ABSTRACT
Guilhem IX (1 071-1126), usually identified in the chansonniers as Lo Corns de Peiteus, is the first known troubadour, the first important poet in any medieval vernacular. His compositions, in one way or another, inspired most later poets. He was also one of the most powerful feudal overlords of his day. This combination of political and poetic prominence has attracted a host of modem critics to the man and to his works (a rich harvest of studies is to be found in Hasenohr-Zink 1992). Eleven songs (one of doubtful authenticity) have been attributed to him. The songs encompass a range of themes and tones: Guilhem IX is a master of the extremes of bawdiness as of the fragile images of love. Singlehandedly, as far as we know, he forged a new, lay poetic voice to express the concerns of the southern urbanized aristocracy. No music survives with the poems. But in a 14th-century play, the leu de Sainte Agnes, there is a text that is to be sung, according to the stage directions, "in sonu del comte de Peytieu," "to the melody by the Count of Poitiers." The melody given there is incomplete; but enough of it survives to allow us to see that it would fit the poem "Pos de chantar m'es pres talentz."
