Short biography of guillaume de machaut

It also includes re-edited material containing tracks not previously released. If the original material is not a CD, the medium is stated between [ Each individual title is linked to a descriptive section containing as much information as possible about the original recording; this description is cross-linked to available CDs actually on the market February in North America or Western Europe.

Great care has been taken to prevent misinformation and a large part of the data originates from owned recordings themselves although often not as reliable as it should be. If the recording was not available, the content originates from the usual sources periodicals such as The Gramophone and the Catalogue , Diapason and the Catalogue , Bielefelder Katalog, Notes, and Fanfare, etc.

The discography appearing in Fanfare sept. If all else failed, reference was made to the French book Diapason - Guide de la musique ancienne et baroque Coll. Bouquins, Robert Laffond, [GMAB]; although impressive in term of quality and amount of content, readers should be careful about many recording dates listed. Very noteworthy is the one stated above on Guillaume de Machaut by Lawrence Earp.

I tried to list titles according to their label and release dates. In the linked section, I tried to follow the track order of recording; in some cases when the recording was not available, the order may need correction by a careful reader owning the disc. Part I covers all, but only, the original recordings of the specific title; reference to re-edition, excerpts or compilations of the original recording appears in the linked descriptive page.

Finding all original recordings may well be wishful thinking without comments and corrections. Credit for any significant contribution will be given at the end of this page. No ranking number appears if the release contains only excerpts of an already listed CD, Cassette or Video in this section. Part III lists newly released, or soon to be released, CDs when the available information is not sufficient to be added as a specific entry in the preceding list.

This will be quite a complete discography. The content will be regularly updated. Roberge Introduction to Texts The text of Machaut's works has been placed together with Part I of the discography, upon following the links to individual pieces below. This numbering derives directly from musical editions, and so differs from that in poetic editions, which contain many other poems in these forms not set to music.

On the linked page, the number of parts is given for the musical setting, as well as other significant comments. More extensive factual remarks on each piece will be prepared over the longer term, possibly including recent research suggestions on chronology. Each page will then give the sources in which the piece is found, followed by the text itself, and then the individual discography see introduction to discography above.

In these genres, Machaut retained the basic formes fixees, but often utilized creative text setting and musical 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. In his other genres, though, he does not utilize sacred texts.

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.

Short biography of guillaume de machaut

Two: there is no melodic theme that clearly runs through all the movements and there is no parody mass. 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. Having said that, stylistically the mass can be said to be consistent, and certainly the chosen chants are all celebrations of the mother Mary.

The possibility that it was for the coronation of Charles V of France, which was once widely accepted, is thought unlikely in modern scholarship. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Machaut saw his music not as a mere prop for his verse, but as an art important in itself. Machaut's manuscripts are clear on this point, for he even established the sequence in which he wanted the works presented: the pure poetry first - seventeen titles, mostly of long works, prefaced by a special prologue; then the musical compositions by categories - lais, motets, ballades, rondeaux, virelais, the Mass and the "David" instrumental hocket.

Machaut is perhaps best remembered for his Mass - apparently written for Rheims Cathedral. It is not only a monumental work but also a landmark. Other Ars Nova musicians wrote isolated Mass movements, but Machaut's appears to have been the first Mass composed as such by one man - and there would be no other for a half century. It is not unified, like later polyphonic Masses, by being based on a single cantus firmus, but it is clear that Machaut meant it to be performed as one work.

It is one of the earliest works in musical history in which the music suggests some of the emotional or spiritual content of the text. Dit du Lyon "Story of the Lion" — The narrator comes to a magical island and a lion guides him to a beautiful lady; an old knight comes to the narrator and reveals the meaning of what he sees and gives him advice for being a better lover.

Jugement du roy de Navarre "Judgement of the King of Navarre" — Following up on the Jugement du roy de Behainge, a lady blames the narrator for awarding the prize to the knight: the King of Navarre is consulted and condemns the poet. Confort d'ami — Dedicated to Charles II of Navarre who was a prisoner in France , this poetic consolation gives biblical and classical examples exempla of fortitude.

Dit de la fontaine amoureuse aka Livre de Morpheus "Story of the Amorous Fountain" — The narrator meets a hopeless lover who must separate from his lady; the two men come to a magical fountain and fall asleep, and in a dream the lady consoles her lover. Le voir dit "A True Story" c. The narrative is stuffed with prose letters and lyric poems that the narrator claims were in truth exchanged by the unhappy lovers and put in the book at the behest of his lady.

The work is, however, highly satirical, and mocks the conventional paradigm of medieval courtly literature by presenting himself as an old, ill, impotent poet who becomes the lover of a young and beautiful maiden, who falls in love with him from his reputation as a poet alone. Though the work is called a voir dit or true story, Machaut includes many inconsistencies which force the reader to question the truthfulness of his story.

Prologue c.