The ''alba'' (; "sunrise") is a

genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...

Old Occitan Old Occitan ( oc, occitan ancian, label=Occitan language, Modern Occitan, ca, occità antic), also called Old Provençal, was the earliest form of the Occitano-Romance languages, as attested in writings dating from the eighth through the fourteen ...

lyric poetry Modern lyric poetry is a formal type of poetry which expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically spoken in the first person. It is not equivalent to song lyrics, though song lyrics are often in the lyric mode, and it is also ''not'' equi ...

. It describes the longing of lovers who, having passed a night together, must separate for fear of being discovered. A common figure found in the ''alba'' is the ''guaita'' ("sentry" or "guard"), a friend who alerts the lovers when the hour has come to separate. The lovers often accuse the ''guaita'' of dozing, being inattentive or separating them too early. The lovers fear not just the lady's husband but also the ''lauzengiers'', the jealous rival. The following example, composed by an anonymous

troubadour A troubadour (, ; oc, trobador ) was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). Since the word ''troubadour'' is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a ''trobairit ...

, describes the longing of a knight for his lady as they part company after a night of forbidden love. Though generally representative of the style, this particular verse uses an atypical

strophic Strophic form – also called verse-repeating form, chorus form, AAA song form, or one-part song form – is a song structure in which all verses or stanzas of the text are sung to the same music. Contrasting song forms include through-composed, ...

pattern. Under the influence of the Occitan troubadours, the

Minnesinger (; "love song") was a tradition of lyric- and song-writing in Germany and Austria that flourished in the Middle High German period. This period of medieval German literature began in the 12th century and continued into the 14th. People who wr ...

s developed a similar genre, the

Tagelied The Tagelied (''dawn song'') is a particular form of mediaeval German-language lyric, taken and adapted from the Provençal troubadour tradition (in which it was known as the alba) by the German Minnesinger. Often in three verses, it depicts the ...

, in Germany, and in northern France the

trouvère ''Trouvère'' (, ), sometimes spelled ''trouveur'' (, ), is the Northern French (''langue d'oïl'') form of the ''langue d'oc'' (Occitan) word ''trobador'', the precursor of the modern French word ''troubadour''. ''Trouvère'' refers to poet- ...

s developed an equivalent ''

aube Aube () is a French department in the Grand Est region of north-eastern France. As with sixty departments in France, this department is named after a river: the Aube. With 310,242 inhabitants (2019),Galician-Portuguese Galician-Portuguese ( gl, galego-portugués or ', pt, galego-português or ), also known as Old Portuguese or as Medieval Galician when referring to the history of each modern language, was a West Iberian languages, West Iberian Romance languag ...

trovadorismo In the Middle Ages, the Galician-Portuguese lyric, also known as ''trovadorismo'' in Portugal and ''trobadorismo'' in Galicia, was a lyric poetic school or movement. All told, there are around 1680 texts in the so-called secular lyric or ''lí ...

'' movement, but only one example of it, by

Nuno Fernandes Torneol Nuno Fernandes Torneol was a Galician-Portuguese trovador. He probably worked in the middle of the thirteenth century at the courts of Ferdinand III and Alfonso X of Castile. In "De longas vias, mui longas mentiras", the only '' cantiga de escár ...

, survives. In 1263, as a counterpart to the ''alba'',

Guiraut Riquier Guiraut Riquier de Narbona ( 1230 in Narbonne – 1292 in Narbonne or Rodez) is among the last of the Occitan troubadours. He is well known because of his great care in writing out his works and keeping them together—the New Grove Encyclopedia c ...

composed a song he called a '' serena'' (evening song), in which a lover complains about waiting for the evening.

List of Occitan ''albas''

Only 18 albas are known.

References

{{Western medieval lyric forms Western medieval lyric forms Occitan literary genres

List of Occitan ''albas''

See also

References