Songs for a court audience
Among the most admired entertainments at a great household was the lyric love song. From about the 12th century, poets in France composed songs in the vernacular, meaning the everyday spoken languages rather than Latin, on the theme of love between a devoted man and an admired lady. In the south, where the language was Occitan, these poets are called troubadours. In the north, where French dialects were spoken, they are known as trouvères. Their songs were sung at courts, often by the poets themselves or by hired performers, and became part of the evening entertainment that surrounded feasts and dances.
The themes
The idea at the center of these songs is usually called courtly love. The singer addresses a lady, typically of higher rank than himself, whom he serves with devotion and praises with extravagant language, while she remains distant, scornful or simply unobtainable. The lover’s suffering is part of the point: longing improves him and makes him more noble in conduct. Many songs borrow the language of feudal service, with the poet as the lady’s vassal, giving the ideal a social flavor that would have been familiar to listeners.
Several standard situations recur.
- The praise song. The poet lists the lady’s beauty and virtue and his own hopes.
- The complaint. The lover laments that he is ignored, or that gossips and jealous watchers keep the couple apart.
- The dawn song. Lovers part at daybreak, warned by a watchman or a bird.
- The pastoral. A knight meets a shepherdess in the countryside, with results that range from comic to troubling.
- The spring opening. Many songs begin with birdsong, flowers and the new season, as a setting for desire.
Not every song was about love. Poets also wrote songs about the Crusades, moral advice, political quarrels and satire. Love, however, was the best-known subject.
How sincere were they?
Modern readers often ask whether the songs describe real feelings and real affairs. Scholars disagree about how far they reflect actual behavior at court. Some see them as a literary game, a polished convention in which poets competed in elegance and ingenuity. Others see traces of real social tension, especially where young men of lower rank depended on a lord and his household. It is generally safest to treat the songs as a stylized form, one that could draw on real emotions without being a diary. Medieval marriage among the nobility was often arranged for property and alliance, which may help explain why the literature of longing looked outside it, but this should not be pushed too far, since many lyric poems say little about marriage at all.
The word “love” in these songs also covers different ideas. The tradition did not stay still, and a later tone could be more playful or more religious. Poets sometimes turned the same language of service and devotion to the Virgin Mary.
Trouvères and the northern tradition
The northern poets adapted southern models. A notable figure is Thibaut IV, Count of Champagne and later King of Navarre, whose songs survive in large numbers and show that a high-ranking noble could be a respected poet. Another is Conon de Béthune, a noble who is also linked to the Crusades. Chrétien de Troyes is best known for his romances, though he is also credited with a few songs.
Trouvères also developed forms that were closely associated with dance. Songs with refrains, such as the rondeau and the virelai, let a group join in, and some may have been used to lead dancing. The boundary between a listening song and a dancing song was therefore not always sharp. A lyric about longing could be performed quietly by a single singer, or turned into a refrain song for the whole company.
Performance and evening entertainment
Songs were performed in the hall, in the lady’s chamber or in a garden, sometimes unaccompanied and sometimes with a vielle, harp or other instrument. A poet of high rank might sing for friends. A professional jongleur might perform songs by a poet who did not sing in public, and he might carry songs from court to court. After the main meal, a lord could call for a song, a story or a dance, and the mood of the song would suit the occasion. Because many lyrics were meant to be taken up by listeners, their refrains were easy to remember.
In this setting the songs played a social role. They offered a shared language of courtesy, let hosts show taste and gave guests a way to flirt, flatter or tease without saying anything directly. They were also a way of being fashionable: knowing the latest songs signaled membership in a refined circle.
What survives
We have far more words than melodies. Many poems are preserved in large collections called chansonniers, copied long after the poets lived. Some include music, others only the text. As a result, a modern performance of a medieval love song often relies on an uncertain tune and on choices about rhythm and accompaniment. That is worth remembering when we imagine an evening in a court hall: we can recover the words and themes far better than the sound.