, see Paterson, World, pp. go- , Meneghetti, Puldlico, pp. 245-50. ned in M. de Riquer, ‘Verses Poetry of Sordello, ed. Wilhelm and Sordello: le Poest, ed 25 See Harvey, Joglan’, and Cabré, ‘Ne suy joglars", for a more detailed discussion ofthis complex issue. = CHAPTER g Music and versification Fetz Marcabrus los motz el so Margaret Switten ‘The new song of the carly twelfth century brought a new way of crafting verses and a new music. It flourished in the cloister as in the court, in Latin as in the vernacular.’ Its salient features were the control of verse length by number of syllables and the linking of verses by end-line rhyme, to which the music corresponded by a tendency towards balanced phrase structures and regular cadence patterns. New systems of sonorous coordinations thus emerged. ‘The most significant vernacular repertory of ‘new songs’ to be pre~ served was created by the troubadours. How did the troubadours Joit these new sound systems, verbal and musical? This chapter will propose some responses to that question. ‘At the outset, [ admit that the question is, in many ways, unanswerable. The reason is not complicated: no medicval sounds have come down to us. What we have are written records, and the written records for troubadour song, like many medieval records, are difficult of interpretation. I shall first point out some of the difficulties, then describe textual and musical elements of the song; examine approaches to coordinated analysis and perform- ance; and conclude with a few illustrative examples. Examples are grouped at the end of the chapter (pp. 156-62 below). Only one manuscript from the time of the early troubadours con- tains songs in Old Occitan: BNF, fonds latin, 1139, from Saint Martial of Limoges, part of which can be dated 6 1100. In the oldest section of this manuscript, among Latin songs called versus, are three religious songs in Occitan, or Occitan and Latin, ‘with music. In contrast, the first chansonniers containing troubadour songs date from the mid thirteenth century ~ from a time when aga142 Margaret Switten troubadour song in its classic formulations was drawing to a close. This poses a paradox, frequently noted: the gap between the ere- ation of troubadour songs and their preservation in writing. We do not know how the songs crossed this gap. ‘As compared to frowire manuscripts, troubadour chanconniers preserve relatively few melodies. While most ‘rouvére manuscripts contain melodies, only two troubadour manuscripts (G and R) have music, and then not systematically throughout, Fortunate! two trouoére codices (W and X) have troubadour sections, th giving us four main sources for troubadour music. About 10 per cent of troubadour poems survive with melodies, roughly about 250 melodies for some 2,500 texts. As may be seen from Appendix 1, some melodies for many important troubadours have been pre- served, but for others we have no melodies at all These features intensify the usual problems of manuscript variability and attribution (see Chapter 14). Medieval manu- seripts do not give us a single, authoritative ‘song’. What we call fone song was probably many songs as ‘it’ moved from performance to performance, eventually to be embedded in manuscripts. Manu- scripts surely reflect the activity, at different stages, of composers, performers and scribes. Different manuscript versions raise the issue of how to determine the composition of a given song. They also raise the issue of how to determine the ‘creator’ of the song. Examination of words and music together seems to assume that one person composed both. We readily make this assumption: the (often problematic) author attributions in manuscripts are rou ‘ly applied to both text and melody. The numerous passages where an ‘author’ lays claim to composition of both text and melody justify this assumption as a working principle ~ provided we remember, however, that it is not proved or even provable that text attributions always apply to the tunes. Such uncertainties problematise concepts such as ‘author's intention’ or ‘author's original work? as applied to the study of text-music relationshi and shift our attention to the concept of performance as moment when two different sonorous systems are combined a single artistic expression. ‘Apart from their instability, written records bring uncertainties of interpretation probably more acute for melodies than for texts. In the sources (except X), melodies are normally preserved in the square notation used for Chant: a single note per syllable is Music and versifcation 143, cated by a square-shaped symbol with or without a stem; symbols are linked together for a group of notes per syllable (see Examples 43a and 4a). This notation (called ‘non-mensural’) conveys pitch with adequate precision, but not rhythm. A ‘semi-mensural notation (where some symbols could have durational meaning) used for a few songs in R (such as Example 1) gives partial but contradictory information about rhythm. This situation has led to considerable debate among scholars. Further, the music sources do not indicate whether or how instruments might have been used. ei to these matters under ‘Performance’ (pp. 149-50 RS troubadours were virtuosic versifiers. The chief elements of versification are metre (defined for this repertory as number of syllables per line) and rhyme. Although these elements may seem conventional to us, possibilities of combination and combination served as a powerful stimulus to troubadour inv tion of new patterns of verbal sound. Moreover, it is uselul to historicise versification, to realise that practices we tend to con- sider stable developed over time: this allows integration of experi= mentation and irregularity into our critical thinking, Important recent book-length studies of versification include those of Frank Chambers and Dominique Billy; the indispensable reference too] is Istvan Frank.’ Chambers adopts a chronological approach, following the practices of individual troubadours; explanations ate clear and accessible. However, while recognising irregularities, Chambers proceeds from the notion that numerical counting of syllables was intended to be exact; thus he normal The inadvisability of normnalising all texts was cogently argued by John Marshall and incorporated into the theoretical, rigorously structural, work of Billy." Regular syllable count may remain the basis of analysis of troubadour song, but recognising that irregu- larity is not always mere scribal error permits an understanding of historical developments during a period when the adoption of exact syllable counting was more a process than a sudden event, Syllable count for all troubadour songs is furnished by Frank's Répertoire. It is instructive to remember that designations of verse types do not necessarily correspond to actual number of syllables.144 Margaret Switten According to a system of counting dating at least from the four- teenth-century treatise the Leys danors, the basis for identifying types of metre is the place of the final accent in the line of verse. Counting includes only the last accented syllable, and the verse length is defined by that syllable. Thus in an cight-syllable line with final accented syllable, all syllables are counted: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Ab/ ioi/ mou of vers/ el/ cof mens (With joi I begin the vers and start it) whereas in a line accented on the next to last syllable, the final unaccented syllable is not counted: Pie vata ee ae ae eee ee ee Mas/ tant/ miau/ cif ab/ bel/ mar/ ti/ re (But slays me with such fine martyrdom) In modern parlance, when there is an accent on the final syllable, the end-word is called ‘masculine’; an end-word with an accent on the next to last syllable is called ‘feminine’, Medieval treatises do not use the terms ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ either to describe 'es or to describe rhymes, but speak of accen agut (acute accent) ot accen grew (grave accent).’ All lines are named by number of syllables: thus, eight-syllable, or octosyllabic, ten-syllable, or deca syllabic, to give as examples frequently used metres. When the same metre is used throughout the stanza, one speaks of ‘iso- metric’ stanzas; changes in metre within the stanza determine ‘hetorometric’ structures. Numerous poetic effects are created by the choice of isometric or heterometric stanzas and by the distri- bution within the stanza of lines having final accented (‘masculine’) endings and next-to-final accented (‘feminine’) end- ings. ‘ther considerations of accent in troubadour verse include the caesura and accents determined by stress patterns of the lan- ‘guage. The caesura itself may be considered a pause, but the syl- lable preceding the pause is normally accentuated. Cacsurac are typically found in the troubadour repertory in decasyllabic lines (after the fourth syllable, less often after the fifth or sixth). Shorter lines do not have fixed cacsurae, but one may presume variable accents corresponding to sense groups, much as in modern French poetry. The line of verse, anchored by the number Music and versification 145 of syllables and the accent at its close, diversified by the varying accents that play across these defining features, is manipulated with great sophistication by the troubadours.© ‘The second element of versification, rhyme, also offers a dizzy- ing array of possibilities. Rhyme is simultaneously sound, sense and signpost: this multiplicity of functions makes it a privileged poctic space. In the early twelfth century, it had all the attractive- ness of a new technology. Rhyme is generally defined as the ident- ity of sounds from the final accented vowel to the end of the word, and it can be further described by the number of syllables included in the identical sounds (degree or richness of rhyme) and by the quality and nature of the sounds themselves. Rhymes mark line ends, and serve to establish inter- and intra-stanaaic linkings, Within the stanza, rhyme schemes (such as ababcedd or abbacded) define stanza types, and techniques such as coblas unissonans oF coblas capcaudadas link stanzas together. Technical discussion of these matters may be found in Frank, Répertoire, in Chambers and with great detail in Billy.’ But the thyme is not merely a technical device; it is a source of sonorous beauty and, by the relationships it creates, of substantive argument. Troubadours revelled in sound contrasts and gradations; some sought unusual words, harsh or smooth. Raimbaut d’Aurenga’s ‘Ar resplan’ (XXXIX), for example, weaves its themes from rare and derivative rhymes (see Chapter 5 on this poem). Choice of a single thyme-word crystal- lises meaning, as in Jaufré Rudel’s ‘Lanquan Ii jorn’ (IV), where the rhyme-word onh, expanded into the phrase ‘amor de lonh” (with always the same musical cadence), governs the poem and, indeed, some modern interpretations of fin‘emor. A prestigious example of meaning produced by selection and manipulation of shyme words is Arnaut Daniel’s ‘Lo ferm voles’ (XVIII), probably the earliest setina.” Music Durable scholarly problems in the study of music include manu scripts and transmission (briefly described above), rhythe (about which more in a moment), and style and structure. In her recent book, Elizabeth Aubrey treats form and style in considerable detail.” ‘A good way to approach troubadour music is to devise strategies148 Margaret Switten ‘one can deploy to appreciate how the melodies work, starting from the basic concepts that (a) notes and note groups are joined to syllables; (b) that a melodic phrase corresponds to a poetic line of verse; (c) that the phrase may be closed by a cadence; and (d) that most troubadour songs are strophic, so the melody is contained entirely within the stanza and repeated for each succeeding stanza, the narrow sense, melodic style (or texture) is defined by ber of notes per syllable: syllabic style has one note to a syl- ;, melismatic style (a melisma is a group of notes) has several notes to a syllable, Normally, troubadour melodies combine these contrasting styles, and the style of a particular song is character- ised by the relative weight accorded to cach. But song textures are fluid. In the manuscripts, associations between notes and syl- lables often vary from one version of a song to the next. Melismas are ornamental. And since singers were under no constraint to adhere to a written ‘score’, aclorning and varying melodies must have been important performance techniques, doubtless used to demonstrate skill in interpreting the text. Thus exact distribution of notes per syllable surely changed with different performances, even where the basic texture remained the same, On a more complex level, melodic style can be defined by how a melody moves. Does it follow step-wise progressions or are there large skips? Is the motion of the melody maintained throughout a phrase, or are.there sharp reversals of direction? Is the range of the melody (its highest and lowest note) wide or limited? Often a troubadour melody reaches swiftly upwards to a peak during the last portion of the stanza, and the listener learns to appreciate this moment. Motion between phrases is significant: starting a new phrase on the same note as the preceding one expresses continuity while a large leap proposes new materi One feature of melodic unfolding that differentiates it from verb: progression is the use of repetition. Melodic repetition frequen engages entire phrases, and this repetition is a major formal e terion. Texts cannot support such repetition except in the spi case of refrains, An equally important musical technique is the repetition of small melodic ideas or motives (see Example 4b) which structure the melodic flow and provide coherence." Finally, individual pitches stand out through repetition; these repeated Music and versifcation 147 tones often suggest an undergirding structure, or even, in conjunc- tion with the final note or cadence, a tonal centre. ‘A ccadence is the note or series of notes that closes a musical utterance, and one can think of it as analogous to rhyme, yet the two are very different. The pitch a melody reaches both at the ends of phrases and at the end of the piece is important. But troubadour melodies do not always move towards clearly defined pitch goals. A melodic cadence is less predictable than a rhyme. ‘As modern listeners, we are often disconcerted when, in different versions of a melody, concluding pitches are not the same at the nds of phrases, or even at the end of the piece. However, as the examples to be discussed will show, it is instructive to consider the final note of a piece and relate it to the final notes of individual phrases (o see if some structural pattern emerges. AND Since troubadour song brings music and poetry together, this relationship is a key focus of any discussion. As I have argued elsewhere, two basic approaches to the study of text-music relationships in troubadour song may be identified: structural and thetori ¢ former emphasises parallel patterns or shapes (metrical rather than semantic); the latter emphasises the pro- duction and communication of meaning. The two are tendencies rather than mutually exclusive procedures. ‘The structural approach rests on the comparison of metrical and melodic formal characteristics, chiefly repeated elements, to determine how stanzas are put together and how structures are created. Such analyses have often drawn upon the unfinished treatise by Dante Alighieri, De oudgari elaguentia, composed in Latin between 1303 and 1305, Since Dante used troubadour and troueére songs as models, his treatise has influenced modern critics’ percep- tion of text-music relationships. Focusing on the stanza (stantia) as the ‘receptacle,’ the ‘room? (mansio) where the art of song is forged, Dante cmphasised the proportioned arrangement and dis- parts. He defined several patterns, giving them names y used, A pattern without division or repetition of phrases was called oda continua. Various possibilities with a mid- stanza division and phrasal repetitions before or after it were148 Margaret Switten described, of which the most widely used have been: pedes (pre-division repetition) with cauda (no post-division repetition); and pedes with versus (post-division repetition). These three pat- terns correspond to melodic schemes ABCDEFG, ABAB CDEF, ABAB CDCD or rhyme schemes abedef, abab cdef, abab ceded. As Dante’s views have usually been interpreted, they would posit full ‘agreement’ between melodic and rhyme schemes as an ideal com- positional model. However, Dante’s terms, and the structural con- cepts that have been drawn from them, only partially correspond to the varieties of troubadour creativity. Appreciation of these requires the finer-grained approaches to defining structures that include small irregular units and unusual as well as regular coordi- nations of music and text Structural analysis provides important insights, but it gives sense of how a song plays out in time. Abstract schemes ‘omit essential information and impose a deceptive normalisation. Emphasis on the stanza alone fails to take into account the rep- etition of stanzas that creates an irreversible temporal pattern. The unfolding in time of textual and musical elements is an issue that needs to be addressed. The second type of basic approach, the rhetorical approach, allows us to confront this issue. Rhetorical purpose is different from the idea of ‘text painting’ or ‘madrigalism’. Rarely can troubadour melodies be said to ‘imitate’ word meanings. But they ‘can reflect, through sound and syntax, expressive values of texts ‘The aim of rhetorical analysis is to discover the combinations and coordinations of ail the resources of language and music brought into play as the song unfolds. ‘Those who seck rhetorical interpretations, considering the com- poser, performer or scribe as a ‘reader’ or ‘interpreter’ of the poem, sometimes emphasise the first stanza of the song. It is usu- ally the only stanza with music in the manuscripts (the same melody being then repeated for following stanzas), giving the impression that the inventor of the melody might have had question then becomes: how can the music relate to succeeding stanzas? The first stanza does set the subject and the tone, But as the melody is repeated for succeeding stanzas, it is cast in a new light by association with different texts. And although melodic and metrical patterns are set by the first stanza, many intvicate rhyme schemes and refrain patterns can Music and versfication 149 only be deployed over the entire song. Therefore, at its best, the rhetorical approach includes an examination of how the first stanza conditions the rest. Rhetorical analysis must also account for the widespread use of entrafacta o borrowing and exchange of tunes and texts. Some- times a tune from, say, a canso (love song) has been borrowe: a sirventes (political song). If text and melody are related only on the level of form or shape, then texts and melodies can easily be interchanged. If, however, specific melodies are seen as responses to specific texts, the practice of contrafacta problematises the rhe- torical approach. In this content, it is useful to think of contrafac- tion as a type of ‘intertextuality,’ opening a new range of interpretative models (see Chapter 11). Further, the fluidity of melodies in the manuscripts raises difficult issues of interpret- ation, especially when, in multiple versions of a song, melody ver- sions are so different as to constitute essentially different tunes. With rhetorical analyses, special care must be taken not to base interpretations on the concept of a fixed association between words and melodies, or on the notion of author’s intent rovwly defined. For cach song ~ and indeed for its several variations where there are variations ~ the range of possible musico-poctic justapositions must contribute to an understanding of thetorical effectiveness. ERFORMANGE, The song lives in the physical act of singing, The knotti in performance is rhythm. Owing to the ambiguity of the medieval musical notation, no modern theory enjoys complete adherence Should we give equal time to each syllable? Should we impose a system of longs and shorts on the song? The last solution is now largely discredited; the first, sometimes hypothesis," solutions. Another controversial issue is the use of instruments. Lack of precise manuscript indication combines with iconogr ical and other evidence that suggests their use to create an ambi guity that does not allow definitive solutions. Previously, instru- ments were enthusiastic resent in performances; recent150 Margaret Switten work has brought a clearer assessment of historical probabilities: for troubadour song, use of instruments was probably discreet. Consideration of performance must also include the complex relationships between performers (who may or may not have been the composer), audience and performance space." The main per forming space was surely the court; the main critical task is to examine possible interactions between performers and a court public. The audience was presumably mixed. The performers were Iikely a range of figures — poets, jaglars — and also women, Ongoing research, especially in social history, is bringing fresh assessment Of the role of women.” Theories of male political dominance by marginalising women tend to exclude them."* But Occitan women likely held considerable power, participating in political life as cas tellans, though less frequently than men. Positing the active pres- ence of women in performance situations subtly enriches the inter changes we imagine as the songs’ initial reception. ‘Audience reception of musical performance has not benefited from the kind of scrutiny accorded to reception of texts, How was the song heard? What musical contexts guided understanding? Surely one main context was the Chant, another monastic songs such as versus, and still another ‘popular’ songs now lost to us. A sophisticated audience surely appreciated inter-musical relations, as it appreciated subtleties of versification, melodic composition and textual rhetoric as they came together in performance. MUSIC AND VERSIPIGATION: A DRIBE SAMPLING ‘The examples at the end of the chapter, arranged in roughly chronological order, represent. several periods of troubadour Song." Discussion of them will illustrate and summarise main points treated above. [Example 1: Bernart de Ventadorn, ‘Ab joi mou lo vers’ (IDs preserved in G, R and WV, Comparison of G and R reflects the Jariability of troubadour melodic composition and transmission. Regarding melodic characteristics, both versions combine sy and melismatic styles. The position and length of melismas are sometimes the same in both versions; more usually, different dis- tributions of notes and note groups pertain. Nonetheless, the repeated pitch fat the end of most phrases and at the close of the piece establishes fas the tonal centre; the prominence of ¢ gives ic ‘Music and versification it secondary tonal importance; and the cadence on forms a contrast to the other cadences before the final close. The melody in R corresponds to Dante's pede and cauda, ABAB CDEF. The G version does not (nor docs the version in W/), especially in the first portion of the song; differences can be plotted by compar- ing successive lines in G to R. The structure may have been regu- larised by the scribe of R; and to adopt his regularisation, exclud- ing other versions (following Gennrich)," is to engage in an abusive normalisation that obscures what we must imagine as the medieval reality. The heterometric coblas unitsonans combine eigl (masculine), seven: (Feminine) and ten-syllable lines with a rhyme scheme ababe'c’dd. The turn of the stanza (lines 4~5) illustra transition by variation of rhythm and rhyme through which rhyme relations are highlighted. The shyhmiesbift by ending accent, asculine’ to ‘feminine’: -éns/-ansa, plays on both similarity and difference of shyme sounds. ‘The effect is striking vache fst stanza, when coméns (Line 1) expands to comensamens (line 4) then shifts to comensairsa to conclude development of this key notion Example 2: The Comtessa de Dia, ‘A chantar’ (Rieger XXXV), our only trobairitz melody. The regularly balanced opening phras ABAB CDB, the stately ter-syllable lines, the expressive rise through a triad fae in line 6, the emotional centre of every stanza, andthe return tothe B phrase to closes all eeate a capt vating musical expression. The song has only one stanza in MS The language of the MS illustrates problems brought ae % ‘Frenchifying’ Old Occitan (jn troweére manuscripts and in lyri insertion romances). As Occitan songs travelled north, the texts ‘were adapted to a French-speaking environment." The example shows both Old Occitan and Old French, and the problematic relationship of ‘Frenchification’ to the melody. The versification of this song demonstrates a frequently used device to link what are technically coblas singulars. The rhyme scheme is a'a‘a’a’ba’b. The thyme sound a changes with every stanza providing a variety of colours. Stanzas are linked by the rhyme sound b,-ens, which ste ihe same and anchors the song, its sound and its meaning, since thyme words in -ens carry particular force.” ue Example 3: Raimon de Miraval, ‘Bel m’es’ (XXXVI). In this song, one may examine structuring by short repeated motive the reeusenc of entire phrases bt hot na set pattern, Theo bel sometimes applied to it is, at best, misleading.152 Margaret Switten Division in two parts is proposed by the cadence on d in lines 4 and g, and by the upward leap of a fifth in line 5 contrasting with the downward leap of a fourth in line 1. The rising motif ‘a’ unites (1), 2 and 4, and returns in line 8 to link the last part of the song to the first. Lines 6 and 7 are exactly repeated ~ though in the second part of the melody and not the first where one ex; such repetition. But 6 and 7 also recall line 3 in their concluding portion (mot ntity is avoided by the shift- ing text accent (in line g, ‘b’ occurs to a masc 6-7 to a feminine rhyme), echoing of motives rel section of the tune also to the first part. Such motivie inter- relationships provide strong melodic coherence. Verse form com- bines seven-syllable \¢ and feminine lines with a scheme abbacd’d’ce. The thy is play on studied distine- tions: diphthongs ei/ai, with identical final elements i and slightly rentiated accented vowels e/a, contrast with the single vowel of -ul. Musical motif b’ both connects and varies melodically the diphthong in plais/oaire, traire: in line 3 aé has a two-note group, 1es 6-7 a six-note group, expanding the diphthong in the ine rhyme before the final -u. Expansion is framed by the linking in lines 5-8 of rimes embrassées: cd’d’ec to what one could call cadences enbrassées:fgf. Music and versification arc joined in an effective sonorous development. The tense rhyme -ut will conclude the song in the key word ferdut, twice repeated in the toradas, summing up the major theme: painful loss of joy and of one’s castle in the crucial year 1213.” Example 5: Guiraut Riquier, ‘Fis e verays’ (Mlk XVID, an example from the later flowering of troubadour art. Frequent rep- ing the settled paradigm ly ABABCAB here), and melismatic style are . Riquier also represents the case, unique to the pertory, of a group of songs signed and dated as by he composer's own hand: rubrics like the one given here situate juier's songs in both R and C. The complexity of the ve fication provides a glimpse of troubadour virtuosity: coblas alter 1adas capcauidadas retrogradas with seven ten-syllable lines, all mascu- ine, thyme scheme abbedde, thus three rins estramps (uel, ~%, -ans) ~ to which is added a refrain word that conveys the central theme: étitions on the level of the phrase, exploit ABABx (specific Music and versfication 153 To MW V_ tomadas uelh ans uelh ans uelh ort or ort or ort ort or ort or ort or ort or or or or ort or or or ans uelh ans ans ans Because the rhyme scheme changes and the melody is repeated, as the song unfolds there occur different associations between rhyme lic cadences. For example, the sounds -uelh and -ans will be heard alternately to the caclences of lines 1 and 7, and since the cadences of lines 4 and 7 are the same, the refrain word be linked alternately to these sounds and the meanings they carry, as they appear in line 7. Thus stanza I links ames/enans; stanza II anes/owelh. Rhyme schemes beginning abbe can create an effect of surprise: an audience by this late date expects rhyme a to come back. The surprise here creates tension: rhyme a does not come back to end the first section, but the melodic cadence brings closure. Syntactically, no strong pause is marked at the end of line 45 anes is an imperfect subjunctive, which seems to propel the song forward. Thus there is tension between musical pause and textual movement: in this tension lies the frustration of love. Now let us take up Example 4, Peire Vidal, ‘Bem pac? (XXXVD), to glimpse an cntire through selected stanzas gi the example. This canso with political and crusading over- tones is representative of Peire Vidal in the sometimes whimsical infolding of its text. The song was possibly twice reworked to add he first tornada and then the sixth stanza. But if stanza VI was a Jater addition, the transition to it is prepared by what precedes. The t coblas unissonans combine seven-syllable metres wit masculine and feminine rhymes in a sequence abbaabe'c‘dd, This juence incorporates a two-line prolongation of the rhymes of he first part into a basic scheme abba [ab] ccdd. Lines 5 and 6 are thus transitional, relating both to the first and to the second parts of the stanza. Rhyme sounds a and b contrast: -iu/-ors; ¢ and d share a vowel and a consonant: -ella/el, differentiated only the unaccented syllable of the feminine rhyme. The metrical pe thus created is unique. Of the sounds chosen for the thymes, -ors is the most thematically charged since it brings a184 Margaret Switten constellation of terms associated with amors in its wake. Two terms stand out: combatedors and secors. Combateders, an unusual desig- nation, is paired with fenkedors in stanza Il, and the negative set ies over to vilas domneiadors in stanza TH, until jis conoissedors ushers in meliors and then a positive series valors, lauzors, doussors in stanzas IV and V (not reproduced in the example). The lady’s merit vanguishes all enemies. Secors plays a double role in stanza VE: it is the pivot on which turns the shift from secular to sacred, from the possibility of the lady’s secors to the call to help the Lord. The final rhyme sound ~f is part of a series of Biblical references ~ Gabriel, Abel, Israhel (IV), Rachel (V), Daniel - until the Byzan- tine Emperor Manuel in stanza VII. These infuse the song with a religions aura before we arrive at stanza VI. The rhyme elle car~ ries one whimsical image, again typical of Vidal: the heart drawn from beneath the armpit in stanza IIL ‘The melody, among the loveliest in the troubadour repertory, exhibits an extraordinary range, an affinity for motion by chains of thirds, graceful adornment. It is in three manuscripts: G, R and X, with practically identical versions in G and X (R is similar structurally but more compact in range). The melody is through- composed, thus Dante’s ada continua. But that fact gives us no con cept of its structure, Cadence notes for each phrase provide initial clues: e-g-e-c-a-g-oloctave above)-e-g-<. The note ¢ stands out, hierarchically the lower c carries greater weight and suggest (without clearly affirming it) an initial division of the melody into two parts: four lines closing onc followed by six lines again closing on ¢, The relative highness or lowness of the melody, exploiting the upper and lower portions of the range, bri 1-4 move in the lower portion; lines 5-8 sweep through the en} range, from low g to high f, almost a double octave and surely 2 place for the singer to display his talent; lines g-10 fall back into the original portion of the range. The structure is refined: an initial four lines, followed by four lines contrasting in range, with two lines bringing closure by a return to the beginning. To flesh out these structural points, one could take note of repeated inital melismas in lines 1 and 10; of melodic ‘rhyme’ in 1, 3 and 10; of the spectacular rising thirds -c-< at the beginning of line 77 lead- ing to the climax of the melody on f, One further consideration clinches the initial impression of a di the motion to the next line drops a fourth from g to ¢, contrasting with the rising motion proceding from lines 1-2 and 3~4. Moreover, lines Music and versfication 155 5 and 6 have the only stepwise rising link in the piece — one could almost call the movement from 5 to 6 a continuation of musical sense from one line to the next, a kind of equivalent of poetic enjambment. If the melody is through-composed, having no rep- ion of e give it shape, and with its abundance of four-, five-, six- and even eight-note melismas, it is a bravura piece of remarkable energy. Considering now text and melody together, the first stanza sets the stage for a canso: love unites all contraties (‘dead noble’ vs. living coward!’ strikes a humorous note), sustained by youth and merit, Lest the short seven-syllable line seem frivolous, the richly adorned melody gives it weight and substance. The melodic div- ision after the fourth line sets off the contraries, pausing enough for a smile on avo! viu. Lines 5 and 6 then move forward, syntacti- cally and musically joined, as these central lines will be in every stanza of the poem. The apex of the melody (high f) is touched in lines 7-8, the two lines with feminine rhyme; in this portion of the melody, syllabic style increases dynamic tension and forward motion, to which the lengthening of the rhyme is counterpoised. ‘The complete expansive melodic gesture rising to and falling away from the climax covers lines 5-8 (from low ¢ to high fand back to @) and corresponds to the rhetori ment of reasons for sing- ing. The last two lines then return to the first contrasts as the melody settles back into its initial range. At the close of the first in place, and a tone both ished. In the succeeding stanzas, new textual configurations will be heard to the same melody. The first four-line melodic statement will propose though not impose matching syntactic and semantic statements. Lines 5-8, given prominence by the melodic range, often contain explanations or justifications. The whimsical image in stanza III, mentioned above, is the more amusing because it comes when the melody peaks: the unexpected juxtaposition of the feminine rhymes sembella and aissella deflates the musical rhetoric Perhaps most striking throughout the song is the correlation of the final rhymes in -e with the melody’s return to its original space. This emphasises a list of names and a series of comparisons that are unusual for a canto, but they fit with this song’s generic ambiguity and create thematic unity. Moreover, the ~ rhyme also includes cel, él and mel, which return in the tornadas, so that the first stanza and the last tornada close on the same word, cl.156 Margaret Switten 157 Se Example 2 The Comtessa de Example 1 Besnart de Ventadorn, ‘Ab ‘comparison of veMusic and versification i repatih Tomita fn SOmEa tome Gad iby oa teariags | ey S| oH,162 Margaret Switten Beth Deport, Dh suy vas mmo ene drag tom acomar ay naa, 7. per ques am fis quar is et veraye ¢ pus ferms que no suelh The XVMth caro by Guiraut cas love. Not ed an conse to be For Ilove easing tome, for os ‘appealed to me, until low made tno was in no agreement with me, except that she gra Sod i abe want that, Fv fn Music and versification 163, and ‘Nova Cantica’; Grier, ‘New voice’. 1, notation and editing problems, see wan der 9p. 26-45 (definitions of mensural and semi-mensural 1 Arlt, Zur Interpret Masie, p. 26-65, ers, Verifiation; cites eer . logy was regularly applied to nouns nmatical treatises. See also Kay, ‘Derivation’, pp. 162-5, 6 Switten, Music and Poiry, pp. 85-03. 7 See also Roubaud, Fle, pp. 185-240. 8 Sce Switten, ‘De la sextine’, for interaction of rhymes and rausic. 9 Aubrey, Musi, pp. 132-236: see also Switten, Musie and Paety, pp iraval, pp. 22-40; Aubrey, Music, pp. 184-94. Switten, ‘Music and words’, pp. 14-16. For representat is, see Stevens, Wards and Music; Tre fedieval lyric. 12 De vulgar, 3g Van der Werf, Chansons, pp. 85-45, Music’ pp. 121~35 Aubrey, Music, pp. 240-54; Switten, Music and Poetry, pp. 82-6; 96-7. 1g Stevens, Words and Music, 415-16, 500-4. Van der Werf, proposes pitches of equal length. , Voices and Ins ; Aubrey, Music, pp. 254-62. ‘Subjectivity, pp. 132-70, treats some of these issues. ications, such as Cheyette, ‘Women’, elabor- hese approaches, see Bruckner, Songs of Women (see under Trobair ; p- 308 below], pp. xxxvi-xxaviil; Switten, ‘Comtessa’, in Rosen- berg, Songs, p. 95. 18 Sw model of male power. For Duby’s work, including iction of women, sce Evergates, ‘Georges Duby’. 19 Example texts come Switten, neutral 20 Gennrich, Nachlass, 22 Bruckner, ‘Fictions’, p. 852; p. 96. 23. Miraval had lost his castle before composing this song in 1213 to ask er of Aragon for help against Simon of Montfort, leader of the Albigensian crusaders, Peter did come to help; but at the disastrous battle of Muret in 1213, the Occitan forces were defeated and Peter led. Rosenberg, Songs,