Music in the time of Saint-Louis

Musical portrait of the France of Saint Louis, cultural and artistic reference of all the West, between songs of trouvères and polyphonic conduits, language of oïl and Latin, love for the earthly lady and for the lady of the sky...

The 13th century is the century of Saint Louis, that of royal, triumphant Gothic art. At a time when France is covered with churches and convents, at a time when the king is strengthening his power and his power at the expense of the great feudal lords, when the Church is trying to control a society that is becoming secularized and urbanized, music experiences two decisive innovations that will mark our artistic history in a profound way: the birth of secular music and polyphony. Following the troubadours (the first musical poets to dare to free themselves from Latin and to invent the first love songs), the trouvères in turn “find” and compose melodies and poems in the language of oïl, ancestor of our modern French. They left us an immense repertoire of astonishing richness and freshness. Likewise, the ingenuity, the creative audacity of the cantors of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris who, for the first time, invented music for 3 or 4 voices, struck the ears of contemporaries like ours, admirers of so much mastery and innovative beauty.