Songs of the Women Trouvères

This groundbreaking anthology brings together for the first time the works of women poet-composers, or trouvères, in northern France in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Refuting the long-held notion that there are no extant Old French lyrics by women from this period, the editors of the volume present songs attributed to eight named female trouvères along with a varied selection of anonymous compositions in the feminine voice that may have been composed by women. The book includes the Old French texts of seventy-five compositions, extant music for eighteen monophonic songs and nineteen polyphonic motets, English translations, and a substantial introduction.

Eglal Doss-Quinby is professor of French at Smith College. Joan Tasker Grimbert is professor of French at the Catholic University of America. Wendy Pfeffer is professor of French and chair of Classical and Modern Languages at the University of Louisville. Elizabeth Aubrey is professor of musicology at the University of Iowa.

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