The Troubadour did not perform his songs
himself, but employed others called
Jongleurs
in Provençal,
Ménéstrel
in French, and Minstrel in English.
At that time the term
rondeau,
rondellus,
ronde
or
rota
was also applied to the dance song, and the
ballata
also belonged to this classification. Wandering players carried
these dance-songs from village to village. from country to
country, and from the nobility to the people. Thus it is being
told that the troubadour Raimon de Mirval helped his
jongleur
Bayonne with a new dancesong when the latter found himself in
need.
The
jongleurs
and
ménéstrels
would also get their listeners to dance by playing on such
instruments as the hand organ, fiedel, fife, or shawm. These
instrumental compositions were called a
danse
or
ductia
or, when they were more complicated,
estampie
(French),
estampid
a(Provençal) or
stantipes
(Latin). However, the ease with which instrumental dances and
vocal dances could go together is shown by the charming little
incident which took place at the castle of the Duke of
Montferrat. Here, two French
jongleurs
were delighting everyone by playing a new
estampida
on their fifes. The only one to be heavyhearted was the
troubadour
Raimbaut de
Vaqueiras
, secret lover of the beautiful Beatrice, sister of the duke.
When Beatrice requested Raimbaut to sing a song and become
cheerful once more, he quickly took up the melody of the
estampida
which the players had just performed to the words of his song
Kalenda maya, ni fuehls de faya.
Its direct origin from the folk-dance immortalized it as one of
the most graceful dance songs of its period.
A Partial Discography of
Music of the Minstrels
|
The Research Periods