New light on musical aspects of the troubadour revival in Spain

Abstract

The revival of the poetic art of the troubadours in eastern Spain from the latter part of the fourteenth century has been well documented. At this time, and through most of the fifteenth century, poet-courtiers at the royal courts of Aragon and Castile drew inspiration from the troubadours of the earlier centuries, many of whom had been active in the Spanish kingdoms. The historiographical tradition for this literary phenomenon begins with Gerónimo Zurita, the great chronicler of the Aragonese kings. In his Annies de la Corona de Aragón (1562–8), he discusses this renewed interest in the ‘Gay Science’ at the Aragonese royal court of Joan I (1387–96), and relates how letters came to prevail over arms at that time as the primary concern of the courtier:

Music, identity and the Inquisition in fifteenth-century Spain

“…46 This recognition of the need to study the resonances of the music, rather than trivialise it, is similarly the underlying assumption of Tess Knighton's search for and successful identification of the tunes of the troubadours which underlie some of the compositions of fifteenth-century Spain and their cultural context. 47 Romeu's extensive discussion of the transposition of secular and religious themes and melodies in the songs of the Cancionero de Palacio may be relevant even if the dates of the compositions are at times some decades later than Diego Arias's death. 48 Such features of musical sensibility did not change overnight.…”