Guilhem de Peitieu

Guilhem de Peitieu (1071-1126) as IX Duke of Aquitaine and VII Count of Poitiers was one of the most powerful overlords of his day. More important to musical historians is the fact that he is considered to be the first of the troubadours.

All the themes that ran through the troubadour tradition can be found in the works of Guilhem. Despite drawing on contemporary Latin and Hispano-Arabic his works are startling in their inventiveness. Despite the importance of his work only 11 songs of his remain to us, one of which is of dubious attribution and none of which have melodies, though there is a melodic fragment from a later document that seems to fit one of these songs.