Minstrel, jongleur

Minstrel, jongleur
 

"Juglar" in Spanish.
Is there any difference between a minstrel and a jongleur?

I think the main difference is probably that people have heard the word "minstrel" before and won't ask you what it means.

Here in the US at least, "minstrel", "jongleur" and "troubador" are viewed as more-or-less synonymous terms, at least when used alone.

To my ear, "minstrel" suggests a singer/musician who performed popular songs for a general audience, while "troubador" suggests a singer/musician who performed songs for a more high-class audience, and "jongleur" seems less specific, suggesting someone who was as likely to have been a juggler or other type of act as to be a singer/musician.

The word "minstrel" has a negative association in the US today due to the expression "minstrel show", which was a type of popular entertainment from the later 19th and earler 20th century that featured humorous songs, instrumental pieces, and skits that parodied the lives of American Negroes.

The "trovador" is clearly different. They were composers and poets, a kind of songwriters who were often members of the nobility.

The "juglar", from the common people, is what you say for jongleur: a kind of street enterteiner who could sing, play instruments, tell stories, do juggling, acrobatics...

Both words, in Spanish (or in Spain), are used for Middle Ages persons. From your post, I assume that the minstrel is not always related to the Middle Ages. What about the jongleur?

Thanks for weekend commnents. :)

Unlike wrholt, I've never heard the word jongleur used, and would have to look up the meaning (like pjt33, I assume).
I would use jester (court jester) to name an entertainer from the Middle Ages.
In today's world, I would use street entertainer or a juggler. If the street entertainer is performing magic, I would say he's a street magician (but only when he is out on the street). On stage, he'd be a stage magician.

The word we use for jongleur is busker or street entertainer. Busker is a term more commonly heard in Britain than the United States (buskers of Covent Garden for instance) but it's a word generally known among show folk in New York as well.

In the US at least, minstrel, with no other context, usually implies a (street) performer from the Middle Ages.

I learned the word "jongleur" while I was a university student because my particular social circle included members of my school's local chapter of the Society for Creative Anachronism; those who played at medieval-style entertainments called ourselves "jongleurs". (I played my trombone, and called it a sackbut, for example. Others played recorders, shawms, rackets, and other odd instrucments. Some of us sang madrigals. And some did non-musical acts.)

i was thinking in that "minstrel show" you mentioned. Apart from that, I think the conclusion is that "jongleur" and "minstrel" have the same meaning.

poli: I already learnt the word "busker" when busking myself in Ireland. That word, anyway, is a "recent" word:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/busker