Uncovering Western Art Music in the Twelfth-Century Troubadours

Prompt: Margot Fassler writes in Music in the Medieval West that “[t]he male and female poet-composers of the twelfth century were more willing than their predecessors to describe inner emotional states in their writings and music. As a result, we can for the first time place some of the music we study in the context of individual lives” (Fassler 121). The poet-composers of the troubadour community reveal a musical microcosm through their individual story-telling that shares much with many of the later musical communities we have observed throughout this course that can be characterized as that of a codified “Western art music.” In the first part of your paper, discuss the dynamics of music-making in courtly life in the southern region of France in the eleventh- and twelfth-centuries, including a discussion of fin d’amors. Include a discussion of either Bernart de Ventadorn and Can vei la lauzeta mover, or Raimbaut de Vaqueiras. How are these artists and their works characteristic of a more traditional historical narrative of the life and motivations of a troubadour? In the second part of your paper, choose an issue we have discussed in this course (i.e. gender and representation/power, high- and low-brow art, connoisseurship vs. accessibility, class issues, etc.) as a frame to add more nuance to this previous stereotypical narrative. Please incorporate a discussion of how courtly music of this time might be connected to some of the issues we have discussed in prior units. Your discussion should include specific works and/or composers as examples of this more nuanced reading of troubadour culture. You must back up your argument by citing sources from the reading above. Use no other sources. Format: Typed, double-spaced, 12-pt. Times New Roman, standard 1” margins, 3-4 pages You must use proper citation formatting as agreed upon with your TA (Chicago, MLA, etc.), and must incorporate a Works Cited page. Document must be a Word file (.doc or .docx). Readings: Taruskin, Music from the Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century Chapter 4: Music of Feudalism and Fin’s Amors 106-110; 115-116 Fassler, Music in the Medieval West Chapter 7: Poet-Composers in an Age of the Individual 121-122; 126-132 Weiss and Taruskin, Music in the Western World 14: Music in Courtly Life (Raimbaut de Vaquerias) 47-50 Coldwell, “Jougleresses and Trobairitz: Secular Musicians in Medieval France” from Tick’s Women Making Music (1986) The paper should be 825-850 words long.