@ & Country France

Birth ca. 1300 in Machaut, Champagne (?), FranceDeath Apr 13, 1377 in Rheims (?), France

Period MedievalComposition 

Types All Works   (94) Vocal Music   (67) Choral Music   (13)

Generally acclaimed the greatest composer of the fourteenth century is Guillaume de Machaut, born in Champagne around 1300. In the early 1320s he entered the service of John, Duke of Luxembourg and King of Bohemia, who secured for Machaut various ecclesiastical posts, docu-

mented in a series of papal bulls. One of the most important was a canonry at Rheims Cathedral, although there is no evidence that Machaut was ever a practicing clergyman or even particularly pious; indeed, most of his music is secular. He remained in John's service until the latter's death at the Battle of Crécy in 1346, after which his continuing association with high nobility enabled him to travel freely. Around 1350 Machaut found a new patron in Charles, King of Navarre and pretender to the French throne. Like so many other medieval composers, Machaut was both musician and poet. His works are preserved to a degree astonishing for the fourteenth century: there are manuscripts for hun-dreds of poems and some 145 musical works. The poems are particularly fascinating for the light they shed on Machaut's own life and times; they record such events as the Black Death, which ravaged Europe in 1348 and 1349, and the Siege of Rheims in the early part of the Hundred Years' War. On a happier level his poetry reveals a love of falconry, riding, and the beauties of the French countryside. In some respects a conservative who built on existing traditions, such as the isorhythmic motet and even the monophonic trouvère song, he was, however, a composer of rare versatility whose music covers a range much wider than that suggested by his most fa-mous work, the Messe de Nostre Dame (Notre Dame Mass). The fame of that work has tended to obscure Machaut's secular works; his songs are his most characteristic pieces. Lyrical in spirit, with a new emphasis on melody in the top or cantus line, they nevertheless contain considerable subtleties in their manipulation of musical and verbal re-frains. One of the most popular of the so-called formes fixes of the day was the virelai, a princi-pal feature of which is that words and music have refrains that do not coincide with each other. Most of Machaut's virelais are monophonic, showing the continuing influence of the trouvères. These represent the most approachable side of his art, particularly in as happy an example as the delightful "Foy Porter." Two other song forms Machaut cultivated were the rondeau and the ballade. A particularly striking example of the latter is "Dame, de qui toute ma joie vieni," a song of infectious rhythmic vitality in praise of the poet's lady. Set polyphonically for four voices, this ballade, like the virelai mentioned above, has three strophic stanzas. The musical form of this and other ballades is A-A-B-C, the last section being a verse refrain. The celebrity of the Messe de Nostre Dame probably owes much to its place in musical history as the first extant complete mass setting by a single composer. It is however possible that (as with Bach's Mass in B minor) its individual sections were not composed with a view to complete performance, a supposition supported by the work's diversity of styles and absence of thematic unity. Complex isorhythms are applied to all four parts in the shorter-texted sections (Kyrie, Sanctus and Agnus Dei), while the Gloria and the Credo are monosyllabic. The title, incidentally, refers not to Notre Dame in Paris, but the great cathedral of Rheims, the coronation place of the kings of France and, as already mentioned, the location of Machaut's canonry. -- Brian Robins

Vocal music

13?? Amours me fait desirer, ballade for 3 voices Ballade 13?? Ballades Ballade 13?? Biaute qui toutes autres pere, ballade for 3 voices Ballade 13?? C'est force, faire le weil, virelai for voice Virelai 13?? Comment qu'a moy lonteinne, virelai for voice Virelai 13?? Dame de qui toute ma joie vient, ballade for 4 voices Ballade 13?? Dame, a qui m'ottri, virelai for voice Virelai 13?? Dame, a vous sans retollir, virelai for voice Virelai 13?? Dame, je weil endurer, virelai for voice Virelai

 13?? Dame, mon cuer emportés, virelai for 2 voicesTwo Solo Voices (with or without Key-board/Continuo)

 13?? Dame, mon cuer en vous, rondeau for 3 voices Rondeau

 13?? Dame, ne regardés pas, ballade for 2 voicesTwo Solo Voices (with or without Key-board/Continuo)

 13?? Dame, se vous m'estés lointeinne, ballade for voice Ballade 13?? Dame, vostre doulz viaire, virelai for voice Virelai

 13??De Fortune me doy pleindre, ballade for 3 (or 4) voices

Ballade

 13?? De bonté, de valour, virelai for voice Virelai

 13??De desconfort, de martyre amoureus, ballade for 2 voices

Vocal Music

 13?? De petit po, de nient volente, ballade for 3 voices Miscellaneous Vocal Music

 13?? De tout sui si confortee, virelai for 2 voicesTwo Solo Voices (with or without Key-board/Continuo)

 13?? De toutes flours, ballade for 3 voices Ballade

 13??De triste cuer/Quant vrais amans/Certes, je di, ballade for 3 voices

Ballade

 13?? Donnez, signeurs, ballade for 3 voices Ballade 13?? Douce dame jolie, virelai for voice Virelai 13?? Doulz amis, oy mon compleint, ballade for 2 voices Vocal Music 13?? Doulz viaire gracieus, rondeau for 3 voices Rondeau 13?? En amer a douce vie, ballade for 4 voices Ballade 13?? Esperance qui masseüre, ballade for 2 voices Vocal Music 13?? Foy porter, honneur garder, virelai for voice Virelai 13?? Gais et jolis, ballade for 3 voices Ballade 13?? Honte, paour, doubtance, ballade for 3 voices Ballade ca. 1360 Hoquetus David, double hocket for 3 voices Hocket/Hoquetus

 13??Il m'est avis qu'il n'est dons de Nature, ballade for 4 voices

Ballade

 13?? J'aim sans penser laidure, virelai for voice Vocal Music

 13??Je puis trop bien ma dame comparer, ballade for 3 voices

Ballade

 13?? Je sui aussi com cilz, ballade for 2 or 3 voices Ballade 13?? Je vivroie liement, virelai for voice Virelai

 13??Joie, plaisence et douce nourriture, chanson royal for 1 voice

Vocal Music

 13?? Liement me deport par samblant, virelai for voice Virelai

 13??Ma fin est mon commencement, rondeau for 3 voices

Rondeau

 13?? Mes esperis se combat, ballade for 3 voices Ballade

 13?? Mors sui se je ne vous voy, virelai for 2 voicesTwo Solo Voices (with or without Key-board/Continuo)

 13?? Moult sui de bonne heure nee, virelai for 2 voicesTwo Solo Voices (with or without Key-board/Continuo)

  Nes que on porroit, ballade for 3 voices Ballade 13?? On ne porroit penser, ballade for 3 voices Ballade 13?? Pas de tor en thies païs, ballade for 3 voices Ballade 13?? Phyton le mervilleus serpent, ballade for 3 voices Ballade 13?? Plourez dames, ballade for 3 voices Ballade

 13?? Plus dure qu'un dyamant, virelai for 2 voicesTwo Solo Voices (with or without Key-board/Continuo)

 13?? Puis que ma dolour agree, virelai for voice Vocal Music 13?? Quant Theseus/Ne quier veoir, ballade for 4 voices Ballade

 13?? Quant j'ay l'espart, rondeau for 2 voicesTwo Solo Voices (with or without Key-board/Continuo)

 13?? Quant je ne voy ma dame, rondeau for 3 voices Rondeau 13?? Quant je sui mis su retour, virelai for voice Virelai 13?? Rondeaux Rondeau 13?? Rose, liz, rondeau for 4 voices Rondeau

 13??Sanz cuer/Amis, dolens/Dame, par vous, ballade for 3 voices

Ballade

 13?? Se d'amer me repentoie, virelai for voice Virelai

 13?? Se je souspir parfondement, virelai for 2 voicesTwo Solo Voices (with or without Key-board/Continuo)

 13?? Se ma dame m'a guerpy, virelai for voice Virelai 13?? Se mesdisans en acort, virelai for voice Virelai

 13??Tant doucement me sens emprisonnés, rondeau for 4 voices

Rondeau

 13?? Tels rit au main qui au soir, complainte for voice Vocal Music 13?? Tres bonne et belle, mi oueil, virelai for 3 voices Virelai 13?? Tres douce dame que j'aour, ballade for 2 voices Vocal Music 1349 -1363

Tuit me penser sont, virelai for voice Virelai

 13?? Une vipere en cuer, ballade for 2 voices Vocal Music  Virelais Virelai

Coral Music

13??Bone pastor Guillerme/Bone pastor qui pastores/(tenor), motet for 3 voices

Motet

 13?? Dame, je sui cilz/Fins cuers doulz/(tenor), motet for 3 voices Motet 13?? De bon espoir/Puis que la douce/Speravi, motet for 3 voices Motet ca. 1360

Felix virgo/Inviolata genitrix/Ad te suspiramus, motet for 4 voices

Motet

 13??Hareu, hareu, le feu/Helas, ou sera/Obediens usque ad mortem, motet for 3 voice parts

Motet

 13??Lasse! comment oublieray/Se j'aim mon loyal/Pour quoy me bat mes maris?, motet for 3 voices

Motet

 ca. 1364

Messe de Nostre Dame, mass for 4 voices Mass

  Motets Motet 13?? Quant en moy/Amour et biaute/Amara Valde, motet for 3 voices Motet

 13??Qui es promesses de Fortune/Ha, Fortune! trop suis mis loing/Et non est qui adjuvet, motet for 3 voices

Motet

 13??S'il estoit nulz/S'amours tous/Et gaudebit cor vestrum, motet for 3 voices

Motet

 13?? S'onques douleureusement ("Lay de confort"), lai for 3 voicesPart Song/Glee/Music for Unac-companied Voices

 13??Trop plus est bele/Biaute paree/Je ne sui mie, motet for 3 voices

Motet