Bernart De Ventadorn

Bernart De Ventadorn 1130-1140 – 1190-1200 Also Known As Bernart De Ventadour Was A Troubadour Composer And Poet. According To The Troubadour Uc De Saint Circ 1217?-1253? Bernart Was Possibly The Son Of A Baker At The Castle Of Ventadour Ventadorn In Corrèze France. Yet Another Source A Satirical Poem Written By A Younger Contemporary Peire D'Alvernha Indicates That He Was The Son Of Either A Servant A Soldier Or A Baker And His Mother Was Also Either A Servant Or A Baker. From Evidence Given In Bernart's Early Poem Lo Temps Vai E Ven E Vire He Most Likely Learned The Art Of Singing And Writing From His Protector Viscount Eble III Of Ventadorn. He Composed His First Poems To His Patron's Wife Marguerite De Turenne. Forced To Leave Ventadour After Falling In Love With Marguerite He Traveled To Montluçon And Toulouse And Eventually Followed Eleanor Of Aquitaine To England And The Plantagenet Court Evidence For This Association And These Travels Comes Mainly From His Poems Themselves. Later Bernart Returned To Toulouse Where He Was Employed By Raimon V Count Of Toulouse Later Still He Went To Dordogne Where He Entered A Monastery. Most Likely He Died There. Bernart Is Unique Among Secular Composers Of The 12th Century In The Amount Of Music Which Has Survived Of His 45 Poems 18 Have Music Intact An Unusual Circumstance For A Troubador Composer Music Of The Trouvères Has A Higher Survival Rate Usually Attributed To Them Surviving The Albigensian Crusade Which Scattered The Troubadors And Destroyed Many Sources . His Work Probably Dates Between 1147 And 1180. Bernart Is Often Credited With Being The Most Important Influence On The Development Of The Trouvère Tradition In Northern France Since He Was Well Known There His Melodies Were Widely Circulated And The Early Composers Of Trouvère Music Seem To Have Imitated Him. read less