Musical Form and Tonal Structure

in

Troubadour Song

 

© Claudio Vanin 1994

 

    The following is an html version of my PhD dissertation, submitted as part of the requirements for the doctorate in systematic musicology from the Faculty of Music at the University of Western Ontario. Apart from minor corrections and changes in formatting it is unchanged and unrevised, so the research and bibliography are current only to 1994. The music examples were originally drawn by hand, and in order to make them available I scanned the printed sheets and converted them to gif images, which are viewable by clicking the appropriate links, either through the table of contents below, or from the main text. 

 

ABSTRACT

    The aim of this study is to lay the groundwork for an eventual codification of musical form and style in the troubadour songs. To that end, it concentrates on two of the broadest musical parameters, form and tonal structure. A new catalogue of all attributed songs is provided with the study, which is intended to remedy the deficiencies of Gennrich's, the only complete one available until now. It is based on descriptive and logical, rather than historical, principles, and the graphing procedure employed is designed to provide more information than the standard ones, by showing connections at the sub-phrase level. The songs are grouped into five large categories, based on the kind of phrase repetition found in their musical forms, and these categories then serve as a tool in the detailed examination of the nature and role of musical form in the repertoire. It is found that the troubadours' acknowledged fascination with structure for its own sake, as evidenced in their versification, can also be seen in their musical forms. Indeed, there is an intimate and dynamic interaction between the two kinds of form, which can serve as a paradigm for the understanding of music/text relations in the canso. The analysis of selected examples demonstrates some of the many ways in which the troubadours created subtle and finely articulated formal designs in their music; this contradicts the view that they were unskilled as composers and relied only on simple standard formulas for their music.

    The chapter on tonal structure examines the songs for evidence of functional tonal centres, and looks at the role of the final in relation to these. It is found that both the medieval modal system and the notion of interval chains are useful in shedding light on the characteristic tonal features of troubadour songs, and that a significant percentage of the finals can be considered functionally related to the tonal centre of the song, where this is clearly established.

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

CHAPTER I  —  THE TROUBADOURS AND MUSICOLOGY
     1. Introduction
     2. Overview of Research
CHAPTER II — APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF FORM IN THE TROUBADOUR SONGS
     1. Twentieth-Century Studies
     2. Secondary Medieval Sources
     3. Formal Analysis: Principles and Methodology
CHAPTER III — MUSICAL FORMS IN THE TROUBADOUR REPERTOIRE
     1. Oda Continua Forms
     2. Forms with One Repeated Phrase
     3. ABAB Forms
     4. Symmetrical Forms
     5. Irregular Forms
CHAPTER IV  —  TONAL STRUCTURE IN THE TROUBADOUR SONGS

CHAPTER V  —  CONCLUSION

APPENDIX  I   —  SUMMARY OF TROUBADOUR SONG FORMS

APPENDIX  II   —  CATALOGUE OF TROUBADOUR SONG FORMS

APPENDIX  III  —  TONAL FEATURES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

LIST OF EXAMPLES

  1. Bernart de Ventadorn, P-C 70,12, from Gennrich, Nachlass, #21
  2. From Ruwet, "Methods,"
  3. Peire d'Alvergne, P-C 323,15
  4. Gaucelm Faidit, P-C 167,43
  5. Folquet de Marseille, P-C 155,22
  6. Peire Vidal, P-C 364,42
  7. Arnaut de Mareuil, P-C 30,3
  8. Peire Vidal, P-C 364,40
  9. Pons de Capdoill, P-C 375,19
 10. Folquet de Marseille, P-C 155,8
 11. Bernart de Ventadorn, P-C 70,1, ll. 1-4
 12. Gaucelm Faidit, P-C 167,56, ll. 2, 4, 8
 13. P-C 10,27;  P-C 406,15
 14. Gui d'Uisel, P-C 194,3, ll. 6-9
 15. Guiraut Riquier, P-C 248,83
 16. Peire Vidal, P-C 364,37, ll. 1-4
 17. Guillem Ademar, P-C 202,8
 18. Guiraut de Borneill, P-C 242,64, ll. 1-2
 19. Peire Vidal, P-C 364,36, ll. 1-2
 20. Gaucelm Faidit, P-C 167,30, ll. 1-5
 21. Pons de Capdoill, P-C 375,27, ll. 1-4
 22. Pons d'Ortafas, P-C 379,2, ll. 1-5
 23. Uc de Saint Circ, P-C 457,26, ll. 1-5
 24. Peirol, P-C 366,3
 25. P-C 406,2 and P-C 406,13, ll. 1 and 3
 26. Berenguier de Palazol, P-C 47,5
 27. Raimon de Miraval, P-C 406,20
 28. Arnaut de Mareuil, P-C 30,16
 29. Raimon de Miraval, P-C 406,24
 30. Raimon de Miraval, P-C 406,21
 31. Peirol, P-C 366,26
 32. Raimon de Miraval, P-C  406,7
 33. Guiraut Riquier, P-C 248,26
 34. Guiraut Riquier, P-C 248,69
 35. Monge de Montaudo, P-C 305,6
 36. Bertran de Born, P-C 80,37
 37. Berenguier de Palazol, P-C 47,7
 38. Marcabru, P-C 293,18 and P-C 293,30
 39. Gaucelm Faidit, P-C 167,17
 40. Peire Vidal, P-C 364,31
 41. Bernart de Ventadorn, P-C 70,23 and P-C 70,39, ll. 1-4
 42. Raimon de Miraval, P-C 406,44
 43. From Sachs, 150
 44. Jaufre Rudel, P-C 262,2
 45. Arnaut de Mareuil, P-C 30,19
 46. Pons de Capdoill, P-C 375,27
 47. Peirol, P-C 366,21
 48. Guiraut Riquier, P-C 248,55
 49. Berenguier de Palazol, P-C 47,12
 

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