Troubadours and Trouvères

Troubadours and Trouvères (Provençal trobar; cf. Old French trouver, “to find” or “to invent”), lyric poets and poet-musicians who flourished in France from the end of the 11th century to the end of the 13th century. The troubadours, who were active in Provence in southern France, took their inspiration from the ancient Greek conception of the lyric poem as a vocal composition. Written in the Provençal language, (also known as langue d'oc), the lyrics of the troubadours were among the first to use native language rather than Latin, the literary language of the Middle Ages. These poems incorporated new forms, melodies, and rhythms, either original or borrowed, from the informal music of the people. The earliest troubadour whose works have been preserved was Guillaume IX of Aquitaine. Of the more than 400 troubadours known to have lived, the majority were nobles and some were kings; for them, composing and performing songs was a manifestation of the ideal of chivalry. Troubadour music gradually disappeared during the 13th century as the courts of southern France were destroyed in the religious wars that ended in the defeat of the Albigenses by the papal power.

Originally, the troubadours sang their own poems to their assembled courts and often held competitions, or so-called tournaments of song; later, they engaged itinerant musicians, called jongleurs, to perform their works. The subjects included love, chivalry, religion, politics, war, funerals, and nature. The verse forms included the canso (stanza song), tenso (dialogue or debate), sirvente (political or satirical canso), planh (complaint or dirge), alba (morning song), and serena (evening song). The musical accompaniments were generally played on stringed instruments such as vielle (medieval fiddle) or the lute. The notation of the songs indicated pitch but not time value or rhythm. About 300 melodies and about 2,600 poems of the troubadours have been preserved. The music of the troubadours is considered one of the major influences in the development of medieval secular music (see Music, Western).

The trouvères were court poet-musicians of northern France and the authors of the chansons de geste and court poetry. Their songs were strongly influenced by those of the troubadours, a group first brought to northern France about 1137 by Eleanor of Aquitaine, granddaughter of Guillaume de Poitiers. Eleanor came to the court of France, at Paris, as the queen of King Louis VII, bringing with her a number of poets and musicians whose work was characteristic of her homeland in southern France. The northern poet-musicians copied and adapted the works of the troubadours, finally developing their own genre, which although similar in subject and musical form to that of the troubadours, placed more emphasis on heroic epics. The trouvères wrote in the northern French language (also called langue d'oïl). About 1,400 melodies and 4,000 poems by them have survived. The most famous trouvère was Adam de la Halle.