THE TROUBADOURS

Pourtant si les mots s'étaient boursouflés, s'ils étaient à l'agonie, la musique, elle, était intacte. Elle avait traversée les siècles de l'exil comme une flèche va vers sa cible; elle disait qu'après le langage, et quand toute parole des hommes est terminée, demeure le chant.

Gilles Lapouge Equinoxiales

{Yet at times words had become swollen, sometimes they were on the verge of agony, but music itself remained intact. It had crossed the centuries of exile like an arrow which goes towards its target; it told that after language, and when all human expression is finished, the song lives on.)

It was a very long way before one emerged from the mist of the centuries. And for a long time the songs of Troubadours had been kept in obscurum - it was considered fit to hide from the world for a number of centuries the strains that filled the air in the Middle Ages.

The 12^th and 13^th centuries in Provençal France were ripe with music... all over the land which stretched from Lombardia (North Italy) to Catalona (Spain), with the whole of France in the spectrum, Troubadours roamed the courts of Palma, Catalona, Navarre, Gazcogne, Aquitaine, Limousin, Auvergne, Toulouse, Provence, Avignon, Roussillon and North Italy, further south into Naples and even into the reign of the two Sicilies, far south to Malta, and further north into Normandie, Bretagne and England... the Troubadours, Trouvères (Trovatori) or Minstrels spread all over the face of Europe. 

While this page cannot go into minute details with regard to Troubadour history, I have included this sub-section with my home-page to bring to light some of the most beautiful Troubadour songs that the people of the Middle Ages, particularly those of the 12^th to the 14^th centuries, were honoured to hear.

SOME PERTINENT ISSUES

For a long time a heavy silence took hold of the secular poem and song of the Middle Ages. Instead, most of the "great" works of the time were those of a religious content and nature. We see this happening also in English literature - the earliest surviving hymn is Caedmon's Hymn, about nine verses of praise to God the father of heaven and earth. Yet, while in England one could still lay hands on texts in Old English or Old Icelandic, in the core of what is now Central Europe, the focus was on religious themes, debates and arguments.

It is therefore rather enriching to find out that today there is a concerted effort to move away from those traditionally established norms to what we consider as pure forms of art. Troubadour music is one such art. It focuses on the code of courtly love, and later on it even touches upon erotic love, the most significant allusions are found in René Nelli. It is the sprite-like quality of the Troubadours themselves that makes their songs stand out. And, even if Dante wrote his Commedia as an exploratory piece of literature that works on the story-level and the allegory-level simultaneously - and it remains a great piece of literary expertise - yet he too owes a lot to the Troubadours themselves, even if many scholars continue to deny this, or give it very minimum importance. For Dante was a man who had been involved closely in the courts in Florence, where music and art flourished together, where patrons benevolently kept musicians, performing artists and poets. In a sense, he immortalised part of the alliterative tradition (which formed the basis of all Troubadour popular chant) in writing, in his "terzine". Art for Art's sake - this was the basis of most Troubadour chants, sometimes lauding their patron and securing a benefice... but it remains one of the most beautiful modes of expression.

Raimon d'Avinhon (c. 1230)

As one can see from this excerpt, this troubadour speaks ironically about himself and his job, giving us the impression that being a troubadour was something he could do because he was gifted, and that after having tried so many other jobs. The continuation of this song goes on with Raimon saying he was even a baker, that he had been a painter, worked on boats and galleys, and that, after all, to continue this song humorously, he had been a doctor on many occasions. The latter reference is taken to mean that his music too had, within it, medicinal qualities for it brought a laugh and alleviated bad tempers!

Arnaut de Marolh

This song is sung by the courtly lover to his lady. In it he proclaims that although their love is a secret, because convention requires it, since the lady may have been married too, yet he is content to let her know that she is the sole mistress of his heart, and all his songs are solely for her.