Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Dedication
- Introduction
- Part I Medieval performers of narrative and their art
- Part II Medieval performance and the book
- Part III Performability and medieval narrative genres
- Part IV Perspectives from contemporary performers
- Afterword
- Works cited
- Index
Turkic bard and medieval entertainer: What a living epic tradition can tell us about oral performance of narrative in the Middle Ages
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 October 2023
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Dedication
- Introduction
- Part I Medieval performers of narrative and their art
- Part II Medieval performance and the book
- Part III Performability and medieval narrative genres
- Part IV Perspectives from contemporary performers
- Afterword
- Works cited
- Index
Summary
In the first part of Gottfried von Straßburg's courtly epic Tristan (c.1210), there is a striking moment when the young Tristan betrays his noble origin at King Mark's court in Tintagel by performing two Breton lays with astonishing musical and verbal skills. The second lay treats the unhappy love of Pyramus and Thisbe:
rîlîche huob er aber an
einen senelîchen leich als ê
de la cûrtoise Tispê
von der alten Bâbilône.
den harphete er sô schône
und gie den noten sô rehte mite
nâch rehte meisterlîchem site,
daz es den harphær wunder nam;
und als ez ie ze staten kam,
sô lie der tugenderîche
suoze unde wunneclîche
sîne schanzûne fliegen în.
er sanc diu leichnotelîn
britûnsche und gâloise,
latînsche und franzoise
sô suoze mit dem munde,
daz nieman wizzen kunde,
wederez süezer wære
oder baz lobebære,
sîn harphen oder sîn singen. (lines 3612–31)
[In fine style he struck up a second lay, full of yearning like the first, about Noble Thisbe of Old Babylon. He played it so beautifully and went with his music in so masterly fashion that the harper was amazed. And at the appropriate places, sweetly and rapturously, the accomplished youth would wing his song to meet it. He sang the notes of his lay so beautifully in Breton, Welsh, Latin, and French that you could not tell which was sweeter or deserving of more praise, his harping or his singing.]
This passage is introduced by an elaborate description of Tristan's tuning and playing the harp and of the effect his performance has on the audience: he played so beautifully “that many a man sitting or standing there forgot his very name. Hearts and ears began to play the fool and desert their rightful paths.” As Gottfried makes clear, Breton lays were sung rather than spoken and they were sung to the accompaniment of a musical instrument, typically a harp. It also emerges from this scene that a medieval audience was appreciative of music and musical skill and that a good performance had the power to move the listeners deeply.
This is not the only time in Gottfried's Tristan that the hero's musical skills as a harphære (harper, minstrel) are mentioned, nor is it the only scene in Middle High German literature in which the oral performance of a narrative text is depicted. Passages like this one occur in a great number of medieval texts.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Performing Medieval Narrative , pp. 167 - 178Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2005