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.
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.
I have created a vocal interpretation of the Comtessa de Dia’s “a chantar m’er” as my final project.
[Fol. 65r]
1| ¶ Con muchos jnstrumentos salen los atanbores }
ally sale gritando la gitarra / morisca G (gitarra morisca)
delas bozes aguda e delos puntos arisca / A aguda y arisca
el corpudo alaut / que tiene punto ala trisca T
5| la gitarra ladina coneste se atrista A (se junta con los otros sonidos)
el rrabe gritador con la su alta nota / R N
cabel el alborayBa / tanjendo la su rrota / A (*Alboraia is subdistrict of Valencia, this refers to musician from the town)
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.
For my final project, I decided to go through the process of learning and performing a trobairitz song (A chantar by Comtessa de Dia).
A song can be broken down into two main components: music/sound and lyrics. The lyrics are often dissected and analyzed piece by piece for literal and hidden meanings. On the other hand, the interpretation of the sound varies depending on the audience since it is strongly affected by personal schema. Thus, in “T’ant m’abelis” by Berenguier de Palou, the meaning that is gathered through the music and sound can be vastly different during the height of the Troubadours compared to the contemporary era.
