The word 'minstrel' (Spielleute in German) had many meanings in medieval Europe. It meant not only musicians such as pipers, trumpeters, violinists, fiddlers, harpists, timpanists, drummers, bag-pipers, and singers, but also varied performers such as jugglers, magicians, acrobats, ropewalkers, mimes, storytellers and others.
In previous studies about minstrels, from the viewpoint tracing the origin of professional musicians that appear after European Modern times, it is thought to the accepted opinion that the minstrels, who had been itinerant performers and were discriminated by society, improved their conditions and freed themselves from being social outcasts. But this is just a one-sided view, I believe, because the relation between the minstrels and the whole of society were not taken into consideration.
In this essay I verify the validity of the theory that the social status of minstrels had improved from late Middle Ages to early Modern times, mainly based on H. J. Moser's dissertation, Die Musikergenossenschaften im deutschen Mittelalter (The musician's company in German Middle Ages). Moser has described the transition of the social status of minstrels in three patterns:
I believe that every pattern described by Moser must be considered not only from the minstrels' side but also in the relationship with authorities. Thus, I make a survey of studies about the transition of the social status of minstrels, which is thought to have occurred from the late Middle Ages to early Modern times. Moreover, I verified, in what kind of point, the transition of their status could be said, especially focusing on the social position of professional performers.
In the first chapter, I verify the conditions of discrimination of the medieval minstrels as a premise of the transition. According to the Sachsenspiegel (Saxon mirror), which is one of the most important codes of medieval Germany with considerable influence, legal protection and legal rights of performers who led a vagabond life were severely limited in comparison to those of freemen. The same limitation on rights of performers can be seen in a number of city laws.
Moreover, in literary works of medieval theologians, for example Honorius augustdunensis (of Autun), performers were mentioned with hatred and contempt. Even St. Thomas Aquinas, who took a generous attitude toward performers, agreed to tolerate them on conditions that their activities were moderate. Most of both secular and clerical authorities assumed a hostile attitude toward them because their lifestyle, as wanderers, seemed to be closely connected with crime, and their performance and music was thought as profane amusement.
As a result, we could make certain of that it is possible to make the discriminatory conditions of the minstrels to be a premise, although there were some regional differences.
Chapter Two is assigned to the verification of the meaning of the organization of minstrels, considering the approach of both sides of the minstrels and the authorities. The purpose of the organization of minstrels was to acquire the recognition of the authorities, while a ruler in each region intended to control wandering performers and musicians. In this process, the role of Pfeiferkönig (king of musicians) or Spielgraf (count of musicians) is especially worthy of attention. Pfeiferkönig was a leader of an organization of musicians and wandering performers. He had jurisdiction over musicians and wanderers in his realm and administrated their activity through the confraternities as subordinate organizations. However, the Spielgraf supervised only their business according to law. S. Agario has classified them into four types:
Type (b) and (c) are mainly focused on in this chapter, and type (d) is mentioned in the next chapter.
Furthermore, taking the confraternity of Mater dolorosa (Holy Mother of dolor) in Alsace as an example, it became clear that the group formation of minstrels was at once the introduction into society for the minstrels and a means to incorporate the wanderers into existing administration systems for the ruling powers.
The social position and roles of minstrels in a city society are brought under review in Chapter Three, with special consideration based on R. W. Sterl's article about the town and foreign musicians of Regensburg. Municipal governments in later Middle Ages were, as a rule, dominated by small group of wealthy people, who frequently tried to draw the line between social classes through sumptuary laws. Judging from the fact that some articles of sumptuary laws regulate the number of hirable minstrels at wedding parties or banquets, it could be said that, in the process of differentiation of social classes, minstrels played a role to define the hierarchy.
At the same time, we see that the post of Stadtpfeifer (town musician), a position thought to be one of the peaks of the advancement of minstrels' condition in former studies, had varied privileges. This, in fact, was found to be a very important element in the study of the transition of social status of minstrel.
Finally, in Chapter Four, we verify the social status of minstrels after Modern times and whether it can be said that the minstrels' conditions were actually improved. The Reichspolizeiordnung (the regulation order of the Holy Roman Empire) mentions minstrel in some articles, and urges each regional government to administrate their own minstrels and to punish those who led a vagrant life. From late Fourteenth Century on, the increase of wandering beggars, due to many elements of social unrest such as war, famine, or serious epidemics of plague, made settled people uneasy, and the concept of prohibition of wandering has significance for the powers.
Thus, we point out that both minstrels and wanderers seem to be distinguished not by their occupation itself but whether they were settled or not. In addition, from the fact that the prejudice toward wanderers has remained after Modern times, for example in Johan Beer's Musikalische Discurse (Music Discourse), the same could be said.
To be sure, the comparison between the minstrels' situation in the codes of the Middle Ages and numerous privileges given to the town musician give us the impression that the social status of the minstrels had apparently improved. However, due to the verification mentioned above, I feel it must be considered with a certain degree of reservation. This is because the minstrels employed as town musicians were represented only a small part of the minstrel group and even the discriminatory conditions of the minstrels by medieval codes had regional differences.
As observed in articles of the Reichspolizeiordnung, the concept of the wanderer was very important in early modern times. Therefore, I believe what appears to be the transition of the social status of minstrels from late Middle Ages to early modern is not the separation between the minstrels as musician and itinerant performers, but the strict differentiation between settled people and wanderers.
Thus, the only conclusion that one can come to when discussing the transition of the social status of the minstrels is that only the settled people were given citizenship and improved their conditions. It is important, however, to grasp the whole tendency as a guideline in observing individual case.