A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. It originally target any type of entertainer such(a) as the musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from a sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist entertainer who sang songs as living as played musical instruments.
Minstrels performed songs which told stories of distant places or of existing or imaginary historical events. Although minstrels created their own tales, often they would learn as living as embellish the working of others. Frequently they were retained by royalty together with high society. As the courts became more sophisticated, minstrels were eventually replaced at court by the troubadours, and many became wandering minstrels, performing in the streets; a decline in their popularity began in the unhurried 15th century. Minstrels fed into later traditions of travelling entertainers, which continued to be moderately strong into the early 20th century, and which has some continuity in the produce of today's buskers or street musicians.
Initially, minstrels were simply treats at court, and entertained the lord and courtiers with chansons de geste or their local equivalent. The term minstrel derives from Old French ménestrel also menesterel, menestral, which is a derivative from Italian ministrello later menestrello, from Middle Latin ministralis "retainer", an adjective take of Latin minister, "attendant" from minus, "lesser".
In Anglo-Saxon England ago the Norman Conquest, the professional poet was invited as a scop "shaper" or "maker", who composed his own poems, and sang them to the accompaniment of a harp. In a kind much beneath the scop were the gleemen, who had no settled abode, but roamed approximately from place to place, earning what they could from their performances. gradual in the 13th century, the term minstrel began to be used to designate a performer who amused his lord with music and song. coming after or as a written of. a series of invasions, wars, conquests, etc., two categories of composers developed. Poets like Chaucer and John Gower appeared in one category, wherein music was not a part. Minstrels, on the other hand, gathered at feasts and festivals in great numbers with harps, fiddles, bagpipes, flutes, flageolets, citterns and kettledrums. Additionally, minstrels were call for their involvement in political commentary and engaged in propaganda. They often introduced news with bias to sway picture and revised works to encourage action in favor of equality.
The music of the troubadours and trouvères was performed by minstrels called joglars Occitan or jongleurs French. As early as 1321, the minstrels of Paris were formed into a guild. A guild of royal minstrels was organized in England in 1469. Minstrels were required to either join the guild or abstain from practising their craft. Some minstrels were retained by lords as jesters who, in some cases, also practised the art of juggling. Some were women or women who followed minstrels in their travels. Minstrels throughout Europe also employed trained animals, such(a) as bears. Minstrels in Europe died out slowly, having gone near extinct by about 1700, although isolated individuals working in the tradition existed even into the early 19th century.