Music As We Know It

One of the last, but not the least, trobaritz, famous poet Garsenda de Sabran was of highly aristocratic origin. She was a patron to Occitan literature, especially the troubadours. Among trobaritz she had she was known as beautiful Garsenda de Proensa.

She was born around 1180 as the Countess of Forcalquier, large medieval county in Provence and inherited her title from her grandfather, because she lost her mother in an early age. She untied the houses of Barcelona and Provence because at the age of thirteen she got married to Alfonso II, son of Alfonso II of Aragon and Sancha of Castille. Her husband was the first in line to inherit Provence and become its Count.  Then, quite unexpectedly Garsenda’s father and her husband died and she became a sole guardian of her son Raymond Berengar IV.

Her brother-in-law Peter II of Aragon made an attempt to steal Garsenda’s inheritance by passing the regency of Provence to his brother Sancho. But people of Catalonia and Provence loved Garsenda so much that a big dissension started. All Provencal aristocracy lined up behind Garsenda as well, so the regency was passed back to her again. A council of nobles was even established to protect interests of their beloved Countess.

During her regency she became the shining center of a poetic and troubadour circle. They composed songs and poems and dedicated them to Garsenda. She probably was a very beautiful woman - even the author of her biography fell in love with her and loved her for the rest of his life until he entered the monastery.

These were troubling times and there was one revolt after another in attempt to rob the beautiful Countess of her lands. But Garsenda managed to raise her son and pass him her native Forcalquier. Later, somewhere after 1220, she quietly retired to the monastery.  We don’t know the exact date of Garsenda’s death but, it is highly likely that she lived a very long life, going to be over 80 years old. It seems that she was still alive in 1257, because someone with identical name made a donation to the church with a request for three priests to pray for her soul.

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”.

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 are going to tell you a story about the great troubadour who was treated unfair by history for many centuries. And the blame for this belongs to none other, than genius of Dante Alighieri. But let me start from the beginning. Somewhere in the 40s of twelfth century in the family of Bertran de Born, lord of Autafort and his wife Ermengardis, a son was born. He was name like his father, Bertran de Born. It seems that Bertran was born with the silver spoon in his mouth. He got a title of baron and he was destined to become one of the major Occitan troubadours of the 12th century.

Bertran had two younger brothers, Constantine and Itier. When his father died in 1178, Bertran succeeded him as lord of Autafort. By this time, he was already married to his first wife, Raimonda, and had two sons. That is where the happy story ends. Betran’s lands were lying between Limousin and Périgord. As a result, Bertran became involved in the conflicts of the sons of Henry II Plantagenet. But this is not all. He was also fighting for control of Autafort. The problem was that he was not the only lord of Autafort but held it jointly with his younger brothers. These were the feudal customs of his region. At the time a typical strategy employed by the major territorial principalities to decrease the influence of the local lords was to encourage feudal conflicts within their families. Bertran’s struggle, especially with his brother Constantine, is at the heart of his poetry, which is dominated by political topics.

We can put a date of his first satirical song. It happened in 1181. But it is obvious, that he already had a reputation as a poet. In 1182, he was present at his overlord Henry II of England’s court. That same year, he had joined in Henry the Young King’s revolt against his younger brother, Richard. At the time Richard was Count of Poitou and Duke of Aquitaine, but he was destined to become a king Richard I of England, famous for his nickname Richard the Lionheart. .

So, obviously, Bertran chose the wrong side, but he was passionate in this role of a rebel. He w rote songs encouraging other noblemen to rebel, and even took the oath against Richard at Limoges. His younger brother Constantine took the opposing side, and Bertran drove him out of the castle. Well, Henry the Young King, whom Bertran had praised and criticised in his poems, died very young in 1183. Betran wrote a lament in his memory. In his punitive campaign against the rebels, Richard, aided by king of Aragon, besieged Autafort and gave it to Constantine de Born. Richard’s father, king Henry II, however, returned it to the poet, and Constantine seems to have become a mercenary. Eventually, our troubadour reconciled with Richard, and supported him in turn against Philip II of France. Yet, at various times, he still sought to exploit the dissensions among Angevins in order to keep his independence. He went futher and gave them nicknames. In his satirical songs he called Henry the Young King a “sailor”. Geoffrey of Brittany was Rassa, and Richard the Lionheart “yes-and-no”. Betran also had contacts with a number of other troubadours and also with the Northern French trouvère, Conon de Béthune.

Although Bertran de Bron composed love songs, he was predominantly a master political and satire songs . When Richard and Philip delayed setting out on the Third Crusade, he chided them in songs praising the heroic defence of Tyre by Conrad of Montferrat . When Richard was released from captivity after being suspected of Conrad’s murder, Bertran welcomed his return with a new song. Ironically, one of Bertran’s sources of income was from the market of Châlus-Cabrol, where Richard was fatally wounded in 1199.

In 1196 Betran widowed for the second time and became a monk and entered the Cistercian abbey of Dalon, to which he had made numerous grants over the years. His last datable song was written in 1198. He ceases to appear in charters after 1202, and was certainly dead by 1215, when there is a record of a payment for a candle for his tomb. His creative heritage consists of about forty-seven works, thirty-six unanimously attributed to him in the manuscripts, and eleven uncertain attributions. Several melodies survive, and some of his songs have been recorded by modern musicians.

But you may ask, what about his connection to Dante? Well, much later a romanticised short biography attached to the songs of Betran de Born was written. According to it, king Henry II believed Bertran had fomented the rebellion of his son Henry the Young King. As a result, Dante Alighieri portrayed him in his eternal Inferno as a sower of schism, punished in the eighth circle of Hell, carrying his severed head like a lantern. And great Gustave Doré depicted this in his illustrations to the Divine Comedy. This depiction influenced Bertran’s image in various later literary works. In 19th century, british romantic poets described him unflatteringly. One of them even depicted him initiating  discord in the Third Crusade, and becoming a hermit in the East out of remorse over his involvement in Richard’s imprisonment. In other fiction novels Betran was described as a man of hot blood, fumes and rages, with “a grudging spirit”. One character in the works of this time calls him a great thief, and a silly fool. Betran’s good name was only “cleared” by  Ezra Pound, who translated some of his songs and also based several original poems around him and his works showed him in a positive light.