Title | Name | Project type | Course | Abstract |
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Ode to Yesika Salgado's Past Life as a Trobairitz | Jaqueline Arely De Paz-Romero | Manuscript book | OSPGEN 77: The Other France: Troubadours and the Politics of Cultural Heritage |
For my final creative project, I wanted to focus on highlighting Trobairitz and women in literature on a more holistic scale, as I felt that there was a lack of their preserved art. In order to explain the final creation, I have to backtrack to the beginning idea: which was creating a manuscript in which I translated a modern pop song called “The Life of a Troubadour” by the group Mansionz. When I was in the process of translating the song, I realized that I was doing the project on a topic that wasn’t close to my heart. |
Troubadour Picture Book | Isabel Michel | Illustrated Book | OSPGEN 77: The Other France: Troubadours and the Politics of Cultural Heritage |
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. |
Troubadour Phenomenology: On Being in the Audience | Carly Ann Taylor | creative work | The Other France: Troubadours and the Politics of Cultural Heritage |
In this creative essay, I attempted to use take a phenomenological apporach to understanding troubadour performance, with particular regard to the experience of the audience member. I put secondary sources in conversation with my own observations of our group as an audience during the musical performances, lectures, and guided visits we went on this trip. My central argument was that the audience plays as active and critical of a role in constructing a performance as the performer does. |
Crafting the Demon: An Exploration of Othering and Demon-making Within the Region of Occitania | Uche Amakiri | Drawings and Sculpture Work | The Other France: Troubadours and the Politics of Cultural Heritage |
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. |
Wine Through the Ages: Examining the evolution of viniculture from the time of the troubadours to today | Emily Wong | presentation | OSPGEN 77: The Other France: Troubadours and the Politics of Cultural Heritage |
For my project, I researched the importance of wine in the Languedoc region, with an emphasis on its influence both during the time of the troubadours (11th-13th centuries) and today. In addition, I explored important events in the history of wine in the area, including its arrival through Greek immigrants and the Revolt of the Languedoc Winegrowers. The latter holds additional interest for the group because it occurred primarily in and around Narbonne. |
The Male Gaze as a Troubadour Phenomenon | Melissa Machado | drawings | The Other France: Troubadours and the Politics of Cultural Heritage |
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. |
Friendly Sestinas | Sophie Regan | creative project | The Other France: Troubadours and the Politics of Cultural Heritage |
My project consists of nine sestinas, one for each student in the class. A sestina is a form of poem first invented by the troubadour Arnaut Daniel. A sestina is a poem of six stanzas with six lines each. The last words of each line repeat in each stanza. The first line of each stanza has seven syllables with each following line containing ten syllables. The poem ends with a three line tournada with each line including two of the ending words from the previous stanzas.
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Tuning Up with the Troubadours | Angela Gomez | creative work | OSPGEN 77: The Other France: Troubadours and the Politics of Cultural Heritage |
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. |
Borderless: Situating Three Occitanian Crusades | Arman Kassam | creative work | OSPGEN 77: The Other France: Troubadours and the Politics of Cultural Heritage |
Borderless is a mapamundi (medieval-styled world map) that represents Marcabru’s Pax in Nomine Domini while putting different types of “Occitanian crusades” into conversation. The project is rooted in the idea that sound – language and music – can embody a type of conquest or reclamation. |
Songs Through Time: A Medieval Arrangement of Game of Thrones | Simon Tao | performance | OSPGEN 77: The Other France: Troubadours and the Politics of Cultural Heritage |
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. |
A Troubadour's Guide to Wine Pairing | Ashleigh Wais | creative work |
For this project, I sought to combine my interested in wines from the Languedoc region with my passion for graphic design. After going on a number of amazing treks up mountains to visit castles and visit medieval sites, I noticed that wine always added a new element to the dining experience. Yet unlike traditional wine pairings that often only combine wine and food, I found that wine is also deeply connected to the broader context. Thus I wanted to examine the contextual questions to the overall wine experience—beginning with "Where are you?" and "What are you doing?" |
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Can vei la lauzeta mover (experimental interpretation) | Gabriel Zane Ellis | performance | 2018: Songs of Love and War |
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. |
Reis Glorios A Cappella Arrangement | Ronald Em Tep | arrangement | OSPGEN 77: The Other France: Troubadours and the Politics of Cultural Heritage |
Statement of Intent: |
Rugby, Wine, and Occitan Culture | Ariel Matthieu Bong | creative work | OSPGEN 77: The Other France: Troubadours and the Politics of Cultural Heritage |
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. |
Calendretta | Marija Petkovic | creative work | OSPGEN 77: The Other France: Troubadours and the Politics of Cultural Heritage |
She knew that her system couldn’t have lasted forever, but it was almost crippled how quickly it ended up crumbling. Occitania decided to mint new money. The Euro was now worthless and citizens were told to start community bonfires to burn their paper money and to leave to coins in the ashes. Anyone with contraband currency found in their home would be arrested for enemy sympathies. |
A chantar m'er de so: Comtessa de Dia and the Feminist Ideals of the Trobairitz | Justine Arlott ... | critical analysis, performance | OSPGEN 77: The Other France: Troubadours and the Politics of Cultural Heritage |
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. |
A chantar m'er de so: Comtessa de Dia and the Feminist Ideals of the Trobairitz | Justine Arlott ... | critical analysis, performance | OSPGEN 77: The Other France: Troubadours and the Politics of Cultural Heritage |
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. |
Feminism in Trobar Poetry vs. in Disney Princess Films | Chantel Yang | modern comparison | OSPGEN 77: The Other France: Troubadours and the Politics of Cultural Heritage |
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 |
When in Occitania: A Reflection | Jason William Seter | creative work | OSPGEN 77: The Other France: Troubadours and the Politics of Cultural Heritage |
Admittedly, in writing a creative, informal essay, I did not really adhere to any strict methodology. I mainly just wanted to relate my changing attitudes towards the seminar, while also providing a lightly analytical critique of some of our readings. In comparison with some of the more directly analytical projects my peers have created, I was at first a little wary of taking such a free-form approach—after all, I still wanted to demonstrate how much I had learned. |
La Vergonha and the Future of Occitan Language | Henry Lin | critical analysis | The Other France: Troubadours and the Politics of Cultural Heritage |
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. |
Looking through the eyes of Bertran de Born | Charles Akin-David | critical analysis | Songs of Love and War: Gender, Crusade, Politics (Sp16-FEMGEN-205-01/FRENCH-205-01) |
Normal Springtime Bertran de Born's Springtime |
Database of Troubadour Lyric and Song | Susan Wu | digital humanities | Songs of Love and War: Gender, Crusade, Politics (Sp16-FEMGEN-205-01/FRENCH-205-01) | |
The Road to Damascus | Lena Emelyn Zlock | digital humanities | Songs of Love and War: Gender, Crusade, Politics (Sp16-FEMGEN-205-01/FRENCH-205-01) | |
A Modern Music Guide to the Troubadour Canon | Dylan Benedikt Fugel | modern comparison | Songs of Love and War: Gender, Crusade, Politics (Sp16-FEMGEN-205-01/FRENCH-205-01) |
Statement of Intent & Methodology A link to the playlist can be found here: https://open.spotify.com/user/1253758515/playlist/2tQuhMDRIoVWMakGQiLivq |
A chantar m'er | Marija Petkovic | performance | Songs of Love and War: Gender, Crusade, Politics (Sp16-FEMGEN-205-01/FRENCH-205-01) |
I have created a vocal interpretation of the Comtessa de Dia’s “a chantar m’er” as my final project. |
Ultralight Beam: Old Kanye vs New Kanye | Charles Akin-David | modern comparison | Songs of Love and War: Gender, Crusade, Politics (Sp16-FEMGEN-205-01/FRENCH-205-01) |
Ultralight Beam Performance |
Trap Queen | Susan Wu | modern comparison | Songs of Love and War: Gender, Crusade, Politics (Sp16-FEMGEN-205-01/FRENCH-205-01) |
In the same vein as Guilhem's contrafactum, this cover of trap queen converts a famous hip-hop song into a love ballad. It has the same lyrics and melody as the original song, but a completely different video and style. Here, Josh Levi sings with only a piano accompaniment. The camera is centered on him, with no cuts to other people or images - unlike the original music video - showcasing his emotional expressions. |
Not Quite A Love Song: These Days and The Royal Tenenbaums | Dylan Benedikt Fugel | modern comparison | Songs of Love and War: Gender, Crusade, Politics (Sp16-FEMGEN-205-01/FRENCH-205-01) |
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. |
Meghan Trainor's Gap Song | Marija Petkovic | modern comparison | Songs of Love and War: Gender, Crusade, Politics (Sp16-FEMGEN-205-01/FRENCH-205-01) |
Meghan Trainor's first music video from her new album, "Thank You," is a far departure from her previous music videos. This, of course, is the video for "No," which is set in an abandoned factory with Trainor and her back-up dancers in tight-fitting black or dark work-clothes. |
Deadpool: He must die because I'm too ugly for my lover | Charles Akin-David | modern comparison | Songs of Love and War: Gender, Crusade, Politics (Sp16-FEMGEN-205-01/FRENCH-205-01) |
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). |
Violence and Eroticism in Game of Thrones' New Religious Order | Marija Petkovic | modern comparison | Songs of Love and War: Gender, Crusade, Politics (Sp16-FEMGEN-205-01/FRENCH-205-01) |
I can't add my picture of Melisandre saying "this post is dark and full of spoilers" (through season 5); consider yourselves warned. |
Call and Response Rhythms in Dialogue Poetry & Nichols/May | Dylan Benedikt Fugel | modern comparison | Songs of Love and War: Gender, Crusade, Politics (Sp16-FEMGEN-205-01/FRENCH-205-01) |
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. |
Sex Dialogue: "What's My Name" by Rihanna ft. Drake | Charles Akin-David | modern comparison | Songs of Love and War: Gender, Crusade, Politics (Sp16-FEMGEN-205-01/FRENCH-205-01) |
In Rihanna's "What's My Name?", we see a dialogue happening between her and Drake mostly on sex but also on why Drake is such a great partner for her. In contrast to the dialogue songs, the conversation here is not shown explicitly has Drake only speaks in the beginning of the song, leaving the rest of the talking to Rihanna. However, one must notice that in Rihanna's first verse, she introduces the reasons for why Drake is such a good companion for her in terms of sex, which could have been placed at the beginning of the song. |
Contrafactum in "Reis Glorios" and "O Maria, Deu maire" | Lena Emelyn Zlock | critical analysis | Songs of Love and War: Gender, Crusade, Politics (Sp16-FEMGEN-205-01/FRENCH-205-01) |
Link to performance of "Reis Glorios" by TAE |
Separating son and motz | Susan Wu | critical analysis | Songs of Love and War: Gender, Crusade, Politics (Sp16-FEMGEN-205-01/FRENCH-205-01) |
The Dillon article explores the relationship between music and lyric, acknowledging that these two disparate elements are usually combined to create a performance, but can be separated as well. On its own, lyric maintains aspects of performance with a rhyme scheme that gives sonality to the verse. Yet because these lyrics are never performed in recitation, only in song, I agree with Zumthor that omitting melody notation does a disservice to the poem. After all, troubadours were both poets and composers. |
Taruskinian 'Authenticity', The Cult of Historicism and Father John Misty | Dylan Benedikt Fugel | modern comparison | Songs of Love and War: Gender, Crusade, Politics (Sp16-FEMGEN-205-01/FRENCH-205-01) |
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. |
Performance of Psalm 150 | Guinevere Wella... | performance | General Public |
[Fol. 65r] |
Comtessa Swift Mash-Up | Kiki Alexandra ... | modern comparison | DLCL 121: Performing the Middle Ages (FRENCH 151) |
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. |
There’s an App for That: Troubadour Love Meets 21st Century Dating Site | Naomi Cornman | creative work | DLCL 121: Performing the Middle Ages (FRENCH 151) |
The verse “Match Maker, Match Maker, make me a match” is ringing across the country. Meanwhile, e-commerce dating sites are springing up rapidly, capitalizing on advances in social media and big data analysis. An upcoming mobile dating application, Hinge, is examining changes to their business model to provide services and products ahead of the competition. Hinge uses a unique algorithm by pairing friend-of-friends from Facebook through shared profession, education history, interests, and romantic history on the app. Unlike other companies in the e-dating space, like Tinder, a dating ap |
Taverner as the Umpire | Naomi Cornman | critical analysis | DLCL 121: Performing the Middle Ages (FRENCH 151) |
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? |
Performative Utterances, footnotes included! | Michelle Annabel Lee | critical analysis | DLCL 121: Performing the Middle Ages (FRENCH 151) |
What I find most interesting about the vidas are not the vidas by themselves, but the combination of the vidas with their footnotes. I’m assuming the footnotes are added by troubadour scholars who want to present factual historical biographical information of the troubadours. In this week’s response essay, I want to analyze the vidas and their footnotes through the lenses of Austin’s definition of factual statements and performative utterances. |
The Displacement of Love for War | Kiki Alexandra ... | critical analysis | DLCL 121: Performing the Middle Ages (FRENCH 151) |
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. |
Recording Trouvère Lyric in presentday NYC | Anne Levistky | performance | General Public |
For this post, I’ll begin by describing more broadly how I came to record these songs, and then focus in one one song in particular. |
Trobairitz Song | Karina Janet Nunez | translation, creative work | The Other France: Troubadours and the Politics of Cultural Heritage |
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 |
Trobairitz Song | Karina Janet Nunez | translation, creative work | The Other France: Troubadours and the Politics of Cultural Heritage |
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 |
The Modern Troubadour: The Rapper and His Verse | Elisha Charnel ... | modern comparison | The Other France: Troubadours and the Politics of Cultural Heritage |
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 |
Museum Administration in Languedoc Roussillon | Shawn Lee | critical analysis | The Other France: Troubadours and the Politics of Cultural Heritage |
If you are trying to learn about medieval Occitania in Languedoc-Roussillon, a visitor will be drawn to the old castles, cultural institutions like Cirdoc or the various mediatheques, but also to the various regional museums. As an American with some experience in museum programs and management, a lot of the museums we visited struck me as very similar. For our purpose, I will focus on the Centre du Sculpture Romane in Cabestany, the Centre du Chateau des Lastours, and the Musee Archeologique du Narbonne. |
From Domna to Trobaritz: Lessons from Medieval Poets to a Modern Day Poet | Kim Grace McCabe | creative work | Songs of Love and War: Gender, Crusade, Politics (Winter 2014) |
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? |
The Role of Rhythm in Troubadour Poetry: A Close Reading of Peire Cardenal | Casatrina Yi-Wei Lee | critical analysis | The Other France: Troubadours and the Politics of Cultural Heritage |
I focused on the role of rhythm in troubadour poetry, in particular zooming into the works of Peire Cardenal. Aside from a few exceptions in the late 13th and early 14th century, all troubadour melodies are notated with neumes, which give no indication of rhythm. I therefore wanted to examine the impact of the performers' interpretation of the poems on the meaning of the poems, as well as the structure of the poems as the poet meant them to be. Rhythm is especially important because audiences heard, rather than read the poems. |
Through Vielle and Song: Exploring Medieval Music and Trobairitz Canso | Aya Yagi | performance | The Other France: Troubadours and the Politics of Cultural Heritage |
For my final project, I decided to go through the process of learning and performing a trobairitz song (A chantar by Comtessa de Dia). |