The Myth of the Medieval Minstrel: An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Performers and the Chansonnier Repertory

"The Myth of the Medieval Minstrel: An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Performers and the Chansonnier Repertory." The Old French trouvère song repertory, comprising about 2,400 lyrics with 1,500 extant melodies, originated ca. 1180-ca. 1250 and is mainly preserved in anthologies known as chansonniers copied between about 1250 and 1320: The editing and evaluation of these manuscripts, chiefly conducted by philologists and literary scholars, has generated copious discussions concerning lyric genres, intertextua1ities, and attribution. Although some recent editions include melodies, relatively little work has been done on reconstructing the performing traditions appropriate to this material, although these songs are among the oldest vernacular songs to have survived in written form in western Europe and are surely important in the context of cultural history. This article looks at the performers of the repertory, adducing evidence from a wide range of contemporary vernacular-literary descriptions of performances, nuances some current arguments on this basis, and suggests that the currently blurred picture derived from these eclectic testimonies could be improved when supplemented by more conventional historical evidence, including administrative records and relevant iconography.