Guillaume de Machaut - Quant en moy (16/25) {isorhythmic motet}

[fleurdefietska]

I cannot thank you enough for putting this up! I have to give a presentation in my music class about him and I just have to tell everything in your discription box;)

This music is not what I usually listen to but I quite enjoy it actually (:

[racerboyGTR]

Umm guys, is this really M16 (of 25?)

On Wikipedia the number for this tune is "M1". Can someone please verify?

[bartje11]

@racerboyGTR Yes, this is video 16 out of 25. I up-loaded them in historical order, as much as possible, from oldest (Gregorian) to newest (Late Medieval, Ars Nova)

[Tempestosa1]

@racerboyGTR Hi, I am just dealing with Machault as I teach music history, and I have read about this motet as motet nr.1. Machault ordered his work systematically.

[practicecrazypianist]

@bartje11; Thank you!! :D

[practicecrazypianist]

Where can I get the sheet music for this, please? I love it! :) I have also been searching in vain for Francesco Landini's Cara mia Donna for 3 voices...do you happen to know where I can get the music? Thanks for posting!!

[bartje11]

@practicecrazypianist The book with the scores is called: Music of the Middle Ages; An Anthology for Performance and Study by David Fenwick Wilson.

There were two cass. tapes with it, but I think they are now also (maybe) available on CD.

ISBN 0-02-872-952-8 Schirmer Books.

So, the book should come with audio.

[menifestation7]

@practicecrazypianist sorry, i got no idea :D

[C0ntraman]

que verga esta música..

[ShaneVanMeer]

i like this song and dont know why lol.. only song so far in appreciation of music, besides moves like jagger lol

[TCharlieA]

is the high voice a male?

[practicecrazypianist]

@TCharlieA Yes, a counter-tenor! Wonderful sound...:)

[0casteloencantado0]

i prefer it faster.

[bryan3550]

Challenging to listen-to but exquisite, nonetheless!

Must be murder to sing!!!

[Sykotix1]

Truly beautiful music :-)

[pompommonster]

When I was first visited by/ Love, he so very sweetly/ Enamored my heart/ A glance is what he gave me as a gift;/ And along with amorous sentiments/ He presented me with this delightful idea:/ To hope . . . To have . . ./ Grace, and no rejections/ But never in my whole life/ was boldness a gift he meant for me --- (tenor) Thanks to love and consummate beauty/ Fearing . . . Feigning . . ./ Are what consume me entirely

[pompommonster]

STANZA ONE: (soprano) Quant en moi vint premierement/ Amours, si tres doucettement/ Me vost mon cuer enamourer/ Que d'un regart me fist present/ Et tres amoureus sentiment/ Me donna avuec doulz penser/ Espoir D'avoir/ Merci sans refuser./ Mais onques en tout mon vivant/ Hardement ne me vost donner/ (tenor) Amour et biaute parfaite /Doubter, celer/ Me font parfaitement

[hilarywagstaff]

Thank you so much for uploading this. I love it.

[blurby15]

this is a secular piece of music yes? someone please reply. and if anyone is willing to help me analyse this for a music history assessment i would love you forever

[pompommonster]

@blurby15 nope it ain't. it's actually one of the first nonreligious pieces (because of dissatisfaction in the church in the 1300s, secular music emerged around that time)

[itsbeanawhile]

I cannot for the life of me hear the rhythm in this thing. I know that the isorhythmic composers were obsessed with rhythm, but it seems as unrhythmical as Gregorian chant to me. Can anyone give me some guidance as to how to make out the rhythm here?

[AlainNaigeon]

@itsbeanawhile An isorhythmic part is when a melody ("color") is put on a repeating rhythmic pattern ("talea").

Generally the sentences of the color are longer than the talea, therefore the talea is repeated as many times as necessary (with different notes, only the rhtyhm is the same).

"Iso" means equal or same - I believe this prefix might come from Greekish rather than from Latin.

[Pofop]

I wish I could like this but I don't enjoy listening to this.

[bartje11]

@Pofop So, why comment?

[Pofop]

@bartje11 Because so many people seem to enjoy it, and I want to know why.

[Basko1880]

@bartje11 so that he gets my thumbs up

[Tempestosa1]

@Pofop You are very honest:). This is a matter of getting used to the (at least for us) unusual texture - they thought more horizontal than vertical, so don`t look for "harmonies". Maybe if you would read some books about this era and the intention they had behind the music? It was such a fascinating time...Good luck:)!

[flippert0]

These isorhythmic pieces are wonderous. While melodically and harmonically (no 3rds, they came with Dunstable) not as advanced as they renaissance counterparts, they are rhythmically very complex.

[menmaatresety]

This has got to be my favorite piece of all time. I never got tired of its harmonies, but even though I know the rhythm very well from listening so many times, I always find something new to be amazed at with each listening. These complicated isorhythmic motets are so divine!

[margotlorena1]

3rds were not used? I was told in music class that one of the features of the isorrythmic motet in the ars nova was the use of 3rds and 6ths... God, I really can't tell the difference between this and the ars antiqua motets, if it weren't for the musica ficta, I'd never tell them apart

[starbreez3]

This is a treasure, thanks so much Bartje

[Composerland]

excellent

[biggun98765]

I must say this type of music is strange to my ear. Really don't listen to this kind at all

[vanessacck]

Hi, Thank you so much for sharing this video. May i have the score in PDF file from you? I wish to do some research in isorhythmic motet with Guillaume and Philippe de Vitry.

[vstasov]

This sounds so complex; it seems like a kind of proto-counterpoint, musical and literary. I like it very much.

Thanks.

[Ver1956]

I'm fascinated with it myself! I am learning about isorhythms in class, and wanted to do my own research too. It is totally complex. I'd rather listen to this than music nowadays.

[spongechuck14]

sounds so strange to my modern ears.

i can only imagine how exciting this must have been for audiences of the day.

[Alexjr1543]

@spongechuck14 Interesting how musical tastes change over time. I'm sure that to medieval ears, Beethoven might have sounded like nails on a chalkboard, and I can still never get used to composers like John Cage.

They didn't seem to care for homophony and rhythm as much back then as we do now.

[nicodagger]

@Alexjr1543 you are absolutely right. In the time that this piece was composed, the interval of a 3rd was considered very very dissonant. A French musical wit said the Irish "howled in thirds". And just imagine how Vanilla Ice would sound to medieval ears! They would burn him at the stake....come to think of it.....

[AlainNaigeon]

@nicodagger Indeed thirds were considered dissonant because they *were* rather dissonant, if you take in account the temerament (building of the scale) used in this time (Pythagorean temperament).

Major thirds were very large (even more than modern piano thirds which are larger than just), therefore they were used as transitionnel intervals which were resolving toward a just fifth (the basic stone of this temperament). Conversely, minor thirds, much too small were resolving towaed unisons.

[AlainNaigeon]

@nicodagger Only much later - beginning of 16th century - they used thirds as stable intervals, and... final cadences. But simultaniously they had changed the teperament to different ones (mesotonic) in which thirds were sounding much better.

Dificult to know wheter they created mesotonic temperaments with the idea of enlarging usage of thirds, or wether they discovered the new creative possibilities after having created mesotonic on purely theoretical considerations. Interaction tools - music!

[bboymango]

@Alexjr1543

true. and it's most likely because the text served far greater importance than the music

[Tavonpett]

@spongechuck14 this music wasn't meant for pleasure, religion.

[Tavonpett]

@spongechuck14 this music wasn't meant for pleasure, it was made for religion.

[yossigolani1]

@Tavonpett

no..it is nor religious music but "profane"..spaeking about love!

[yuehchopin]

danke