rhythm

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.