Guillaume de Machaut and Reims: Context and Meaning in his Musical Works
Cambridge University Press, 5/31/2007
EAN 9780521036085, ISBN10: 0521036089
Paperback, 480 pages, 24.4 x 17 x 2.8 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English
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.
List of figures
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations and conventions
Prologue
context and meaning 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 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
Notes
Bibliography
Index of works by Machaut
Index of manuscripts
General index.