Traubadours, Trobartiz, Trouveres, Minisingers and Meistersingers by SIN

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

I've been reading a book 'Modern Sex Magick' by Donald Michael Kraig, and there's a section on the sex rites of early Judaism.  It covers the spread of Kabbalah and Sex Magic through the Trabadours, Trabartiz, Trouveres, Minsingers and Meistersingers (wandering bards) of Western Europe.  These musicians would roam all over Western Europe (12th & 13th Centuries) spreading ideas with their music.  The practice is said to have died out around the 14th century, with the plague of the 'Black Death'. Though, there is a more modern revival of the practice.

The texts of the songs dealt mainly in love, courtship, but they also encompassed metaphysical, intellectual and occult philosophies.  Many of which, were considered vulgar satires. The songs are broken down into 3 types: Works can be grouped into three styles: the trobar leu (light), trobar ric (rich), and trobar clus (closed).  And genres: the most popular being the canso, but sirventes and tensos.

The tensos was the most popular in Classical era Italy by the female Trabaritz.

I did a search for origins, and found the wiki page which has all the theories, there's no consensus on their origins.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troubadour


"No academic consensus was ever achieved in the area. Today, one can distinguish at least eleven competing theories (the adjectives used below are a blend from the Grove Dictionary of Music and Roger Boase's The Origins and Meaning of Courtly Love)"

The link provides a full list of the genres.  As well as images of early manuscripts/grammars. 

Linky loo for an in depth look at the poetry:

http://www.arabworldbooks.com/Literature/troubadour_poetry.htm

 

 

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

A Chanter M'er (I must sing of what I do not want), a medieval melody by Beatriz, Comtessa de Dia (The Countess of Dia) written in about 1180. Beatriz was a female troubadour (called a troubaritz) who lived in the South of France.

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

A Meistersinger (German for "master-singer") was a German lyric poet of the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, who carried on and developed the traditions of the medieval Minnesingers.

These singers, who mostly belonged to the artisan and trading classes of the German towns, regarded as their masters and the founders of their guild twelve poets of the Middle High German period, including Wolfram von Eschenbach, Konrad von Würzburg, Reinmar von Zweter, and Heinrich Frauenlob. Frauenlob is said to have established the earliest Meistersinger school at Mainz, early in the 14th century.

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

by Poisoned Spoon
The trobar leu (light), trobar ric (rich), and trobar clus (closed) sound very similar to Flamenco divisions of Cante Jondo (serious/deep), Cante Intermedio (medium), Cante Chico (light). They also sound very much like the divisions of music found in Rebetika whose names I cannot remember off the top of my head. The skomorokh of Russia were the troubadors of their region and they persisted in much the same function until the 1700s. Naturally these were related to the Commedia dell'Arte traditions of Italy and many others.

Oral traditions all have a number of similarities shared between them. Art seems to always be a liberator.

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]