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Historical context of troubadourism
In the previous post we highlighted troubadourism and its historical context, dominated by theocentrism and feudalism. We also talk about troubadourism in Portugal. Let us now deal with the troubadour songs and their most important authors.
The refined population of Provence was characterized by the ideals of bourgeois life, trying to live as pleasantly as possible, without even noticing a marked difference between the noble person and the bourgeoisie. To this end, the rational division of property and the loosening of feudal dependency ties contributed to this, which led to the emergence of strong individualism, meaning, 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, since they were subject to the feudal lords. Audemaro Taranto Goulart and Oscar Vieira da Silva.
Troubadour songs
Troubadour song is the denomination 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 chorus and, therefore, received the name of cantigas.
Troubadour poetry has a lyrical-loving tendency and a satirical one. In the first, the themes of suffering in love and longing predominate. In the second, criticisms are made of people or customs, something quite daring in an era of repression of free thought.
Lyrics
We saw in the post literary genres and literary schools that the term lyrical received this name, by reference to the lyre, a musical instrument that accompanied the declamation of poetry in Antiquity. It includes sentimental poetic texts 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 depending on its context, which does not correspond to its literal meaning) with a predominance of the first person singular (I).
They are brief texts because they do not have a plot, but the externalization 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) as 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 the suffering of love, and the friend songs, which sing the longing for the loved one. Let us go to them!
Love songs
They are written in the first person singular (I). In them, the poetic self, that is, the fictional subject who gives voice to poetry, declares his love for a lady, against the background 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 needy thing, the pain of love in the face of the beloved's indifference, is a servant and vassal of his beloved and expresses his love insistently and intensely.
Love songs emerged between the 11th and 13th centuries, influenced by the art developed in the Provence region, in the south of France. The influence of Provencal lyricism was intensified with the arrival of French settlers in the Iberian Peninsula 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 an impossible love, where men suffer from love for desiring court women, usually married to nobles. This conception is more intense in the voice of the troubadours of Portugal and Galicia (an autonomous Spanish community located in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, where Galicia and the Kingdom of Galicia were formerly located). These troubadours do not limit themselves to imitation, but to "suffer more sorely".
How, you may be wondering, did the troubadour assume this position of submission before women if in the Middle Ages, women still occupied a lower place on the social scale? The answer is given by Audemaro Taranto Goulart and Oscar Viera da Silva, Brazilian literature scholars:
In the South of France (Provence), however, the situation of women was different (from the situation of women in Northern France): the law conferred her legal equality with men, evidenced in the fact that she inherited, owned property, and power, after being married, to dispose of them without the husband's consent being necessary. As can be seen, the new civilization had a feminist ideal, which will be represented in 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 approved in the form of a dialogue. Formal work is more accurate 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 men. It is the lady who exposes her feelings, always discreetly because, in the Provencal context, the most important value of a woman is discretion. The damsel sometimes turns to her mother, a sister or friend, or even to a shepherd or someone she meets along the way.
This is the main feature that differentiates them from love songs, where the lyrical self is male. 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 undoubtedly one of the main marks of patriarchy in Portuguese society.
Satirical songs
They present, in general, an indirect and ironic criticism. They tend to mock or defame a certain person. They also demonstrate the daring of the troubadour in criticizing the society of the time, in which free thought was opposed by the Church. There are two types of satirical songs: those of mockery and those of cursing.
Mocking songs
They are more ironic and work with puns and double meaning words, without mentioning names. They are indirect criticisms: it is a “bad word” in a covert, insinuated way.
Cursing songs
They are those in which the troubadours point directly and nominally at the target of their satire, in a purposely offensive way and using low-slang terms, such as profanity, as the intention is to verbally assault someone.
Main authors of troubadourism
Portugal
King D. Dinis (1261-1325) - was a great supporter who gave prestige to poetic production in his court. He was himself one of the most talented medieval troubadours with a production of 140 lyrical and satirical songs.
Paio Soares Taveirós – was a troubadour from the first half of the 13th century. Vineyard of noble origin, he is the author of the love song - A ribeirinha (the riverside girl), which is considered the first work in the Galician-Portuguese language.
João Soares Paiva, João Garcia de Guilhade, Fernão Rodrigues de Calheiros, Pero Gonçalves Portocarreiro.
Spain
D. Afonso X – considered the great renovator of peninsular culture in the second half of the 13th century. He wrote many compositions in Galician-Portuguese that became known as Cantigas de Santa Maria.
France
Used and suggested links
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