The Natural World of Troubadour Song

Nature and the natural world were of central importance to the troubadours. Their songs feature flora, fauna, metals and minerals, and the seasons, and closely link the actions of loving and singing to springtime. The Natural World of Troubadour Song offers a unique approach to the study of nature in troubadour song by reading the corpus in the context of conceptions of the natural world circulating in the twelfth century, and using this analytic frame to employ new methods for the analysis of medieval monophonic song.

The book analyses the use of craft methods and terminologies, descriptions of animal voices and songs, and discussions of the physics of sound, placing songs by Jaufre Rudel, Marcabru, Raimon de Miraval, Peire Vidal, Arnaut Daniel, Peirol, and others in dialogue with artisan craft treatises, works of natural philosophy, and the parapoetic texts of the troubadour corpus to better understand how the troubadours conceived of their project of music-making. The use of specific language and concepts from these areas of the natural world sheds light on how the troubadours defined the idea of “song,” as well as demonstrating distinct effects on musical composition and sonic output.