• Alais, Iselda and Carenza (early 1200s)

"Na Carenza" ("Lady Carenza") on CD titled: "The Sweet Look and the Loving Manner, Trobairitz Love Lyrics and Chansons De Femme" Sinfonye, Stevie Wishart, Director. Voice, medieval fiddle, oud, bendir, hurdy gurdy. HYPERION CDA66625.

In this courtly debate song, two sisters, Lady Alais and Lady Iselda ask Lady Carenza questions about marriage and childbirth, and Lady Carenza responds by advising them to enter a convent. Meg Bogin in THE WOMEN TROUBADOURS (W.W. NORTON, 1980) comments: "Nothing is known about any of these three women. The poem is a strange mixture of colloquial and religious language, and much of it remains obscure."

NA CARENZA AL BEL CORS AVINEN
Lady Carenza, fair and comely

LADY ALAIS

Lady Carenza, fair and comely,
give your advice to us two sisters,
and since you are the most discerning of all,
advise me best you know how:
Shall I marry a man of our acquaintance
or shall I stay a virgin? That is my preference,
for bearing sons does not seem good to me,
and a husband in addition strikes me as very troublesome.

LADY ISELDA

Lady Carenza, I would be glad to take a husband,
but bearing children I think is a great penance,
for your breasts hang down low
and your belly is heavy and burdensome.

LADY CARENZA

Lady Alais and Lady Iselda,
I know you have learning,
reputation and beauty, youth, fresh coloring,
courtesy and virtue,
and are more discerning than any:
therefore I advise you, in order to sow good seed,
to marry him who is crowned with Wisdom,
by whom you will be fruitful of a glorious son;
she who espouses him remains a virgin.

Lady Alais and Lady Iselda, remember
me within the shadow of his protection;
when you are there (in the convent),
beseech the Glorious One
to keep me with you when I depart.

In regard to this song, Meg Bogin says in THE WOMEN TROUBADOURS (W.W. Norton, 1980):

"There is no vida of Alamanda and the only piece of information we have about her comes through the life of Giraut de Bornelh, with whom she composed this 'tenson.' His dates are c.1130-post 1200, so we can safely place her in the 2nd half of the twelfth century....

"Scholars have debated back and forth on the authorship of this poem, and their arguments fall into three camps: those who say she alone wrote it, those who say he alone wrote it, and those who consider it a genuine specimen of a tenson (debate song). Time is unlikely to yield up an answer."

S'IE-US QUIER CONSEILH BELL'AMI' ALAMANDA
(If I ask your advice, dear Alamanda)
tenso by Lady Alamanda and Guiraut de Bornelh

In this debate song Alamanda plays the part of her maid, retaining her own name, Alamanda; Giraut debates with 'the maid' on the subject of his desire to recapture the love of her mistress. The following are the first four of ten exchanges in the tenso -- notice how Alamanda in the fourth verse speaks first as Lady Alamanda and then as the maid. (The full text is provided in the CD notes; the music survives in one manuscript: F-Pn f.f. 22543, f.8r; ed. in H. Van der Werf, "The Extant Troubadour Melodies," Rochester, NY. 1984.)

GIRAUT
If I ask your advice, dear Alamanda,
do not refuse the request of a man in dire straits;
for your treacherous lady has told me
that I have strayed so far from her commands that
she now denies and withdraws what she granted me before.
What do you advise?
For my heart almost burns within me from sorrow,
I am so very sad.

ALAMANDA
In God's name, Giraut,
a lover's wishes cannot be granted or guaranteed all at once;
for if one does wrong, the other must be indulgent,
lest their mutual distress grow and increase.
So if she tells you that a high mountain is a plain,
you must believe it, and accept willingly
the good and the ill which she allots to you;
then you will be loved.

GIRAUT
I cannot help resent your arrogance
pretty and blonde though you are, young lady.
You yourself have little cause for sorrow
and little joy is plenty for you;
but you come neither first not second!
But as for me, in danger of being driven to distraction
by this sorrow,
what do you advise me?
That if I am afraid of drowning
I should go nearer the waves?
This is poor advice I think!

ALAMANDA
If you ask me about such a profound matter,
then in God's name, Giraut, I do not know how to reply;
but, if you think it takes little to make me joyful,
I would rather mow some of my own meadow
than have someone else mow all of it.
And though I was anxious to reconcile you today,
still you insist
on how she withdraws and denies her goodwill;
I can see how distracted you are!...

Stevie Wishart comments:

"There are four dialogue songs conducted solely between trobairitz (women troubadours)... This 2-stanza 'cobla' takes up the conventional themes of 'fin 'amour' (courtly love) with one trobairitz, Iseut de Capio, asking her colleague, Almucs de Castelnau, to forgive a deceitful lover and end his suffering."

DOMNA N'ALMUCS, SI-US PLAGES
Lady Almuc, if you please

LADY ISEUT

Lady Almuc, if you please
I should like to beseech you
that the anger and ill-will he suffers
may make you show mercy
towards him who sighs and laments,
who dies languishing and bewails his fate,
and humbly asks your pardon;
make your peace with him,
unless you wish to kill him,
so he may the better avoid transgression.

LADY ALMUC

Lady Iseut, if I knew
that he repented of the great deceit
which he has committed towards me,
I would indeed be right to show
mercy; but it is not appropriate
since he has not refrained from doing wrong
or repented of his offence,
that I should favour him any further;
but if you can make him repent
you may easily change my mind.

Cheryl Ann Fulton says in the notes:

"Winter Song is an instrumental piece inspired by a poem written by the trobairitz (woman troubadour) Azalais de Porcairages [b. 1140]. The poem (originally written in langue d'oc) for which there is no existing music begins:

AR EM AL FREG TEMPS VENGUT
The season of cold weather has now arrived
by Azalais de Porcairages
First of seven verses

The season of cold weather has now arrived
With frost and snow and mud.
The birds are silent
And none of them wants to sing.
The branches in the hedges are brown
and neither flowers nor foliage grow.
The nightingale sings no more
who wakes me in the month of May.

Regarding her music for this poem, Cheryl Ann Fulton says, "I wrote this piece in Perpignan on a project focused on troubadour song and poetry. While there I visited many of the Cathar castles and felt a deep connection with the rich history and spirit of that region."

As is true of most of the women troubadours, very little is known about the life of Azalais. She was from the region of Montpellier and was the lover of Gui Guerrejat, brother of Guillaume VII of Montpellier. The full song text for "Ar em al freg temps vengut," with commentary, is cited in "A Tapestry of Voices" by Elene Margot Kolb (see

From Guy Robert: "The two chansonniers containing this song have preserved just one verse of this work by the only 'trouvéress' [woman troubadour from the north of France] whose name has come down to us. The style, in the courtly register, is that of the 'chanson de jeune fille.' We have little evidence of the existence of this poetess, who is the dedicatee of a song by the Artois trouvère Andrieu Contredit; she is most probably the 'Maroie' who is to be found along with a 'Dame Margot' in a 'jeu parti'-- 'jeu parti': a typically medieval poem, always in verse, with two protagonists in play [see below]."

IL M'EST TRÈS AGRÉABLE DE VOIR REVENIR
It is most pleasing for me to see

It is most pleasing for me to see
The winter returning,
With hail and frost.
For a lovely maid must rejoice
And be light-headed in all weather.
So I shall sing of love to give myself courage,
For my tender heart full of amorous desire
Does not make me abandon my great joy.

The music on this CD encompasses the world of medieval fantasy and story-telling; melodies and poems in Old French about mythical animals, holy relics, and fated lovers.

ISSI AVINT QU'UN CERS BEVEIT
A thirsty deer was standing by

A thirsty deer was standing by
A stream and drinking, when his eye --
Suddenly, as he sipped -- was caught
By his reflection. "Ah!" he thought
"What handsome, shapely horns have I!"
No hornless beast, I vow, can vie
With likes of me..." And on and on
He sang his praises; until, anon,
He spied a pack of hunting hounds,
Spurred by the huntsman, heard the sounds
His horn blared forth, as they drew near
With one intent -- to bag the deer.
Trembling, he turned to flee, and started
Into the wood... He dashed, he darted,
He flew... But all at once betwixt
Branches and boughs, he stood transfixed:
A tree had caught his horns!... The pack
Grew closer now, would soon attack...
"Alas, alack! he sighed, distraught,
"How true it is, as man has taught,
That we too often blindly prize
Those things that we had best despise;
While in our folly we abhor
Those we should well be thankful for."

* The Women Troubadours, by Meg Bogin, New York: W.E. Norton, 1980

* The Voice of the Trobairitz: Perspecitives on the Woman Troubadours, William D. Paden, ed., Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press, 1989.

* Songs of the Women troubadours, edited and translated by Matilda Tomaryn Bruckner, Laurie Shepard, Sarah White. New York : Garland Publ., 1995, 2000.

This edition presents many poems of the trobairitz, including 20 identifiable and several anonymous women troubadours who wrote between 1170 and 1260.

* Unsung Women : the Anonymous Female-voice in Troubadour Poetry. [edited and translated by] Carol Jane Nappholz. New York : P. Lang, c1994.

* Vox Feminae: Studies in Medieval Woman's Songs, edited by John F. Plummer SMCXV, Copyright 1981, Second Printing 1989, ISBN 0-918720-12-5 (paperbound).

* Women Writers of the Middle Ages : A Critical Study of Texts from Perpetua to Marguerite Porete, by Peter Dronke, Cambridge University Press, 1984

* A Tapestry of Voices: Medieval Woman's Song, by Elene Margot Kolb, Photocopy. Ann Arbor, Mich. : University Microfilms International, 1983. (Will probably need to be borrowed through inter-library loan).

Elene Kolb writes: "The lyrics most commonly referred to as "women's songs" are those which appear to approximate those lost Carolingian women's love songs known as 'winileodas'. These "songs for a friend," were banned by Charlemagne in his 789 capitulary, declaring that no abbess should let her nuns "dare to write 'winileodas.'" These monologues on love occur in almost every language, as Frings has demonstrated, but in the Middle Ages there is perhaps the greatest profusion of these songs. These medieval lyrics range from one-line exclamations to lengthy complaints, composed of many stanzas, and are written not only in Latin and Byzantine Greek, but in most of the European vernacular languages.

Includes music and song texts for 4 trobairitz chansons 3 of which are free-style interpretations, allowing the performer to follow the shifting accents for the text:

* Comtessa de Dia, A Chantar
* Maroie de Dregnau de Lille, Mout m'abelist quantje voirevenir
* Dame Margot and Dame Maroie, Je vous pri Dame Maroie
* Blanche de Castille, Amours u trop tart me sui pris