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Music In Courtly Life Analysis

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In Music in the Western World: A History in Document’s article “Music in Courtly Life,” Pierro Weiss and Richard Taruskin discuss music in the feudal system of France through the study of the famous troubadour Raimbaut de Vaqueiras. To Weiss and Taruskin, Raimbaut de Vaqueiras was the poster child for a troubadour’s life; a young dedicated knight falling in love with his brother-in-arms’ sister, who then later gained high status in the system. His chansonniers, according to expert John Haines, played a nationalistic role in French society. Weiss and Taruskin agree and state, “The knightly life was itself a kind of ritual, courtly love [was] a kind of religion.” The life and music of the troubadours valued stories of love, service to the …show more content…

The first being songs trobar clus which characteristically were love songs of serious nature. This division is the more popular of the two and consists of songs types like the canso, plahn, and tenso. A keen example of not only a typical troubadour song, but also one that includes the trobar clus canso is Comtessa de Dia written in the second half of the twelve century found in the Anthology of Music in Western Civilization. First of all, it is clear to see that it is a troubadour canso through musical analysis. The song is set to a modified strophic form and is homophonic in nature. The melody is mostly stepwise, with the only melodic skip being a third, and its range is only of a 6th. Comtessea de Dia is also clearly in mode 1, with the note A being its tenor, and ending on a D as its …show more content…

Eneugs, translated nuisance, were poems with a subject that the poets found particularly annoying. For example, in Guillem de Bergueda’s Joglar, No.t Desconortz he writes about the conflicts between the others lords in Catalonia, specifically he calls out on the sexual immoralities that were occurring. His language is very vulgar. In fact, Bergueda uses four out the five palabras vedadas, or forbidden words, set by the rulers of Castille and Leon including: insults, sexual promiscuity, and homosexuality. Bergueda even singles out specific people in his sirventes instead of keeping senhal like in cansos. For example, a couple of lines in Joglar, No.t Desconortz translated to “ he fucks so hard and swells her so much, so Giraut de Jorba told me, that he split Bernarda in two. ” Begueda’s writing are the epitome of how vulgar and harsh a troubadour sirvente can

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