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Trouvère (/truːˈvɛər/,French:[tʁuvɛʁ]), sometimes spelledtrouveur (/truːˈvɜːr/,French:[tʁuvœʁ]), is the NorthernFrench (langue d'oïl) form of thelangue d'oc (Occitan) wordtrobador, the precursor of the modern French wordtroubadour.Trouvère refers to poet-composers who were roughly contemporary with and influenced by thetrobadors, both composing and performinglyric poetry during theHigh Middle Ages, but while thetrobadors composed and performed inOld Occitan, thetrouvères used the northerndialects of France. One of the first knowntrouvères wasChrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160s–1180s)[1] and thetrouvères continued to flourish until about 1300. Some 2130trouvère poems have survived; of these, at least two-thirds have melodies.
The etymology of the wordtroubadour and its cognates in other languages is disputed, but may be related totrobar, "to compose, to discuss, to invent", cognate with Old Frenchtrover, "to compose something in verses". (For a discussion of the etymology of the wordtroubadour and its cognates, seeTroubadour § Etymology.)
The modern popular image of thetroubadour ortrouvère is that of the itinerant musician wandering from town to town,lute on his back. Itinerant singers and performers existed, but they were calledjongleurs andminstrels—professional entertainers, usually of somewhat lower social status.Troubadours andtrouvères, on the other hand, were often of higher social class and did not typically rely on music making as a trade. They were either poets and composers who were supported by the aristocracy or, just as often, were aristocrats themselves, for whom the creation and performance of music was part of the courtly tradition. However, these distinctions were not always clear, and varied by community[2]
The texts of these songs are a natural reflection of the society that created them. They often revolve around idealized treatments ofcourtly love ("fine amors", seegrand chant) and religious devotion, although many can be found that take a more frank, earthy look at love. Other genres well represented in the surviving works bytrouvères are debate songs known asjeu-partis as well aspastourelles, dance songs, andchansons de femme (songs with a female perspective).[2]
Johannes de Grocheio, aParisian musical theorist of the early 14th century, believed that the most elevatedtrouvère songs, known asgrand chants, inspired kings and noblemen to do great things: "This kind of song is customarily composed by kings and nobles and sung in the presence of kings and princes of the land so that it may move their minds to boldness and fortitude,magnanimity and liberality...".[3]
The surviving music bytrouvères is vocal music that ismonophonic and mostlysyllabic, meaning that only a single melodic line was notated, and the text is presented simply with only one or a few notes per syllable of text. Rhythm is not recorded for most songs, and no instrumentation is specified. Because narrative and visual evidence tells us that instruments were widely used, it is likely that instruments were used in some cases, buttrouvère songs were likely also performed unaccompanied.[4] Modern scholars and performers take a variety of approaches to rhythmic interpretation, including using a free rhythmic approach or relatively equal note values throughout, deriving rhythmic ideas from the text, or applying rhythmic modes found in contemporary polyphonic music.[5]
Mosttrouvère music isstrophic, with a single verse of music repeated with multiple verses of text. In some, a repeated one- or two-line refrain is used in each stanza. Sometrouvere refrains were also used across multiple different songs and other literary works, creating a network of references.[6]
There are no extanttrouvère songs "in which a woman explicitly claims authorship by naming herself".[7] There are, however, poems in which a woman is named as the author in arubric or table of contents in a manuscript and others in which a female voice, named or unnamed, participates in ajeu parti (debate poem). Many others are written from a woman's point of view and may have been written by women authors.[7] While early scholars often denied the existence of womentrouvères, since the 1980s their existence has been generally accepted and an effort has been made to identify anonymous songs composed by women on the basis of lyrics and contextual clues.[8] The latest monograph on womentrouvères identifies eight known by name or title, plus a further six named women who judgedjeux partis.[9]
The termtroveresse has sometimes been used for women trouvères.[9] The lexicographerFrédéric Godefroy defined theOld French wordtrouverresse as "she who composes, invents", citing a manuscript of a continuation ofRobert of Auxerre'sChronicle. The spellingtroverresse also appears in the late 14th-century French–Latin dictionaryAalma, where it corresponds to Latininuentrix (inventor).[10]
The eight named women trouvères are:[9]
This is only a partial list. There are 256 named male trouvères known.[9]
The following is a list ofchansonniers containing trouvère texts and/or music listed bysigla (usually a letter). It is not complete. The same manuscripts may be signified by differentsigla in different contexts (i.e., troubadours or motets) if it contains works of different kinds. Thesesigla are standard in trouvère studies.[11]
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