- Uc Brunet
Uc Brunet, Brunec, or Brunenc ( _en. Hugh, _la. Ugo; fl. 1190–1220)Aubrey, 19.] was a nobleman and
troubadour fromRodez in theRouergue . Six of his works survive.Outside of his own works and those of other troubadours, including a "vida", Uc is mentioned in only one document dated to around 1190. The document relates the settlement between Uc and the abbey of
Bonnecombe , from which Uc had demanded free lodging for himself, five of his knights, and a servant. Uc's career can be extended as late as the c. 1220 by the "planh " (lament) written on his death byDaude de Pradas , who was only active from about that time. Among Uc's patrons wereHugh II of Rodez , his suzerain;Alfonso II of Aragon ;Raymond VI of Toulouse ;Bernard VII of Anduze ; andDalfi d'Alvernha .The author of Uc's "vida" (biography), whose reliability is difficult to ascertain, states that Uc was a
cleric well-versed in letters with a natural wit.Egan, 107.] From this background he became ajongleur and then a troubadour, but he never, according to his "vida", composed any music. Nonetheless, one of his songs is accompanied by a melody in one manuscript; the melody may be Uc's or somebody else's.Uc's "vida" provides an interesting story which cannot be verified that Uc fell in love with a bourgeois women named Galiana, from
Aurillac . She dismissed him, however, and took Hugh of Rodez as her lover. In his pain Uc Brunet entered the "order of Cartosa" (probably an unidentifiedcharterhouse ) and there died.One of Hugh's datable works is a "
sirventes ", "Conplidas razos novelas e plazens", which mentions the death of "los comtes", evidently the count of Rodez, in 1208.Aubrey, 46.] It is the only work of Uc's to survive with a melody. The melody ismelisma tic and tonal with its centre generally on F, though it ends on D.Aubrey, 180, 234–235.]ources
*Aubrey, Elizabeth. "The Music of the Troubadours". Indiana University Press, 1996. ISBN 0 253 21389 4.
*Egan, Margarita, ed. and trans. "The Vidas of the Troubadours". New York: Garland, 1984. ISBN 0 8240 9437 9.Notes
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