Bernart de Ventadorn (c. 1135–1194), Troubadour song, “La dousa votz”
Bernart was one of the finest troubadour poets and probably the most important musically; other troubadour and trouvère songs imitated his. Originally of humble background, he came to serve the powerful Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, wife of Henry II of England.
Like hymns and folk songs, troubadour songs set all their stanzas to the same melody, resulting in what is called strophic form (A A A . . .); often each stanza is in a a' b form. “La dousa votz” is in the G (Mixolydian) mode:
The performance on the recording stresses secular (that is, nonreligious) aspects of Bernart’s song, including an imaginative reconstruction of a possible instrumental accompaniment. It sounds far removed indeed from the serene spirituality of Hildegard.
The language the troubadours spoke and wrote was Provençal, now almost extinct. It combines elements from Old French and Old Spanish.
LISTEN
Bernart de Ventadorn, “La dousa votz”
| 0:07 | St. 1: La dousa votz ai auzida | I have heard the sweet voice |
| Del rosinholet sauvatge | Of the woodland nightingale | |
| Et es m’insel cor salhida | And my heart springs up | |
| Si que tot lo cosirer | So that all the cares | |
| E’ls mals traihz qu’amors me dona, | And the grievous betrayals love has given me | |
| M’adousa e m’asazona. | Are softened and sweetened; | |
| Et auria’m be mester | And I would thus be rewarded, | |
| L’autrui joi al meu damnatge. | In my ordeal, by the joys of others. | |
| 0:48 | St. 2: Ben es totz om d’avol vida | In truth, every man leads a base life |
| C’ab joi non a son estatge . . . | Who does not dwell in the land of joy . . . | |
| 1:28 | St. 3: Una fausa deschauzida | One who is false, deceitful, |
| Trairitz de mal linhage | Of low breeding, a traitress | |
| M’a trait, et es traida . . . | Has betrayed me, and betrayed herself . . . |