Memorializing and Perverting Troubadour Lyric and Performance

In the Fourteenth Century

This paper focuses on a single aspect of the attempt to preserve the tradition of the troubadours in the south of France and beyond.  How did troubadours and joglars perform lyric before the Albigensian Crusade?  What happens to a performance style when contexts change? What did the fourteenth-century fans of troubadour lyric expect of a lyrical performance?  What would account for the discrepancies that exist? 

The troubadour lyrics themselves do offer occasional images of performance.  These images along with those of the joglar or troubadour as represented by Raimon Vidal in his novas, Guiraut Riquier in his Supplicatio, contrast dramatically with the account of the poetic games in Barcelona provided in the Proemio by Enrique de Villena.  This paper will examine the performance style suggested by the various sources on the poetic games, in particular the Proemio.