response

Erotic and romantic love are inaccessible in death. The casualties of war are great personal motivators for hatred and violence later on in life. For instance, Severus Snape lost the love of his life in a war that ostensibly ended the day she died. For years afterwards, he hated her son not only on the principle that she may have lived if he had not existed, but also because he served as a reminder that she never truly loved him, even while alive. This interesting mixture of actions and motivations creates three dimensional characters who have both villainous and heroic qualities.  

Here we see a great encapsulation of the melange of erotic love and war to form an artwork of clearly ideological intent. Set in an alternate historical version of Nazi Germany, Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds focuses in part on the story of Jewish resistance fighter Shoshanna Laurent, who is embroiled in an unrquited love affair with German war hero Friedrich Zoller. Unconsummated erotic love drives Zoller's actions in the movie, and in the first clip we can see his sexual libido for Shoshanna lead to his downfall.

Links to images:
Frank and Claire, inches away and hearts apart
Frank, Claire, Zoe, and that one gentleman Frank murdered 

I looked at the dialogue between Maria de Ventadorn and Gui d'Ussel. This poem caught my attention with the words, "I rightly consider him a traitor if, having given himself as servant, he makes himself an equal". On the other hand, Gui d'Ussel argues that "she should...consider equal the man with whom she's joined two hearts as one". This reminded me of the dynamic of a new relationship vs. a long term one. In the former, the guy typically spends a lot of energy pursuing his love interest, doing favors for her and continually trying to impress her.

Part of what struck me about Marcabru and Ugo Catola's song is the insistence by each singer that love is either pure and virtuous or liable to be corrupted and dangerous.  Marcabru praises a true fin' amor, but he appears much more skeptical and cautious than Catola.  Catola refuses to admit that love carries this danger, trying to categorically exclude it from the story of Sampson and Delilah by arguing that Marcabru's memory of the story's timeline is faulty.

The dialogue songs have this sense of attempting to upstage the other poet and trying to prove one's own right-ness. In this song, while the two singers have the same message for the other; each tries to dominate in terms of claiming that they will do the most damage. This is done through trying to be the most melodic or trying to have the most pained or aggressive scream. The song would be incomplete without their harmonies, just as the dialogue poems would be incomplete without both halves of the conversation.

Taruskin goes into depth on practices of how to actually embody the "authentic" troubadour, especially in performance. I agree with Taruskin in the fact that a "historical authentic performance" is necessary, however, I don't agree that it is the main/only way performers should be allowed to express their performance. With ties to our classroom discussion and meeting with the musicians, we were able to see all the ambiguities that goes into performing historical performances in a modern era.

“So, Nicolas, without delay, Made them carry back the treasure / Without wasting a single moment / And place his image on the top, Just exactly as they’d found it. / When in this way the kind had tested / The Saint and his great miracle / He gave command for them to bring / The Christian in and not to harm him. He had himself baptized at the font, / Not only himself but the other pagans; He became an honest and decent Christian, And never wanted to sin again” p79

Before Switten digs into the musicology of the troubadour music, he points out that no medieval sounds have been passed down to our ears.  Unfortunately, the troubadours did not have recording devices on their iPhones, but we can draw information on how they sung in chansonniers or in trouveres, where only about 10% of troubadour poems are preserved with melodies.  In addition, there is no one, “authoritative song” (Switten, 142) because a song would be manipulated from performance to performance.  The troubadours revolutionized music through versification, controlling meter and rhyme.

I think that Switten’s analysis of the technical structure of the troubadour lyric illustrates the depth of the craftsmanship inherent in these songs. It negates the idea that the performances were simple entertainment and reveals the complex phrase structures and cadence patterns embedded in the lyric. The musical theory, if I’m honest, is a little bit over my head but what I am struck by is this exploitation of system in order to further prove the troubadour’s skill.