Amors e Cansò - Capella de Ministrers, Carles Magraner

Ensemble: Capella de Ministrers, Carles Magraner Album: Amors e Cansò, Trobadors de la Corona d’Aragò Video: L’ Atre périlleux et Yvain, le chevalier au lion • We are well acquainted with the concept of singer-songwriter. Today many of them are living legends, like Bob Dylan abroad and Joan Manuel Serrat inside the country. The lyrics interested us and the music, or better said the melody, was catchy. The lyrics interested us because they talked about falling in love and out of love (and that was more or less the situation with most of us), but also because they touched social subjects then in their heyday. Normally, people like Dylan or Serrat would write and compose their own pieces but it was quite normal for them to put somebody else’s poems to music, mostly for perfectly sound reasons, or to make use of melodies composed by others. This was irrelevant; the important thing was, and still is, their capacity to create, regardless of the origin of the materials, for the enjoyment of the public at large. Most of their pieces were made known by themselves; but other artistically less gifted artists incorporated them to their repertory, contributing to the definitive success of composer-poet and work. If, instead of Dylan or Serrat, we referred to Bernat de Ventadorn, Guiraut Riquier, Raimon de Miraval or Berenguier de Palou, to mention but a few, and instead of writing these lines in the outbreak of the 21st century we were doing so in the last third of the 13t century, our text would be just as valid, only we would then be speaking not of singer-songwriters but of troubadours. The circumstances were certainly different but the phenomenon, or if you prefer, the artistic manifestation is parallel. We understand under ‘troubadour’ any artist who, between the end of the 11th and the end of the 13th centuries, was capable of creating both song lyrics and music. The first know troubadour is William, duke of Aquitaine (1071-1126), while the last was probably Guiraut Riquier ( 1292) who was in the service among others of Alfonso X the Wise. The trobar or knowing how to find sons e motz (“sounds and words”) was a fashion that spread among the nobility in a vast area of southern France. Actually it was a sophisticated form of courtship; the product of a society that was beginning to refine its behaviour, with a rise in the quality of life that resulted from a relative degree of political and economic stability; but is was also a way to channel criticism. The genres par excellence of courtly poetry were the cansò which dealt with love and the sirventés always with a bitter or even violent message. Even though other genres like the alba, the pastorela or the tenso appear less frequently, we have masterpieces in all of them, as proof of their makers’ versatility. Like William of Aquitaine himself, many troubadours were noblemen; but generally the troubadour would be of low origin, having had the opportunity to learn music in monastic or cathedral schools before entering, if they had not done so already, in the service of a lord. They would remain there for a certain period of time, but it frequently occurred that a troubadour would change protector more than once throughout their professional life-time. The troubadour could interpret his own repertoire, normally to the accompaniment of a vihuela de arco (singer-songwriters of today preferring the guitar). If the repertoire met with applause and he was able to make a name for himself in other courts, undertaking what we today would call a concert tour, he could be accompanied by one or more minstrels or jongleurs. Although the songbooks contain some sixteen hundred troubadour poems, only one tenth of the music was copied. The reasons are complex and have to do with the absolute priority of word over music in this kind of compositions, where the melody simply underlined the meaning of verses which were musical themselves. • 00:00 1 Bel m’es q’ieu chant - Raimon de Miraval 06:17 2 Bona Dona - Berenguer de Palou 09:58 3 De la gensor qu’om vey’ - Berenguer de Palou 14:21 4 Ab la fresca clardat - Berenguer de Palou 20:56 5 Totz temoros e duptans - Berenguer de Palou 25:01 6 Dona, la genser qu’om veya - Berenguer de Palou 28:13 7 Aital Dona - Berenguer de Palou 36:06 8 Tant m’abelis - Berenguer de Palou 41:00 9 Si ai perdut mon saber - Ponç d’Ortafà 47:48 10 Pus astres no m’es donatz - Guiraut Riquier 52:42 11 Era us preg - Ms. Anónimo St Joan de les Abadesses 54:28 12 S’anc vos ame - Ms. Anónimo St Joan de les Abadesses 57:23 13 Amors, merce no sia - Ms. Anónimo St Joan de les Abadesses 01:01:26 14 Ara lausetz, lauset - Ms. Anónimo St Joan de les Abadesses 01:08:16 15 Tant suy marritz - Matieu de Caersí • Buy: 🌻 The monetization of this channel is disabled to offer the highest possible listening quality. Please support the channel with a free donation: