdM, lxiv (1978), 181–202

I. Parker: ‘Notes on the Chansonnier Saint-Germain-des-Prés’, ML, lx (1979), 261–80

M.F. Stewart: ‘The Melodic Structure of Thirteenth-Century Jeux-Partis’, AcM, li (1979), 86–107

D. Halperin: ‘Distributional Structure in Troubadour Music’, Orbis Musicae, vii (1979–80), 15–26

J. Maillard: ‘Variantes mélodiques dans les chansons des trouvères’, Musique, Littérature et Société (Paris, 1980), 159–70

J. Stevens: ‘The Manuscript Presentation and Notation of Adam de la Halle’s Courtly Chansons’, Source Materials and the Interpretation of Music: a Memorial Volume to Thurston Dart, ed. I. Bent (London, 1981), 29–64

G. Le Vot: ‘Notation, mesure, et rhythme dans la canso troubadouresque’, Cahiers de civilisation médiévale, xxv (1982), 205–17

G. Le Vot: ‘Pour une épistémologie de l’édition musicale du texte lyrique français médiéval’, Musicologie médiévale: Paris 1982, 187–207

M. Eusebi: ‘Singolarità del canzoniere provenzale R.’, Romanische Forschungen, lxxxxv (1983), 111–16

Z. Falvy: ‘Manuskripte, Herkunft und Verzierung in der Troubadour Musik’, Studia Musicologica, xxvii (1985), 193–202

H. Tischler: ‘Trouvère Songs: the Evolution of their Poetic and Musical Styles’, MQ, lxxii (1986), 329–40

E. Aubrey: ‘The Transmission of Troubadour Melodies: the Testimony of Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, f.fr.22543’, Texte, iii (1987), 211–50

W. Arlt: ‘Musica e testo nel canto francese: dai primi trovatori al mutamento stilistico intorno al 1300’, La Musica nel tempo di Dante, ed. L. Pestalozza (Milan, 1988), 175–97, 306–21

G. Le Vot: ‘Considération sur le temps et la musique au Moyen Age’, Le nombre du temps: en hommage à Paul Zumthor (Paris, 1988), 137–52

H. Tischler: ‘The Performance of Medieval Songs’, RBM, xliii (1989), 225–42

A. Ziino: ‘Caratteri e significato della tradizione musicale trobadorica’, Lyrique romane médiévale: Liège 1989, 85–218

H. Tischler: ‘A Unique and Remarkable Trouvère Song’, JM, x (1992), 106–12

E. Aubrey: The Music of the Troubadours (Bloomington, IN, 1997) [with extensive bibliography]