A Chanter M'er

Beatriz, Countess of Dia (12th C.) (France) allows us a unique personal perspective of a world ruled by a rigid code of courtly love. The text for this song is outside the male, more formal, esthetic of courtly love because of its directness, immediacy and personal viewpoint. The Countess, wife of Guilhèm de Poitiers, lived in southern France in the 12th century, a period favorable for the economic independence of aristocratic women. The legal system in southern France allowed women to inherit property. They often ruled their family estates while their husbands were away fighting in the crusades, freedoms that were gradually whittled away in later centuries. Although this was an era when poetry and music by women flourished, there are only 23 surviving poems by women and only four melodies. We are fortunate to have the both the melody and poetic text for the Countess of Dia's song, one of only two extant melodies of its kind surviving from the 12th century. Countess de Dia