The Phenomenon of Singing in the Study of Troubadour Poetry

Elizabeth Brodovitch

The poetry and music of the troubadours who lived in the medieval kingdoms of southern France known collectively as Occitania contributed to a flowering of literary, musical and artistic culture in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The troubadours were composers and singers of poetry. They numbered some four hundred men and a much smaller group of women called the trobairitz; men and women of noble birth, but many others of more modest origins. Their compositions are grouped according to genre; the satirical song (the sirventes), the funeral lament (the pianh), songs of debate and playful philosophical discussions about love (the tenson and the partimen), and the love poem (the canso).