trouvères

Trouvères were medieval poet-musicians of northern France who composed and performed lyric poetry in Old French, mainly during the 12th and 13th centuries. They operated in aristocratic courts, particularly in the Île-de-France region and northern towns, and are regarded as the northern counterpart to the Occitan troubadours of the south.

Their songs, usually focused on themes of courtly love, chivalry, and political life, were written in a set of fixed poetic forms known as forms fixes. The principal forms associated with the trouvères include the chanson, the ballade, the rondeau, and the virelai. Most of the surviving music from this tradition is monophonic, though some later pieces and manuscripts show beginnings of polyphonic treatment. Performances were often solo, sometimes with accompanying instruments, and were circulated in manuscript songbooks called chansonniers.

The trouvères and their music played a significant role in the development of French secular lyric poetry and language. Their work helped shape the language of French literary expression and influenced later medieval poets and composers. The tradition is studied through a corpus of lyric poetry and notated songs preserved in northern manuscript collections, which provide insight into courtly culture and urban centers of northern France.

See also: Troubadours, Old French literature, forms of medieval music.