Jordan Bonel, sometimes also de Confolens (fl. late 12th century), was a
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 ...
from western
Aquitaine about whom very little is definitively known except that he was associated with the court of
Alfonso II of Aragon
Alfonso II (1–25 March 1157Benito Vicente de Cuéllar (1995)«Los "condes-reyes" de Barcelona y la "adquisición" del reino de Aragón por la dinastía bellónida» p. 630-631; in ''Hidalguía''. XLIII (252) pp. 619–632."Alfonso II el Casto, hi ...
.
[Aubrey, 222.] His ''
vida
Vida means “life” in Spanish and Portuguese. It may refer to:
Geography
* Vida (Gradačac), village in Bosnia and Herzegovina
* Lake Vida, Victoria Valley, Antarctica
* U.S. settled places:
** Vida, Montana
** Vida, Oregon
** Vida, Missour ...
'' states that he was from
Saintonge
Saintonge may refer to:
*County of Saintonge, a historical province of France on the Atlantic coast
*Saintonge (region), a region of France corresponding to the historical province
Places
*Saint-Genis-de-Saintonge, a commune in the Charente-Mari ...
and he appears to have been contemporary with
Bertran de Born
Bertran de Born (; 1140s – by 1215) was a baron from the Limousin in France, and one of the major Occitan troubadours of the 12th-13th century. He composed love songs (cansos) but was better known for his political songs (sirventes). He wa ...
.
[Aubrey, 10. His ''vida'' is less than completely reliable because it suffers some of the serious errors found in a '' razo'' for one of Bertran de Born's works.] His surviving corpus probably consists of three ''
canso
The Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO) is a representative body of companies that provide air traffic control. It represents the interests of Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs). CANSO members are responsible for supporting ov ...
s'', wherein only one is attributed to him, though its melody survives:
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The melody has similar to those of
Arnaut de Maruelh
Arnaut de Mareuil (''fl.'' late 12th century) was a troubadour, composing lyric poetry in the Occitan language. Twenty-five, perhaps twenty-nine, of his songs, all ''cansos'', survive, six with music. According to Hermann Oelsner's contribution to ...
, but is rather conservative when compared with his more illustrious contemporaries.
It is in AAB form with musical rhymes at the
cadences.
One of Jordan's ''cansos'' is said to refer to the
Holy Land
The Holy Land; Arabic: or is an area roughly located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Eastern Bank of the Jordan River, traditionally synonymous both with the biblical Land of Israel and with the region of Palestine. The term "Holy ...
by Linda Paterson, though neither she nor Kurt Lewent classifies it as a "
crusading song A Crusade song ( oc, canso de crozada, ca, cançó de croada, german: Kreuzlied) is any vernacular lyric poem about the Crusades. Crusade songs were popular in the High Middle Ages: 106 survive in Occitan, forty in Old French, thirty in Middle High ...
". The poem actually refers to
Edessa
Edessa (; grc, Ἔδεσσα, Édessa) was an ancient city (''polis'') in Upper Mesopotamia, founded during the Hellenistic period by King Seleucus I Nicator (), founder of the Seleucid Empire. It later became capital of the Kingdom of Osroene ...
as representing the far reaches of the earth. The same song celebrates
Guiborc de Montausier, the "viscountess" of
Chalais (''Chales'' or ''Chaletz''):
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[Kastner, 410.]
References
*Aubrey, Elizabeth. ''The Music of the Troubadours''. Indiana University Press, 1996. .
*Kastner, L. E
"Notes on the Poems of Bertran de Born."''
The Modern Language Review'', Vol. 27, No. 4. (Oct., 1932), pp. 398–419.
*Paterson, Linda M. "Occitan Literature and the Holy Land." ''The World of Eleanor of Aquitaine: Literature and Society in Southern France between the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries'', edd. Marcus Bull and Catherine Léglu. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2005. .
Notes
{{authority control
12th-century French troubadours
People from Poitou-Charentes