Guillem AugierNovella was a troubadour from Vienne in the Dauphinois who lived most of his adulthood in Lombardy and was active as a minstrel in the early or mid thirteenth century. According to his late thirteenth-century vida, "he composed good descartz and sirventes in the manner of jongleurs, in which he praised some and blamed others."

Augier spent his early career at the court of the Emperor Frederick II, and was there associated with such figures as Guilhem Figueira and Aimery de Pégulhan, until 1230. Among Augier's most famous works is his sirventes (a planh or lament) now entitled A People Grieving for the Death of their Lord, which commemorates either the murder of Raymond I Trencavel in 1167 or, as is more preferred, of Raymond Roger Trencavel in 1209. It has been described as a "funeral oration", but its contemporaneousness with the death of Raymond Roger has been called into question recently. It was probably written at a much later date. The chief purpose of the sirventes may be to mourn the lost culture of Languedoc before the Albigensian Crusade and the "lord" of the story is probably a stereotype meant to represent that culture. It can therefore be viewed as representative of a genre of anti-Crusading verse prevalent in the trovatore traditions of Italy at the time. On the other hand, it is said to convey a "sense of personal loss" and not "opposition to the expedition".

Farnell Newton (born March 21, 1977) is a composer and trumpeter. He was born in Miami, Florida. He moved to Philadelphia in 1992, where he attended the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts. While in Philadelphia, Newton also studied with his uncle, saxophonist/arranger Conny Murray and from his uncle Sunny Murray, who was one of the early avant garde's most inventive and influential drummers.

Newton graduated from the Denver School of the Arts after moving to Denver in 1994 and then moved to Ohio to study at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. At Oberlin, Newton studied music performance with an emphasis in jazz with Wendell Logan and trumpeter Kenny Davis. Newton performed with Aretha Franklin, James Moody, Muhal Richard Abrams, and Hugh Ragin while at Oberlin.

After graduating from Oberlin, Newton moved to Portland, Oregon, where he performed regularly with Billy Hart, Pete Krebs, Willy Vlautin, and Ricardo Lemvo.

In 1999, Newton graduated with a bachelor's degree in music from Oberlin Conservatory, and went on to obtain a master's degree in Jazz studies and Performance from the Portland State University.