Rockstars du Moyen Age (Medieval Rockstars) (2020)
This song appeared originally on Francis Cabrel’s 2020 studio album “l’aube revenant” (“At Dawn Returning”). It re-appeared in the live album that recorded his 2021 “Trobador Tour,” and that same year it was also released as a single. The video shown below is from the Trobador Tour.
The song is a notable marker on Cabrel’s journey towards engagement with the Occitan culture of his longtime environment in southwest France. He was born and raised there but remained relatively detached from local culture until recent years and associations with local activists. The song’s first lines pay homage to the tenacity and resurgence of native languages such as Occitan:
The song is a notable marker on Cabrel’s journey towards engagement with the Occitan culture of his longtime environment in southwest France. He was born and raised there but remained relatively detached from local culture until recent years and associations with local activists. The song’s first lines pay homage to the tenacity and resurgence of native languages such as Occitan:
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Y a pas de langues anciennes,
C'est la même toujours Pour dire les mêmes peines, Jurer les mêmes amours C'est écrit dans vos pages En mieux et bien avant nous |
There are no ancient languages,
It's always the same To express the same sorrows, To swear the same loves It's written in your pages Better and long before us |
Cabrel does not mean there are no ancient languages, but that they remain vivid and viable vehicles to express the same sorrows, loves and other feelings conveyed by more contemporary tongues. In the context of his remarks elsewhere, this defense of the Occitan language represents only the tip of a more general alignment behind the affirmation of his roots and the integrity of Occitan culture:
“La France a été extrêmement centralisée, c’est jacobin. Il faut que l’on retrouve notre caractère profond. Chaque région a ses coutumes, sa langue, sa cuisine, ses paysages. Il faut appuyer là-dessus. Moi ce disque, je l’ai fait pour dire : je suis du Sud. Partout autour de moi, c’est l’Occitanie. Les gens se battent pour la langue occitane, et je suis à leurs côtés.”
“La France a été extrêmement centralisée, c’est jacobin. Il faut que l’on retrouve notre caractère profond. Chaque région a ses coutumes, sa langue, sa cuisine, ses paysages. Il faut appuyer là-dessus. Moi ce disque, je l’ai fait pour dire : je suis du Sud. Partout autour de moi, c’est l’Occitanie. Les gens se battent pour la langue occitane, et je suis à leurs côtés.”
Occitania and Occitan
Languages and other cultural artifacts emerge from the distinctive context and circumstances of their environment. Much of this arises from geography and climate and the socioeconomic institutions they foster. The word Occitan refers to language while Occitania (or Occitanie) is the geographic and administrative region within which the language was widely spoken over several centuries. As a geographic entity, Occitania is the second largest region of metropolitan France.
In the Middle Ages, observers of Romance languages devised a simplistic method to differentiate the complex realities of linguistic variety: they noted how people expressed the meaning “yes.” This was “òc” throughout southwest France and elsewhere in southern Europe, “oïl” in the north, and “si” in Italy and Spain. Southwestern France became particularly attached to its “langue d’òc” or Occitan language. Dante was first to have recorded the term “lingua d'oc” in writing.
Occitan is an umbrella term that refers to 6 dialects rather than a uniform, distinctive language. In a highly centralized country like France, regional languages have been progressively elbowed out. In 1529, Francis I signed a law making “oïl”-based Francien the official language of France. Occitan has experienced some revival in recent years although the actual numbers of Occitan-speakers in France remains uncertain. Besides France, the language has roots in Spain (Catalonia), Italy (Calabria and Piedmont). Cabrel was born in the Occitania town of Agen to parents from northeast Italy who raised him in the nearby town of Astaffort, where he continues to live. The town became a musical magnet after 1994 when Cabrel helped found "Les Rencontres d'Astaffort," a retreat for young musicians.
Troubadours
Perdignon Playing Fiddle
Cabrel's song is mainly a tribute to the Troubadours of the 11th and 12th centuries from whom Cabrel traces his own line of personal artistic heritage. The Troubadour tradition began in Occitania with the Occitan language and spread later to the Italian and Iberian peninsulas. "Trobar" is an old Occitan verb that means to "find," "make" or "compose." The early Provençal poets were an assorted lot, but the Troubadours represented more sophisticated ranks of society. Indeed, many of them were ducs and barons from wealthy families. They traveled but remained in place under patronage for significant periods of time and were not wandering, footloose entertainers. Their stock-in-trade was songs of chivalry and courtly love ("cançons"), for which they evidently knew the niceties. These songs were often accumulated in songbooks ("chansonniers").
For its part, medieval society with marriages of social and political convenience provided a receptive clientele for such output that was only accentuated by the sustained absence of men on crusade. Politics and war provided additional material given their prevalence and the songs’ manly authors. Troubadours typically performed their own songs, in contrast with "jongleurs" who were more diversified entertainers. The poems occasionally came with musical notation, but it is seldom clear who wrote the music or if it was adopted, sometimes from sacred music or other language traditions. Many Troubadours had a clerical education. The highpoint of Troubadour artistry (1180-1220) faded with the collapse of the Crusades and the attendant ruination of many nobles and their wealth. Cabrel links his “oeuvre” to this artistic heritage. Six times, he repeats the following Occitan refrain in in the last two lines of each stanza:
“Rockstars del Media d'Atge, S'endavalèm de vos”
(“Rockstars of the Middle Age, we descend from you”)
For its part, medieval society with marriages of social and political convenience provided a receptive clientele for such output that was only accentuated by the sustained absence of men on crusade. Politics and war provided additional material given their prevalence and the songs’ manly authors. Troubadours typically performed their own songs, in contrast with "jongleurs" who were more diversified entertainers. The poems occasionally came with musical notation, but it is seldom clear who wrote the music or if it was adopted, sometimes from sacred music or other language traditions. Many Troubadours had a clerical education. The highpoint of Troubadour artistry (1180-1220) faded with the collapse of the Crusades and the attendant ruination of many nobles and their wealth. Cabrel links his “oeuvre” to this artistic heritage. Six times, he repeats the following Occitan refrain in in the last two lines of each stanza:
“Rockstars del Media d'Atge, S'endavalèm de vos”
(“Rockstars of the Middle Age, we descend from you”)
The Song
The song's melody and structure are simple, befitting their Troubadour heritage. There are 6 stanzas of 8 lines each, plus a final 4-line repeat of the last 4 lines of the sixth stanza. The rhyme sequence is ABABCDCD, although the rhymes in the French lyrics encounter bumps with the occasional Occitan word. The verse structure of the song is VVCVCVO. The first, second and fourth Verses describe the “métier” of the Troubadour. The third and fifth stanzas (“La fille à la fenêtre…”) serve the role of a Chorus with their slight melodic shift and repeat similar (but slightly different) content, first in French (third stanza) and then Occitan (fifth stanza).
For the first time in his career, Cabrel renders the entire fifth stanza in the Occitan language. He collaborated on this translation with his Perigourdian journalist/musician friend Jean Bonnefon and Toulousian musician Claude Sicre. In 2023, leveraging the common phrase “un morceaux de soucre” (“a piece of sugar”), Cabrel dedicated the song “Un morceau de Sicre” to Claude Sicre, the city of Toulouse, and “la culture Occitane.” The disc jacket for this song depicts a bird in flight over a clearly Toulousian town. Cabrel’s own career first took flight in Toulouse, many years before, with his defining song “Petite Marie.”
In the first 4 lines of the sixth and final stanza, Cabrel pays homage to five legendary troubadours of the Middle Ages (see below): Guillaume, Jaufré Rudel, Bernard de Ventadour, Pèire Vidal, and Bertran de Born. That stanza ends with 4 lines that Cabrel then repeats as an Outre where he draws tight the link between himself and the long line of Troubadours:
On veille à l'héritage, Guitares autour du cou
(We safeguard the heritage, Guitars around the neck)
Rockstars del Media d'Atge, S'endavalèm de vos
(Rockstars of the Middle Age, We descend from you)
For the first time in his career, Cabrel renders the entire fifth stanza in the Occitan language. He collaborated on this translation with his Perigourdian journalist/musician friend Jean Bonnefon and Toulousian musician Claude Sicre. In 2023, leveraging the common phrase “un morceaux de soucre” (“a piece of sugar”), Cabrel dedicated the song “Un morceau de Sicre” to Claude Sicre, the city of Toulouse, and “la culture Occitane.” The disc jacket for this song depicts a bird in flight over a clearly Toulousian town. Cabrel’s own career first took flight in Toulouse, many years before, with his defining song “Petite Marie.”
In the first 4 lines of the sixth and final stanza, Cabrel pays homage to five legendary troubadours of the Middle Ages (see below): Guillaume, Jaufré Rudel, Bernard de Ventadour, Pèire Vidal, and Bertran de Born. That stanza ends with 4 lines that Cabrel then repeats as an Outre where he draws tight the link between himself and the long line of Troubadours:
On veille à l'héritage, Guitares autour du cou
(We safeguard the heritage, Guitars around the neck)
Rockstars del Media d'Atge, S'endavalèm de vos
(Rockstars of the Middle Age, We descend from you)
Medieval Rockstars
William IX of Acquitaine
Guillaume (William) IX (1071-1126) was Duc of Aquitaine and Gascony (and Count of Poitou), and participant in the 1101 Crusade. He is known as the “earliest troubadour” whose work (11 songs) survives. He was a man of arms, words and amorous pursuits and earned the nickname “Le Troubadour." His grand-daughter, Eleanor of Aquitaine, married the king of France and later English King Henry II. He lived a colorful life marked by military disasters, excommunication for tax evasion and abduction, and marital conflicts that undoubtedly enriched his poetic inspirations.
Jaufré Rudel
Jaufré Rudel (12th c) was known as “le prince de Blaye” for the land that he once ruled but lost to Guillaume IX d’Aquitaine. He became famous for poems/songs about “l’amour de loin” (“Love from afar”) regarding non-reciprocal “arms-length” feelings that are never actualized. Six or seven of his poems have survived, 4 with musical notation. He is thought to have participated in the second crusade (1147-49) and to have died in Tripoli in the arms of his presumed lover Hodierne (or her daughter Mélisande).
Pèire Vidal
Pèire Vidal (12th c) is known only from evidence within his own songs, 45 of which survive including 12 with melodies. He is thought to have been from Toulouse, where he populated the court of Count Raymond V and then traveled to Marseille and Aragan, Toledo and Léon in Spain and elsewhere throughout the Mediterranean. These extensive travels enriched his own poems and impacted the broader Mediterranean soundscape as well.
Bertran de Born
Bertran de Born (1140-1215) was a baron and lord of Hautefort (between Limousin and Périgord). His repeated involvement in political conflicts led Dante (and Gustave Doré) to depict him in The Inferno as a schismatic carrying his severed head like a lantern. Political matters dominated much of his poetry, which consists of 47 works including several melodies. Ezra Pound, a Troubadour enthusiast, translated several of his works.
Bernard de Ventadour
Bernart (Bernard) de Ventadorn (Ventadour) (1130/40-1190/1200) is credited with 45 poems and 18 melodies, the most of any 12th c Troubadour. He is generally considered the master of the “canso” or love song. Raised in Ventadorn (Limousin) by a family of modest means, he developed amorous relationships with Viscount Ventadorn’s wife and subsequently the Duchess of Normandy before returning to Toulouse where he died in a monastic order. His most popular song was “Can vei la lauzeta mover” (“When I see the lark spread its wings…”).
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Y a pas de langues anciennes, C'est la même toujours Pour dire les mêmes peines, Jurer les mêmes amours C'est écrit dans vos pages En mieux et bien avant nous Rockstars del Media d'Atge S'endavalèm de vos Vous c'est un trait de plume, C'est le pas des chevaux C'est chanter à vos Dames, Tout ce qu'il y a de plus beau Leurs âmes et leurs visages, Loin au-dessus de tout Rockstars del Media d'Atge S'endavalèm de vos La fille à la fenêtre Qui chante les yeux clos Cherche à se reconnaitre Dans chacun de vos mots Ça vaut bien davantage Que le plus lourd bijou Rockstars del Media d'Atge S'endavalèm de vos Avec pour seule armure la peau d'un tambourin Sous la hauteur des murs, Sous le balcon éteint Où la Belle est en cage Et son amant jaloux Rockstars del Media d'Atge S'endavalèm de vos La filha a son fenestron Canta los uèlhs barrats E dins cada cançon, Espera se trobar Aquò val fòrça mai Qu'un polit joalhon Rockstars du Moyen Âge Nous descendons de vous Jaufré Rudel, Guillaume, Bernard de Ventadour Pèire, Bertran de Born, 100 autres troubadours On veille à l'héritage, Guitares autour du cou Rockstars del Media d'Atge S'endavalèm de vos On veille à l'héritage, Guitares autour du cou Rockstars del Media d'Atge S'endavalèm de vos |
There are no ancient languages, It's always the same To express the same sorrows, To swear the same loves It's written in your pages Better and long before us Rockstars of the Middle Age We descend from you You, it's a stroke of the pen, It's the step of horses It's singing to your Ladies, All that is most beautiful Their souls and their faces, Far above everything Rockstars of the Middle Age We descend from you The girl at the window Who sings with eyes closed Seeks to know herself In each of your words It's worth much more Than the heaviest jewel Rockstars of the Middle Age We descend from you With your only armor The skin of a tambourine Under the heights of walls Under the extinguished balcony Where the Beauty is caged And her jealous lover Rockstars of the Middle Age We descend from you The girl at her window Sings with eyes closed And in each song, Hopes to find herself This is worth much more Than a pretty jewel Rockstars of the Middle Age We descend from you Jaufré Rudel, Guillaume, Bernard de Ventadour Pèire, Bertran de Born, A hundred other troubadours We safeguard the heritage, Guitars around the neck Rockstars of the Middle Age We descend from you We safeguard the heritage, Guitars around the neck Rockstars of the Middle Age We descend from you |
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