Secular Song and Instrumental Music to 1300

1. Secular Song and Instrumental Music to 1300

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. Trouvères • In France (langue d’oïl) and England — ca. 1150 to ca. 1300 • Rise of power of north over south in France

9. 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

10. 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 cauda pes pes volta A A B a b a b c d . . . b(?) • more patterned forms begin

11. Minnesinger • Courtly composers in Germany — from ca. 1170 • From Minne, courtly love — modeled on troubadours

12. 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)

13. 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)

14. 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

15. 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 a chorus solo chorus solo

16. 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 form ripresa piede piede volta ripresa A b b a A

17. Medieval instruments haut and bas — loudness as the main classification

18. Organs • Church organ — built in place • Positive organ — placed on table, required assistant for bellows • Portative organ — held on lap, single player

19. Trumpets • Straight design • For heraldic use

20. 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

21. 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

22. Percussion • Indefinite pitch • miscellaneous drums, including tabor • nakers — small drums in a pair • tambourine • Pitched • bells • dulcimer

23. 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

24. 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

25. 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

26. 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

27. Scoring for dance music • Indoors • rebec • bagpipe — could be carried in processional dance • Outdoors • pipe and tabor — useful in processions • shawm(s)

28. 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?