Guillaume de Machaut, sometimes spelt Machault (c.1300–1377), was an import… Read Full Bio ↴Guillaume de Machaut, sometimes spelt Machault (c.1300–1377), was an important mediaeval French poet and composer.
Guilllaume de Machaut was "the last great poet who was also a composer," in the words of the scholar Daniel Leech-Wilkinson. Well into the fifteenthth century, Machaut's poetry was greatly admired and imitated by other poets including Geoffrey Chaucer. Machaut is also 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 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 formes fixes, the lai, virelai, and ballade). Machaut wrote the Messe de Nostre Dame, the earliest complete setting of the Ordinary of the Mass attributable to a single composer, and influenced composers for centuries after his death.
Guilllaume de Machaut was "the last great poet who was also a composer," in the words of the scholar Daniel Leech-Wilkinson. Well into the fifteenthth century, Machaut's poetry was greatly admired and imitated by other poets including Geoffrey Chaucer. Machaut is also 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 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 formes fixes, the lai, virelai, and ballade). Machaut wrote the Messe de Nostre Dame, the earliest complete setting of the Ordinary of the Mass attributable to a single composer, and influenced composers for centuries after his death.
Le lai de la fonteinne 7
Guillaume de Machaut Lyrics
We have lyrics for these tracks by Guillaume de Machaut:
Douce dame jolie Douce dame jolie Pour dieu ne pensés mie Que nulle ait signo…
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Daniel Rubin
Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1377)
was a medieval French poet and composer. He is regarded by many musicologists as the greatest and most important composer of the 14th century.
His 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. Machaut’s poetry had a direct effect on the works of Geoffrey Chaucer.
His narrative output is dominated by the “dit” (literally “spoken”, i.e. a poem not meant to be sung).
The majority of his lyrics are not set to music (in manuscripts, music and non-music sections are separate). This suggests that he normally wrote the text before setting some to music.
As a composer of the 14th century, Machaut’s secular song output includes monophonic lais and virelais, which continue, in updated forms, some of the tradition of the troubadours. He also worked in the polyphonic forms of the ballade and rondeau and wrote the first complete setting of the Ordinary of the Mass which can be attributed to a single composer.
Lai
is a lyrical, narrative poem written in octosyllabic couplets that often deals with tales of adventure and romance. Lais were mainly composed in France and Germany, during the 13th and 14th centuries.
Le Lai de la Fonteinne/1
I never stop beseeching
my dear lady
to lighten my burden of woe,
but she keeps herself so distant
and I find her so harsh and proud,
without bending,
that with my pleading
I cannot soften her resistance.
And so I will go to another lady
who fullness of joy
will grant me easily
and cheerfully,
without end, without fickleness,
without fading away;
the only joy that one can choose
is the joy that lies in her.