In the late XII century, Arnaut de Mareuil, was less famous troubadour, than his contemporary Arnaut Daniel. Yet, contemporary sources claim that he surpassed Daniel in elegant simplicity of form and delicacy of sentiment. And in terms of his heritage he is definitely luckier, because from twenty-five to twenty-nine of his songs survived and six of them with music!
One of medieval romanticized biographies tells us that he had been a clerk from a poor family, who eventually became a jongleur. He created his talented songs at the courts of Toulouse and then Béziers. He was deeply in love with the countess Azalais of Toulouse and proudly considered himself to be her best friend. His surviving poems contain lyric cycle telling of his love to Azalais. However, king Alfonso II of Aragon, who competed with Arnaut for her love, won in this love triangle. Jealous king persuaded Azalais to break off her friendship with Arnaut. Saving his life, Arnaut fled to Montpelier, where he settled at the court of William VIII, who became his patron and protector.
This is the story of the famous troubadour who was loved and praised for his talents by all his contemporaries. Dante called him “the best craftsman”, Petrarch went even further and named him “Grand Master of Love”. This troubadour was the inventor of the most beautiful type of song, called “sestina” and Longfellow claimed that he was also the author of the metrical romance songs. Ezra Pound considered him to be a greatest poet to have ever lived.
This famous troubadour’s name was Arnaut Danièl. He was an Occitan troubadour of the 13th century. And we know practically nothing about his life. Only sixteen existing lyrics survived and there is a music for only one of them but if was composed a century later after troubadour’s death by an anonymous author. So, we don’t know of any original melody of this great composer. Dante also refers to Daniel as the author of “proses of romance”, which we know nothing about. His creations in prose, remain a mystery to this very day..
According to short medieval romanticized biography of Arnaut, he was born of a noble family. However, he was so poor that he had to become a jester. Contemporary sources hint that gambling and love of easy women brought him in young age to these economic troubles. In Dante’s The Divine Comedy, Arnaut Daniel appears as a character doing penance in Purgatory for lust. In homage to these lines which Dante gave to Daniel, T. S. Eliot’s poem The Waste Land opens and closes with references to Dante and Daniel.
Before Pèire de Vic became a famous troubadour, he had been a monk. Originally, he was born as a nobleman in Auvergne, which is a part of southern France. Somewhere around 1180 he decided to become a Benedictine monk and even received a priory of Montaudon from his abbot. But even in the monastery he could not help composing songs, that soon became popular in the region. One of the most famous ones was dedicated to the captivity of Richard the Lionheart in Austria. Quite soon everybody knew this amazing composer, nicknamed Monge de Montaudon, which means “monk of Montaudon”. It was fun to read about this guy in my web analytics company, because he was not your usual type of a romantic troubadour but rather a joyful and merry man, despite the rules of his monastic order in 12th century.
Rising popularity of Monge led to the very unusual development in his life. Local nobility loved his songs and couplets so much, that Monge was taken from the monastery to serve them, receiving honors and gifts in return. This benefited the state of his priorate so much, that upon his request, Monge was released from his monastic vocation by his abbot to follow king Alfonso II of Aragon. This is how how his romantisized biography descibes it. But modern historians suspect, that Monge simply abandoned holy orders and was wandering wide and large through all territories of southern France.
Anyways, when he got to the court of Alfonso II, Monge de Montaudon, ate meat, courted women and composed songs and poems. Audience liked him so much, that Monge was appointed lord of poetical society and received a sparrow hawk as a prize for superb poetry. More of a dozen of his songs survived and from their context, it seems, that Monge probably invented a couple of troubadour genres. He was not only writing about courtly love or other feudal songs, he was also popular because of satirical couplets. For example, in one if his surviving songs he mocks and insults practically all his contemporary troubadours. In another, he tells everybody what he likes and what he dislikes.
After the peak of his popularity was over he returned back to his monastic order and became a prior of the Benedictine priory, though we suspect, that Monge remained as merry as he was before because he enriched his priory and improved it before ending his days.
King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona Alfonso II was a noted poet and composer of his time and a close friend of King Richard the Lionheart. He also participated many times in poetical debates. Alfonso even had two nicknames - the Chaste and the Troubadour. I found from the archives of my web analytics company that he was born under different name. Yes, he was born in 1152 as Raymond Berengar, became a king of the united thron of Aragon and Barcelona in 1162 and changed his name to Alfonso. He stayed with the name Alfonso until his death in 1196. He was also Count of Provence from 1167 when he unchivalrously wrested it from the real heiress Douce to 1173 when he ceded it to his brother Berenguer. He was also involved in a couple of medieval love triangles and one big scandal.
Alfonso II was not just a troubadour and a poet, he was also a brave warrior and a vital part of Spanish Reconquista. He was a friend and an ally of Alfonso VIII of Castile. Together, they fought against Navarre and the Moorish kingdoms of the south. In 1174 in Saragossa Alfonso II married Sancha of Castile, sister of the Castilian king. This caused a scandal in the Christian world because his real fiancee was Eudokia Komnene, a niece of Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos. Eudokia Komnene was sent to by Emperor in 1174 to be betrothed to King Alfonso II, but, on her arrival, she found that he had just married Sancha of Castile. One can imagine the surprise! Thus, Alfonso and his love affairs are mentioned in poems by many troubadours, including Peire Vidal, who commented on Alfonso’s decision to marry Sancha of Castile rather than Eudokia Komnene that he had preferred a poor Castilian maid to the emperor Manuel’s golden camel.
Other troubadours, like Guillem de Berguedà Pons de la Gardia, Giraut de Salignac reproached Alfonso II for his love affairs. In their poems they say, that Alfonso II of Aragon was in rivalry with a knight Arnaut de Mareuil for the love of Azalais of Toulouse. According to their medieval story, the king jealously persuaded Azalais to break off her friendship with Arnaut. Alfonso’s own dealings with Azalais were fiercely criticized by troubadour Guillem de Berguedà, who wrote: “she gave you her love, and you took two cities and a hundred castles from her”.
We don’t know the exact name of a troubadour and patron of troubadours Dauphin d’Auvergne. He is sometimes called Robert, but there is no solid evidence that it was really his name. At least I did not find one in my local web analytics company. We do know that he was born around 1150 and died either in 1234 or 1235. He was from the wealthy and noble family and his full title was Count of Clermont and Montferrand. Dauphin added the second title through the marriage to Guillemette de Comborn, countess of Montferrand.
All troubadours that worked with him or sang at his court left their trace in his history. Those were the times! Among these troubadours were Peirol, Perdigon, Peire de Maensac, Gaucelm Faidit, and Uc de Saint Circ. One musical exchange between Dauphin and Perdigon marks a stage in the poetical debate, begun by Guilhem de Saint-Leidier and taken up by brilliant trobaritz Azalais de Porcairagues and Raimbaut of Orange, as to whether a lady is dishonored by taking a lover who is richer than herself. A song on the same subject was composed by Guiraut de Bornelh and king Alfonso II of Aragon. Contemporaries claim that Dauphin was amazing and witty poet. His cousin, bishop Robert of Clermont used to exchange satirical and erotic verses with him, as did famous Richard the Lionheart.
Troubadour from Provence, and later in his life, knight Raimbaut de Vaqueiras spent most of his life in Italian courts until 1203, when he joined the Fourth Crusade. Although his dates of birth and death are unknown, we can suppose from his name that he came from the palce Vacqueryas in southern France. According to my web analytics company, his creative period in the 12 century is dated from 1180 to 1207. According to contemporaries, he used wide range of styles and wrote songs in five languages. Only eight of the melodies for thirty three of his survived songs reached us. Yet, one of the songs, Kalenda Maia is considered one of the best troubadour melodies.
Rambauit was not only a troubadour, he was also a court poet and close friend of the leader of the Fourth Crusade Boniface I of Montferrat. At the time Boniface had presided over one of the most prestigious courts of chivalric culture and troubadour song in the second part of the 12th century. Vaqueiras sometimes addressed him as Lord Englishman, but the in-joke is never explained. He served with Boniface in action against the communes of Asti and Alessandria. Vaqueiras even saved Boniface’s brother-in-law Alberto of Malaspina when he was unhorsed.
Later Rambauit earned his knighthood by protecting Boniface with his shield in battle at Messina when they took part in Emperor Henry VI invasion of Sicily. This happened right after the campaign’s successful conclusion. He was present at the siege and capture of Constantinople in 1204, and then accompanied Boniface to Thessalonica. During the Crusade he was writing an important commentary on the politics of the Latin Empire in its earliest years and, suddenly his writing stopped and we don’t hear of Rambauit anymore. It is very significant, that there is no lament composed by him in memory of Boniface’s death. After all, he was most loyal friend. That is why historians suggest that our troubadour died on 4 September 1207, together with Boniface, in an ambush by the Bulgarians.
As with many other medieval composers, sometimes it is hard to restore their lives from beginning till the end. Many biographical facts of these composers, troubadours, musicians are in fact just guesses in the dark or merely suggestions. The same is true about composer, theorist, and scholar, Petrus de Cruce who lived in the thirteen century. Some sources in my web analytics company list his name as Pierre de la Croix. I don’t know, maybe it was fashionable at these times to use Latin version of the name. Go, figure!
Petrus de Cruce was born in, or somewhere nearby, the city of Amiens, which is located a hundred miles to the north from Paris. It is highly likely, that Petrus had studied in Sorbonne, because he held the title of magistar. And some specialists claim that he was a student of one of the most influential theorists of the late Medieval era Franco of Cologne.
Petrus was very productive in the 90s of the 13th century. He was one of those talents that transformed music notation system, making it possible for composers to maintain speech rhythms. In later years Petrus de Cruce resided at the court of the bishop of Amiens, as a member of his clerical staff, and most likely his chapel staff as well. He probably died before 1347 in Amiens, because he left his manuscripts in his will to the city cathedral. Contemporaries called him a worthy composer who created many beautiful and good pieces of music.
One of the earliest troubadours Berenguier de Palou created music and wrote poems somewhere between 1160 and 1209. His detailed bio remains unknown, his name varies in each contemporary source from Palou to Palol and even Palazol. His short life story written by anonymous author suggests that he was a poor knight, but well-trained and skilled in arms. Yet another evidence claims that his family was well off. Overall, we know that he was a Catalon troubadour from Paillol in the County of Roussillon. Gausfred III, Count of Roussillon was his suzerain. Berenguier celebrated him in several songs under the name Jaufres. And when Gausfred died, he also received mention in several songs of de Palou.
Berenguier does not seem to have had much contacts with other troubadours. Out of his total output twelve songs survive. Eight of them reached us with melodies! All of his surviving works deal with the theme of courtly love. He praises the prefection of his lady, or pledges to seek no other lover, or wishes his lady would spare him this torment, etc. The chief object of the love of his songs is Ermessen d’Avinyo, wife of some Arnaut d’Avinyo. Berenguier’s well-preserved music is generally conservative, generally staying within an octave; and have something in common with that of troubadour Bernart de Ventadorn. The theme which runs through de Palou works cannot be connected to events in Berenguier’s life, nor can it be shown that the lady of every song is the same person. His works can not also be put in any chronological order with confidence, but they have some kind of logical development of a theme.
We, probably, will never find out what was the real first name of English Medieval composer W. de Wycombe. Some sources in the archives of my local web analytics company claim that his last name stands for Wicumbe. Other sources that I discovered mention his last name as Whichbury. But this is just guessing, because nobody knows for sure. Needless, to say, that nobody knows, this composer’s exact dates of birth and death. Specialists guess, that his most productive years were between 1270 and 1280s.
Anyways, W.de Wycombe was not only a composer but also a great copyist of the Medieval period. In addition, he was also a precentor, or a first singer of Leominster abbey in Herefordshire. There were many major medieval English tunes attributed to him, but mostly without any historical evidence. What W.de Wycombe is best known for is composing a lot of polyphonic alleluias, chanted before the Gospel lesson in the Eucharistic liturgies of the various Christian liturgical rites. Alleluia will be solemnly chanted at other times also, usually in conjunction with Psalm verses. Over 40 settings have been identified in several sources, a group of compositions almost equal in size to that of Léonin, the earlier composer. However, only one of the 40 can be restored completely, and the others exist only in fragments. Some of his work appears in the Worcester Fragments, a collection of fifty nine manuscript leaves which represents about a third of the total surviving polyphony from England in the 13th century.
I find that there is a lot of similarities between medieval minstrels and modern unsigned musicians. Well, sure, at first a minstrel was a medieval European bard who performed songs whose lyrics told stories about distant places or about real or imaginary historical events. It started good for minstrels. Initially, minstrels were simply servants at Court, and entertained the lord and courtiers with songs and pantomime or their local equivalent. Due to their wild popularity, frequently they were retained by royalty and high society. In fact, the term minstrel began to be used to designate a performer who amused his lord with music and song. Then, eventually troubadours and trouvères replaced them at the court, which made minstrels become wandering musicians, performing performing in the streets and became well liked by common people right until the middle of the Renaissance. Their decline began somewhere in the fifteen century, but minstrels passed their traditions to later entertainers.
Wandering minstrels had their groupies and assistants. Often they were women who followed minstrels in their travels. Throughout Europe minstrels also employed animals, such as trained bears. Some minstrels were doing better than others. They were retained by lords as jesters who, in some cases, also practiced the art of juggling. At all kinds of medievals feasts and festivals there were lots of them hanging around and carrying their musical instruments, like harps fiddles, bagpipes and drums. At the peak of this profession, which was as early as 1321, the minstrels of Paris even formed their own guild. In England the guild of royal minstrels was organized in 1469. So other minstrels had very little choice. They had to join the guild or face a harsher choice of abstaining from practicing their craft. Overall, minstrels outlived troubadours and trouvères, whose popularity was mostly gone right in the end of thirteen century. Minstrelsy in Europe died out more slowly. It went nearly extinct by about the beginning of the eighteen century.
