Troubadour

Troubadour refers to a medieval lyric poet-musician who composed and often performed in Occitan in the Occitan-speaking regions of southern France during roughly the 11th to 13th centuries. The term derives from trobar, meaning to compose or to find a tune. Troubadours wrote in Occitan and produced a body of lyric poetry that celebrated courtly love, chivalry, politics, and personal valor. They flourished at the courts of counts and dukes, especially in Aquitaine, Poitou, Provence, and Languedoc, where patronage supported their work.

The troubadour repertoire included several fixed genres. The canso was the principal love song, while the sirventes addressed political or moral topics. The tensos were poetic debates, and the alba dealt with parting at dawn. Instrumental accompaniment was common, with performers often playing the vielle, lute, citole, or rebec, and the poems were circulated in manuscript songbooks known as chansonniers. The movement included female poets known as trobairitz, who produced lyric works in a comparable tradition.

Influence and legacy extend beyond Occitania. The troubadours helped shape vernacular lyric poetry and had a lasting impact on medieval European literature, including the later northern French trouvères. Their language, themes of courtly love, and performative culture influenced poets and composers for generations. The tradition declined in the 13th and 14th centuries due to political turmoil, changing patronage, and evolving musical styles, but its literary and cultural influence persisted in the broader medieval European imagination.