The 13th century saw the rise of single-voice songs in French written by poet-musicians known as trouvères. My research examines the interaction of trouvère song with the cultural influences on its authors in two geographical regions: Paris and the area including the Duchy of Brabant and the County of Flanders. These two areas are already recognized for their roles in cultural history, but ignored by scholars of the trouvères. In my study of Brabant and Flanders, I focus on relationships between trouvères and their patrons one of whom, Marie de Brabant, took her court musicians to Paris when she became queen. By following quotations of songs by songs back to their source, I will ask what connections these court musicians made in their works. By quantifying change in melodic style and preferences for certain genres over time within the court, I ask how much music is influenced by the personal preferences of these powerful patrons of the arts. To determine the influence of prestigious Latin genres on trouvère song, I use direct melodic comparison. I will also contextualize French song into the intellectual life of the city by using writings on rhetoric to describe the polemical strategies of Parisian melody. I employ this comparative technique to ask whether University education influenced the musical rhetoric of trouvère songs. The result of this project comprises an atlas of musical influence.