Trouvères

The Trouvères, like the Troubadours, were poet/musicians who lived in Europe during the Middle Ages. While the Troubadours were originally from the southern part of France, the Trouvères came from northern France.

Langue d'oïl was the name of the language that the Trouvères spoke. The word for yes in that language was oïl.

Trouvère Song Genres

The Trouvères used many of the same song forms as the Troubadours, although they had different names in Langue d'oïl.

For example, the Troubadour's canso, or love song, was known as a chanson by the Trouvères, and the debate in the form of a song that the Troubadours knew as a tenso was called a tenson by the Trouvères

The lay, or lai, was a type of song that was sometimes sang by Troubadours, but much more common among Trouvères in the north.

A lay was a long lyric poem. All of its stanzas had different forms. Therefore, the music for each stanza was different.

Famous Trouvères

King Richard I of England, also known as Richard Lionheart, was highly regarded as a Trouvère.

When Richard was returning from the Third Crusade, he was captured by Austria's Duke Leopold and imprisoned for two years. While he was in prison, Richard wrote the song Ja nuns nons pris. In this song, which is addressed to his half sister, Marie de Champagne, he complains that nobody has paid his ransom.

Blondel de Nesle was a Trouvère who is believed to have been a friend of Richard I. A legend says that when Richard was imprisoned, Blondel traveled to many different castles trying to find him. At each castle, Blondel sang the first verse of a song that only the two friends knew. When he arrived at the castle where Richard was imprisoned, Richard replied by singing the second verse.

Nobody knows the exact identity of Blondel. He may have been Jean I of Nesle, who participated in the Third Crusade with Richard, or Jean I's son, Jean II.

Another king who was a Trouvère was Thibault IV (or Theobald I), King of Navarre and Count of Champagne.

He is believed to have been the most prolific of the Trouvères.

Thibault is thought to have been in love with Blanche de Castile, the wife of France's King Louis VIII. Many of his songs are thought to have been addressed to her.

Gace Brulé was a Trouvère who  performed in the Court of Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany. After the Count's death, he wrote for many other nobles, including the Duke's half-sister, Marie de Champagne.

Many of Gace's songs were about Courtly Love.

In Je ne puis pas si loing fair, Gace expresses his sadness at being rejected by a lady after she has revealed his love for him.

Colin Muset sang for the nobility of Champagne. His songs revealed details about his life as a Trouvère. In Sire cuens, j'ai viele, for example, he complains that he is not being paid enough.

Adam de la Halle, also called Adam le Bossu, was one of the first composers to provide a complete manuscript of his works.

He was a member of the middle classes.

Adam de la Halle's most famous work is Jeu de Robin et Marion, which he wrote for Charles I of Naples. It is a comedy based on the Pastourelle genre. In this work, Marion is the shepherdess and Robin is the knight who is her lover. Jeu de Robin and Marion contained songs as well as spoken parts and resembled a comic opera.