The Cambridge companion to French music

Abstract

Music for much of the Middle Ages is mostly treated as a trans-national repertoire, except in the area of vernacular song. Nevertheless, many of the most important documented developments in medieval music took place in what is now France. Certainly, if the concept of 'France' existed at all for most of the Middle Ages, it did not encompass anything like the modern hexagone: French kings (or, more properly, 'kings of the French') usually did not directly control all the territories they nominally ruled, and southern territories in particular sought to maintain their political and cultural distinctiveness. Still, it can be useful to consider medieval music in relation to other developments in French culture. From the intersections of chant and politics in the Carolingian era, to the flowerings of music and Gothic architecture, to the growth of vernacular song in the context of courtly society, music participated in broader intellectual and institutional conversations. While those conversations did not generally have truly national goals, they took place within what is now France, among people who often considered themselves to be, on some level, French.I am grateful to William Chester Jordan and Daniel DiCenso for comments that kept me from several inaccuracies in areas outside my area of specialisation. The members of my research group here at Loyola, as usual, forced me to clarify my thoughts. All remaining errors are my own.