Martin Codax

A troubadore (composer and poet) from NW Spain (Galicia/Portugal) in the thirteenth century. Seven of Codax's poems survive (six with music). These are the only poems with music (songs) from this part of the world to have survived from the Middle Ages. The melodic range does not exceed a sixth and the settings are fundamentally syllabic with occasional melismas. Codax used a simple musical form (AAB) and parallel couplets formed the structure of his rhythmic schema. ~ Keith Johnson