Las formas con estribillo en la lírica oral del Medioevo

Abstract

This essay analyses the musical and stanza forms pertaining to the most archaic poetical categories to be found in the romance languages, in relation to the Medieval oral tradition and to non-cortes literary texts. Recourse to the "zejel", apart from its obvious Arabic origins, can be traced in Provencal to the pre-troubadour period ("Laissatz estar lo gazel"), and the first known instances of "rotrouenge" appeared in the X century in the Alba de Fleury, and the "rondeau", in its simplest form (strophic verses alternating with a refrain), appeared in the works of the writer Hilario el Inglés, a disciple of Abelardo. All the latter refer to hybrid texts, either in Latin (Arabic, where "moaxajas" are concerned) or some early romance tongue or other, which is difficult to identify at times; however, there is no doubt that we can plainly discern the essential traits of what these forms would resemble during the troubadour period and throughout the whole of the Lower Middle Ages.