40-405: Guillaume de Machaut ( French: [ɡijom də maʃo] , Old French: [ɡiˈʎawmə də maˈtʃaw(θ)] ; also Machau and Machault ; c. 1300 – April 1377) was a French composer and poet who was the central figure of the ars nova style in late medieval music . His dominance of the genre is such that modern musicologists use his death to separate the ars nova from
80-510: A Dieu commant. Since I am forgotten by you, sweet friend, To a love life, and to happiness, I bid goodbye. Unlucky was the day I put my love in you, Since I am forgotten by you, sweet friend. Yet I will keep what I have promised you, Which is that never will I have another lover. Since I am forgotten by you, sweet friend, To a love life, and to happiness, I bid goodbye. When he died in 1377, other composers such as F. Andrieu wrote elegies lamenting his death. Machaut's poetry had
120-497: A cyclic composition. Guillaume de Machaut's lyric output comprises around 400 poems, including 235 ballades, 76 rondeaux, 39 virelais, 24 lais, 10 complaintes , and 7 chansons royales , and Machaut did much to perfect and codify these fixed forms. Some of his lyric output is embedded in his narrative poems or "dits", such as Le remède de fortune ("The Cure of Ill Fortune") which includes one of each genre of lyric poetry, and Le voir dit ("A True Story"), but most are included in
160-557: A direct effect on the works of Eustache Deschamps , Jean Froissart , Christine de Pizan , René d'Anjou and Geoffrey Chaucer , among many others. There exists the hypothetical (though improbable) possibility that Chaucer and Machaut could have met when Chaucer was taken prisoner near Reims in 1359, or in Calais in 1360, with both poets on official business for the ratification of the Treaty of Brétigny (Machaut with his patron Jean de Berry, who
200-433: A few Latin motets, Machaut's surviving output is exclusively secular. Regardless, Reaney notes that his unique mastery of both secular and sacred Western music is only precedented by the work of Adam de la Halle . The lyrics of Machaut's works 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:
240-584: A musical style which flourished in the Kingdom of France and its surroundings during the Late Middle Ages . More particularly, it refers to the period between the preparation of the Roman de Fauvel (1310s) and the death of composer Guillaume de Machaut in 1377. The term is sometimes used more generally to refer to all European polyphonic music of the fourteenth century. For instance, the term "Italian ars nova "
280-413: A separate school. This strange but interesting repertory of music, limited in geographical distribution (southern France, Aragon and later Cyprus ), and clearly intended for performance by specialists for an audience of connoisseurs, is like an "end note" to the entire Middle Ages. Adam de la Halle Adam de la Halle (1245–50 – 1285–8/after 1306) was a French poet-composer trouvère . Among
320-412: A separate, unordered section entitled Les loanges des dames . That the majority of his lyrics are not set to music (in manuscripts, music and non-music sections are separate) suggests that he normally wrote the text before setting some to music. Other than his Latin motets of a religious nature and some poems invoking the horrors of war and captivity, the vast majority of Machaut's lyric poems reflect
360-529: A transcript in modern notation, with the original score, is given in Edmond de Coussemaker 's edition. His Jeu de Robin et Marion is cited as the earliest French play with music on a secular subject. The pastoral , which tells how Marion resisted the knight, and remained faithful to Robert the shepherd, is based on an old chanson, Robin m'aime, Robin m'a . It consists of dialogue varied by refrains already current in popular song. The melodies to which these are set have
400-495: Is a consensus that this mass is at best a forerunner to the later 15th-century cyclic masses by the likes of Josquin des Prez . Machaut's mass differs from these in the following ways: (1) 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 Ite missa est); (2) there is no extended melodic theme that clearly runs through all
440-490: Is evident in his considerable body of motets, lais , virelais , rondeaux and ballades . Towards the end of the fourteenth century, a new stylistic school of composers and poets centered in Avignon in southern France developed; the highly mannered style of this period is often called the ars subtilior , although some scholars have chosen to consider it a late development of the ars nova rather than separating it into
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#1732869732602480-590: Is sometimes used to denote the music of Francesco Landini and his compatriots, although Trecento music is the more common term for the contemporary 14th-century music in Italy. The "ars" in "ars nova" can be read as "technique", or "style". The term was first used in two musical treatises, titled Ars novae musicae (New Technique of Music) (c. 1320) by Johannes de Muris , and a collection of writings (c. 1322) attributed to Philippe de Vitry often simply called " Ars nova " today. Musicologist Johannes Wolf first applied to
520-438: Is the order that G. de Machaut wants his book to have"). The poem below, Puis qu'en oubli , is his 18th rondeau. Puis qu'en oubli sui de vous, dous amis, Vie amoureuse et joie a Dieu commant. Mar vi le jour que m'amour en vous mis, Puis qu'en oubli sui de vous, dous amis. Mais ce tenray que je vous ay promis, C'est que ja mais n'aray nul autre amant. Puis qu'en oubli sui de vous, dous amis, Vie amoureuse et joie
560-503: The formes fixes : rondeau , virelai and ballade ). Among his only surviving sacred works, Messe de Nostre Dame , is the earliest known complete setting of the Ordinary of the Mass attributable to a single composer. Other notable works include the rondeaux "Ma fin est mon commencement" and "Rose, liz, printemps, verdure" as well as the virelai " Douce Dame Jolie ". Guillaume de Machaut
600-615: The Cistercian abbey of Vaucelles, near Cambrai . The father and son had their share in the civil discords in Arras, and for a short time took refuge in Douai . Adam had been destined for the church, but renounced this intention, and married a certain Marie, who features in many of his songs, rondeaux , motets and jeux-partis . Afterwards he joined the household of Robert II, Count of Artois ; and then
640-575: The romance, or "roman" of the same period) follow many of the conventions of the Roman de la rose , including the use of allegorical dreams ( songes ), allegorical characters, and the situation of the narrator-lover attempting to return toward or satisfy his lady. Machaut is also the author of a poetic chronicle of the chivalric deeds of Peter I of Cyprus , (the Prise d'Alexandrie ), and of poetic works of consolation and moral philosophy. His unusual self-reflective usage of himself (as his lyrical persona) as
680-562: The Black Death that devastated Europe, and spent his later years living in Reims composing and supervising the creation of his complete-works manuscripts. His poem Le voir dit (probably 1361–1365) purports to recount a late love affair with a 19-year-old girl, Péronne d'Armentières, although the accuracy of the work as autobiography is contested. He died in 1377. Machaut's music comprises a wide variety, from complex masses to short songs, and despite
720-564: The character of folk music , and are more spontaneous and melodious than the more elaborate music of his songs and motets. Fétis considered Le Jeu de Robin et Marion and Le Jeu de la feuillée forerunners of the comic opera . An adaptation of Le Jeu Robin et Marion , by Julien Tiersot , was played at Arras by a company from the Paris Opéra-Comique on the occasion of a festival in 1896 in honour of Adam de le Hale. His other play, Le jeu Adan or Le jeu de la Feuillee (ca. 1262),
760-454: The claim that the mass is cyclic is the possibility that the piece was written or assembled for performance 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 composer's intention that the piece be performed as one entire mass setting makes the Messe de Nostre Dame generally considered
800-564: The conventions of courtly love , and involve statements of service to a lady and the poet's pleasure and pains. In technical terms, Machaut was a master of elaborate rhyme schemes, and this concern makes him a precursor to the Grands Rhétoriqueurs of the 15th century. Guillaume de Machaut's narrative output is dominated by the "dit" (literally "spoken", i.e. a poem not meant to be sung). These first-person narrative poems (all but one are written in octosyllabic rhymed couplets , like
840-405: The culmination of the poet-composer tradition stretching back to the traditions of troubadour and trouvère . His poetry was greatly admired and imitated by other poets, including Geoffrey Chaucer and Eustache Deschamps , well into the 15th century. Machaut composed in a wide range of styles and forms and was crucial in developing the motet and secular song forms (particularly the lai and
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#1732869732602880-449: The differences of genre, most still contain "typical Machaut motifs". He lived after the flowering of both the secular troubadour and trouvère song movements and the ars antiqua church style. The musicologist Gilbert Reaney notes that "before [Machaut], composers either wrote songs or church music. Machaut did both, though it could be said that he neglected the area of liturgical church music." Besides his mass, Hoquetus David and
920-411: The few medieval composers to write both monophonic and polyphonic music, in this respect he has been considered both a conservative and progressive composer, resulting in a complex legacy: he cultivated admired representatives of older trouvère genres, but also experimented with newer dramatic works. Adam represented the final generation of the trouvère tradition and "has long been regarded as one of
960-414: The introduction of perspective in painting, and it is useful to consider that the changes to music in the period of the ars nova were contemporary with the great early Renaissance revolutions in painting and literature. The most famous practitioner of the new musical style was Guillaume de Machaut , who also had a distinguished career as a canon at Reims Cathedral and as a poet. The ars-nova style
1000-421: The lai, the virelai, the motet, the ballade, and the rondeau. In these genres, Machaut retained the basic formes fixes , but often utilized creative text setting and cadences . For example, most rondeau 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
1040-434: The most important musical and literary figures of thirteenth-century Europe". Adam's literary and musical works include chansons and jeux-partis (poetic debates) in the style of the trouvères ; polyphonic rondel and motets in the style of early liturgical polyphony; and a musical play, Jeu de Robin et Marion ( c. 1282–83 ), which is considered the earliest surviving secular French play with music. He
1080-418: The movements, and the mass does not use the parody technique; (3) there is considerable evidence that this mass was not composed in one creative act. The fact that the movements were placed together does not mean they were conceived as such. Nevertheless, the mass can be said to be stylistically consistent, and certainly the chosen chants are all celebrations of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Also adding weight to
1120-497: The narrator of his dits yields some personal philosophical insights as well. At the end of his life, Machaut wrote a poetic treatise on his craft (his Prologue ). This reflects on his conception of the organization of poetry into set genres and rhyme schemes, and the ordering of these genres into distinct sections of manuscripts. This preoccupation with ordering his oeuvre is reflected in an index to MS A entitled "Vesci l'ordonance que G. de Machaut veut qu'il ait en son livre" ("Here
1160-449: The polyphonic sophistication previously found only in sacred music; and new techniques and forms, such as isorhythm and the isorhythmic motet , became prevalent. The overall aesthetic effect of these changes was to create music of greater expressiveness and variety than had been the case in the thirteenth century. Indeed, the sudden historical change which occurred, with its startling new degree of musical expressiveness, can be likened to
1200-444: The subsequent ars subtilior movement. Regarded as the most significant French composer and poet of the 14th century, he is often seen as the century's leading European composer. Machaut, one of the earliest European composers on whom considerable biographical information is available, has an unprecedented amount of surviving music , in part due to his own involvement in his manuscripts' creation and preservation. Machaut embodies
1240-516: 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, identified in one source as the Messe de Nostre Dame ( Mass of Our Lady ),
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1280-420: The term as description of an entire era (as opposed to merely specific persons) in 1904. The term ars nova is often used in juxtaposition to two other periodic terms, of which the first, ars antiqua , refers to the music of the immediately preceding age, usually extending back to take in the period of Notre Dame polyphony (from about 1170 to 1320). Roughly, then, ars antiqua refers to music of
1320-447: The term to describe Dunstaple ; however, in modern historiographical usage, it is restricted entirely to the period described above. Stylistically, the music of the ars nova differed from the preceding era in several ways. Developments in notation allowed notes to be written with greater rhythmic independence, shunning the limitations of the rhythmic modes which prevailed in the thirteenth century; secular music acquired much of
1360-490: The thirteenth century, and the ars nova that of the fourteenth; many music histories use the terms in this more general sense. The period from the death of Machaut (1377) until the early fifteenth century, including the rhythmic innovations of the ars subtilior , is sometimes considered the end of, or late, ars nova but at other times an independent era in music. Other musical periods and styles have at various times been called "new art." Johannes Tinctoris used
1400-533: Was a member of the Confrérie des jongleurs et bourgeois d'Arras , a fraternity of jongleurs . Adam's other nicknames, "le Bossu d'Arras" and "Adam d'Arras", suggest that he came from Arras, France . The sobriquet "the Hunchback " was probably a family name; Adam himself points out that he was not one. His father, Henri de la Halle, was a well-known Citizen of Arras, and Adam studied grammar , theology , and music at
1440-610: Was attached to Charles of Anjou , brother of Louis IX , whose fortunes he followed in Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and Italy. At the court of Charles, after Charles became king of Naples , Adam wrote his Jeu de Robin et Marion , the most famous of his works. His known works include thirty-six chansons (literally, "songs"), forty-six rondets de carole , eighteen jeux-partis , fourteen rondeaux , five motets , one rondeau-virelai , one ballette , one dit d'amour , and one congé . Adam's shorter pieces are accompanied by music, of which
1480-526: Was born around 1300, one of seven children, and educated in the region around Reims . His surname most likely derives from the nearby town of Machault , 30 km northeast of Reims in the Ardennes region. He was employed as secretary to John I , Count of Luxembourg and King of Bohemia from 1323 to 1346, and also became a canon (1337). He often accompanied King John on his various trips, many of them military expeditions around Europe (including Prague ). He
1520-590: Was composed in the early 1360s probably for Rheims Cathedral . 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 was probably familiar with the Tournai Mass since Machaut's Mass shares many stylistic features with it, including textless interludes. Whether or not Machaut's mass is indeed cyclic is contested; after lengthy debate, musicologists are still deeply divided. However, there
1560-727: Was departing for England, and Chaucer as a messenger to Prince Lionel ). According to food historian William Woys Weaver, fourteenth century nobles at the French-speaking Lusignan court in Nicosia , Cyprus , often listened to narrations of Machaut's Prise d’Alexandrie for entertainment during royal banquets. Tales like Machaut's, about heroic Crusader figures, reinforced the self-image that Lusignan courtiers cultivated as long-distance claimants to Jerusalem . See Clark 2012 and Earp 2011 for extensive bibliographies Ars nova Ars nova ( Latin for new art ) refers to
1600-570: Was named the canon of Verdun in 1330, Arras in 1332, and Reims in 1337. In 1346, King John was killed fighting at the Battle of Crécy , and Machaut, who was famous and much in demand, entered the service of various other aristocrats and rulers, including King John's daughter Bonne (who died of the Black Death in 1349), her sons Jean de Berry and Charles (later Charles V , Duke of Normandy), and others such as Charles II of Navarre . Machaut survived
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