M. SWITTEN. Chap 9. Music and Versification. the Troubadours. an Introduction - GAUNT, Simon, KAY, Sarah (Eds.)

8/10/2019 M. SWITTEN. Chap 9. Music and Versification. the Troubadours. an Introduction - GAUNT, Simon, KAY, Sarah (Eds.)

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C H A P T E R 9

Music and versificationFetz Marcabrus los motz el so

Margaret Switten

The new song of the early twelfth century brought a new way ofcrafting verses and a new music. It flourished in the cloister as in

the court, in Latin as in the vernacular.1

Its salient features werethe control of verse length by number of syllables and the linkingof verses by end-line rhyme, to which the music corresponded by atendency towards balanced phrase structures and regular cadencepatterns. New systems of sonorous coordinations thus emerged.The most significant vernacular repertory of new songs to be pre-served was created by the troubadours. How did the troubadoursexploit these new sound systems, verbal and musical? This chapter

will propose some responses to that question.

At the outset, I admit that the question is, in many ways,unanswerable. The reason is not complicated: no medieval soundshave come down to us. What we have are written records, and the

written records for troubadour song, like many medieval records,are difficult of interpretation. I shall first point out some of thedifficulties, then describe textual and musical elements of thesong; examine approaches to coordinated analysis and perform-ance; and conclude with a few illustrative examples. Examples aregrouped at the end of the chapter (pp. 15662 below).

M A N U S C R I P T S

Only one manuscript from the time of the early troubadours con-tains songs in Old Occitan: BNF, fonds latin, 1139, from SaintMartial of Limoges, part of which can be dated c. 1100. In theoldest section of this manuscript, among Latin songs called versus,are three religious songs in Occitan, or Occitan and Latin, all

with music. In contrast, the firstchansonnierscontaining troubadoursongs date from the mid thirteenth century from a time when

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troubadour song in its classic formulations was drawing to a close.This poses a paradox, frequently noted: the gap between the cre-ation of troubadour songs and their preservation in writing. Wedo not know how the songs crossed this gap.

As compared to trouvere manuscripts, troubadour chansonnierspreserve relatively few melodies. While most trouvere manuscriptscontain melodies, only two troubadour manuscripts (G and R)have music, and then not systematically throughout. Fortunately,two trouvere codices (W and X) have troubadour sections, thusgiving us four main sources for troubadour music. About 10 percent of troubadour poems survive with melodies, roughly about250melodies for some2,500texts. As may be seen from Appendix

1, some melodies for many important troubadours have been pre-served, but for others we have no melodies at all.These features intensify the usual problems of manuscript

variability and attribution (see Chapter 14). Medieval manu-scripts do not give us a single, authoritative song. What we callone song was probably many songs as it moved from performanceto performance, eventually to be embedded in manuscripts. Manu-scripts surely reflect the activity, at different stages, of composers,performers and scribes. Different manuscript versions raise the

issue of how to determine the composition of a given song. Theyalso raise the issue of how to determine the creator of the song.Examination of words and music together seems to assume thatone person composed both. We readily make this assumption: the(often problematic) author attributions in manuscripts are rou-tinely applied to both text and melody. The numerous passages

where an author lays claim to composition of both text andmelody justify this assumption as a working principle provided

we remember, however, that it is not proved or even provablethat text attributions always apply to the tunes. Such uncertaintiesproblematise concepts such as authors intention or authorsoriginal work as applied to the study of textmusic relationshipsand shift our attention to the concept of performance as themoment when two different sonorous systems are combined intoa single artistic expression.

Apart from their instability, written records bring uncertaintiesof interpretation probably more acute for melodies than for texts.

In the sources (exceptX), melodies are normally preserved in thesquare notation used for Chant: a single note per syllable is indi-


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cated by a square-shaped symbol with or without a stem; symbolsare linked together for a group of notes per syllable (see Examples3a and 4a). This notation (called non-mensural) conveys pitch

with adequate precision, but not rhythm. A semi-mensuralnotation (where some symbols could have durational meaning)used for a few songs in R (such as Example 1) gives partial butcontradictory information about rhythm. This situation has led toconsiderable debate among scholars. Further, the music sourcesdo not indicate whether or how instruments might have been used.I will return to these matters under Performance (pp. 14950below).2

V E R S I F I C A T I O N

The troubadours were virtuosic versifiers. The chief elements ofversification are metre (defined for this repertory as number ofsyllables per line) and rhyme. Although these elements mayseem conventional to us, possibilities of combination and re-combination served as a powerful stimulus to troubadour inven-tion of new patterns of verbal sound. Moreover, it is useful tohistoricise versification, to realise that practices we tend to con-

sider stable developed over time: this allows integration of experi-mentation and irregularity into our critical thinking.

Important recent book-length studies of versification includethose of Frank Chambers and Dominique Billy; the indispensablereference tool is Istvan Frank.3 Chambers adopts a chronologicalapproach, following the practices of individual troubadours; hisexplanations are clear and accessible. However, while recognisingirregularities, Chambers proceeds from the notion that numericalcounting of syllables was intended to be exact; thus he normalises.The inadvisability of normalising all texts was cogently argued by

John Marshall and incorporated into the theoretical, rigorouslystructural, work of Billy.4 Regular syllable count may remain thebasis of analysis of troubadour song, but recognising that irregu-larity is not always mere scribal error permits an understandingof historical developments during a period when the adoption ofexact syllable counting was more a process than a sudden event.

Syllable count for all troubadour songs is furnished by Franks

Repertoire. It is instructive to remember that designations of versetypes do not necessarily correspond to actual number of syllables.


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According to a system of counting dating at least from the four-teenth-century treatise the Leys damors, the basis for identifyingtypes of metre is the place of the final accent in the line of verse.Counting includes only the last accented syllable, and the verselength is defined by that syllable. Thus in an eight-syllable line

with final accented syllable, all syllables are counted:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8Ab/ ioi/ mou/ lo/ vers/ el/ co/ mens

(With joi I begin the vers and start it)

whereas in a line accented on the next to last syllable, the finalunaccented syllable is not counted:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Mas/ tant/ mau/ ci/ ab/ bel/ mar/ ti/ re

(But slays me with such fine martyrdom)

In modern parlance, when there is an accent on the final syllable,the end-word is called masculine; an end-word with an accent onthe next to last syllable is called feminine. Medieval treatises donot use the terms masculine and feminine either to describelines or to describe rhymes, but speak ofaccen agut (acute accent)

or accen greu (grave accent).5

All lines are named by number ofsyllables: thus, eight-syllable, or octosyllabic, ten-syllable, or deca-syllabic, to give as examples frequently used metres. When thesame metre is used throughout the stanza, one speaks of iso-metric stanzas; changes in metre within the stanza determineheterometric structures. Numerous poetic effects are created bythe choice of isometric or heterometric stanzas and by the distri-bution within the stanza of lines having final accented(masculine) endings and next-to-final accented (feminine) end-ings.

Further considerations of accent in troubadour verse includethe caesura and accents determined by stress patterns of the lan-guage. The caesura itself may be considered a pause, but the syl-lable preceding the pause is normally accentuated. Caesurae aretypically found in the troubadour repertory in decasyllabic lines(after the fourth syllable, less often after the fifth or sixth).Shorter lines do not have fixed caesurae, but one may presume

variable accents corresponding to sense groups, much as inmodern French poetry. The line of verse, anchored by the number


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of syllables and the accent at its close, diversified by the varyingaccents that play across these defining features, is manipulated

with great sophistication by the troubadours.6

The second element of versification, rhyme, also offers a dizzy-ing array of possibilities. Rhyme is simultaneously sound, senseand signpost: this multiplicity of functions makes it a privilegedpoetic space. In the early twelfth century, it had all the attractive-ness of a new technology. Rhyme is generally defined as the ident-ity of sounds from the final accented vowel to the end of the word,and it can be further described by the number of syllables includedin the identical sounds (degree or richness of rhyme) and by thequality and nature of the sounds themselves. Rhymes mark line

ends, and serve to establish inter- and intra-stanzaic linkings.Within the stanza, rhyme schemes (such as ababccdd or abbacdcd)define stanza types, and techniques such as coblas unissonans or

coblas capcaudadas link stanzas together. Technical discussion ofthese matters may be found in Frank, Repertoire, in Chambers and

with great detail in Billy.7 But the rhyme is not merely a technicaldevice; it is a source of sonorous beauty and, by the relationshipsit creates, of substantive argument. Troubadours revelled in soundcontrasts and gradations; some sought unusual words, harsh or

smooth. Raimbaut dAurengas Ar resplan (XXXIX), forexample, weaves its themes from rare and derivative rhymes (seeChapter 5 on this poem). Choice of a single rhyme-word crystal-lises meaning, as in Jaufre Rudels Lanquan li jorn (IV), wherethe rhyme-word lonh, expanded into the phrase amor de lonh(with always the same musical cadence), governs the poem and,indeed, some modern interpretations of finamor. A prestigiousexample of meaning produced by selection and manipulation ofrhyme words is Arnaut Daniels Lo ferm voler (XVIII), probablythe earliest sestina.8

M U S I C

Durable scholarly problems in the study of music include manu-scripts and transmission (briefly described above), rhythm (about

which more in a moment), and style and structure. In her recentbook, Elizabeth Aubrey treats form and style in considerable

detail.9

A good way to approach troubadour music is to devise strategies


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one can deploy to appreciate how the melodies work, starting fromthe basic concepts that (a) notes and note groups are joined tosyllables; (b) that a melodic phrase corresponds to a poetic line of

verse; (c) that the phrase may be closed by a cadence; and (d) thatmost troubadour songs are strophic, so the melody is containedentirely within the stanza and repeated for each succeedingstanza.

In the narrow sense, melodic style (or texture) is defined bynumber of notes per syllable: syllabic style has one note to a syl-lable; melismatic style (a melisma is a group of notes) has severalnotes to a syllable. Normally, troubadour melodies combine thesecontrasting styles, and the style of a particular song is character-

ised by the relative weight accorded to each. But song texturesare fluid. In the manuscripts, associations between notes and syl-lables often vary from one version of a song to the next. Melismasare ornamental. And since singers were under no constraint toadhere to a written score, adorning and varying melodies musthave been important performance techniques, doubtless used todemonstrate skill in interpreting the text. Thus exact distributionof notes per syllable surely changed with different performances,even where the basic texture remained the same.

On a more complex level, melodic style can be defined by howa melody moves. Does it follow step-wise progressions or are therelarge skips? Is the initial motion of the melody maintainedthroughout a phrase, or are there sharp reversals of direction? Isthe range of the melody (its highest and lowest note) wide orlimited? Often a troubadour melody reaches swiftly upwards to apeak during the last portion of the stanza, and the listener learnsto appreciate this moment. Motion between phrases is significant:starting a new phrase on the same note as the preceding oneexpresses continuity while a large leap proposes new material.One feature of melodic unfolding that differentiates it from verbalprogression is the use of repetition. Melodic repetition frequentlyengages entire phrases, and this repetition is a major formal cri-terion. Texts cannot support such repetition except in the specialcase of refrains. An equally important musical technique is therepetition of small melodic ideas or motives (see Example 4b)

which structure the melodic flow and provide coherence.10 Finally,

individual pitches stand out through repetition; these repeated


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tones often suggest an undergirding structure, or even, in conjunc-tion with the final note or cadence, a tonal centre.

A cadence is the note or series of notes that closes a musicalutterance, and one can think of it as analogous to rhyme, yet thetwo are very different. The pitch a melody reaches both at theends of phrases and at the end of the piece is important. Buttroubadour melodies do not always move towards clearly definedpitch goals. A melodic cadence is less predictable than a rhyme.

As modern listeners, we are often disconcerted when, in differentversions of a melody, concluding pitches are not the same at theends of phrases, or even at the end of the piece. However, as theexamples to be discussed will show, it is instructive to consider the

final note of a piece and relate it to the final notes of individualphrases to see if some structural pattern emerges.

M U S I C A N D T E X T

Since troubadour song brings music and poetry together, thisrelationship is a key focus of any discussion. As I have arguedelsewhere, two basic approaches to the study of textmusicrelationships in troubadour song may be identified: structural and

rhetorical.11

The former emphasises parallel patterns or shapes(metrical rather than semantic); the latter emphasises the pro-duction and communication of meaning. The two are tendenciesrather than mutually exclusive procedures.

The structural approach rests on the comparison of metricaland melodic formal characteristics, chiefly repeated elements, todetermine how stanzas are put together and how structures arecreated. Such analyses have often drawn upon the unfinishedtreatise by Dante Alighieri,De vulgari eloquentia, composed in Latinbetween1303and 1305. Since Dante used troubadour andtrouveresongs as models, his treatise has influenced modern critics percep-tion of textmusic relationships. Focusing on the stanza (stantia)as the receptacle, the room (mansio) where the art of song isforged, Dante emphasised the proportioned arrangement and dis-tribution of parts. He defined several patterns, giving them namesstill widely used. A pattern without division or repetition ofphrases was called oda continua. Various possibilities with a mid-

stanza division and phrasal repetitions before or after it were


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described, of which the most widely used have been: pedes(pre-division repetition) with cauda (no post-division repetition);and pedes with versus (post-division repetition).12 These three pat-terns correspond to melodic schemes ABCDEFG, ABAB CDEF,

ABAB CDCD or rhyme schemes abcdef, abab cdef, abab cdcd. AsDantes views have usually been interpreted, they would posit fullagreement between melodic and rhyme schemes as an ideal com-positional model. However, Dantes terms, and the structural con-cepts that have been drawn from them, only partially correspondto the varieties of troubadour creativity. Appreciation of theserequires the finer-grained approaches to defining structures thatinclude small irregular units and unusual as well as regular coordi-

nations of music and text.Structural analysis provides important insights, but it giveslittle sense of how a song plays out in time. Abstract schemesomit essential information and impose a deceptive normalisation.Emphasis on the stanza alone fails to take into account the rep-etition of stanzas that creates an irreversible temporal pattern.The unfolding in time of textual and musical elements is an issuethat needs to be addressed.

The second type of basic approach, the rhetorical approach,

allows us to confront this issue. Rhetorical purpose is differentfrom the idea of text painting or madrigalism. Rarely cantroubadour melodies be said to imitate word meanings. But theycan reflect, through sound and syntax, expressive values of texts.The aim of rhetorical analysis is to discover the combinations andcoordinations ofall the resources of language and music broughtinto play as the song unfolds.

Those who seek rhetorical interpretations, considering the com-poser, performer or scribe as a reader or interpreter of thepoem, sometimes emphasise the first stanza of the song. It is usu-ally the only stanza with music in the manuscripts (the samemelody being then repeated for following stanzas), giving theimpression that the inventor of the melody might have had itspecifically in mind. A main question then becomes: how can themusic relate to succeeding stanzas? The first stanza does set thesubject and the tone. But as the melody is repeated for succeedingstanzas, it is cast in a new light by association with different texts.

And although melodic and metrical patterns are set by the firststanza, many intricate rhyme schemes and refrain patterns can


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only be deployed over the entire song. Therefore, at its best, therhetorical approach includes an examination of how the firststanza conditions the rest.

Rhetorical analysis must also account for the widespread use ofcontrafacta or borrowing and exchange of tunes and texts. Some-times a tune from, say, a canso (love song) has been borrowed fora sirventes (political song). If text and melody are related only onthe level of form or shape, then texts and melodies can easily beinterchanged. If, however, specific melodies are seen as responsesto specific texts, the practice ofcontrafacta problematises the rhe-torical approach. In this context, it is useful to think of contrafac-tion as a type of intertextuality, opening a new range of

interpretative models (see Chapter 11). Further, the fluidity ofmelodies in the manuscripts raises difficult issues of interpret-ation, especially when, in multiple versions of a song, melody ver-sions are so different as to constitute essentially different tunes.With rhetorical analyses, special care must be taken not to baseinterpretations on the concept of a fixed association between

words and melodies, or on the notion of authors intention, nar-rowly defined. For each song and indeed for its several variations

where there are variations the range of possible musico-poetic

juxtapositions must contribute to an understanding of rhetoricaleffectiveness.

P E R F O R M A N C E

The song lives in the physical act of singing. The knottiest issuein performance is rhythm. Owing to the ambiguity of the medievalmusical notation, no modern theory enjoys complete adherence.13

Should we give equal time to each syllable? Should we impose asystem of longs and shorts on the song? The last solution is nowlargely discredited; the first, sometimes called the isosyllabichypothesis,14 if strictly applied, is too rigid; but combined withlinguistic accents and poetic diction, it offers valuable practicalsolutions. Another controversial issue is the use of instruments.Lack of precise manuscript indication combines with iconograph-ical and other evidence that suggests their use to create an ambi-

guity that does not allow definitive solutions. Previously, instru-ments were enthusiastically omnipresent in performances; recent


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work has brought a clearer assessment of historical probabilities:for troubadour song, use of instruments was probably discreet.15

Consideration of performance must also include the complexrelationships between performers (who may or may not have beenthe composer), audience and performance space.16 The main per-forming space was surely the court; the main critical task is toexamine possible interactions between performers and a courtpublic. The audience was presumably mixed. The performers werelikely a range of figures poets, joglars and also women. Ongoingresearch, especially in social history, is bringing fresh assessmentof the role of women.17 Theories of male political dominance bymarginalising women tend to exclude them.18 But Occitan women

likely held considerable power, participating in political life as cas-tellans, though less frequently than men. Positing the active pres-ence of women in performance situations subtly enriches the inter-changes we imagine as the songs initial reception.

Audience reception of musical performance has not benefitedfrom the kind of scrutiny accorded to reception of texts. How wasthe song heard? What musical contexts guided understanding?Surely one main context was the Chant, another monastic songssuch as versus, and still another popular songs now lost to us. A

sophisticated audience surely appreciated inter-musical relations,as it appreciated subtleties of versification, melodic compositionand textual rhetoric as they came together in performance.

M U S I C A N D V E R S I F I C A T I O N : A B R I E F S A M P L I N G

The examples at the end of the chapter, arranged in roughlychronological order, represent several periods of troubadoursong.19 Discussion of them will illustrate and summarise mainpoints treated above.

Example 1: Bernart de Ventadorn, Ab joi mou lo vers (III),preserved in G, R and W. Comparison of G and R reflects the

variability of troubadour melodic composition and transmission.Regarding melodic characteristics, both versions combine syllabicand melismatic styles. The position and length of melismas aresometimes the same in both versions; more usually, different dis-tributions of notes and note groups pertain. Nonetheless, the

repeated pitchfat the end of most phrases and at the close of thepiece establishes fas the tonal centre; the prominence of c gives


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it secondary tonal importance; and the cadence on g in line 7forms a contrast to the other cadences before the final close. Themelody inRcorresponds to Dantes pedesandcauda, ABAB CDEF.The G version does not (nor does the version in W), especially inthe first portion of the song; differences can be plotted by compar-ing successive lines in Gto R. The structure may have been regu-larised by the scribe ofR; and to adopt his regularisation, exclud-ing other versions (following Gennrich),20 is to engage in anabusive normalisation that obscures what we must imagine as themedieval reality. The heterometriccoblas unissonanscombine eight-(masculine), seven- (feminine) and ten-syllable lines with a rhymescheme ababccdd. The turn of the stanza (lines 45) illustrates

transition by variation of rhythm and rhyme through which rhymerelations are highlighted. The rhythmic shift by end-line accent,masculine to feminine: -ens/-ansa, plays on both similarity anddifference of rhyme sounds. The effect is striking in the firststanza, when comens (line 1) expands to comensamens (line 4) thenshifts to comensansa to conclude development of this key notion.

Example2: The Comtessa de Dia, A chantar (Rieger XXXV),our onlytrobairitzmelody. The regularly balanced opening phrases,

ABAB CDB, the stately ten-syllable lines, the expressive rise

through a triad fac in line 6, the emotional centre of everystanza, and the return to the B phrase to close, all create a capti-

vating musical expression. The song has only one stanza in MSW.The language of the MS illustrates problems brought about byFrenchifying Old Occitan (in trouvere manuscripts and in lyricinsertion romances). As Occitan songs travelled north, the texts

were adapted to a French-speaking environment.21 The exampleshows both Old Occitan and Old French, and the problematicrelationship of Frenchification to the melody. The versification ofthis song demonstrates a frequently used device to link what aretechnically coblas singulars. The rhyme scheme is aaaabab. Therhyme sound a changes with every stanza providing a variety ofcolours. Stanzas are linked by the rhyme sound b,-ens, which staysthe same and anchors the song, its sound and its meaning, sincerhyme words in -enscarry particular force.22

Example 3: Raimon de Miraval, Bel mes (XXXVII). In thissong, one may examine structuring by short repeated motives and

the recurrence of entire phrases but not in a set pattern. The odacontinua label sometimes applied to it is, at best, misleading.


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Division in two parts is proposed by the cadence on d in lines 4and9, and by the upward leap of a fifth in line 5contrasting withthe downward leap of a fourth in line 1. The rising motif a uniteslines (1),2and 4, and returns in line8 to link the last part of thesong to the first. Lines 6 and 7 are exactly repeated though inthe second part of the melody and not the first where one expectssuch repetition. But 6 and 7 also recall line 3 in their concludingportion (motif b). While absolute identity is avoided by the shift-ing text accent (in line 3, b occurs to a masculine rhyme, in lines67 to a feminine rhyme), echoing of motives relates the middlesection of the tune also to the first part. Such motivic inter-relationships provide strong melodic coherence. Verse form com-

bines seven-syllable masculine and feminine lines with a rhymescheme abbacddcc. The rhyme-sounds play on studied distinc-tions: diphthongs ei/ai, with identical final elements i and slightlydifferentiated accented vowels e/a, contrast with the single high

vowel of -ut. Musical motif b both connects and varies melodicallythe diphthong inplais/vaire,traire: in line3 ai has a two-note group,in lines 67 a six-note group, expanding the diphthong in thefeminine rhyme before the final -ut. Expansion is framed by thelinking in lines 58 of rimes embrassees: cddc to what one could

callcadences embrassees: fccf. Music and versification are joined in aneffective sonorous development. The tense rhyme -utwill concludethe song in the key word perdut, twice repeated in the tornadas,summing up the major theme: painful loss of joy and of onescastle in the crucial year 1213.23

Example 5: Guiraut Riquier, Fis e verays (Molk XVII), anexample from the later flowering of troubadour art. Frequent rep-etitions on the level of the phrase, exploiting the settled paradigm

ABABx (specifically ABABCAB here), and melismatic style aretypical of Riquier. Riquier also represents the case, unique to thetroubadour repertory, of a group of songs signed and dated as bythe composers own hand: rubrics like the one given here situateRiquiers songs in both R and C. The complexity of the versi-fication provides a glimpse of troubadour virtuosity: coblas alter-nadas capcaudadas retrogradaswith seven ten-syllable lines, all mascu-line, rhyme scheme abbcdde, thus three rims estramps (uelh, -es,-ans) to which is added a refrain word that conveys the central

theme:


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I II III IV V tornadasuelh ans uelh ans uelhort or ort or ortort or ort or ortames ames ames ames ames ames amesor ort or ort or or oror ort or ort or or orans uelh ans uelh ans ans ans

Because the rhyme scheme changes and the melody is repeated, asthe song unfolds there occur different associations between rhymesounds and melodic cadences. For example, the sounds -uelh and-answill be heard alternately to the cadences of lines 1 and 7, and

since the cadences of lines 4 and7 are the same, the refrain wordwill be linked alternately to these sounds and the meanings theycarry, as they appear in line 7. Thus stanza I links ames/enans;stanza IIames/vuelh. Rhyme schemes beginning abbc can create aneffect of surprise: an audience by this late date expects rhyme ato come back. The surprise here creates tension: rhyme a does notcome back to end the first section, but the melodic cadence bringsclosure. Syntactically, no strong pause is marked at the end of line4;amesis an imperfect subjunctive, which seems to propel the songforward. Thus there is tension between musical pause and textualmovement: in this tension lies the frustration of love.

Now let us take up Example 4, Peire Vidal, Bem pac(XXXVI), to glimpse an entire song through selected stanzasgiven in the example. This cansowith political and crusading over-tones is representative of Peire Vidal in the sometimes whimsicalunfolding of its text. The song was possibly twice reworked to addthe first tornada and then the sixth stanza. But if stanza VI was alater addition, the transition to it is prepared by what precedes.The ten-line coblas unissonans combine seven-syllable metres withmasculine and feminine rhymes in a sequence abbaabccdd. Thissequence incorporates a two-line prolongation of the rhymes ofthe first part into a basic scheme abba [ab] ccdd. Lines 5 and 6are thus transitional, relating both to the first and to the secondparts of the stanza. Rhyme sounds a and b contrast: -iu/-ors; c andd share a vowel and a consonant: -ella/-el, differentiated only bythe unaccented syllable of the feminine rhyme. The metrical

shape thus created is unique. Of the sounds chosen for therhymes, -ors is the most thematically charged since it brings a


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constellation of terms associated withamorsin its wake. Two termsstand out: combatedors and secors. Combatedors, an unusual desig-nation, is paired with fenhedors in stanza II, and the negative setcarries over to vilas domneiadors in stanza III, until fis conoissedorsushers inmellorsand then a positive series valors, lauzors,doussorsinstanzas IV and V (not reproduced in the example). The ladysmerit vanquishes all enemies. Secors plays a double role in stanza

VI: it is the pivot on which turns the shift from secular to sacred,from the possibility of the ladys secorsto the call to help the Lord.The final rhyme sound -elis part of a series of Biblical references Gabriel, Abel, Israhel (IV), Rachel (V), Daniel until the Byzan-tine Emperor Manuel in stanza VII. These infuse the song with a

religious aura before we arrive at stanza VI. The rhyme -ella car-ries one whimsical image, again typical of Vidal: the heart drawnfrom beneath the armpit in stanza III.

The melody, among the loveliest in the troubadour repertory,exhibits an extraordinary range, an affinity for motion by chainsof thirds, graceful adornment. It is in three manuscripts: G, Rand X, with practically identical versions in G andX(R is similarstructurally but more compact in range). The melody is through-composed, thus Dantesoda continua. But that fact gives us no con-

cept of its structure. Cadence notes for each phrase provide initialclues: cgccagc(octave above)egc. The note c stands out;hierarchically the lower c carries greater weight and suggests(without clearly affirming it) an initial division of the melody intotwo parts: four lines closing onc followed by six lines again closingon c. The relative highness or lowness of the melody, exploitingthe upper and lower portions of the range, brings contrast. Lines14move in the lower portion; lines 58sweep through the entirerange, from low g to high f, almost a double octave and surely aplace for the singer to display his talent; lines 910fall back intothe original portion of the range. The structure is refined: aninitial four lines, followed by four lines contrasting in range, withtwo lines bringing closure by a return to the beginning. To fleshout these structural points, one could take note of repeated initalmelismas in lines 1 and 10; of melodic rhyme in 1, 3 and 10; ofthe spectacular rising thirds fac at the beginning of line 7lead-ing to the climax of the melody on f. One further consideration

clinches the initial impression of a division after line 4: the motionto the next line drops a fourth from g to c, contrasting with therising motion proceding from lines 12 and 34. Moreover, lines


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5and 6have the only stepwise rising link in the piece one couldalmost call the movement from 5 to 6 a continuation of musicalsense from one line to the next, a kind of equivalent of poeticenjambment. If the melody is through-composed, having no rep-etition of entire phrases, it is not without structural divisions thatgive it shape, and with its abundance of four-, five-, six- and eveneight-note melismas, it is a bravura piece of remarkable energy.

Considering now text and melody together, the first stanza setsthe stage for a canso: love unites all contraries (dead noble vs.living coward strikes a humorous note), sustained by youth andmerit. Lest the short seven-syllable line seem frivolous, the richlyadorned melody gives it weight and substance. The melodic div-

ision after the fourth line sets off the contraries, pausing enoughfor a smile onavol viu. Lines5and6then move forward, syntacti-cally and musically joined, as these central lines will be in everystanza of the poem. The apex of the melody (high f) is touched inlines 78, the two lines with feminine rhyme; in this portion ofthe melody, syllabic style increases dynamic tension and forwardmotion, to which the lengthening of the rhyme is counterpoised.The complete expansive melodic gesture rising to and falling awayfrom the climax covers lines 58(from lowgto highfand back to

e) and corresponds to the rhetorical statement of reasons for sing-ing. The last two lines then return to the first contrasts as themelody settles back into its initial range. At the close of the firststanza, the main rhetorical elements are in place, and a tone bothserious and mocking has been established.

In the succeeding stanzas, new textual configurations will beheard to the same melody. The first four-line melodic statement

will propose though not impose matching syntactic and semanticstatements. Lines 58, given prominence by the melodic range,often contain explanations or justifications. The whimsical imagein stanza III, mentioned above, is the more amusing because itcomes when the melody peaks: the unexpected juxtaposition of thefeminine rhymes sembellaand aisselladeflates the musical rhetoric.Perhaps most striking throughout the song is the correlation ofthe final rhymes in -el with the melodys return to its originalspace. This emphasises a list of names and a series of comparisonsthat are unusual for a canso, but they fit with this songs generic

ambiguity and create thematic unity. Moreover, the -elrhyme alsoincludes cel, fel and mel, which return in the tornadas, so that thefirst stanza and the last tornada close on the same word, cel.


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Example1 Bernart de Ventadorn, Ab joi mou lo vers el comens;comparison of versions in R and G

(1) The text in R, line3, is: Et ab que bona sia la fis, thus an extra syllable and an extra

note. Adding or deleting notes, splitting or combining note groups are common adjust-ments of melodies in the manuscripts to number of syllables. Rhas semi-mensural notation.See van der Werf, Extant, p. 30*.

(From joy I begin the versand with joy will it continue and end; and only if the end is good,will I consider good the beginning. Through the good beginning come to me joy and happi-ness; so I must welcome the good ending for I see all good actions praised upon conclusion.)


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Example2 The Comtessa de Dia, A chantar mer de so quieu non volria

(1) In line 2, the scribe (possibly confused about the gender of the speaker) wrote amigsbut left the last note of the melody in place; a possible emendation to amige in themanuscript seems to address that problem. In line 7, the Frenchified rhyme ence corre-

sponds to the melody as written. The melodic cadence of line 2 fits the Old Occitan text;to sing line 7 in Old Occitan, one must consolidate the final three-note melisma plus onenote in a single group.

(I am obliged to sing of that which I would not, so bitter am I over the one whose love Iam, for I love him more than anything; with him, mercy and courtliness are of no avail,not my beauty, nor my merit, nor my good sense, for I am deceived and betrayed just as Ishould be if I were ungracious.)


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Example3a Raimon de Miraval, Bel mes qieu chant e coindei, MSR

Folio83v, upper left detail. Square notation on a four-line staff with an F clef of the form ,except that for the last melisma, there is a three-line staff to fit the space.ClicheBibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris.


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Example3b Raimon de Miraval, Bel mes qieu chant e coindei

(1) This note could be f.

(It pleases me to sing and be agreeable since the air is warm, the weather delightful, andin the orchards and hedges I hear the chirping and warbling of the little birds among thegreen and the white and the multicoloured (foliage and flowers). Then he who wants loveto help him should strive to behave like a lover.)


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Example4a Peire Vidal, Bem pac divern e destiu, MSG

Folio 40v. Square notation; staves of57 lines to accommodate the range; C and F clefs,

the latter of the form . UnlikeR, only underlaid text is run-on. Other stanzas have oneverse to a line. Verse 7 has one missing syllable. The note group over the second syllableof novella has an unusual stem in the middle as though two groups had been placedtogether. In the transcription, this group has been separated to cover the8 actual syllables.Line 1, first melisma could end on f.Biblioteca Ambrosiana R71 Sup., Milan. Property of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana. All rightsreserved. No reproductions allowed.


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Example4b Peire Vidal, Bem pac divern e destiu

II Ma dona pretz soloriuDenant mil combatedors,E contrals fals fenhedorsTen establit Montesquiu:Per quel seu ric senhoriu 15Lauzengiers non pot far cors,Que sens e pretz la capdella;E quan respon ni apellaSiei dig an sabor de mel,Don sembla Sant Gabriel. 20

III E fais temer plus de griuAls vilas domneiadors,Et als fis conoissedors

A solatz tan agradiu,

Qual partir quecs jure pliu 25Que domnes de las mellors:Per quem trainem sembellaEm tral cor de sotz laissella,Don ma leyal e fizelE just pus que Dieus Abel. [. . .] 30

VI En Fransa et en BeriuEt a Peitieus et a TorsQuer nostre Senher secors

Pel Turcs quel tenon faidiu,Que tolt lan el vas el riu 55On mondavals pechadors;E qui ara nos revellaContraquesta gen fradellaBen mal sembla DanielQuel dragon destruis e Bel. 60

I Winter and summer please me as do cold and heat; I like snow as much as flowers andprefer a dead noble to a living coward, for thus do Youth and Merit keep me joyous.Since I love a new lady most gracious and beautiful, roses appear amidst ice and clear

weather in a troubled sky.

II My lady has superior merit before a thousand enemies, and against false hypocritesholds Montesquiu firmly so nolauzengiercan attack her authority, for wisdom and meritguide her; and when she answers or calls, her words are honey so she resembles StGabriel.

III More than a griffon she makes herself feared by vulgar suitors, and perfect connoisseursare so warmly greeted that, on leaving, each swears and pledges that she is one of thebest ladies; therefore she attracts and lures me and draws my heart from beneath myarmpit, so I am loyal and faithful to her and more just than God towards Abel . . .

VI In France and in the Berry, in Poitiers and in Tours, Our Lord seeks help against theTurks who hold him in exile, for they have taken the sepulchre and the stream wherehe purified the sinners; and who now does not rise up against this cursed peopleresembles not at all Daniel who destroyed the dragon and Bel.


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Example5 Guiraut Riquier, Fis et verays e pus ferms que no suelhLa XVIIa canson den Guiraut The XVIIth canso by GuirautRiquier lan M CC LXXV Riquier in the year 1275

II Lenans que nay mes mout plazens e grans,Quieu non saupi penre ni far honor,Ni negus faitz dazaut no mac sabor,Trom fes plazer amors quieu lieys ames,Quab mi no fon en lunh fag dun acort,

Sal quar son pretz creysser dezira fort,Que sylh o vol, ieu atretant o vuelh.

I For my Fair Delight, I am noble, true, and more constant than usual towards love. Notthat shes shown me comfort, but because I recall who I was ere I loved and consider

who I would be without love, and hear whom the connoisseurs take me to be. For I lovenobly because by love I am enhanced.

II The enhancement I have is most pleasing to me, for I knew not how to win or do honour,and no gracious deed appealed to me, until love made it pleasing that I should love her

who was in no agreement with me, except that she greatly desires to increase her merit,and if she wants that, I want it just as much.

(1) The scribe did not place flat signs consistently. See Van der Werf, Extant, p. 53.


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N O T E S

1 Arlt, Zur Interpretation and Nova Cantica; Grier, New voice.2 For MSS, transmission, notation and editing problems, see van der

Werf,Chansons, pp. 2645 (definitions of mensural and semi-mensural

notation are given on p. 157), Extant, pp. 328, Music, pp. 12139;Switten,Music and Poetry, pp. 320, 759; Aubrey,Music, pp. 2665.

3 Frank, Repertoire (see Appendix 3, p. 301); Chambers, Versification;Billy, LArchitecture.

4 Chambers, Versification, pp. 89; Marshall, Isostrophic, Textualtransmission, Versification lyrique; see also Switten, Music andPoetry, pp. 867.

5 Leys, I, 100. Chambers, Versification, pp. 1112 cites two ambiguousexamples from later troubadours of masculine/feminine possiblyreferring to rhymes. The terminology was regularly applied to nouns

in grammatical treatises. See also Kay, Derivation, pp. 1625.6 Switten, Music and Poetry, pp. 8593.7 See also Roubaud, Fleur, pp. 185240.8 See Switten, De la sextine, for interaction of rhymes and music.9 Aubrey, Music, pp. 132236; see also Switten, Music and Poetry, pp.

10419.10 Switten, Miraval, pp. 2240; Aubrey, Music, pp. 18494.11 Switten, Music and words, pp. 1416. For representative types of

analysis, see Stevens, Words and Music; Treitler, Medieval lyric.12 De vulgari, II, ixxi.

13 Van der Werf,Chansons, pp.3545, Music, pp.1213; Aubrey,Music,pp. 24054; Switten, Music and Poetry, pp. 826; 967.

14 Stevens, Words and Music, 41316, 5004. Van der Werf, Not-so-precisely measured , proposespitches of equal length.

15 Page, Voices and Instruments; Aubrey, Music, pp. 25462.16 Kay, Subjectivity, pp. 13270, treats some of these issues.17 Until forthcoming publications, such as Cheyette, Women, elabor-

ate these approaches, see Bruckner, Songs of Women [see under Trobair-itz, p. 308 below], pp. xxxvixxxviii; Switten, Comtessa, in Rosen-berg, Songs, p. 95.

18 Such as the Duby model of male power. For Dubys work, includingdeficiencies in depiction of women, see Evergates, Georges Duby.19 Example texts come from editions in Appendix 1, except 4 from

Switten,Miraval, p. 160. For melodic transcriptions, I use rhythmicallyneutral black dots (a smaller dot for theplica) and a modern G clef.

20 Gennrich, Nachlass, II, Kommentar, p. 27.21 Pollina, Troubadours dans le Nord.22 Bruckner, Fictions, p.882; Switten, A chantar in Rosenberg, Songs,

p. 96.23 Miraval had lost his castle before composing this song in 1213to ask

Peter of Aragon for help against Simon of Montfort, leader of theAlbigensian crusaders. Peter did come to help; but at the disastrousbattle of Muret in1213, the Occitan forces were defeated and Peterkilled.

Documents

M. SWITTEN. Chap 9. Music and Versification. the Troubadours. an Introduction - GAUNT, Simon, KAY, Sarah (Eds.)