ABSTRACT
Latin secular song is no doubt the form in which should expect to find the earliest remnants of a purely European art, untouched by oriental elements. The music of the troubadours was, as far as the surviving music is concerned, an exclusively lyrical art. There are no examples of epic or dramatic music extant, although the epic as a literary form was known and may have been sung. What has come down is a fairly small number of manuscripts, some of which also include trouvere song. The formative influences on trouvère style included not only that of the troubadours but also that of popular music. The jongleurs, whose counterparts existed under various denominations in other parts of Europe, were the poor relatives of the goliards or travelling scholars, lacking their clerical status and knowledge of Latin. The German counterparts to the troubadours and trouveres were the Minnesinger, whose subject was courtly love.
