Uc Brunet
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 Rodez
Rodez
Rodez is a town and commune in southern France, in the Aveyron department, of which it is the capital. Its inhabitants are called Ruthénois.-History:Existing from at least the 5th century BC, Rodez was founded by the Celts...
in the Rouergue
Rouergue
Rouergue is a former province of France, bounded on the north by Auvergne, on the south and southwest by Languedoc, on the east by Gévaudan and on the west by Quercy...
. Six of his works survive.
Outside of his own works and those of other troubadours, including a 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...
, Uc is mentioned in only one document dated to around 1190. The document relates the settlement between Uc and the abbey of Bonnecombe, from which Uc had demanded free lodging for himself, five of his knights, and a servant. Uc's career can be extended as late as the c. 1220 by the planh
Planh
The planh or plaing is a funeral lament used by the troubadours, modeled on the medieval Latin planctus. It differed from the planctus in that it was intended for a secular audience...
(lament) written on his death by Daude de Pradas
Daude de Pradas
Daude, Deude, Daurde, or Daudé de Pradas was a troubadour from Prades-Salars in the Rouergue not far from Rodez. He lived to an old age and left behind seventeen to nineteen cansos, including twelve on courtly love, three about sexual conquest, one tenso, one planh , and a religious song...
, who was only active from about that time. Among Uc's patrons were Hugh II of Rodez
Hugh II of Rodez
Hugh II , of the House of Millau, was the Count of Rodez and Viscount of Carlat and Creyssels from around 1156 until his death. He was the son of Hugh I of Rodez and Carlat and Ermengard of Creyssels. Hugh was himself a vassal of the Counts of Toulouse.In May 1195 Hugh associated his son Hugh III...
, his suzerain; 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...
; Raymond VI of Toulouse
Raymond VI of Toulouse
Raymond VI was count of Toulouse and marquis of Provence from 1194 to 1222. He was also count of Melgueil from 1173 to 1190.-Early life:...
; Bernard VII of Anduze; and Dalfi d'Alvernha.
The author of Uc's vida (biography), whose reliability is difficult to ascertain, states that Uc was a cleric well-versed in letters with a natural wit. From this background he became a jongleur and then a troubadour, but he never, according to his vida, composed any music. Nonetheless, one of his songs is accompanied by a melody in one manuscript; the melody may be Uc's or somebody else's.
Uc's vida provides an interesting story which cannot be verified that Uc fell in love with a bourgeois women named Galiana, from Aurillac
Aurillac
Aurillac is a commune in the Auvergne region in south-central France, capital of the Cantal department.Aurillac's inhabitants are called Aurillacois, and are also Cantaliens or Cantalous in Occitan....
. She dismissed him, however, and took Hugh of Rodez as her lover. In his pain Uc Brunet entered the "order of Cartosa" (probably an unidentified charterhouse
Charterhouse
A Charterhouse is a Carthusian monastery. The word is derived from Chartreuse, the first monastery of the order having been established in a valley of the Chartreuse Mountains.It can refer to numerous monasteries:It can also refer to:...
) and there died.
One of Hugh's datable works is a sirventes
Sirventes
The sirventes or serventes is a genre of Occitan lyric poetry used by the troubadours. In early Catalan it became a sirventesch and was imported into that language in the fourteenth century, where it developed into a unique didactic/moralistic type...
, "Conplidas razos novelas e plazens", which mentions the death of los comtes, evidently the count of Rodez, in 1208. It is the only work of Uc's to survive with a melody. The melody is melisma
Melisma
Melisma, in music, is the singing of a single syllable of text while moving between several different notes in succession. Music sung in this style is referred to as melismatic, as opposed to syllabic, where each syllable of text is matched to a single note.-History:Music of ancient cultures used...
tic and tonal
Tonality
Tonality is a system of music in which specific hierarchical pitch relationships are based on a key "center", or tonic. The term tonalité originated with Alexandre-Étienne Choron and was borrowed by François-Joseph Fétis in 1840...
with its centre generally on F, though it ends on D.