The Melody Web what each genre heard, and what it passed on

heard passed on Click or tap a node to recenter. Use a connecting line, or Influence, for the story.

Heard

Troubadour genre · 1100–1300

Trouvère keeps the troubadour poet-composer lyric job — strophic love song, contrafacture, court patronage — and writes it in langue d’oïl.

Influence

Trouvère

genre · 1150–1300

Also called trouveres, langue d'oïl courtly song

Vernacular courtly song of langue d’oïl: trouvères of northern France, Champagne, and related courts, singing chanson, jeu-parti, and refrain forms in the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries (Thibaut de Champagne, Blondel, Adam de la Halle). It is the named sibling of Occitan Troubadour, not an alias of it and not a child of it. It already gives Ars nova the formes-fixes job, Medieval dance the carole book, and Ars antiqua French-texted motet voices. Versus leftover as a clerical Latin parallel, not a documented parent. Minnesang leftover as a German hop from Troubadour, not from this node. It is not a style of Medieval polyphony.

Listen

  1. Je muir, je muir d'amourete Adam de la Halle (1270s) YouTube
  2. Robins m'aime Adam de la Halle (1280s) YouTube
  3. Chanson (Thibaut de Champagne) Thibaut de Champagne (1230s) YouTube
  4. A vous, amant, plus k'a nule autre gent Blondel de Nesle (late 12th century)
  5. Chanterai por mon corage Guiot de Dijon (early 13th century) YouTube

Passed on

Ars antiqua style · 1200–1320

The thirteenth-century motet takes trouvère song and refrain as French-texted upper voices over a chant tenor (Adam’s motets as the named hinge).

Influence
Ars nova style · 1310–1380

Ars nova’s formes fixes keep the northern vernacular courtly-song job — strophic love lyric, refrain forms, a poet-composer — and write it in mensural polyphony.

Influence
Medieval dance practice · 1100–1450

Medieval dance takes trouvère dance-song and refrain forms (rondeau, virelai-like caroles, Adam’s stage dances) as northern French sung-step repertory beside the Occitan hop from…

Influence

Troubadour → Trouvère

form and structuremelodyfunction and contextstrength: highscholarly consensus1150–1250oralpatronagenotation

Mechanism

Trouvère keeps the troubadour poet-composer lyric job — strophic love song, contrafacture, court patronage — and writes it in langue d’oïl. Strength high. Versus remains a clerical parallel, not a parent.

Evidence

Twelfth-century northern courts hearing Occitan song; Hoppin and Aubrey on the sibling school.

Debate

Whether trouvère is only a language shift. The forms and the patronage job transfer; Minnesang and the Cantigas stay later siblings if collected.

Mediators

community: Northern French courts

Trouvère → Ars antiqua

melodyform and structurestrength: mediumscholarly consensus1250–1290notationpedagogypatronage

Mechanism

The thirteenth-century motet takes trouvère song and refrain as French-texted upper voices over a chant tenor (Adam’s motets as the named hinge). Strength medium. trouvere ars nova is the later formes-fixes hop; this edge is the motet job. Conductus leftover as a Latin-texted sibling job on the Ars antiqua node.

Evidence

Montpellier motets with oïl lyrics; Adam de la Halle motets; Hoppin and Grove on vernacular motet texts.

Debate

Whether every French motet voice is already trouvère song. The hop is the courtly-song repertory entering measured polyphony, not a claim that motet is trouvère.

Mediators

artist: Adam de la Halle

Trouvère → Ars nova

form and structuremelodyfunction and contextstrength: mediumscholarly consensus1300–1350oralnotationpatronage

Mechanism

Ars nova’s formes fixes keep the northern vernacular courtly-song job — strophic love lyric, refrain forms, a poet-composer — and write it in mensural polyphony. Strength medium. Occitan Troubadour is the older sibling school (troubadour ars nova); this hop is the oïl path that Machaut actually speaks.

Evidence

Continuity of ballade/rondeau/virelai as French lyric types; Machaut as poet-composer in the trouvère line; Hoppin and Grove on the vernacular-to-Ars-nova succession.

Debate

How much is trouvère versus a general courtly-song inheritance. Keep both this edge and troubadour ars nova: Occitan prestige and oïl language are different gifts.

Mediators

artist: Guillaume de Machaut

Trouvère → Medieval dance

melodyform and structurefunction and contextstrength: mediumscholarly consensus1200–1300oralnotationdance

Mechanism

Medieval dance takes trouvère dance-song and refrain forms (rondeau, virelai-like caroles, Adam’s stage dances) as northern French sung-step repertory beside the Occitan hop from Troubadour. Strength medium. trouvere ars nova is the motet-tenor hop; this edge is the social-dance job. High canso leftover on the troubadour/trouvère lyric nodes.

Evidence

Adam de la Halle’s dance pieces; northern refrain-songs used as caroles; Aubrey, Hoppin, and Grove.

Debate

Whether this duplicates the troubadour hop. Troubadour supplies Occitan dance-song (Kalenda maya); trouvère supplies the langue d’oïl refrain and carole book.

Mediators

artist: Adam de la Halle