Guillaume de Machaut - De bon espoir (17/25) {isorthythmic motet}

Guillaume de Machaut, sometimes spelled Machault, (c. 1300 - April 1377), was an important Medieval French poet and composer. He is one of the earliest composers for whom significant biographical information is available.

Rogers Covey-Crump, John Potter, Paul Hillier (organ)

Guillaume de Machaut was "the last great poet who was also a composer," in the words of the scholar Daniel Leech-Wilkinson. Well into the 15th century, Machaut's poetry was greatly admired and imitated by other poets including the likes of Geoffrey Chaucer.

Machaut was and is the most celebrated composer of the 14th century. He composed in a wide range of styles and forms and his output was enormous. He was also the most famous and historically significant representative of the musical movement known as the ars nova.

Machaut was especially influential in the development of the motet and the secular song (particularly the lai, and the formes fixes: rondeau, virelai and ballade). Machaut wrote the Messe de Nostre Dame, the earliest known complete setting of the Ordinary of the Mass attributable to a single composer, and influenced composers for centuries to come.

Machaut was by far the most famous and influential composer of the 14th century. His secular song output includes monophonic lais and virelais, which continue, in updated forms, some of the tradition of the troubadours. However, his work in the polyphonic forms of the ballade and rondeau was more significant historically, and he wrote the first complete setting of the Ordinary of the Mass which can be attributed to a single composer. He was the last important representative of the trouvère tradition.

The vast majority of Machaut's works were secular in nature. His lyrics almost always dealt with courtly love. A few works exist to commemorate a particular event, such as M18, "Bone Pastor/Bone Pastor/Bone Pastor." Machaut mostly composed in five genres: the lai, the virelai, the motet, the ballade, and the rondeau. In these genres, Machaut retained the basic formes fixees, but often utilized creative text setting and cadences. For example, most rondeaux phrases end with a long melisma on the penultimate syllable. However, a few of Machaut's rondeaux, such as R18 "Puis qu'en oubli," are mostly syllabic in treatment. Machaut's motets often contain sacred texts in the tenor, such as in M12 "Corde mesto cantando/Helas! pour quoy virent/Libera me." The top two voices in these three-part compositions, in contrast, sing secular French texts, creating interesting concordances between the sacred and secular. In his other genres, though, he does not utilize sacred texts.

Machaut's cyclic setting of the Mass, his Messe de Nostre Dame (Mass of Our Lady), was probably composed for Rheims Cathedral in the early 1360s. While not the first cyclic mass the Tournai Mass is earlier it was the first by a single composer and conceived as a unit. Machaut probably was familiar with the Tournai Mass since the Messe de Nostre Dame shares many stylistic features with it, including textless interludes.

Whether or not Machaut's mass is indeed cyclic is of some contention, indeed after lengthy debate musicologists are still deeply divided. However, there is a consensus that this mass is at best a forerunner to the later fifteenth century cyclic masses by the likes of Josquin des Prez. Machaut's mass differs from these in the following ways. One: he does not hold a tonal centre throughout the entire work, as the mass uses two distinct modes, (one for the Kyrie, Gloria and Credo, another for Sanctus, Agnus and Ita missa est). Two: there is no extended melodic theme that clearly runs through all the movements, and the mass does not use the parody technique. Three: there is considerable evidence suggesting that this mass was not composed in one creative motion; although the movements may have been placed together this does not mean that they were conceived so.[3]

Having said that, stylistically the mass can be said to be consistent, and certainly the chosen chants are all celebrations of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Also adding weight to a claim that the mass is cyclic is the possibility that the piece was written/brought together to be performed at a specific celebration. The possibility that it was for the coronation of Charles V, which was once widely accepted, is thought unlikely in modern scholarship. The intention by the composer for the piece to be performed as one entire mass setting most commonly gives 'Le Messe de Nostre Dame' the title of a cyclic composition.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• de
• Machaut
• De
• bon
• espoir
• {isorthythmic
• motet}

[Zegismondo]

I learned that he was a poet as well as a composer.

It's funny how distant the spirit and the sound of this music is, but at the same time how deeply it touches your thoughts and your heart,

Just beautiful!!

T U lots bartje11

[bartje11]

You are welcome, this music is indeed strangely charming. It is so ingeniously written and I think that sometimes these guys had the advantage not to be contaminated with our I IV V I tonality.

[Zegismondo]

Can you extend on that idea of the Tonalities...?

Only if you've got the time and doesn't bother you.

I'd be happy to know more about it....

I'm not much of a theoretician in music...., mine is more the visual area of Arts.

Anyway, you're great Bartje, I always enjoy your postings. thank U...