Projects

For this project, I created a picture book illustrating a poem written by one of the most famous troubadours of his time, Bertan de Born. This picture book draws artistic inspiration from medieval illustrated manuscripts, which is reflected in the use of specific colors, stylized figures, and text font. The purpose of this picture book is to expose young audiences to troubadour poetry and the Occitan language. 

This project works to explore the processes of othering, dehumanization, and persecution that have been salient throughout the way that we have confronted language and religion during this seminar. Both religion and language have seemingly existed in states of flux both within and outside the region of Occitania. In his major work of Romanesque influence, the Master of Cabestany depicts the death of St. Sernin as he becomes an image of martyrdom for Catholicism because he refuses to make a  sacrifice to the pagan gods.

My project was inspired by the gender dynamic present in troubadour poems and songs. While the cantos are often romantic and tell tales of far-away love that burns ardently or forbidden love that seems so close, yet so far, it is prevalent that the love between men and women is a main theme of troubadour songs. With that in mind, examining the songs of both the Comtessa the Dia and of (male) troubadours allowed for different perspectives on the songs with fin-amor themes.

Tuning Up with the Troubadours is a parody of popular reality TV show, Keeping Up with the Kardashians. Using primary sources, such as poems and vidas, the show is meant to demonstrate the personalities of the various troubadours across time. 

For my final project for this BOSP seminar, I decided to make a rearrangement of music from one of the most popular TV shows set in the medieval era: HBO’s Game of Thrones. 

This creative project is a recorded interpretation of perhaps the most famous work in the troubadour repertoire: Bernart de Ventadorn’s Can vei la lauzeta mover. The song has been recorded many times in as many different styles. However, performances often still strive for “historical” authenticity, attempting to recreate how the work might have been performed in its original context. I wanted to play with this concept of authenticity over the course of my performance, beginning with a fairly traditional interpretation of the work and concluding with something that was emphatically new.

In the creative essay writing form, I looked to explore the relevancy of rugby throughout all of Occitania. Known as the sport of the people, as opposed to a sport of the bourgeois, rugby has remained a large part of this southern French culture. I talked with Frank Schisano, a rugby player who became a self-made wine maker, and explored how one could even make that seemingly incompatible transition, yet I found a few parallels by which the occupations are approached and sustained.

Statement of Intent: As a performer emerging from a background of theatrical training, I entered this class most interested in the art of performance. However, I also realized that my passion for feminism and feminist studies would intersect beautifully in a further exploration of the trobairitz. As there is only one song with music that has been preserved from the trobairitz cannon, I decided to focus on Comtessa de Dia and “A chantar m’er de so” for my final project.

The purpose of my presentation is to identify characteristics of troubadour and trobaritz poetry that could have evolved or been integrated into Disney princess culture.  Some of the characteristics present in trobaritz poetry include physical and sexual attraction and fina amor, or courtly love.  There exists an ongoing debate over whether Disney princess culture is progressive in the feminist eye, but it is not conclusive by any means because evidence used to support both sides is largely anecdotal and subjective.  Examining gender dynamics of courtly love through historical lens provides

For my project, I wanted to explore how exactly the Occitan language experienced its decline since the time of the troubadours up until modern times. I looked at several secondary sources that examined the place of Occitan in France throughout history, and in addition, I looked at legislature, particularly the French Constitution to find France’s stance on language in the country. I started out by looking into the current status of Occitan in France alongside the presence of Occitan in medieval Europe after the time of the troubadours and Cathars.

Link: http://troubadourdb.weebly.com/

Statement of Intent & Methodology A link to the playlist can be found here: https://open.spotify.com/user/1253758515/playlist/2tQuhMDRIoVWMakGQiLivq

Ultralight Beam Performance 

Here, we see the use of Nico's version of the Jackson Browne song 'These Days' in Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums. What is interesting about this scene and what is makes it so moving is that it co=opts the regret that is the prevailing sentiment of the originial song and contrasts it against what we know about these two characters in the film to turn it into a nostalgic lament for a lost love. Much like we see in Guilhem's crusade lyrics, the ambivalece of the original lyrics is excised by placing the song in a new context.

Deadpool was just your everyday neighbourhood asshole mercenary without a care in the world... until he found the girl of his dreams. He pretty much dates her for a long time, gets cancer, goes through this weird operation that saved his life and made him invincible (he only did it because he loved his girl and knew she'd be sad if he died). However, through the operation, he was tortured by his later nemesis Francis who turned him ugly (pic above show his transformation).

What is immediately noticeable in both the alba form (which we could broadly consider a dialogue between man and nature, a protective warding spoken from the noble knight to the sun that threatens to rise), and in dialogue poetry such as Marcabru's pastourelas is that there is a clear rhythm of call and response, a linguistic interplay that lets each side of the dialogue express there opinions in an almost melodic rhythm.

Link to performance of "Reis Glorios" by TAE
Link to original source of sheet music for "O Maria, Deu marie" (p. 217) (From Medieval Song in Romance Languages)

Let's be clear, I love Father John Misty. But that does not change the fact that he is an artist for whom the word 'authentic' in quotation marks was made. From creating the persona of the 'LA hippie priest' in Father John Misty to draping every performance of his songs with layers of irony, Josh Tillman is extremely concerned with what it means to make authentic pop in modern times.

Putting Taylor Swift, a popular country music artist, and the renounced trobaritz together may not seem obvious. When considering the themes within the Comtessa’ de Dia’s lyric number 33, they are also extremely prevalent in country music today. At first, my plan was to perform a piece of the Comtessa’s lyric set in a contemporary context. I was going to write a musical where the themes explored in the Comtessa’s lyrics formed the plot. However, instead I decided to use clips of contempory performance to illustrate the action of the lyric for me.

TAVERNER: “Hey, hey, you there! No need for that./ Calm down, Raoul! And you, Connart!/ Let me decide the issue for you./ You’ll both be better off for it.” (626-629)TAVERNER: “What’s this, Cliquet? Is it a fight?/ Let go of him! You too, leave off!/ Go sit down, the pair of you,/ And each will get what he deserves./ Rasoir, tell us the cause of this--/ You must know who was in the wrong.” (926-931)TAVERNER: “What’s up?

Bertran de Born verse interested me as it seemed to take the traditional love song, and add an additional layer of intent to the genre. I didn’t feel like it completely abandoned the canso, but used the traditional framework to illustrate an alternate meaning. In this way the Work of de Born was opened up to the cultural Text. In number forty-five, Bertran De Born begins with the Springtime opening that the listener expects to end in the introduction of the troubadours domna. However there is a surprising climax of a different kind with de Born.

Crees que cantan Pajaros  En los Cortes De Aragon? Cantan en tus castillos?  Aqui se quedan sin cancion,  La primavera me ha abandonado Invierno me ha abrazado Trobador, por favor, vuelva a mi.   Rezo para un hombre La oracion de poder “Santificado sea tu nombre” Tu rezas a la virgen mujer Antes de dias de promesa y amor Invierno era infierno, puro calor Trobador, mi amor, vuelva a mi…   En tu campo florecido, La sinsonte trae cancion Se burla de mi destino  En mi maldita dirección Quién tambien vuela, a nuestro camino?  Vuelan de Beziers, markando su destino Trobador, por favor, floritura 

Big Sean's "Control", particularly the verse of Kendrick Lamar[Bridge: Kendrick Lamar]Miscellaneous minds are never explainin' their mindsDevilish grin for my alias aliens to respondPeddlin' sin, thinkin' maybe when you get old you realizeI'm not gonna fold or demise(I don't smoke crack, motherfucker I sell it!)Bitch, everything I rap is a quarter piece to your melonSo if you have a relapse, just relax and pop in my discDon't pop me no fucking pill, I'mma a pop you and give you this[Verse 2: Kendrick Lamar]Tell Flex to drop a bomb on this sh

Statement of intent: Using themes, forms, and functions of trobaritz works. How are our writings shaped by medieval thinkers and creators? What can we learn from these motifs? 
 
I have traveled this land over here/
From Carcassonne out to Beziers/
And what I’ve seen will inspire you, dear/
To become of the world a great seer/
You will find me as a land unconquered/
Come with me and we shall make it clear/
It is you who arouses a word/
 
My beauty glows outward, draws you in/
We are magnets and together spin/