Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

540 SONG
17th centuries than the chansons satiriques,
ckansmis d'amour, pastourelUs, etc. Of recent
years their extreme beauty has claimed more
attention, and many modern collections of them
have been published.
To trace the development of song it is now
necessary to return to the early Middle Ages.
Some strong impulse was evidently given to the
human mind in Europe towards the close of the
11th century, and the songs of the Troubadours,
like the numerous schools of philosophy which
illuminated the 12th century, were fruits of
an awakened ardour for intellectual pursuits.
"With the Troubadours a new type of music was
introduced, which may be described as songs
written with conscious art. These versifiers,
the Troubadours and Trouvferes to whom music
and literature owe much, derived their names
from ' trobar ' or ' trouver ' (to find or invent).
They belonged respectively to the south and
north of France, and wrote in the Langue d'Oc
and Langue d'Oil. It was not unnatural that
in Provence and Languedoo the new life should
especially express itself in music and verse,
for the circumstances of those provinces were
favourable to the development of sentiment and
imagination. The rise of the Troubadours in
southern France was quickly followed by the
appearance of the Trouveres in northern France.
There was less gaiety about these northern
versifiers than about the southern, but in other
respects the resemblance between them was very
close. At first the Troubadours and Trouveres
sang their own verses, but the functions of the
poet and singer soon became distinct. Hence
a class of professional musicians arose, who
sang the songs of their own lords and other
composers. These wandering singers from *
Provence and Pieardy, known as Jongleurs
or Chanteors in the south, and MeiiltHers or
minstrels in the north,' went from court to
court, country to country, and joining the
Crusaders they returned from the Holy Land
filled with enthusiasm and singing songs of
love and war. The war-songs or chcmsons de
geste were musically uninteresting ; they were
merely long chanted tales where the melody
only occurs in the short refrain. But the lovesongs
were poems of exquisite grace, perfect
rhythm, and highly expressive. Their very
names reveal their origin, such as the pastourelle,
alba and serena, tensons and sirvente.^ To the
^ The Menfitrler seems to have attained a higher standard of
culture and taste than the Jongleur, who soon added other modes
of popular diversion (such as juggling and acrobatic feats) to his
musical accomplishments. It must, however, be remembered that
the lower classes In Prance were untouched by the Troubadour
movement, which covered the time from the 11th to the 14th
centuries. They had nothing more in common with tlie laig,
girventeg, etc. than they had with the old chamom de geite. The
Jongleurs were the sole connecting link between the people and the
courts.
2 In the pastmirelle the poet feigned to meet and woo a shepherdess
; the alba and gffrena were aubades and serenades. The teruoru
were metrical dialogues of lively repartee on some disputed point
of gallantry, and the sirvente was an address of a devoted lover to
his mistress. To this latter form of composition, which was also
much employed In satire, a special celebrity belongs, because its
metre—the terza rima—vaa adopted by Dante and Petrarch.
Troubadours likewise may be ascribed the canzo
and eansone, the soula (soulagement), a merry
song, and the lai,^ which is of a melancholy
character ; and to the Trouveres more especially
the romance.* The Troubadours and Trouveres
were not less fertile in the invention of dance
songs, combining solo and chorus. Such were
the famous carol or rondet de carol, the
espringerie (or jumping dance), and the ballata.
The earliest of the Troubadours on record
was Guillaume, Duke of Guienne, who joined
the first Crusade in 1096. And among the
illustrious Troubadours and Trouveres of the
12th and 13th centuries, whose names survive
and many of whose melodies have come down
to us, there were : Richard Cceur de Lion,
Bertran de Born, Pierre Rogier, Bernart de
Ventadour, the Chatelain de Couoy, Guirant
de Borneil, Blondel de Nesle, Gace Brul^,
Hugues de Lusignan, Thibaut de Champagne
(King of NavaiTe), Jehan Erars, Giraut de
Calenson, Perrin d'Angecourt, Adam de la
Hale.
Bass^e, Adeuet le Eoi, and Adam de la
The prime of the Troubadours was past when
in the year 1320, the Troubadour Academy of
Toulouse was founded for the cultivation and
preservation of their art.^ (See Tkoubadour.)
The Troubadours and Trouveres owe great
debts to the Church and to the Folk-song.
Their music was a compound of the folk-song
for its melody and form ; and of the Gregorian
chant for its declamation and ornament. But
inasmuch as the art of literature was then
highly developed, and music was still in its
infancy, it was impossible to combine the
elaborate and highly finished forms of poetry
with the music then existing, and a new kind of
song, more artistic and more developed, was the
result. The Troubadours were eager to invent
new, ingenious and graceful phrases, metres, and
rhythms," and their work was of real value in
handing down the rhyming stanza as the most
perfect vehicle for lyrical expression. Also,
by the preference the Troubadours gave to the
modem major scale they helped to establish
it in European music before the close of the
13 th century. In this, and in the simple
repetitions of their musical phrases, they followed
the popular instinct. And though the Troubadour
melodies are more developed and finished
than those of the chansons populaires, it is in
many cases impossible to state with certainty
which are folk-songs and which are the work
of trained musicians. For, instance, a pastoral
song, 'La reine d'Avril,' belonging to the 12th
a See P. Wolf, Ueber die Lais.
4 The romance is the lyrical outcome of the nan-ative comjtlaintes
and chamom de geste In Northern
'
France. Belle Yolans ' of the
12th century is an example. See Tiersot, Bistoire. p. 414.
5 There were schools in other parts of France where the Gay
Science was taught, and whither the Troubadours repaired in Lent
(when not allowed to appear in public) to leani new songs and
melodies. The minstrels also had rights granted to them to form
corporations or guilds in several towns. The earliest charter dates
1338, signed by Robert de Caveian, and lasted until the 18th
century.
6 See P. Aubry, La rhythmique musicale des Troubadours etc
Paris, 1907.