In the previous post, we highlighted Troubadourism and its historical context during the Middle Ages, dominated by
theocentrism and feudalism. We also talk about Troubadourism in Portugal. We
will now deal with troubadour songs and their most important authors.
The refined population of Provence was characterized by the ideals of bourgeois life, trying to live in the mildest possible way, without even noticing a marked difference between the noble and the bourgeois. To this end, the rational division of property and the loosening of feudal dependence ties contributed, which favored the emergence of strong individualism, meaning that, in the middle Ages, a clash with the principles of the Church, as it represented a conception of life opposed to the orthodox doctrines. Furthermore, it is worth adding that the clergy in the South did not have the same strength as the religious in the North, as they were subject to feudal lords. Audemaro Taranto Goulart and Oscar Vieira da Silva.
Troubadour songs
Troubadour songs is the name given to
the poetic texts of the first medieval period and that were part of the
literary movement of Troubadourism.
In general, they were songs sung in choir.
Troubadour poetry has both a lyrical-loving and a satirical tendency. In the first, the
themes of love suffering and longing predominate. In the second, criticisms are
made of people or customs, something quite daring in a time of repression of
free thought.
Lyrical songs
We saw in the post Literary Genres and Literary Schools that the lyrical term received this name, in reference to the lyre, a musical
instrument that accompanied the declamation of poetry in antiquity. It includes
poetic texts of a sentimental character that reveal the author's emotions. It
is characterized by the poetic function of language and the use of words in
their connotative sense (meaning given to a word according to its context,
which does not correspond to its literal meaning) with a predominance of the
first person singular (I).
They are short texts because they do
not present a plot, but rather the exteriorization of the poet's inner world,
the lyrical self, also called the lyrical subject or poetic self, does not
refer to the author of the text (real person) because it is a fictitious entity
(female or male). It is a creation of the poet, who plays the role of narrator
or enunciator of the poem. The lyrical self represents the "voice of
poetry".
The lyrical songs have two branches,
the love songs, whose theme is love suffering, and the friend songs, which sing
the missing of being loved. Let's go to them!
Love songs
They are written in the first person singular (I). In them, the
poetic self, that is, the fictitious subject that gives voice to poetry,
declares his love for a lady, against the backdrop of the formalism of the
palace environment. The love confession is direct and the troubadour commonly
addresses her, calling her “mia senhor”
or “mia senhor fremosa” (My lady or my beautiful lady). The lover, usually affected by the amorous pain
in the face of the beloved's indifference, is the servant and vassal of his
beloved and expresses his love with insistence and intensity.
The love songs emerged between the
11th and 13th centuries, influenced by the art developed in the region of Provence, in the south of France. The
influence of Provencal lyricism was
intensified with the arrival of French settlers in the Iberian Peninsula and
who fought against the Moors (Arabs)
linked to Provence. Also noteworthy is the intense trade between France and the
western region of the Iberian Peninsula, reaching the North Atlantic.
In this context, "courtly love" arises, based on impossible love, where
men suffer from love because they desire court
women, usually married to nobles. This conception is more intense in the
voice of the troubadours of Portugal
and Galicia (Spanish autonomous
community located in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, where Galicia and the Kingdom of Galicia were formerly located). These troubadours do not
merely imitate, but "suffer more
painfully."
How, you may be wondering, did the
troubadour assume this position of submission to women if in the Middle Ages,
women still occupied a lower place on the social scale? The Brazilian scholars
of Literature Audemaro Taranto Goulart and
Oscar Viera da Silva give the answer:
In
the South of France (Provence), however, the situation of women was different
(from the situation of women in Northern France): the law gave her legal
equality with men, evidenced by the fact that she inherited, possessed goods,
and power, after marriage, to dispose of them without the husband's consent. As
can be seen, the new civilization had a feminist ideal, which will be
represented in the Cantigas de Amor by the loving subjection of men, by the
submission imposed by female desire and imposition.
Friend songs
They are written in the first person singular (I) and are
usually presented in the form of a dialogue. Formal work is more refined in
relation to love songs. They originate from popular sentiment and in the
Iberian Peninsula itself.
In them, the poetic self is female, but their authors are male. The lady exposes her feelings, always discreetly because, in the Provencal context, the most important value of a woman is discretion. The maiden sometimes addresses her mother, a sister or friend, or even a shepherd or someone she meets along the way.
This is the main characteristic that
differentiates them from the cantigas de amor, where the lyrical self is
masculine. The environment described in the cantigas de amigo is the
countryside and no longer the court. The environments involve peasant women, a
characteristic that reflects the relationship between nobles and commoners.
This is, without a doubt, one of the main marks of the patriarchies of
Portuguese society.
Satirical songs
In general, they present an indirect
and ironic critique. They often mock or defame a certain person. They also
demonstrate the troubadour's daring to criticize the society of the time, in
which the Church opposed free thought. There are two types of satirical songs:
those of derision and those of cursing.
Songs of derision
They are more ironic and work mainly
with puns and double-meaning words, without directly mentioning names. These
are indirect criticisms: it is an “evil saying” in a covert, insinuated way.
Curse songs
They are the ones in which the
troubadours directly and nominally point out the target of their satire, in a
purposely offensive way and making use of profanity, such as profanity, because
the intention is to verbally attack someone.
Main authors of troubadourism
Portugal
King D Dinis (1261-1325) was a great supporter who gave prestige to poetic production at his court. He was himself one of the most talented medieval troubadours with a production of 140 lyrical and satirical songs.
Paio Soares de Taveirós– was a troubadour from the first half of the 13th century. He came from a noble origin; he is the author of the Love Song A Ribeirinha (The Riverside), which is considered the first work in the Galician-Portuguese language.
João Soares Paiva, João Garcia de Guilhade, Fernão Rodrigues de Calheiros and Pero Gonçalves Portocarreiro.
Spain
D. Afonso X – considered the great renovator of the peninsular culture in the second half of the 13th century. He wrote a large number of compositions in Galician-Portuguese that became known as Cantigas de Santa Maria (Songs of Santa Maria).
Martim Codax , Nuno Fernandes Torneol and Paio Gomes Charinho.
France
Arnaut Daniel, Bernart de Ventadorn, Guilhem de Peitieu and Raimbaut d'Aurenga.
The subject of the next post will be Humanism.
