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MUSICAL FORMS IN THE TROUBADOUR REPERTOIRE
This category, the smallest of the five, with
35 songs, contains those songs with more than one
repeated phrase, but whose forms do not fall into
immediately recognizable patterns of regularity or
symmetry such as those in the preceding category or in
the ABAB category. This is not to imply that they are
necessarily formless or unstructured, and therefore
weaker in some way than the others. If the repetition
of complete phrases is the main determinant of melodic
form in this repertoire, it is by no means the only
factor contributing to the overall sense of coherence,
balance, and unity which define melodic form in the
broadest sense; we have already seen this in the songs
with no repetition of complete phrases. It is
nevertheless true that, in terms of formal designs
produced by phrase repetition, we may find it easier
to understand or accept the ones with some degree of
symmetry or regularity, while those of irregular
design may appear puzzling or unmotivated, for the
values of balance and symmetry seem to need no further
rationale or justification—they can be appreciated
as ends in themselves.
On the other hand, the majority of these
irregular forms can be related in a general way to the
two most familiar forms, the oda
continua and the ABAB form. Approximately two‑thirds
are through‑composed for the greater part of the
song, but repeat some phrases, in most cases no more
than two or three. In another third of the songs one
can find traces of the ABAB form. This can be seen
most clearly in four songs that modify that form by
substituting a new phrase for the repeat of the A
phrase, which results in the form ABCB for the opening
phrases. Three of them are by Raimon de Miraval (P‑C
406,2, P‑C 406,12, P‑C 406,13), and the
other is by Guiraut Riquier (P‑C 248,1); the
connection with the ABAB form is further supported by
the transmission of
P‑C 406,2 and P‑C 406,13 in two
manuscripts, R and G, with the version of G in the
ABAB form for both songs.[22]
In the version of R of P‑C 406,2, which has the form
ABCB in its first half, the C phrase repeats the
cadence of the A phrase; in P‑C 406,13, the C
phrase in R repeats the initium
of the A phrase. In P‑C 406,12, transmitted only
in R, the C phrase also repeats the cadence of A,
while the second B phrase ends differently from the
first B phrase. In P‑C 248,1, by Guiraut
Riquier, the musical form parallels the rhyme scheme
almost exactly, as the formal graph for the song
shows:
Although the rhyme pattern abcb is directly matched
by the pattern of musical phrase repetitions, the
alteration of the cadence of the second B phrase means
that the correspondence takes place at a more abstract
formal level rather than through the sonorous
conjunction of rhyme sounds and cadences. At the end
of the song, the A phrase is repeated, while the only
rhyme repeated is the b rhyme; this therefore is a
rare example of a song with more repetition in the
musical form than in the rhyme pattern. A formal
correspondence exists at this place in the song as
well, however, and it is produced through an inter‑stanzaic
linking device which the poet has used here. It is
known as coblas
capfinidas, and links one stanza to the following
one through the repetition of a word from the last
line in the first line of the next stanza.[23]
The repetition of the A phrase as the final phrase in the
stanza therefore matches the poetic repetition joining
successive stanzas, since the A phrase is also heard
again immediately at the beginning of each new stanza.
Three songs begin like the ABAB type but then
substitute a new phrase for the repetition of the B
phrase in the fourth line, producing the opening ABAC
instead of ABAB; they are P‑C 293,18, P‑C
167,17, and P‑C 364,31. In P‑C 293,18, a sirventes by Marcabru, the fourth line is a refrain and contains
only three syllables; they are sung to the opening
pitches of the B phrase. To appreciate the underlying
relation with the ABAB form in this song, it may
profitably be compared with another by Marcabru that
is in a clear ABAB form, P‑C 293,30. "Dire
vos vuelh ses duptansa" (P‑C 293,18) is
reproduced in its entirety in Example 38 below, along
with the pastorela
"L'autrier jost'una sebissa" (P‑C
293,30). Aside
from the highly syllabic and simple style shared by
both melodies, one can point to marked similarities in
their melodic contours, especially in the B phrases.
Both also have a clear ouvert/clos
structure in their opening phrases, though it
functions differently in each. In P‑C 293,30,
the relationship occurs between the A and B phrase,
and their repetition in lines three and four is exact.
In P‑C 293,18, on the other hand, while there is
a comparable antecedent/consequent or question/answer
relationship between the A phrase and B phrase, it is
the second A phrase, with a modified cadence, combined
with the short C phrase (which is hardly a self‑standing
musical phrase, but rather an extension of the
previous phrase), that acts as the clos
section to the first two phrases.
The case of P‑C 167,17 is similar, and
recalls the structures already discussed in the
section on ABAB forms, in which the second B phrase
has an altered cadence and the second AB phrase‑pair
functions as the clos section to the first pair. This interpretation is supported by
the melodic enjambment between both the A phrases and
their following phrases (see Example 39.)
The cadence of the C phrase is repeated at the
end of line 5, in parallel with the repetition of the
b rhyme, and the whole phrase is repeated again in
line 8, again matching the rhyming pattern; a variant
of this phrase's cadence concludes the song. Taken
together, these formal articulations and parallels
suggest a deliberate effort at producing a balanced
formal structure, one that recalls the ABAB form, but
modifies it.
Example 39.
Gaucelm Faidit, P-C 167,17.
The other song beginning ABAC in form, P‑C
364,31, by Peire Vidal, can also be seen as a variant
of the standard ABAB form. In this case, the C phrase
recalls the B phrase by repeating its cadence, while
the second A phrase substitutes a new cadence for that
of the first A phrase. The B phrase is also recalled
in the last line of the song, primarily through its
cadence, and the C phrase is heard again with
variation in lines 6 and 7. The song is shown in
Example 40 below.
Example 40.
Peire Vidal, P-C 364,31.
In two songs by Bernart de Ventadorn, P‑C
70,23 and P‑C 70,39, the connection with the
ABAB model is less tangible, suggested mainly by the
melodic unity of the first four lines in both. It is
striking that both songs begin each of their first
four phrases with the same ascending passage FGa,
which ties these phrases together into a section
separate from the last four phrases. (The only
exception is the third phrase in P‑C 70,39,
which begins abc, but even this phrase is largely a
transposition of the song's first phrase.) The first halves of the two songs are given below for
comparison, along with the formal graphs.
Example 41.
Bernart de Ventadorn, P-C 70,23 and P-C 70,39,
1l. 1-4.
One may also
wish to compare these two songs with one by Raimon de
Miraval, P‑C 406,44, in which the same ascending
figure occurs throughout the song, first at the same
pitch level, as part of the reiteration of the A
phrase, then transposed as the initium of the remaining phrases. Following is the formal graph for
this song (the music can be found in Example
42 below):
A vague
allusion to the ABAB form may also be found in a song
by Guillem Magret, P‑C 223,3, in that a
substantial segment, longer than what would normally
be considered a cadence, of the B phrase of line 2 is
repeated at line 4, paralleling the rhyme scheme for
these lines, which is abab.
The remaining songs in this category may best
be understood as variants of the oda continua form, which they have modified by introducing two or
three phrase repetitions within the basically
through-composed format. If there is one consistent
feature regarding the nature of the repetitions, it is
the prevalence of immediate repetitions, though
naturally these occur in combination with repetitions
after intervening new phrases. Twenty songs out of the
thirty‑five in the group contain an immediate
phrase‑repetition, and three songs, P‑C
167,53, P‑C 364,24, and P‑C 406,44, repeat
the same phrase twice in succession, though not
without some measure of variation. The latter song, by
Raimon de Miraval, is interesting not only because it
is the first phrase that is repeated, but also for the
way in which the shape of this simple opening phrase
dominates the entire song. The graph for the song was
given above; the music is reproduced in Example 42.
Example
42. Raimon de Miraval, P-C 406,44.
The
same phenomenon of an elementary unity achieved
through restricted melodic material can be found in
several other songs by Miraval; the reader may wish to
examine P‑C 406,9, P‑C 406,22, and P‑C
406,42, to mention only songs found in the irregular
category. P‑C 406,22 should be singled out in
particular, for in this song the entire second half
can be viewed broadly as a varied restatement of the
first, so that the overall form can be reduced to a
bipartite A A'. (In this connection one may recall P‑C
70,16 by Bernart de Ventadorn, discussed in the
section on symmetrical forms, which has the form
ABCD/ABCD; there is a melodic similarity in the
openings of the two songs, but no link between their
texts.) In
addition one should mention P‑C 10,41, P‑C
194,6, and P‑C 366,2, which also rely on limited
melodic material, thus belying both their formal
irregularity and their connection with the oda continua form.
Since this category was designed to accommodate
those forms lacking in the more familiar values
represented in the other four categories, one will not
expect to find those values in the musical forms per
se; for any given song in this group, one will search
in vain for a convincing rationale to account for the
individual pattern of musical phrase repetition it
displays. Given the great distance in time that
separates us from the living tradition, we can only
speculate as to the aesthetic motivations of the
troubadour poets and composers, but a comparison
between their poetic and musical forms may be of some
use in this instance. We have already touched upon the
troubadours' concern with invention and originality in
the domain of poetic form, as manifested in the
extraordinarily high number of metric and rhyme
schemes which were used only once; it was a matter of
pride that each poem should have its own unique form.
While some schemes have a demonstrable measure of
symmetry and balance, and some can be related to one
of the basic designs used in many songs, others have
neither of these features—they are simply unique and
irregular designs. Insofar as musical and poetic forms
are legitimately comparable in this repertoire,
therefore, we may be dealing with a similar phenomenon
in the irregular musical forms.
«
Chapter IIId
Contents
Chapter IV »
[22]
The seven songs from this category that appear in
more than one version are: P‑C 421,2, P‑C
155,10, and P‑C 167,56, which were discussed
in the section on one‑repeat forms; P‑C
70,23, in which both versions have irregular forms,
though not the same pattern of phrase repetition; P‑C
167,53, P‑C 406,2, and P‑C 406,13, which
were discussed in the section on ABAB forms.
[23]
Not to be confused with coblas
capcaudadas, in which the last rhyme sound in
one stanza becomes the first rhyme sound in the
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