Love me, love my lute: How medieval troubadours stoked the flames of passion

Hear the term "romantic music" and Wagner's love duets probably come to mind—or maybe Chopin's Nocturnes, or James Galway's shagadelic duets. You probably don't think of the medieval era...but you should.

Compared to music of later eras, the harmonies of early music can sound meandering, and certain medieval instruments—such as the shawm—are not exactly mellifluous. But in fact, medieval vocal music rivals 19th-century music in romanticism. Most secular medieval music centered on love, and many sacred works used the language of romance to describe religious devotion. By about 1100, courtly love, which expressed erotic desire while emphasizing the ennobling effect of loving, had become a popular literary tradition throughout Western Europe.

Courtly love features prominently in the several thousand surviving songs of medieval poet-composers, called troubadours (or trobairitz for women) in southern France and trouveres in northern France. These songs' repetitive melodic structures and simple declamation styles serve to emphasize the ardor expressed in the texts.

For example, in his famous song "Can vei la lauzeta mover" ("When I see the lark beat his wings"), 12th-century troubadour Bernard de Ventadour writes, "I no longer had power over myself, or even belonged to myself, from the moment when she let me gaze into her eyes, into that mirror which so delights me." The speaker's ardent, yet ultimately thwarted desire may have been inspired by events of the composer's own life: after falling in love with his patron's wife, he was forced to leave Ventadour Castle and spent the rest of his life traveling among courts.

13th-century trouvere Adam de la Halle may be best-remembered for his play Jeu de Robin et Marion, but he was also a fine composer of love songs. Noncommittal lovers might draw inspiration from the speaker of de la Halle's "Se li maus c'amours envoie" ("If the pain of love were not so pleasant"): "My lady, if I thought that I would live for one hundred thousand years, and even if you were no longer living, I could never think of another."

These passionate troubadour poems prove that romance prevailed in music well before the time of Verdi and Puccini. If you prefer the violin to the vielle, several Romantic-era composers drew inspiration from the troubadours and their music. Verdi's Il Trovatore centers on the love affair between troubadour Manrico and noblewoman Leonora, and minnesingers—German poet-composers—appear as characters in both Wagner's Tannhauser and Strauss's Guntram. Although relatively little is known of the troubadours and their lives, their romantic legacy endures.

Rebecca Wishnia recently earned her Master's degree in violin from University of California—Santa Cruz. A passionate chamber musician, she has performed in a variety of Bay Area ensembles, and writes about classical music for several publications.