Song, Landscape, and Identity in Medieval Northern France: Toward an Environmental History

Song, Landscape, and Identity in Medieval Northern France explores how medieval song expressed relationships between people and their environments, drawing connections between nature imagery and physical terrain. Author Jennifer Saltzstein categorizes the use of nature imagery as realistic, aspirational, or nostalgic and demonstrates how trouvère songs influenced the ways medieval people defined their identities, encouraging them to view themselves as belonging to specific landscapes.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 296 pages
Publication date: 12 July 2023
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc

Song, Landscape, and Identity in Medieval Northern France

In her groundbreaking work, "Song, Landscape, and Identity in Medieval Northern France," Jennifer Saltzstein offers a fresh and insightful perspective on how medieval song conveyed the complex relationships between people and their environments. Drawing upon environmental history and employing a multidisciplinary approach that combines musicology and ecocritical analysis, Saltzstein explores the rich tapestry of nature imagery found in the songs of the trouvères, the wandering minstrels of northern France. Through meticulous research and meticulous analysis, she establishes compelling connections between the natural landscapes depicted in these songs and the physical terrain and climate of the regions where the trouvères lived. By delving into the various ways in which composers shaped their songs in response to their surroundings, Saltzstein categorizes their use of nature imagery as realistic, aspirational, or nostalgic. This nuanced categorization sheds light on the multifaceted ways in which trouvère songs influenced the identities of medieval individuals and communities.

Saltzstein's work demonstrates a profound cycle of mutual influence between nature and culture, highlighting how trouvère songs played a crucial role in shaping the ways in which specific groups of medieval people defined their identities. By drawing upon the imagery of nature, these songs encouraged individuals to perceive themselves as belonging to particular landscapes, fostering a sense of connection and belonging that transcended social boundaries. Through close readings of love songs, pastourelles, motets, and rondets from renowned composers such as Gace Brulé, Adam de la Halle, Guillaume de Machaut, and many others, Saltzstein showcases how the music-text relationships in these songs illuminate the ways in which song helped to foster identities tied to specific landscapes among the knightly classes, the clergy, aristocratic women, and peasants.

By connecting social types to topographies, trouvère songs and the manuscripts in which they were preserved presented models of identity for later generations of songwriters, performers, listeners, patrons, and readers to emulate. These songs not only served as a means of expressing cultural heritage but also as a tool for projecting into the future specific ways of being on the land. In doing so, they contributed to the development of a rich tapestry of musical traditions.

Written in the long thirteenth century, during the last major era of climate change, trouvère songs offer a unique window into the complex interplay between identity formation and environmental relations. As Saltzstein meticulously demonstrates, these songs shape our understanding of how identity formation has rested on the intricate connections between people and their surroundings. Through her meticulous research and insightful analysis, Saltzstein has provided us with a valuable tool for exploring the multifaceted relationships between music, culture, and the natural world in medieval Europe.

Weight: 428g
Dimension: 159 x 237 x 21 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780197547786