DESCRIPTION:
Guiot de Dijon (Third Crusade ca. 1189)

Instruments:
-Flute
-Lute
-Bass rebec
-Harp

Lyrics (French Origin):
Chanterai por mon corage
Que je vueil raconforter,
Qu'avecques mon grant domage
Ne quier morir ne foler,
Quant de la terre sauvage
Ne voi mes nul retorner
Ou cil est qui ressoage
Mes maus quant g'en oi parler.

Dex, quant crïeront "Outree",
Sire, aidiés au perlerin
Par cui sui espaventee,
Car felon sont Sarazin.

Soufrerai en tel estage
Tant quel voie rapasser.
Il est en pelerinage;
Molt atent son retorner,
Car outre de mon lignage
Ne quier achoison trover
D'autrui face mariage:
Folz est qui j'en oi parler.

Dex, quant crïeront "Outree"...

De ce sui molt deceüe
Quant ne fui an convoier,
Sa chemise qu'ot vestue
M'envoia por embracier:
La nuit, quant s'amor m'argüe,
La met avec moi couchier
Molt estroit a ma char nue,
Por mes maus assoagier.

Dex, quant crïeront "Outree"...

Translated Lyrics:
I will sing to comfort my heart,
for I do not want to die or go mad
despite my great torment. I do not
see anyone come back from the
savage land where is the one who
gives peace to my hear, when I
hear him spoken of.

God! When they shout "Outree", help
the pilgrim for whom I tremble, for
the Saracens are treacherous.

I will be patient and put up with
my condition until I see him
return. He has gone on a
pilgrimage. May God allow him to
come back! And despite my lineage I
do not seek the chance to marry
another man. Anyone is mad to speak
to me of this.

God, when they shout "Outree"...

What saddens me is that I did not
accompany him when he left. He sent
me the shirt that he was wearing
that I might hold it in my arms. At
night when my love for him torments
me, I take it into bed and hold it
close to my naked body to soothe my
suffering.

God, when they shout "Outree"...

"Between the twelfth and nineteenth centuries the true events of the Crusades were romanticised beyond recognition in the poetry of troubadours, trouvères, and minnesingers, in folklore and later novels. On this recording there are two examples of troubadour texts (written in langue d'oc), eight examples of trouvère (in early French), and one of minnesang (in early German), as well as various Latin texts. Some relate directly to the Crusades such as 'Pax in nomine Domini!' and 'Chevalier, mult estes guariz'. Most, however, are from the time of the Crusades rather than having any direct relation to them. A good example is 'Ja nus hons pris', attributed to Richard the Lion-Heart.
There are approximately sixty manuscripts surviving of troubadour and trouvère poetry. Only a small number of them contain musical notation, and it is not at all clear if this music is the work of poets themselves, their scribes, or the jongleurs and minstrels who performed the songs. This early notation, like that of Gregorian chant, provides the performer with only a series of pitches to be sung and no clear indication if a specific rhythmic values (if, indeed, any were intended). Hence the performer must decide, with the help of modern theories, whether or not to impose a specific rhythm on a given song, and though one performer's interpretation might be very different from another's, both could be equally valid. We know from contemporary pictorial and literary evidence which instruments were in use in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. For strings, the early lute of four/five courses, played with a plectrum; the citole, which apparently employed metal strings, also played with a plectrum; the rebec, in various sizes and played with a bow; and the harp. For wind instruments, the simple wooden flute, the recorder, a simple form of bagpipe, and the early shawm. On this recording the crumhorn is used to simulate the sound of the bladder-pipe, a contemporary instrument. For percussion, the nakers(a small pair of kettle drums), tabor and a range of tuned bells. Ironically, the lute, shawm, and nakers had all been recently imported to Europe from the Middle East.
The performances heard here represent an attempt at solving some of the practical problems of recreating twelfth and thirteenth-century music and a desire to present as varied and useful an introduction to this repertoire as possible."

Featured Image:
Estoire del Saint Graal, La Queste del Saint Graal, Morte Artu - Lancelot Asleep in a Chapel
British Library

I do not own the rights to this song.