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Trobairitz were female troubadours in medieval Occitan court who composed secular music, marking the first time women claimed authorship of musical compositions. They were born into nobility and wrote about courtly love. Their works were sometimes attributed to men, but at least 50 operas from this era were composed by trobairitz. Their lyrical works are difficult to translate, but they have survived to the present day.
The trobairitz were the female counterpart of the troubadours of the medieval Occitan court. Like the troubadours, the trobairitz composed songs, wrote verses and performed at court. The most famous of these composers is probably Beatritz, also called Bieiris de Romans, known only because she clearly identified herself in a poem she wrote for another woman. The works that can be safely attributed to the trobairitz were all composed between the 11th and 12th centuries.
These women were extraordinary for a variety of reasons. The trobairitz celebration marked the first time in European history that women could openly claim authorship of musical compositions, and also the first time that women composed secular music. Prior to this period, women wrote only sacred music and were forced to publish under men’s names if they wanted their work to be distributed and played.
Unlike the troubadours, the trobairitz were born into the nobility. Their career probably began with the basic education provided to noblewomen, all of whom were able to sing, play instruments and dance. Over time, they began to establish themselves as composers in their own right, writing works on courtly love, a popular theme in medieval Europe.
It’s hard to find out much about life in the trobairitz. Although women in Occitan enjoyed relatively greater freedoms than women in other parts of Europe, they still lived very isolated lives and wrote about themselves only rarely and often in romantic accounts. Many of their contemporary authors put men’s names to works composed by women, or failed to recognize the role of a woman in an exchange of poems and songs between two people. At least 50 operas from this era were composed by trobairitz, and it is possible there are more.
These medieval female poets composed both cansos, or lyric songs, and tensos, or so-called “debate poems” which involved an exchange between two individuals working collaboratively. Some of these works were undoubtedly intended for private distribution only, making it extremely fortunate that they have survived to the present day, while others have been more widely shared and distributed, making multiple copies available for modern analysis.
The lyrical works of the trobairitz are sometimes difficult to translate, as indeed all poems and songs can be difficult to translate in a way that scans, conveys the original intent, and sounds aesthetically pleasing. In this verse from Azalais de Porcairagues we can get an idea of the type of work composed by the trobairitz: “Now we have come to the time of cold / when the ice and the snow and the mud / and the bird’s beaks are silent / because no one is inclined to sing.”
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