Sirventes

The sirventes or serventes (Old Occitan [siɾvenˈtes]), sometimes translated as "service song", was a genre of Old Occitan lyric poetry practiced by the troubadours.

The name comes from sirvent ("serviceman"), from whose perspective the song is allegedly written. Sirventes usually (possibly, always) took the form of parodies, borrowing the melody, metrical structure and often even the rhymes of a well-known piece to address a controversial subject, often a current event. The original piece was usually a canso, but there are sirventes written as contrafacta of (at least) sestinas and pastorelas.