Lecture: Songs As Unique Artefacts of Cultural Layers: The Legacy of a Misunderstood Troubadour

The 2021-22 Ethel V. Curry Distinguished Lecture in Musicology

This talk will focus on songs by Alfonso X (1221-1284), King of Castile and Leon, as unique artefacts that reveal multiple layers of courtly, urban, and sacred culture. Alfonso devised hundreds of Cantigas de Santa Maria to fuel his larger political aspirations and engage productively with aspects of the surrounding Arab-Andalusian civilization. He was a descendent of two Iberian dynasties, but also related to the Roman-Germanic and Byzantine emperors, as well as the Kings of England and France. Notably, he was a great-great-grandson of the first known troubadour, William, the 9th Duke of Aquitaine. The language of courtly song in most of the Iberian Peninsula during the thirteenth century was Galician-Portuguese. What is often overlooked is that King Alfonso was perhaps the leading Galician-Portuguese troubadour of his era. He embarked on his most significant, innovative, and enduring personal project when in his forties and residing in or near Seville in Southern Spain. Embracing devotional song, he substituted the Virgin Mary for the idealized earthly ladies typically desired and praised by the troubadours.