Minstrel

minstrel, professional secular musician of the Middle Ages. The modern application of the term is general and includes the jongleurs. Certain very able jongleurs ceased their wanderings and were attached to a court to play or sing the songs of the troubadours or trouvères who employed them. To these and to some itinerant musicians was applied in the 14th cent. the term ménétrier and later ménestrel, from which the word minstrel is derived, to indicate a higher social class than jongleur. Increasing in number and influence, these minstrels were organized and given protection of the law. Their function was at times similar to that of the Welsh bard.

Bibliography

See E. Duncan, The Story of Minstrelsy (1907, repr. 1969).

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minstrel

Wandering musician of the Middle Ages, often of low status. The term (and equivalents such as Latin ioculator and French jongleur) was applied in medieval times to people ranging from singing beggars to traveling musicians hired by towns for special occasions to court jesters. The modern folksinger is a descendant. See also minstrel show.

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minstrel

1. History a medieval wandering musician who performed songs or recited poetry with instrumental accompaniment

2. a performer in a minstrel show

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Minstrel 

(1) A professional singer and musician in feudal France and England, sometimes a storyteller and reciter, often both a poet and composer. In the late 12th and the 13th century, with the world of poetry and music centering on the feudal court, minstrels were primarily in the service of a seignior, whom they would accompany in military campaigns. Many trouveres and troubadours were among the court minstrels. From the 14th to the 18th century, folk musicians who lived in towns or strolled around fairs and rural areas were also called minstrels. In the cities fraternities of minstrels were set up. Folk minstrels often circulated political news, participated in many popular movements, and were often persecuted by the authorities and the church. In western European romantic literature the name “minstrel” was given to an idealized image of the medieval poet-singer.

(2) In the metaphorical, poetic sense, a minstrel is a singer or poet (obsolete).

REFERENCE

Chambers, E. K. The Medieval Stage, vol. 1, book 1. Oxford, 1903.

A. I. DROBINSKII