Troubadour
A troubadour was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages. Since the word troubadour is etymologically masculine, a female equivalent is usually called a trobairitz.
The troubadour school or tradition began in the late 11th century in Occitania, but it subsequently spread to the Italian and Iberian Peninsulas. Under the influence of the troubadours, related movements sprang up throughout Europe: the Minnesang in Germany, trovadorismo in Galicia and Portugal, and that of the trouvères in northern France. Dante Alighieri in his De vulgari eloquentia defined the troubadour lyric as fictio rethorica musicaque poita: rhetorical, musical, and poetical fiction. After the "classical" period around the turn of the 13th century and a mid-century resurgence, the art of the troubadours declined in the 14th century around the time of the Black Death and since died out.
The texts of troubadour songs deal mainly with themes of chivalry and courtly love. Most were metaphysical, intellectual, and formulaic. Many were humorous or vulgar satires. Works can be grouped into three styles: the trobar leu, trobar ric, and trobar clus. Likewise there were many genres, the most popular being the canso, but sirventes and tensos were especially popular in the post-classical period.
Etymology
The English word troubadour was borrowed from the French word first recorded in 1575 in a historical context to mean "langue d'oc poet at the court in the 12th and 13th century". The first use and earliest form of troubador is trobadors, found in a 12th-century Occitan text by Cercamon.The French word itself is borrowed from the Occitan trobador. It is the oblique case of the nominative trobaire "composer", related to trobar "to compose, to discuss, to invent". Trobar may come, in turn, from the hypothetical Late Latin *tropāre "to compose, to invent a poem" by regular phonetic change. This reconstructed form is based on the Latin root tropus, meaning a trope. In turn, the Latin word derives ultimately from Greek τρόπος, meaning "turn, manner". Intervocal Latin shifted regularly to in Occitan. The Latin suffix -ātor, -ātōris explains the Occitan suffix, according to its declension and accentuation: Gallo-Romance *tropātor → Occitan trobaire and *tropātōre → Occitan trobador.
There is an alternative theory to explain the meaning of trobar as "to compose, to discuss, to invent". It has the support of some historians, specialists of literature, and musicologists to justify the troubadours' origins in Arabic Andalusian musical practices. According to them, the Arabic word ṭaraba "music" could partly be the etymon of the verb trobar. Another Arabic root had already been proposed before: ḍ–r–b "strike", by extension "play a musical instrument".
In archaic and classical troubadour poetry, the word is only used in a mocking sense, having more or less the meaning of "somebody who makes things up". Cercamon writes:
Peire d'Alvernha also begins his famous mockery of contemporary authors cantarai d'aquest trobadors, after which he proceeds to explain why none of them is worth anything. When referring to themselves seriously, troubadours almost invariably use the word chantaire.
Origins
The early study of the troubadours focused intensely on their origins. No academic consensus was ever achieved in the area. Today, one can distinguish at least eleven competing theories :Arabic
The sixteenth century Italian historian Giammaria Barbieri was perhaps the first to suggest Arabian influences on the music of the troubadours. Later scholars like J.B. Trend have asserted that the poetry of troubadours is connected to Arabic poetry written in the Iberian Peninsula, while others have attempted to find direct evidence of this influence. In examining the works of William IX of Aquitaine, Évariste Lévi-Provençal and other scholars found three lines that they believed were in some form of Arabic, indicating a potential Andalusian origin for his works. The scholars attempted to translate the lines in question, though the medievalist Istvan Frank contended that the lines were not Arabic at all, but instead the result of the rewriting of the original by a later scribe.Scholars like Ramón Menéndez Pidal stated that the troubadour tradition was created by William, who had been influenced by Moorish music and poetry while fighting with the Reconquista. However, George T. Beech states that there is only one documented battle that William fought in the Iberian Peninsula, and it occurred towards the end of his life. Beech adds that while the sources of William's inspirations are uncertain, he and his father did have individuals within their extended family with Iberian origins, and he may have been friendly with some Europeans who could speak the Arabic language. Regardless of William's personal involvement in the tradition's creation, Magda Bogin states that Arab poetry was likely one of several influences on European "courtly love poetry", citing Ibn Hazm's "The Ring of the Dove" as an example of a similar Arab tradition.
Methods of transmission from Arab Iberia to the rest of Europe did exist, such as the Toledo School of Translators, though it only began translating major romances from Arabic into Latin in the second half of the thirteenth century, with objectionable sexual content removed in deference to the Catholic Church.
Bernardine-Marianist
According to the Bernardine-Marianist theory, it was the theology espoused by Bernard of Clairvaux and the increasingly important Mariology that most strongly influenced the development of the troubadour genre. Specifically, the emphasis on religious and spiritual love, disinterestedness, mysticism, and devotion to Mary explained "courtly love". The emphasis of the reforming Robert of Arbrissel on "matronage" to achieve his ends can explain the troubadour attitude towards women.Chronologically, however, this hypothesis is hard to sustain, as the forces believed to have given rise to the phenomenon arrived later than it, but the influence of Bernardine and Marian theology can be retained without the origins theory. This theory was advanced early by Eduard Wechssler and further by Dmitri Scheludko and Guido Errante. Mario Casella and Leo Spitzer have added "Augustinian" influence to it.