When Silence Plays Vielle: Metaperformance Dimensions of the Roman de Silence

Linda Marie Zaerr

Boise State University

When the two minstrels in the Roman de Silence first appear, one “vielles” a Breton lai, and the other “harps” the story of Gueron, both performing musical settings of narratives generically similar to the Roman de Silence.  The protagonist becomes a minstrel himself and learns both harp and vielle.  Such a text invites performance, and performance transforms the text.

The roman itself offers two contexts for music performance.  Young Silence immediately recognizes music as a bridge between the worlds of men and women, making up for deficiencies in either.  In the world of men, Silence can gain respect even if he is not good at chivalry, and in the world of women, she will have her harp and vielle to make up for ineptitude in needlework.

Minstrel performance startlingly illuminates metaperformance dimensions of the story.  In live performance, the professional minstrels serve as self-reflexive whimsical mockery, bringing out pragmatic concerns of musicians, and engaging in ludicrous dialogue.  Later, the profession is criticized from within when the minstrels prove to be viciously envious of competitors.  Empowerment, so much an issue in this text, emerges in very different terms here, where audiences universally prefer Silence, with his lack of solid technique, to the music of the most famous minstrels.  Only in performance is it clear that minstrels, like women, have been marginalized.

In performance, the controversy over Silence’s status as a heroine takes on new ramifications.  The very nature of performance is an appropriate symbol of Silence herself.  Narrative performance becomes an illusion of action, of empowerment, ultimately dissolved when the performance ends.  He seems to be producing music, but she is Silence.

To demonstrate these metaperformance dimensions, I will perform a brief passage from the text with vielle.