Jordan Bonel de Confolens
Encyclopedia
Troubadour
A troubadour was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages . Since the word "troubadour" is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a trobairitz....
from western Aquitaine
Aquitaine
Aquitaine , archaic Guyenne/Guienne , is one of the 27 regions of France, in the south-western part of metropolitan France, along the Atlantic Ocean and the Pyrenees mountain range on the border with Spain. It comprises the 5 departments of Dordogne, :Lot et Garonne, :Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Landes...
about whom very little is definitively known except that he was associated with the court of Alfonso II of Aragon
Alfonso II of Aragon
Alfonso II or Alfons I ; Huesca, 1-25 March 1157 – 25 April 1196), called the Chaste or the Troubadour, was the King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona from 1164 until his death. He was the son of Ramon Berenguer IV of Barcelona and Petronilla of Aragon and the first King of Aragon who was...
. His vida
Vida (Occitan literary form)
Vida is the usual term for a brief prose biography, written in Old Occitan, of a troubadour or trobairitz.The word vida means "life" in Occitan languages. In the chansonniers, the manuscript collections of medieval troubadour poetry, the works of a particular author are often accompanied by a...
states that he was from Saintonge
Saintonge
Saintonge is a small region on the Atlantic coast of France within the département Charente-Maritime, west and south of Charente in the administrative region of Poitou-Charentes....
and he appears to have been contemporary with Bertran de Born
Bertran de Born
Bertran de Born was a baron from the Limousin in France, and one of the major Occitan troubadours of the twelfth century.-Life and works:...
. His surviving corpus probably consists of three canso
Canso (song)
The canso is a song style used by the troubadours. It consists of three parts. The first stanza is the exordium, where the composer explains his purpose. The main body of the song occurs in the following stanzas, and usually draw out a variety of relationships with the exordium. The canso can end...
s, wherein only one is attributed to him, though its melody survives:
- S'ira d'amor tengués amic gaudent,
- non fora cel que mièlhs amès de me;
- car pena e dòl e dams e marriment
- ai sofertat longament; e'l conven
- qu'ieu aja'l mal e ma domna lo ben.
- E pos aissí li plai amb me de vire,
- qu'ar sap e crei que non l'ausi redire,
- vuèlh tot sofrir s'ela'l vòl et Amors:
- gardatz s'ieu sui dels fenhents amadors!
The melody has similar to those of Arnaut de Maruelh, but is rather conservative when compared with his more illustrious contemporaries. It is in AAB form with musical rhymes at the cadence
Cadence (music)
In Western musical theory, a cadence is, "a melodic or harmonic configuration that creates a sense of repose or resolution [finality or pause]." A harmonic cadence is a progression of two chords that concludes a phrase, section, or piece of music...
s.
One of Jordan's cansos is said to refer to the Holy Land
Holy Land
The Holy Land is a term which in Judaism refers to the Kingdom of Israel as defined in the Tanakh. For Jews, the Land's identifiction of being Holy is defined in Judaism by its differentiation from other lands by virtue of the practice of Judaism often possible only in the Land of Israel...
by Linda Paterson, though neither she nor Kurt Lewent classifies it as a "crusading song". The poem actually refers to Edessa
Edessa, Mesopotamia
Edessa is the Greek name of an Aramaic town in northern Mesopotamia, as refounded by Seleucus I Nicator. For the modern history of the city, see Şanlıurfa.-Names:...
as representing the far reaches of the earth. The same song celebrates Guiborc de Montausier, the "viscountess" of Chalais
Chalais, Charente
Chalais is a commune in the Charente department in southwestern France.-Population:...
(Chales or Chaletz):
- A Chales vai, chansos, a midons dire,
- A Na Guiborc cui beutatz saup eslire
- E pretz e jois e largues' e valors,
- Qe a leis mi clam de sos mals noiridors.