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Troubadour and Trouvere Discord:
An Introduction to Descort Poetry
Ryan Erickson
Dr. Daniel Perkins
Music History I Term Paper
Fall 2008
The troubadour and trouvere legacy can be seen all around. The popularity of secular
music can trace its lineage back to the timeless practice of professional musicians traveling the
country spreading poetry and romantic ideas through the universal art of music. The troubadours
and trouveres were pioneers of vernacular art, creating a synthesis between poetry and music that
can still be appreciated today, as our society still uncovers the nuances that these musicians were
utilizing nearly one thousand years ago. Existing in the twelfth and thirteenth century, this
tradition laid down the foundation for compositional practices that developed in the Renaissance.
They wrote the first popular forms of music to have a significant impact on the rest of the music
world, including the later motet writing and mass writing of the early Renaissance.
Perhaps a lesser known genre of troubadour chanson, but of particular significance to the
progression of western music’s evolution is the “descort” This style is defined in the Harvard
Dictionary of Music as being “characterized by some kind of discord, as for instance in subject
matter of poetic content” (451). This rather broad description is applied to a genre of poetry and
music that ranges quite differently depending on the composer or the poem itself. The descort
genre as a whole will come to help define techniques and develop styles that will later be
replicated in the motets and madrigals of the fourteenth century that not only mimic stylistic uses
of text painting but also how the text is thoroughly involved in the writing of a melody and how
the melody shapes around those preexisting confines. The descort, therefore, can be summed up
both in terms of the textual content as well as its melodic content.
The poetry of this style perhaps has the starkest contrast. While many of the chansons in
the literature of troubadours and trouveres consists of “courtly love” and the propriety of
romance, descorts depart from such a topic and tend to focus on things that are discordant and
much more dark in nature. These topics often refer to unrequited love, with a sense of bitterness
in the nature of the stanzas. They can encompass the feelings of dismay or despair as one would
feel with unrequited love or perhaps a love that has failed. Themes can also include death and
misery through other traumas in life, or in the emotion of depression. phrase breaks and text
painting. They are often strophic, though they can be through-composed.
The use of text in a descort song is of extreme importance. It becomes the focus of the
piece as its more often erratic or unique in a way that a composer would set the music to it to
reflect this trait. Descort texts vary from extensive use of line breaks to extreme usage of
language as a driving force in the movement of the poetry. For instance, Raimbaut de
Vaquerias’s poem “Eras Quan Vey Verdeyar” is an example of descort poetry that uses many
languages to bring discord and disjunct to the song and rhythm. Each stanza of poetry is broken
into different Romantic languages, beginning with Provençal (regional French) and ranging all
the way to Italian and Galican. In the final stanza, each language represented gets its own line.
De Vaquerias introduces his poem in Provençal with the notion that, because of love lost, he sees
“enmity” between languages:
“I want to begin a contrast
about love, on whose account I am distraught;
for a lady used to love me,
but her mind has changed
and therefore I sow enmity
among the words, the sounds and the languages.”
<http://www.trobar.org/troubadours/raimbaut_de_vaqueiras/raimbaut_de_vaqueiras_16.php>
A descort themed poem would often have music set for it where the rhythm was broken
up, perhaps “wailing” in motion or could very well be angry in presentation. The composer had
the freedom to represent the text in a manner that best suited their personal tastes. The melodies
can then be released from long melismatic passages and include brief rests as a technique to
convey solace and silence as per the text allows. The shaping of the melody and the treatment of
the vocal range can often take shape around the ideas and topics discussed in the descort poem.
For instance, if the poem were on death, the melody may appear low and brooding as if singing
solemnly at a funeral.
The descort genre is completely unique and can be discussed entirely on its own with
very little correlation between other chanson genres of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. To
properly understand how the descort genre is remote from the other styles is to compare how the
troubadours and trouveres were writing and treating both text and melodic compositions. The
best way to approach this, then, is to come to understand how the more common genres were
being handled.
The other topics that these people were living and writing about, in addition to the
descort, are clearly defined in their poetic styles. The main theme that pervades their collections
of chansons mainly dealt with “courtly love” or in the French “fin’ amor”. This idea, brought on
by the popularity of chivalry and other feudalist concepts of the time, represents the majority of
topics. Though, other topics could include religion or sacred texts. Some, like the pastorals,
detail a knights encounter with a young female shepardess in the field as she watches her flock.
Though a bit risqué, the poetry always reflected the time and interests of the people who were
obsessed with themes of classed sections of society and the ever present idea of fin’ amor.
Many of the more common chansons also favor rhythms that reflect the text in a way that
is almost speech-like. Since mensuration and rhythmic modes were not available yet, especially
in the popular music/secular music sectors, many of these musicians learned things by rote and it
was only with the invention of printing presses and the development notation that many of the
more cherished chansons were recorded in ink before they were lost to time or other unfavorable
historical events (i.e.: the Albigensian Crusades). Since the text played such a important part in
the composition of the piece, the song-writer would often use the poetic feet for the best example
of how to present the rhythm.
The melodic compositions associated with the poems are often the least important
part of the writing process for troubadours. They were predominantly modal in nature, with the
modal center (usually a Dorian scale) provided the stability of phrase beginnings, and would
often end each stanza of the poem as if the end of a thought. Unfortunately, many of the
melodies that have survived are represented through the heightened neume system that was the
standard notational device. This system lacks any rhythmic notation and can very well lack any
pitch notation, but merely shows relative pitch locations. A piece written by a troubadour or
trouvere will contain that singular artist’s interpretation of the text. As it disperses and gains in
popularity though, other singers will begin to perform the piece and, without a real notational
system to keep a melody or rhythm concrete, the piece will evolve and morph as it grows
outward from the source. As it gets written down in the notational systems of the day, these
inflections will be used and displayed as accurately as the older systems could allow.
The general melodic content was intended to sound “majorish or minorish” but can often
be bended. It was common practice to exchange the B for the Bb in order to avoid tritone
sonorities in pieces of the era and this is also reflected in standard chanson repertory of the
troubadours. Thus, if a composer intended something to be “minor” sounding they would often
use a D dorian scale to provide us with the feeling of a minor scale but still be able to provide us
with the Bb that helps avoid unfavorable intervals. The major, then would be reflected by a C
major scale but at times the Bb would be used in order to avoid that interval. The “minor”
sounding scale becomes important in the development of the descort genre because of its ability
to not only have a minor sound which reflects the melancholy nature of the poetry, but also with
the inflection of the Bb and B interchanging sonorities that can provide further discord and
dissonance that was representing the text. (Wilson, 171)
(Example 1) (Aubry, 70)
In Example 1, provided is a stanza with score in modern notation of a troubadour
chanson called “Glorious King” by Guiraut de Borneilh. This type, though not a descort,
provides an example of the modality that is tampered with when troubadours write in the style of
the descort. The style written in is called an “alba”, or “Dawn Song”. As can be seen by the
treatment of the melody to the text, this piece is mostly neumatic with breaks of syllabic
movement.
Though notated with modern notational devices, the procedure can be attributed to the
style of a troubadour or trouveres singer, who would add personal inflections to the text. The
phrase markings in the first line highlighting “lums—e clar—tatz” (light and brightness) clearly
demark the end of the first stanza with a clear break that restarts the modal final on “Deus”. The
extended lengths on “Deus” (God) provide the religious emphasis that was such a prevalent force
in all aspects of medieval life, including the secular works that were being written. Many of these
aspects that clearly define the movement of text and the rhythm play integral parts when a
composer approaches text that falls in the realm of the descort genre.
(Example A)
(Kewhew, 213)
Example A, an excerpt from the “The Bitter Air” by Arnaut Daniel, provides us with a
prime example of the kind of text that would be well translated for a descort styled musical
composition. Though many of Daniel’s works are lost, his approach to the language is extremely
interesting as it completely branches from the poetry at the time. A poem as fluid as the “alba” in
Example 1 paints a very clear picture that has predictable breaks in lines with little to no use of
enjambment. Daniel’s though, has very clear breaks at every few syllables. Kehew remarks this
sort of writing as “comparing a nocturne by Chopin, say, with a typical church hymn” (Kewhew,
193). As a composer, one might consider writing physical breaks in between each line as a herald
to the poem’s intent, though it can be very easy to continue the lines just as easily. The lines
would have to be very disjunct and very discordant, as the melody would have to reflect the
shaky handling of verse and meter.
The different words that are used: “bitter air, scarce, curse, deathly fearing” all can be
considered characteristics of a descort chanson, with the characteristics of being dismal and dark.
The melody can reflect this in a number of ways. Lower notes in the human voice can often
evoke a darker tone and troubadours and trouvere composers would have utilized this and
effectively placed it at pivotal points. “The bitter air/strips panalopy/ from trees” would probably
have a scathing melody that is reminiscent of this text and its harsh language. Example A
provides a composer with a many useful tools for writing a proper melody that utilizes text
painting and ranges that can affect the overall musical mood and atmosphere.
(Example 2 and Example 2-page 2 shown below) (Aubrey 107)
Aimeric de Peguilhan’s descort-styled song titled “Qui la ve end ditz” ( Whoever has
seen her) contains strong rhythmic, melodic and poetic differences from the standard troubadour
or trouveres chanson in many of the way discussed prior. (See Example 2). The song itself
describes a Lady Beatrice, a woman of such perfection that her only source of pleasure would be
in herself. The love of the song writer is unworthy of her affection and the affection given to her
would not be adequate for such a woman. The way the song is organized though, seems to make
a comic out of the situation, using witty musical sarcasm that evokes the feeling that perhaps it is
her own folly for being such a grace.
In the first two lines of the piece, the translation reads “ Whoever has seen her says of
her: if God put so many good qualities in Lady Beatrice, there is no mercy in her at all.” (Aubry
107). The separation of “bes” in line one by the modern notation of a rest, signals that the
performer may comically pause after “good” to delay the affect of “qualities” and incite a risqué
thought to how people perceive the Lady Beatrice. The pauses and breaks throughout this descort
prompt the performer to inflect active resting as a technique for accenting the thoughts on Lady
Beatrice.
The way the melody is handled in a range sense is very far-gone from the typical
chanson. The piece is syllabic, but only in that each note is given individual detail to the text.
The piece is about adorning the Lady Beatrice with praise that is unworthy of her presence, and
thus each note has equal importance. You do not see this actively done in the “alba”. Example 1
utilizes small melismas as a technique to accentuate important words or ideas within the piece,
while Example 2 strives to be a worship song where every word appeals to the love that is
unrequited (and, in the poem, unnoticed entirely). There are skips of more than just thirds. The
largest skip being a full octave (Example 2-2, third line into the fourth line). There are other
large skips include extended uses of perfects fourths, fifths and a major sixth. All of these would
be very difficult for an untrained voice singing mostly neumatic music to sing on his or her own.
The range itself extends a full 9th from middle C to fourth line D. That in itself, the simple act of
increasing the range, increases not only the difficulty of the piece for the performer who may be
untrained, but also breaks the mold for how these typical chansons are song. The “alba’s” range
(Example 1) extends barely up to the minor seventh above the D final.
Perhaps the greatest achievements by the troubadours and trouveres, apart from the great
catalogue of poetry that they have left us, is the spectacular variety of song styles and
innovations in song-writing that would echo through the better part of the early Renaissance. The
descort genre, in particular, allowed both the singer and the songwriter to push with the
boundaries of the notational devices and to allow for personal expression and inference on a text
that can really change the performance of a particular chanson.
One can see, also in the descort genre, that text begins to play a pivotal role in how
composers were thinking about their melodies. If a text would act a certain way, the troubadours
and trouveres would seize the opportunity to write a melody that would paint the text and reflect
it in a way that we see with the Renaissance writings of Josquin and Victoria. This use of text
and text painting in a secular song goes underrated as a fundamental step to raising the degree of
professionalism for the secular genre, in general. While sacred texts and music were the center
focus of musical concern in the 12 and 13th century, what the troubadours and trouveres were
accomplishing speaks to their willingness to craft a better role for music considered inferior and
unholy in most religious circles. The chanson, with a particular attention to the descort, will
evolve into the lieder written by Schubert and the chansons of Faure and the countless modern
era composers seeking to write about secular topics. The troubadour chanson is the template for
this style of writing and what the descort lays out as designs for text painting and interpretation
of text becomes the central focus of major choral works for the better part of the history of
western music.