Troubadour and trouvère lyric

The vast array of metrical and musical forms in mediaeval Latin lyric was the indispensable basis for the appearance of lyrics in the languages of Provence (d'oc) and France (d'oïl). This is a simple recognition of undeniable facts, not a statement of position in the dispute over the origins of troubadour and trouvère poetry. The observation becomes even more relevant when it is noted that the new poetry flowered in the very regions which had led the way in the creative ferment which produced tropes, versus, sequences and dramas. Furthermore, as mentioned above, it was precisely the name vers which was given to the compositions of the first troubadours. Another lexical derivation is also significant, though the evidence for it is not altogether convincing: that of trovatore from trovare, which in its turn comes from tropare, ‘to make tropes’. These details are worth bearing in mind before setting out to search abroad for what may be found within easy reach at home. (Consider also the hypothesis of Arab influence mediated through Spain as a result of the Crusades.)

One of the most striking features of troubadour and trouvère poetry is the enormous disproportion between the number of poems known to exist (about five thousand) and the number of surviving melodies (about a third of that number). For the troubadours alone we have 2,542 texts and 264 melodies. Other interesting details also deserve to be recorded.