Music of the Troubadours: Troubadour Shmoubadour

Album: Music of the Troubadours
Year: 1100 - 1350

There is an endless debate among musicians, music theorists, and music historians about the value of authenticity in performances of old music. Is it best to perform the music as the composer originally envisioned it or should one include modern elements that will make it more palatable to the audiences of our time? This question has featured prominently in my Hopeless Journey, as I'm often forced to choose between renditions of Medieval music, each of which puts its own spin on old formula. Most such recordings will restrict themselves to instruments that were available at the time the music was written, but the performance itself is often improvisational, as is the chosen combination of instruments. Such is the case with Music of the Troubadours, a collection of old troubadour songs performed with everything from bagpipes to reed-flutes. Now you don't have to be a music historian to figure out that these performances are lacking in authenticity, but the real question is, does that matter? Can't we just enjoy the music for what it is?

No, I can't, and I think it's easy to see why -- these songs were written the way they were because of the limitations in accompaniment. How can we be expected to enjoy the lament of troubadour who has lost his castle when his poem is being drowned out by the buzzing and jangling of a cadre of overzealous 20th century musicians? It's true that my stated goal of immersing myself in ancient music is not necessarily shared by the average listener, but these "creative" additions may as well have included a computer-generated disco beat for all the good it did for the music.

I'm still determined to explore the music of the troubadours, but after listening to this recording a few times I decided that I'll have to look elsewhere. I found a more promising recording in Music of the Middle Ages, Vol. 1: Troubadour and Trouvere Songs and I'll post about it in the coming weeks.