‘Sîn liet erklang im schône…’: A Reassessment of the Role of the Fiddle and Harp in the Performance of Minnesang (c. 1170–c. 1340)

Although the question of instrumental accompaniment in troubadour and trouvère song has been researched intensively and a general consensus reached—namely, that it was performed a cappella or with minimal accompaniment of fiddle or harp—the issue has been effectively ignored in the equivalent German repertory, i.e. minnesang. The current thesis aims to address this lacuna. After briefly tracing the history and current position of scholarship on minnesang and instrumentation, the thesis will thoroughly investigate relevant literary, written and artistic evidence for the fiddle (chapters 1–3) and harp (chapter 4) before turning towards material pertinent to the voice (chapter 5). In chapter 1, the famous passage in the Nibelungenlied in which Volker sings with his fiddle, and which is generally assumed to represent a performance of minnesang, forms a focused case study. Chapter 2 then conducts a comprehensive examination of remaining Middle High German written evidence for the fiddle, considered both according to the question of song accompaniment and more broadly regarding German fiddle practices and repertory. This is followed in chapter 3 by an analysis along similar lines into German artworks depicting fiddles. The collective results of these three chapters, which include many neglected literary sources and visual representations, unambiguously suggest that minnesang was not typically performed with fiddle accompaniment. These findings set the stage for an examination in chapter 4 of the case for the harp (in many ways linked to that for the fiddle) and, in chapter 5, evidence which names known minnesänger singing in performance contexts. These two chapters further underline the general absence of evidence for instrumental accompaniment in minnesang. Finally, the collective results of the thesis call for a reassessment of monophonic secular song accompaniment from across Europe, including via reconsideration of medieval attitudes towards specific instruments and their usage in surviving repertory.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Robinson, Richard

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Barrett, Samuel
• Chinca, Mark

• minnesang
• performance
• fiddle
• harp
• voice

Licence

• https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/ac686361-b231-48bb-b54c-7f33b7672975/download
• http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/allrightsreserved

Language dc:language

eng

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.116198

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/380633