Full Description
Guillaume de Machaut, renowned fourteenth-century French composer and poet, wrote the first polyphonic Mass and many other important musical works. Friend of royalty, prelates, noted poets, and musicians, Machaut was a cosmopolitan presence in late medieval Europe. He also served as canon of the cathedral of Reims, an ancient and influential archiepiscopal see and the coronation site of French kings. This exploration of Machaut's life and work focuses on his music based on ecclesiastical chants: twenty-three motets, the David Hocket, and the Mass of Our Lady. The meaning of his music can often be understood through study of its context in fourteenth-century Reims. Machaut emerges as a composer deeply involved in the great crises of his day, one who skilfully and artfully expresses profound themes of human existence in ardent music and poetry.
Contents
Prologue: context and meaning (Scens) in Guillaume de Machaut's musical works; Part I. Reims and its Music: Cathedral, City, Archdiocese: 1. Guillaume de Machaut in Reims; 2. Canonical affirmation and resistance in Machaut's motets 18 and 19; Part II. Turned-About Love-Songs: 3. Machaut's Motets 1-17 and the medieval mystical tradition; 4. The beginning of love's journey; 5. The middle of love's journey: the struggle with sin; 6. The end of love's journey: union with the beloved; Part III. Music of War, Kingship, and Final Things: 7. Machaut's late motets and the Hundred Years War in Reims; 8. Machaut's David Hocket and the coronation of Charles V (1364); 9. Machaut's Mass of Our Lady and composer remembrance through music; Epilogue: Context, Meaning (Scens), and Artistry in Machaut's Music; Appendix A: Documents; Appendix B: Texts and translations of Machaut's motets; Appendix C: Manuscripts consulted for the musical examples; Index of works by Machaut; Index of manuscripts.
