Secular Song and Instrumental Music to 1300

Latin songs

• Conductus — serious topics — eleventh to thirteenth centuries

• Planctus — lament in praise of dead friend or patron

• Goliard songs — informal — eleventh to twelfth centuries– Goliards — dropouts from clerical studies– name from “patron” Golias (Goliath)– song topics — praise of wine, women, song;

political satire– Carmina Burana — collection from

Benediktbeuern (in Bavaria) in thirteenth century

Minstrels, or jongleurs — from tenth century

• Performers, not necessarily composers — variety of activities– acrobatics and juggling– singing and playing songs and dances– chansons de geste — epic, historical tales in

vernacular• ex. Chanson de Roland — late eleventh

century, tells events of ninth century• Depended on court or (less successfully) public

donations• Gathered in scolae in Netherlands at Lent to

learn new repertoire

Feudalism and chivalry — development to eleventh century

• Feudal hierarchy — from warrior lords to serfs• Chivalry — formalization of feudalism as courtly

culture– tournaments — ritualized combat, held in

conjunction with festivals– crusades — supported by church, removed warlike

force from Europe– spiritualization of knighthood — Christian ideals of

love, sacrifice, self-denial; cult of the Virgin Mary– service to women as idealized model of protecting

the weak — courtoisie• Courtly love (fin’ amors) — Andreas Capellanus,

Tractatus de amore (ca. 1180) — courts of love

Troubadours

• In southern France or Aquitaine — vernacular Occitan (langue d’oc) or Provençal – ca. 1100 to 1250

• Aquitainian secular song arises from chivalry

• Troubadours — from trobar (to find) or trope (?)

• Trobairitz — women composers• Individuals known from vidas in song

manuscripts

Texts in troubadour songs

Numerous types based on different literary themes

• Canso — dealt with courtly love (fin’ amors)

• Alba — song by friend and lovers’ lookout, refrain characteristic

• Tenso, partimen, joc parti — discussion or debate about courtly love

• Planh — comparable to planctus, but in vernacular

• Sirventes — political or moral subjects• Dansa — popular style dance song (for

carole), characterized by refrain• Pastorela — popular knight and

shepherdess story

Style in troubadour songs

• Scoring — voice, probably with instruments• Rhythm — text-based — probably more measured

than chant• Melody — simple lines, became steadily less

dependent on modal construction– wider ambitus than chant– repetitious figures– general freedom — some approach major-

minor• forms– strophic — various simple patterns of stanzas,

sometimes with refrains– open and closed cadences to create continuity

and finality

Trouvères

• In France (langue d’oïl) and England — ca. 1150 to ca. 1300

• Rise of power of north over south in France

Texts in trouvère songs

• Types adapted from troubadours– chanson d’amour (from canso)– aube (from alba)– jeu-parti (from joc-parti)– pastourelle (from pastorela)

• Poetry– often characterized by religious imagery,

references to Virgin Mary, crusades–more organized than troubadour lyrics

Style of trouvère songs

• Rhythm — more likely to be measured than in troubadour songs

• Melody — short, clear phrasing• Form — more carefully patterned than

troubadour songs– strophic, with envoi at end– common outline for each stanza:

frons caudapes pes voltaA A Ba b a b c d . . . b(?)

– more patterned forms begin

Minnesinger

• Courtly composers in Germany — from ca. 1170

• From Minne, courtly love — modeled on troubadours

Texts of Minnelieder• Middle High German• Types– Lied (from canso)– Tagelied (from alba)– Leich (from lai) — multiple stanzas of text but

through-composed– Wechsel (dialogue of man and woman)– Tanzlied (dance song)– Kreuzlied (crusade song)– Spruch (based on sirventes) — moral adage,

political statement in single stanza• More sober than troubadours, often religious• Often praise of nature (especially winter,

summer)

Style in Minnelied

• Rhythm — German based on stress rather than duration

• Melody — less clearly major-minor oriented

• Form — mostly strophic – structure of each stanza — Bar

Stollen (A) Stollen (A) | Abgesang (B) ||

Abgesang often rhymes musically with Stollen (i.e., balanced binary form)

Medieval songs in Spain

• Occitan influence in northern Spain until ca. 1300 (Moors in south)

• Cantigas de gesta modeled on French chansons de geste

• Troubadours in courts — canciones de amor modeled on troubadour canso

Alfonso X (el Sabio)

Cantigas de Santa María• Praise miracles of Virgin Mary• Form — villancico

estribillo estrofa estribillo estrofa . . .A b b a A b b achorus solo chorus solo

Medieval secular songs in Italy

• Lauda — used by lay fraternities (“laudesi”) in the Franciscan movement, penitents and pilgrims

• Influence of traveling (crusading) troubadours

• Popular secular dance music — ballata formripresa piede piede volta ripresaA b b a A

Medieval instruments

haut and bas — loudness as the main classification

Organs

• Church organ — built in place

• Positive organ — placed on table, required assistant for bellows

• Portative organ — held on lap, single player

Trumpets

• Straight design• For heraldic

use

Strings

• Use– favored for nobility — classical tradition of ethos– accompaniment for singing — troubadours and

trouvères• Types– bowed• vielle (Fiedel, viuola) — gut or silk strings• rebec — high range

– hurdy-gurdy (organistrum) — crank and keys

– plucked• lute — played with plectrum (stiff or flexible) • Psaltery• harp — played with finger and thumb

Wind instruments

• Horns– oliphant — military, royal, status symbol– cow or deer horn

• Reeds– shawm (bombarde) — loud, outdoors– bagpipe – capped reed, softer than shawm

or modern bagpipe• Flute family– cross-blown– recorder and notched flute– pipe and tabor

Percussion

• Indefinite pitch– miscellaneous drums,

including tabor– nakers — small drums

in a pair– tambourine

• Pitched– bells– dulcimer

Uses of instruments to 1300

Instruments in the church

• Use limited – documentary evidence generally in context of condemnation

• Depictions in art often symbolic rather than realistic

• Organ accepted

Instruments and vocal music

• Use with singers — string instruments favored (vielle; also lute and harp)–doubling (heterophonic

ornamentation)–drone, accompanying rhythmic

figuration–prelude, interlude, postlude

• Instruments could substitute for vocalists

Instruments in dance music

• Social position — participatory rather than staged for an audience– aristocracy– peasants– ecclesiastical disapproval — related to

paganism, sensual• Types of dances– line dances — related to procession– circle dances — carole– couples dances — seem to be later

Forms and genres in dance music

• Forms — like Sequence– paired puncta– often open and closed endings

• Types of dance music– ductia• group dance• quick tempo• few, equal-length sections

– stantipes (estampie)• couples dance?• several sections of different lengths

Scoring for dance music

• Indoors• rebec• bagpipe — could be carried in processional dance

• Outdoors• pipe and tabor — useful in processions• shawm(s)

Questions for discussion

• Why did it become necessary to create a new word (troubadour or trouvère) to distinguish a composer from other types of musicians at a particular point in the history of Western music?

• How can musicians who want to play medieval music in historically appropriate scorings attempt to discover what was done, since the written music does not specify instrumentation?