. The Provençal alba (OFr. aube) is a lyric monologue or series of monologues, possibly originating in a popular tradition indigenous to practically every culture, that expresses in its most typical form the sadness of lovers who, having spent the night together, must part and/or the concern of the watchman, whose duty it is to warn them of the fast-approaching day. The Provençal dawn song contains a refrain consisting minimally of the word alba and occasionally uses alba as a generic designation. Its French counterpart, remaining closer to popular sources, makes no such use of aube. Whereas only five aubes survive, four of them anonymously, eighteen albas are preserved, thirteen of which are attributed. Music accompanies one aube and two albas.
Though apparently never popular in Italy, the form was adopted by the German Minnesänger as the Tagelied. The troubadours, notably Guiraut Riquier, developed several variations on the standard dawn-song theme, such as the counter-alba, in which the solitary lover longs for the coming of night, when he will be united with his beloved, and the religious alba, in which the dawn becomes a metaphor for the Day of Judgment.
Riquer, Martín de, ed. Las albas provenzales. Barcelona, 1944.
Poe, Elizabeth W. “The Three Modalities of the Old Provençal Dawn Song.” Romance Philology 37(1984):259–72.
——. “La transmission de l’ ‘alba’ en ancien provençal.” Cahiers de civilisation médiévale 31(1988):323–45.
Woledge, Brian. “Old Provençal and Old French.” In Eos: An Enquiry into the Theme of Lovers’ Meetings and Pelicier, at Dawn in Poetry, ed. Arthur T.Hatto. The Hague: Mouton, 1965.
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