THE CANSOS OF RAIMON DE MIRAVAL Medieval Academy Books, No. 93 ^ •ft w *m^^^^^*^^^^&mmmm • • •, Raimon de Miraval Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, MS fr. 12473, fol. 52v Reproduced by permission THE CANSOS OF RAIMON DE MIRAVAL A Study of Poems and Melodies Margaret Louise Switten THE MEDIEVAL ACADEMY OF AMERICA Cambridge, Massachusetts 1985 Copyright © 1985 By The Medieval Academy of America Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 80-82035 ISBN 0-910956-82-0 Printed in the United States of America For HNS and GF Contents List of Illustrations ix Acknowledgments xi Table of Concordance xiii Introduction 1 PART ONE 1. Melody 15 2. Versification 43 3. Syntax 53 4. Meaning 65 5. The Line of Verse 89 6. The Stanza 97 7. The Song 121 PART TWO List of Manuscripts 143 The Cansos 144 Bibliography 233 Index to the Cansos 239 General Index 243 vu Illustrations Raimon de Miraval frontispiece A penas (MS R) facing p. 1 A penas (MS G) facing p. 15 Un sonet, Chans quan, Anc non, and Amors facing p. 143 IX Acknowledgments RESEARCH AND WRITING carried on over a number of years incur many debts of gratitude. It is here my pleasant duty to express appreciation for generous help received. A Grant in Aid of Research from the American Philosophical Society and subsequently a Fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies permitted gathering materials and preparing early drafts of the work. To Mount Holyoke College and to President Emeritus David B. Truman go my thanks for leaves enabling me to complete the book. Final preparation of the manuscript was accomplished with a Mount Holyoke College Faculty Grant and the diligent typing of Claire Benoit, Secretary of the Mount Holyoke College French Department. I am grateful for the concordance of Miraval's works prepared by Professor F. R. P. Akehurst and the Computer Center of the University of Minnesota, with the help of programmer Richard L. Hotchkiss. To the Mount Holyoke College Library Staff, to Anne C. Edmonds, Librarian, and to Nancy M. Devine, Associate Librarian, go my thanks for funds to acquire Old Provencal materials and for patient and expert discovery of many an obscure reference. Several colleagues read the manuscript in whole or in part, graciously permitting me to benefit from their advice: Professor Frank M. Chambers, University of Arizona; Professor Ruth J. Dean, Mount Holyoke College and the University of Pennsylvania; Professor Anthony E. Farnham, Mount Holyoke College; Professor Eleanor Rosenberg, Barnard College; Professor Marie-Odile Sweetser, University of Illinois at Chicago. In the early stages of my research, the late Leslie Topsfield of St. Catherine's College, Cambridge University, kindly furnished portions of his then unpublished work on Miraval. Finally, I wish to thank Luke Wenger, Executive Director of the Medieval Academy, for much appreciated editorial expertise. While here acknowledging these many debts of gratitude, I yet assume full responsibility for errors and infelicities remaining in the book. xt Table of Concordance Edition Topsneld Pillet-Carstens Short Title Page 1 XXXV 406:2 Aissi cum es genser pascors Aissi 144 2 VI 7 A penas sai don m'apreing A penas 148 3 XXVII 8 Er ab la forssa dels freis Erab 152 4 XII 9 Era m'agr'ops q'ieu m'aizis Era 156 5 XXXVII 12 Bel m'es q'ieu chant e coindei Bel m'es 160 6 XI 13 Be m'agrada-1 bels temps d'estiu Be m'agrada 164 7 VII 14 Ben aia-1 cortes essiens Ben cortes 168 8 XXXIII 15 Ben aia-1 messagiers Ben messagiers 174 9 XXVIII 18 Cel cui jois taing ni chantar sap Cel cui jois 178 10 XXXII 20 Cel que no vol auzir chanssos Cel que no 182 11 VIII 21 Chansoneta farai, Vencut Chansoneta 186 12 XXII 22 Chans, quan non es qui l'entenda Chans quan 190 13 XXXVI 23 Contr'amor vau durs et enbroncs Contr'amor 194 14 XXIV 24 D'amor es totz mos cossiriers D'amor 198 15 XXVI 28 Entre dos voters sui pensius Entre dos 202 16 XXV 31 Lone temps ai avutz conseriers Lone temps 206 17 IV 36 Res contr'amor non es guirens Res 210 18 II 39 Si-m fos de mon chantar parven Si-m fos 214 19 XVII 40 Si tot s'es ma domn'esquiva Si tot 218 20 XXIII 42 Tals vai mon chan enqueren Tals vai 222 21 XIII 44 Tot quan fatz de be ni die Tot quan 226 22 XXXIV 47 Un sonet m'es belh qu'espanda Un sonet 230 Cansos without Melodies XVIII 406:4 Amors me fai chantar et esbaudir Amors XXX 5 Anc non attendiei de chantar Anc non XXXI 6 Anc trobars clu's ni braus Anc trobars XX 15a Ben sai que per aventura Ben sai XVI 19 Cel qui de chantar s'entremet Cel qui de IX 25 Dels quatre mestiers valens Dels quatre V 26 De trobar ai tot saber De trobar XV 27 Enquer non a guaire Enquer III 33 Puois de mon chantar disetz Puois de XXI 34 Pueis onguan no-m vale estius Pueis onguan I 35 Qui bona chansso cossira Qui bona X 37 S'a dreg fos chantars grazitz S'a dreg XIV 38 S'ieu en chantar soven S'ieu en XXIX 41 Tal chansoneta faray Tal chansoneta XIX 46 Tuich cill que vant demandan Tuich cill xm tunc-fd'19 «»« hale mtinuMh on .inn if- xn\ cone $ guione- .r^ - . ^, (•.gmZUn aiir a> quim neflctib"* n . 4b Cn brmi noyntcfe i» ntilh mi A penas (MS R) Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, MS fr. 22543, fol. 87r Reproduced by permission Introduction THE TROUBADOURS WHO flourished in southern France in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries are recognized as the first distinct group of poet-composers in a Romance tongue. Their styles and structures exerted a profound influence on European culture, enriching the songs of the northern French trouveres and spreading also to Italy, to the Iberian peninsula, and to Germany. Commentators agree that the cansos created by the troubadours are best appreciated as a union of poetry and music. Yet studies of their art have customarily treated words and melodies separately. Moreover, while the poetry has been examined in an abundant and ever-growing body of literature, the melodies have rarely been accorded sufficient emphasis. For this reason, despite considerable scholarly discussion of the troubadour canso, the nature of the union of poetry and music as the troubadours practiced it has not been thoroughly explored. To be sure, relations between texts and melodies have elicited a number of studies, among them the excellent work by Hendrik van der Werf, The Chansons of the Troubadours and Trouveres: A Study of the Melodies and Their Relation to the Poems (Utrecht, 1972). For the most part, however, these studies have proceeded from a general point of view or placed troubadours and trouveres together as composers of one type of monophonic song. It has seemed to me that the art of the troubadours is more judiciously appraised when our understanding grows out of analyses of specific poets. Close examination of a single author brings into focus the richness of invention for which the troubadours are celebrated and which is too easily slighted by a general approach. The troubadours may have composed within a conventional framework, but they were not all conventional artists; on the contrary, their individual variations in style and structure are often as distinct as their differences in content and attitude. The full measure of the troubadours' originality in the domain of correspondences between poems and melodies is at present difficult to appreciate because hardly any studies of single poets encompassing both poetry and music are available.1 My study of the cansos of Raimon de Miraval is intended to help fill this gap in troubadour scholarship. Its aim is both to evaluate the art of one troubadour from a fresh point of view and to contribute to our knowledge and understanding of the important area of relationships between poetry and music in troubadour song. The choice of Miraval was dictated by two considerations: his songs have attracted less scholarly attention than many others, even though his output is substantial; and the 1 The most recent and only book-length study is Gisela Schemer-Van Ortmerssen's Die Text- Melodiestruktur in den liedern des Bemart de Ventadorn (Munster, 1973). In his two articles on individual poets, Ugo Sesini leans heavily toward the music: "Folchetto da Marsiglia, poeta e musicista," Convivium 10 (1938), 75-84, and "Peire Vidal e la sua opera musicale," Rassegna musicale 16 (1943), 25-33, 65-95. 1 2 Raitnon de Miraval number of his songs for which we have music is greater than for any other troubadour except Guiraut Riquier.2 Although little treated by modern scholars, Miraval enjoyed in his own day a fine reputation as a poet skilled in the art of verse and in the art of love. He flourished between 1185 and 1213, a period corresponding to the Golden Age of Old Provencal poetry. According to his vida, he was a poor knight, owning only the fourth part of an unimportant castle near Carcassonne. As he acquired fame through his songs, he was received at many courts in southern France and Spain, most notably at the court of Raimon VI of Toulouse. Several noble ladies are referred to in the songs, some identifiable, some not. The most important of these are Mais d'amic, Mantel, and Azalais de Boissezon.3 Miraval's works include thirty-seven cansos, five sirventes, one exchange of coblas, and one partimen* Twenty-two of Miraval's thirty-seven cansos have come down to us with melodies.