The Troubadours. Songs and their music (12th-13th centuries).
Minerva| N° d'inventaire | 22078 |
| Format | 15.5 x 23 |
| Détails | 293 p., paperback. |
| Publication | Paris, 2019 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | 9782869311558 |
This book is a compendium of what we can know today about the practice of the first singers: the Occitan troubadours, who distinguished themselves in the courts of southern France in the 12th and 13th centuries. It is also a major book because the fundamental works on the subject are old and the monographs, in small number, currently available are limited to considering the songs of the troubadours on a literary level and not as works inseparable from the music that accompanies them. The author first traces the lives of these poet-musicians, the most renowned of whom were Bernart de Ventadorn, Guiraut de Bornelh, Arnaut Daniel, Peire Vidal and Guiraut Riquier. He examines the theme of the poems, the fin'amor, celebration of love for the idealized lady. Then he analyzes their songs in more detail, which testify to the virtuosity they displayed in inventing secular lyrics and music with a strange charm, adapted from religious chant. Finally, he gives clues about how the troubadours sang their compositions. In fact, their activity, just like that of the jongleurs, the performers, can only be understood from the freedom of vocal gesture inevitably frozen by the pen of the copyists in the manuscripts. A fascinating exploration of the origins of our song and our poetry.
This book is a compendium of what we can know today about the practice of the first singers: the Occitan troubadours, who distinguished themselves in the courts of southern France in the 12th and 13th centuries. It is also a major book because the fundamental works on the subject are old and the monographs, in small number, currently available are limited to considering the songs of the troubadours on a literary level and not as works inseparable from the music that accompanies them. The author first traces the lives of these poet-musicians, the most renowned of whom were Bernart de Ventadorn, Guiraut de Bornelh, Arnaut Daniel, Peire Vidal and Guiraut Riquier. He examines the theme of the poems, the fin'amor, celebration of love for the idealized lady. Then he analyzes their songs in more detail, which testify to the virtuosity they displayed in inventing secular lyrics and music with a strange charm, adapted from religious chant. Finally, he gives clues about how the troubadours sang their compositions. In fact, their activity, just like that of the jongleurs, the performers, can only be understood from the freedom of vocal gesture inevitably frozen by the pen of the copyists in the manuscripts. A fascinating exploration of the origins of our song and our poetry.