Marcabru the Troubadour

Marcabru

Source: Twitter/Marcabru

It isn't known when Marcabru was born in Gascony in southwestern France. Dates vary widely from as early as 1099, but circa 1110 is most commonly seen. Unlike his fellow troubadours who tended to be of the aristocratic class, Marcabru is said to have been conceived by a desperate woman who left him at the doorstep of an anonymous rich man when he was infant. Howsoever, he eventually entered into the service of Guillaume X, son of Guillaume IX d'Aquitaine, the latter usually described as the first known troubadour. Troubadours were singers of secular songs who wrote their own verses or not while traveling the countryside or not.

For someone with no exact birthdate, Marcabru came to great fame, often mentioned in histories as well. He composed romances, satires, and songs for both the Reconquista (c 801-1492) and the Crusades (Second of 1144). The Reconquista refers to the reclaiming of the Iberian peninsula from Islam, beginning with the Battle of Covadonga and ending with the fall of Granada approaching eight centuries later. The Crusades, which plumb was Jerusalem, were the second theater of the struggle of the Roman Church against Islam, allied in that with the Eastern Church in Constantinople.

Among Marcabru's most popular works was 'Pax in nomine Domini' (XXXV) probably written in 1149 addressing the crusade in Spain, also known as 'Del Lavador' ('The Cleansing Bowl') or 'Lo Vèrs del Lavador' ('The Cleansing-Bowl Song'). Forty-one of Marcabru's 44 known poems can be read at Arnaut & Karkur [below], as well as the poems of numerous troubadours. Marcabru's melodies aren't as extant, there remaining only four with three possible contrafacta (melodies used by other poets). Those four melodies are 'Bel m'es quan son li fruich madur' (XIII), 'Dirai vos senes doptansa' (XVIII), 'L'autrier, jost'una sebissa (XXX)' and 'Pax in nomine Domini' (XXXV).

Titles below are stacked per the Roman numeral system of Gaunt, Harvey and Paterson in 'Marcabru: A Critical Edition' of 2000. This is not chronological. Gaunt and crew identify Marcabru's earliest known poem as, 'Assatz m'es bel del temps essuig' ('I Like the Dry Season' VIII), written possibly as early 1130. Early poems addressing Guillaume X (VIII, XXXIII, IX) were likely authored prior to Guillaume's death in April 1137. Songs relevant to Marcabru's campaigns in Spain (IV, V, XXII, XXIII, XXXVI) are undatable with the exception that he is known to have been in Spain at least in the winter of 1137-38. Songs addressing the Second Crusade in the Middle East (I, XV, XXI, XXXV) would have to have been written after 1144 when that Crusade began. Marcabru's last fairly datable poem, 'Pax in nomine Domini' (XXXV) was likely written in 1149, though titles may have followed in the fifties. Marcabru probably sang his works a capella, though may well have employed instrumental accompaniment.

'Bel m'es quan son li fruich madur'   ('I Love When the Fruits Are Ripe')

Composition by Marcabru   GHP Index: XIII   Written sometime after 1137

Performed by the Ensemble Tre Fontane

'Dirai vos senes doptansa'   ('I Consider Wise No Doubt')

Composition by Marcabru   GHP Index: XVIII

Performed by the Ensemble Tre Fontane

'L'autrier, a l'essida d'abriu'   ('The Other Day, at the Beginning of April')

Composition by Marcabru   GHP Index: XXIX

Performed by the Ensemble Tre Fontane

'L'autrier, jost'una sebissa'   ('The Other Day, by a Hedge')

Composition by Marcabru   GHP Index: XXX

Performed by Elizabeth Aubrey

'Pax in nomine Domini'   Song for the Reconquista

Composition by Marcabru   GHP Index: XXXV   Probably written 1149

Direction by Jordi Savall

Marcabru died circa 1150 or later. It isn't known how true it may be that it was his caustic attitude toward lords of Gascony which led them to arrange his demise. Such has been conjectured from a couple of his poems, but scholars in Marcabru find nothing to support such.

Arthur Franz (Ueber den Troubadour Marcabru / Marburg 1913)

Ruth Harvey (The Troubadour Marcabru and his Public / St. Mary's College)

Mark Taylor (Berry College):

The Cansos of the Troubadour Marcabru (Romania 2000)

Displacement and Exchange

Multicultural Medieval England vis-à-vis France and Gascony

The Troubadour Marcabru’s Expanding Vocabulary for Love

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