TROUBADOURS & TROBAIRITZES, OCCITAN LYRIC POETRY

Today, The Grandma has been reading about the troubadours, the composers and performers of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages.

A troubadour was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). 

Since the word troubadour is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour 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 and around the time of the Black Death (1348) it 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 (light), trobar ric (rich), and trobar clus (closed). Likewise there were many genres, the most popular being the canso, but sirventes and tensos were especially popular in the post-classical period.

More information: Midi-France

The English word troubadour was borrowed from the French word first recorded in 1575 in an 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 (trópos), meaning turn, manner. Intervocal Latin shifted regularly to in Occitan (cf. Latin sapere → Occitan saber, French savoir, to know). The Latin suffix -ātor, -ātōris explains the Occitan suffix, according to its declension and accentuation: Gallo-Romance *tropātor → Occitan trobaire (subject case) and *tropātōre → Occitan trobador (oblique case).

The 450 or so troubadours known to historians came from a variety of backgrounds. They made their living in a variety of ways, lived, and travelled in many different places, and were actors in many types of social context. 

The troubadours were not wandering entertainers. Typically, they stayed in one place for a lengthy period of time under the patronage of a wealthy nobleman or woman. Many did travel extensively, however, sojourning at one court and then another.

More information: TrobEu

The Consistori de la Gaya Sciència de Barcelona, Academy of the Gay Science of Barcelona, was a literary academy founded in Barcelona by Joan I El Caçador, John the Hunter, King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona, in 1393 in imitation of the Consistori del Gay Saber founded in Toulouse in 1323.

The poetry produced by and for the Consistori was heavily influenced by the troubadours.

The Consistori's chief purpose was to promote correct styles and themes and discourage vices (vicis) by awarding prizes in competition to poets who adhered to the rules of poetic composition.

The names of few poets laureate have come down to us and despite some excellent descriptions of the Consistori's activities, associated persons and poems are obscure.

At Pentecost, 31 May 1338, a contest was held at Lleida before Pere El Cerimoniós, Peter the Ceremonious, Joan's predecessor, at which those poems adjudged the best were given awards. A panel of judges was designated in advance by the king. It was to pass judgement super arte dictandi et faciendi pulcra carmina sive cantars, on the art of speaking and composing beautiful songs, that is, cantars.

The winning poets received a rosa d'or (golden rose) and piece of expensive golden satin called diasprell. With its floral prize, the 1338 contest emulated the Jocs Florals (floral games) already being held in Toulouse and to be held eventually in Barcelona as well.

Much about this event, however, remains unknown: the language of composition was vernacular (cantars), but which vernacular is uncertain (Occitan or Catalan), and the names of the poets or any portions of their work have not survived.

More information: British Library

Les poèmes racontent des libertés, des fratries unies;
ils dessinent des pays fidèles comme aucun homme,
qui mêlent l'haleine tiède des arbres
à la peau diaphane des rivières, des landes,
des dunes et des marais.
Mon pays.
Les troubadours me le rendent à chaque fois.

The poems tell of freedoms, of united siblings;
they draw countries faithful like no man,
which mingle the warm breath of the trees with
the diaphanous skin of the rivers, the wastelands,
the dunes and the marshes.
My country.
The troubadours give it back to me every time.

Clara Dupont-Monod

J. E. FREDERIC MISTRAL, ''LOU TRESOR DÓU FELIBRIGE'

Frederic Mistral

Today, The Grandma has received the visit of one of her closest friends, Jordi Santanyí. Jordi is a writer and he loves Literature. He spends lots of hours talking with The Grandma about authors and their works. They have been talking about Frederic Mistral, the Occitan writer and lexicographer.

The Grandma loves Occitan culture and it is a great pleasure and honour to talk about Frederic Mistral, one of her favourite writers who received the 1904 Nobel Prize in Literature and who was born on a day like today in 1830. Jordi and The Grandma think that the best way to pay homage to Frederic Mistral is talking about his life and his excellent works, especially his poems.

Frederic Mistral, in Occitan Josèp Estève Frederic Mistral (8 September 1830-25 March 1914) was an Occitan writer and lexicographer of the Provençal form of the language.

Mistral received the 1904 Nobel Prize in Literature in recognition of the fresh originality and true inspiration of his poetic production, which faithfully reflects the natural scenery and native spirit of his people, and, in addition, his significant work as a Provençal philologist. He was a founding member of the Félibrige and a member of l'Académie de Marseille.

His name in his native language was Frederi Mistral (Mistrau) according to the Mistralian orthography or Frederic Mistral or Mistrau according to the classical orthography.

More information: Gutenberg

Mistral's fame was owing in part to Alphonse de Lamartine who sang his praises in the 40th edition of his periodical Cours familier de littérature, following the publication of Mistral's long poem Mirèio. Alphonse Daudet, with whom he maintained a long friendship, eulogized him in Poet Mistral, one of the stories in his collection Lettres de mon moulin.

Mistral was born in Maillane in the Bouches-du-Rhône département. His parents were wealthy landed farmers. His father, François Mistral, was from Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. His mother was Adelaide Poulinet. As early as 1471, his paternal ancestor, Mermet Mistral, lived in Maillane. By 1588, the Mistral family lived in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence.

Mistral was given the name Frederi in memory of a poor small fellow who, at the time when my parents were courting, sweetly ran their errands of love, and who died shortly afterward of sunstroke.

Frederic Mistral

Mistral did not begin school until he was about nine years, and quickly began to play truant, leading his parents to send him to a boarding school in Saint-Michel-de-Frigolet, run by a Monsieur Donnat.

After receiving his bachelor's degree in Nîmes, Mistral studied law in Aix-en-Provence from 1848 to 1851. He became a champion for the independence of Provence, and in particular for restoring the first literary language of civilized Europe, Provençal. He had studied the history of Provence during his time in Aix-en-Provence.

Emancipated by his father, Mistral resolved: to raise, revive in Provence the feeling of race...; to move this rebirth by the restoration of the natural and historical language of the country...; to restore the fashion to Provence by the breath and flame of divine poetry. For Mistral, the word race designates people linked by language, rooted in a country and in a story.

For his lifelong efforts in restoring the language of Provence, Frederic Mistral was one of the recipients of the 1904 Nobel Prize for Literature after having been nominated by two professors from the Swedish Uppsala University. The other winner that year, José Echegaray, was honored for his Spanish dramas. They shared the prize money equally.

Mistral devoted his half to the creation of the Museum at Arles, known locally as Museon Arlaten. The museum is considered to be the most important collection of Provençal folk art, displaying furniture, costumes, ceramics, tools and farming implements. In addition, Mistral was awarded the Légion d'honneur. This was a most unusual occurrence since it is usually only awarded for notable achievement on a national level whereas Mistral was uniquely Provençal in his work and achievement.

More information: Languedoc, France

In 1876, Mistral married a Burgundian woman, Marie-Louise Rivière (1857-1943) in Dijon Cathedral. They had no children. The poet died on 25 March 1914 in Maillane, the same village where he was born.

Mistral joined forces with one of his teachers, Joseph Roumanille, and five other Provençal poets and on 21 May 1854, they founded Félibrige, a literary and cultural association, which made it possible to promote the Occitan language. Placed under the patronage of Saint Estelle, the movement also welcomed Catalan poets, driven out by Isabelle II.

The seven founders of the organization were to use their Provençal names: Jóusè Roumaniho, Frederi Mistral, Teodor Aubanel, Ansèume Matiéu, Jan Brunet, Anfos Tavan and Paul Giera. Félibrige exists to this day, one of the few remaining cultural organizations in 32 departments of the Langue d'Oc.

Frederic Mistral

Mistral strove to rehabilitate the language of Provence, while carrying it to the highest summits of epic poetry.

He redefined the language in its purest form by creating a dictionary and transcribing the songs of the troubadours, who spoke the language in its original form.

Mistral is the author of Lou Tresor dóu Félibrige (1878–1886), which to date remains the most comprehensive dictionary of the Occitan language, and one of the most reliable, thanks to the precision of its definitions.

It is a bilingual dictionary, Occitan-French, in two large volumes, with all of the dialects of oc, including Provençal. Mistral owes to François Vidal the work of typesetting and revising that dictionary.

Mistral's most important work is Mirèio (Mireille), published in 1859, after eight years of effort. Mirèio, a long poem in Provençal consisting of twelve songs, tells of the thwarted love of Vincent and Mireille, two young Provençal people of different social backgrounds. The name Mireille (Mirèio in Provence) is a doublet of the word meraviho which means wonder.

Mistral used the occasion not only to promote his language but also to share the culture of an area. He tells among other tales, of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, where according to legend the dragon, Tarasque, was driven out, and of the famous and ancient Venus of Arles. He prefaced the poem with a short notice about Provençal pronunciation.

The poem tells how Mireille's parents wish her to marry a Provençal landowner, but she falls in love with a poor basket maker named Vincent, who loves her as well. After rejecting three rich suitors, a desperate Mireille, driven by the refusal of her parents to let her marry Vincent, runs off to Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer to pray to the patrons of Provence to change her parents' minds. Having forgotten to bring a hat, she falls victim to the heat, dying in Vincent's arms under the gaze of her parents.

Mirèio was translated into some fifteen European languages, including into French by Mistral himself. In 1863, Charles Gounod made it into an opera, Mireille.

More information: JFBrun

Aioli epitomizes the heat, the power,

and the joy of the Provencal sun,

but it has another virtue -it drives away flies.

Frederic Mistral

EDGAR BEAN: FRENCH EFFECTIVITY TO REACH GOAL

Edgar Bean in Carcassonne, his hometown

Edgar Bean. Football Player. France.

I'm Edgar Bean from Carcassonne, Occitan, in the south of France. I'm a professional football player who adores Pelé. I have played in some professional teams but no one of them has offered the most important thing that I was searching: happiness and time to improve. I'm travelling around the world with my family, The Beans, and i must admit that staying with them is much more excited that a World Championship Finale. It's not important for me to achieve the Ballon d'Or because I have something more important than this, a better treasure: my family.

-Good morning, Edgar Bean, and thanks to attend us.

-Good morning. It's a pleasure.

-Well, to start this interview I would like to know how you define yourself.

-I'm a football player, and then I'm a sportsman, an athlete, someone who must take care of his body because it's my work tool. I'm very competitive and I like fair play. I don't understand violence in football or in sport in general. Violence is the failure of dialogue and respect.

-How do you feel being a member of The Beans.

-It's a great and big family. We're always together and we try to help each other because we believe in common work.

-How is a normal day with The Beans?

-There isn't a normal day. Every day is an opportunity to do something different and exciting but basically, we are learning English and this is the centre of all.

 -How long have you been studying English?

-Since Primary School but when you don't live in an English-spoken environment is very difficult to remember and practise all things that you've learnt. France is a country with great language diversity but governments along the history haven't appreciated this and they have created linguistic policies in a favour of French and against the rest of the European languages: Breton, Alsatian, Basque, Occitan, Catalan, Romanesque, Corsican... The most part of French people are bilingual but the knowledge of English is very low. Curiously, the second most spoken language in France is Arabian, of course as a result of colonisations and immigrations. France must change its mentality if the country wants to be competitive from the point of view of languages.

-What part of France are you come from?

-From Carcassonne in the south east. My hometown was one of the most important cities and cultural centres during the Middle Age. It was the centre of Catharism, the movement that explains and gives sense to the most important events during that time. Carcassonne is recognized as a Human Heritage by the UNESCO and it's also the place where was filmed Robin Hood, The Prince of Thieves with Kevin Costner, Mary-Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Alan Rickman, Morgan Freeman and Sean Connery.

-How can a French footballer arrive to success?

-Working hard and believing in you. Being constant and accepting good advice and refusing bad ones.

-What can you explain about your life with The Beans?

-Well, we're sailing in the same boat and we have the same objective. We're working very hard to reach it.

-And after?

-Life continues. Every Bean will take his/her path and this family will have been a good experience, something to remember with a big laugh.

-Which is your best memory with the family?

-It's not possible to choose only one but, perhaps, I would choose our visit to Rio de Jaineiro because I had the chance to stay in Maracana. The dream comes true. I'm a great fan of Pelé, for me, one of the best football players of the history, if not the best. Visiting this stadium was a mystic experience that I will never forget.

-You have said, you like reading and watching cinema. Could you talk about the last book that you have read?

-I've read an interesting book about Diego Armando Maradona, the Argentinian football player who could arrive to be the best but chose the worst paths and finished fighting against lots of personal problems.

-And your favourite film?

-I like lots of films but one of my preferred is Balto, a film about a Siberian husky and sled dog who led his team on the final leg of the 1925 serum run to Nome, in which diphtheria antitoxin was transported from Anchorage, Alaska, to Nenana, Alaska, by train and then to Nome by dog sled to combat an outbreak of the disease. It's a wonderful film about how animals help us to survive in extreme situations.

-What would you say to children who want to be a professional footballer?

-Football is a sport and every sport needs discipline, effort and follow the trainer instructions. You don't play alone. You belong to a team and you must work for it because you must work together. If the team wins, all people win and if the team loses, all people lose. Partnership, confidence, honesty and trust are very important to arrive to be not only a good football player but a good person. Sport must create good people because you can arrive to be a mirror for thousands, millions of other children and you must offer strong values.

-What do you like to improve in football?

-For one hand, I think new technology must applicate in professional leagues because, it's a pity, but in these levels, football is a big business and you can lose a lot of money only because of a wrong decision of the referee. Technology could be the solution like in the American Football League. For other hand, I think we must work very hard to impulse female football. In general, female presence in sport is underestimated and it's a terrible mistake. We must change it.

-Thank you very much, Edgar Bean.

-You're welcome.

It's like everything in football, and life. You need to look, 

you need to think, you need to move, you need to find space, 

you need to help others. It's very simple in the end. 

Johan Cruyff