But very soon the technical perfection of the
Provencal poetry and the Provencal ideal of courtesy and love, famous
all over Europe, strongly influenced the German mind.
The new poetry and the ideal of chivalry and the service of woman were
the first independent developments able to hold their own by the side of
ecclesiastical culture. The rigid Latin was superseded; the soul of man
sang in its own language of the return of spring, the beauty of woman,
knighthood and adventure. Poetry became the most important source of
secular education, and as each nation sang in its own tongue, national
characteristics shone out through the individuality of the singer.
Provencals, Frenchmen, Germans and Italians realised that they belonged
to different races. This was particularly the case during the Crusades
when, under the auspices of the Church, the nations of Europe had
apparently undertaken a common task.
In Provence, in France and Germany, every poem was set to music, and
thus, simultaneously with the lyrical art, secular music was evolved.
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