''Trouvère'' (, ), sometimes spelled ''trouveur'' (, ), is the Northern French ('' langue d'oïl'') form of the '' langue d'oc'' (Occitan) word ''trobador'', the precursor of the modern French word '' troubadour''. ''Trouvère'' refers to poet-composers who were roughly contemporary with and influenced by the ''trobadors'', both composing and performing lyric poetry during the

High Middle Ages The High Middle Ages, or High Medieval Period, was the periodization, period of European history between and ; it was preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which ended according to historiographical convention ...

, but while the ''trobadors'' composed and performed in

Old Occitan Old Occitan (, ), also called Old Provençal, was the earliest form of the Occitano-Romance languages, as attested in writings dating from the 8th to the 14th centuries. Old Occitan generally includes Early and Old Occitan. Middle Occitan is some ...

, the ''trouvères'' used the northern dialects of France. One of the first known ''trouvères'' was

Chrétien de Troyes Chrétien de Troyes (; ; 1160–1191) was a French poet and trouvère known for his writing on King Arthur, Arthurian subjects such as Gawain, Lancelot, Perceval and the Holy Grail. Chrétien's chivalric romances, including ''Erec and Enide'' ...

( 1160s–1180s) and the ''trouvères'' continued to flourish until about 1300. Some 2130 ''trouvère'' poems have survived; of these, at least two-thirds have melodies.

Etymology

The etymology of the word ''troubadour'' and its cognates in other languages is disputed, but may be related to ''trobar'', "to compose, to discuss, to invent", cognate with Old French ''trover'', "to compose something in verses". (For a discussion of the etymology of the word ''troubadour'' and its cognates, see .)

History

The modern popular image of the ''troubadour'' or ''trouvère'' is that of the itinerant musician wandering from town to town,

lute A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck (music), neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lu ...

on his back. Itinerant singers and performers existed, but they were called jongleurs and

minstrel A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. The term originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist enter ...

s—professional entertainers, usually of somewhat lower social status. ''Troubadours'' and ''trouvères'', on the other hand, were often of higher social class and did not typically rely on music making as a trade. They were either poets and composers who were supported by the aristocracy or, just as often, were aristocrats themselves, for whom the creation and performance of music was part of the courtly tradition. However, these distinctions were not always clear, and varied by community The texts of these songs are a natural reflection of the society that created them. They often revolve around idealized treatments of courtly love ("fine amors", see '' grand chant'') and religious devotion, although many can be found that take a more frank, earthy look at love. Other genres well represented in the surviving works by ''trouvères'' are debate songs known as '' jeu-partis as well as pastourelles'', dance songs, and '' chansons de femme'' (songs with a female perspective). Johannes de Grocheio, a

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

ian musical theorist of the early 14th century, believed that the most elevated ''trouvère'' songs, known as ''grand chants'', inspired kings and noblemen to do great things: "This kind of song is customarily composed by kings and nobles and sung in the presence of kings and princes of the land so that it may move their minds to boldness and fortitude, magnanimity and liberality...". The surviving music by ''trouvères'' is vocal music that is monophonic and mostly syllabic, meaning that only a single melodic line was notated, and the text is presented simply with only one or a few notes per syllable of text. Rhythm is not recorded for most songs, and no instrumentation is specified. Because narrative and visual evidence tells us that instruments were widely used, it is likely that instruments were used in some cases, but ''trouvère'' songs were likely also performed unaccompanied. Modern scholars and performers take a variety of approaches to rhythmic interpretation, including using a free rhythmic approach or relatively equal note values throughout, deriving rhythmic ideas from the text, or applying rhythmic modes found in contemporary polyphonic music. Most ''trouvère'' music is strophic, with a single verse of music repeated with multiple verses of text. In some, a repeated one- or two-line refrain is used in each stanza. Some ''trouvere'' refrains were also used across multiple different songs and other literary works, creating a network of references.

Women trouvères

There are no extant ''trouvère'' songs "in which a woman explicitly claims authorship by naming herself". There are, however, poems in which a woman is named as the author in a rubric or table of contents in a manuscript and others in which a female voice, named or unnamed, participates in a '' jeu parti'' (debate poem). Many others are written from a woman's point of view and may have been written by women authors. While early scholars often denied the existence of women ''trouvères,'' since the 1980s their existence has been generally accepted and an effort has been made to identify anonymous songs composed by women on the basis of lyrics and contextual clues. The latest monograph on women ''trouvères'' identifies eight known by name or title, plus a further six named women who judged ''jeux partis''. The term ''troveresse'' has sometimes been used for women trouvères. The lexicographer Frédéric Godefroy defined the

Old French Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th [2-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ...

word ''trouverresse'' as "she who composes, invents", citing a manuscript of a continuation of Robert of Auxerre's ''Chronicle''. The spelling ''troverresse'' also appears in the late 14th-century French–Latin dictionary ''Aalma'', where it corresponds to Latin ''inuentrix'' (inventor). The eight named women trouvères are: * Blanche of Castile (1188–1252) * Dame de la Chaucie * Dame de Gosnai * Gertrude, Duchess of Lorraine (1205–1225) * Lorete *

Margot Margot ( , ) is a feminine given name, a French language, French diminutive of Marguerite (given name), Marguerite that has long been used as an independent name. Variant spellings in use include Margo (given name), Margo and Margaux (name), Margaux ...

* Maroie de Diergnau * Sainte des Prez

List of trouvères

This is only a partial list. There are 256 named male trouvères known. * Adam de Givenchi * Adam de la Halle () * Adenet Le Roi (–) * Andrieu Contredit d'Arras († ) * Aubertin d'Airaines * Aubin de Sézanne * Audefroi le Bastart ( ) * Baudouin des Auteus * Benoît de Sainte-Maure * Bestournés * Blondel de Nesle ( ) * Carasaus * Chastelain de Couci ( ; †1203) * Chardon de Croisilles * Charles d'Anjou * Châtelain d'Arras *

() * Colart le Boutellier * Colart le Changeur * Colin Muset ( ) * Conon de Béthune ( –; †1220) * Coupart * Ernoul Caupain * Ernoul le Vieux * Étienne de Meaux * Eustache le Peintre de Reims * Gace Brulé (–after 1212) * Gaidifer d'Avion * Gautier de Coincy (1177/8–1236) * Gautier de Dargies (–after 1236) * Gautier d'Espinal († before July 1272) * Gillebert de Berneville ( ) * Gilles de Beaumont * Gilles de Vieux-Maisons * Gilles le Vinier * Gobin de Reims * Gontier de Soignies ( ) * Guibert Kaukesel * Guillaume d'Amiens * Guillaume de Ferrières (recorded as the Vidame de Chartres) * Guillaume le Vinier ( ; †1245) * Guillaume Veau * Guiot de Dijon ( ) * Guiot de Provins * Henry Amion * Henry le Débonnaire * Henri de Lacy (1249–1311) * Hue de la Ferté * Hugues de Berzé ( ) * Huon d'Oisi * Huon de Saint-Quentin * Jaque de Dampierre * Jacques Bretel * Jacques de Cambrai * Jacques de Cysoing * Jacques le Vinier * Jean Bodel * Jean Renaut * Jehan de Braine * Jehan Bretel () * Jehan le Cuvelier d'Arras ( ) * Jehan Erart († ) * Jehan Fremaux * Jehan de Grieviler * Jehan de Louvois * Jean le Roux * Jehan de Nuevile * Jehan de Trie * Jocelin de Dijon * Lambert Ferri * Lorris Acot * Mahieu de Gant * Mahieu le Juif * Moniot d'Arras ( ) * Moniot de Paris ( ) * Oede de la Couroierie * Othon de Grandson * Perrin d'Angicourt ( ) * Perrot de Neele * Philippe de Nanteuil * Philippe de Remy (–) * Pierre de Corbie * Pierre de Molins * Pierrekin de la Coupele * Raoul de Beauvais * Raoul de Ferier * Raoul de Soissons () * Richard de Fournival (1201–) * Richart de Semilli *

Richard I of England Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199), known as Richard the Lionheart or Richard Cœur de Lion () because of his reputation as a great military leader and warrior, was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ru ...

* Robert de Blois * Robert de Castel * Robert de Reims * Robert de la Piere * Rutebeuf * Simon d'Authie * Sauvage d'Arraz * Thibaut de Bar * Thibaut de Blazon * Thibaut le Chansonnier (1201–53) * Thierri de Soissons * Thomas de Herier * Vielart de Corbie * Walter of Bibbesworth

List of chansonniers

The following is a list of

chansonnier A chansonnier (, , Galician and , or ''canzoniéro'', ) is a manuscript or printed book which contains a collection of chansons, or polyphonic and monophonic settings of songs, hence literally " song-books"; however, some manuscripts are call ...

s containing trouvère texts and/or music listed by '' sigla'' (usually a letter). It is not complete. The same manuscripts may be signified by different ''sigla'' in different contexts (i.e., trouabdours or motets) if it contains works of different kinds. These ''sigla'' are standard in trouvère studies.Based on Elizabeth Eva Leach
"The Wonders of Gallica: Some Troubadour and Trouvère Sources"
(2012, retrieved 31 October 2022), who provides links to digitizations an
this PDF
*''A'' — Arras, Bibliothèque municipale, 657, the Chansonnier d'Arras *''B'' — Bern, Stadt- und Universitätsbibliothek, 231 *''C'' — Bern, Stadt- und Universitätsbibliothek, 389 *''D'' — Frankfurt, Universitätsbibliothek, lat. fol. 7 *''E'' — London, British Library, Egerton 274 *''F'' — Florence, Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana, Pluteus 29.1 *''G'' — London, Lambeth Palace, Misc. Rolls 1435 *''H'' — Modena, Biblioteca Estense, α.R.4.4 *''I'' — Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce 308 *''K'' — Paris, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, 5198, the Chansonnier de l'Arsenal *''L'' — Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fr. 765 *''M'' — Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fr. 844, the Chansonnier du Roi *''N'' — Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fr. 845 *''O'' — Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fr. 846, the *''P'' — Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fr. 847 *''Q'' — Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fr. 1109 *''R'' — Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fr. 1591 *''S'' — Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fr. 12581 *''T'' — Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fr. 12615, the Chansonnier de Noailles *''U'' — Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fr. 20050, the Chansonnier St-Germain-des-Prés *''V'' — Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fr. 24406 *''W'' — Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fr. 25566 *''X'' — Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, nouv. acq. fr. 1050, the Chansonnier de Clairambault *''Z'' — Siena, Biblioteca Comunale, H.X.36 *''a'' — Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Reg. Lat. 1490 *''b'' — Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Reg. Lat. 1522 *''c'' — Bern, Stadt- und Universitätsbibliothek, A. 95 *''d'' — Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, 450 *''f'' — Montpellier, Faculté de Médecine, 236 *''g'' — Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fr. 1593 *''i'' — Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fr. 12483 *''j'' — Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, nouv. acq. fr. 21677 *''k'' — Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fr. 12786 *''l'' — Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fr. 22495 *''m'' — Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, lat. 11412 *''n'' — Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, lat. 11724 *''o'' — London, British Library, Harley 1717 *''p'' — Pavia, Biblioteca Universitaria, CXXX.E.5 *''u'' — Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Reg. Lat. 1725 *''v'' — Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fr. 1553 *''za'' — Zagreb, Metropolitan Library, MR 92 *''α'' — Madrid, Biblioteca del Monasterio de El Escorial, S.I.3

References

Bibliography

* * * *. * * *

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Trouvère Medieval literature Medieval French literature * Poets