Guillaume de Machaut and Reims: Context and Meaning in His Musical Works

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Cambridge University Press, Sep 26, 2002 - History - 456 pages
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, the coronation site of French kings. From this penetrating study of his music, 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

Guillaume de Machaut in Reims
13
Rome of the West
17
Christianity in Reims Christianity in France
19
Growth of Reims and the fourteenthcentury laicization
22
Reims Cathedral
25
Cathedral chapter
33
Schools in Reims and some speculations on Machauts education
37
Liturgy and music
39
Desire for freedom in Motet 12
158
Ruins of love in Motet 13
161
Languishing and lying in Motet 14
163
Fleeting sight of the beloved in Motet 15
165
an exemplum
167
Musical structure and symmetry in Motets 117
170
Final union with the beloved in Motet 17
176
Scens context and genesis in Machauts Motets 117
179

Coronation rites
47
Choir and choirboys
49
Chapter library
53
Canonical affirmation and resistance in Machauts Motets 18 and 19
55
Images of past episcopal renown in Motet 18
57
Motet 18 in the iconography and music of Reims Cathedral
63
The laudes regiae of Reims and the performance of Motet 18
65
Canonical solidarity in the archdiocese and Motet 19 for Saint Quintinus
70
Motet 19 and the honorific genre
71
The sculptures on the choir wall at SaintQuentin and Motet 19
74
The annual chapter meetings at StQuentin
75
Machauts Motets 117 and the medieval mystical tradition
81
Motets 120 and their internal groupings
84
Affective motet tenors affective theology
86
Commentaries on the Song of Songs in the mystical tradition
92
Wisdom literature in the mystical tradition
95
Susos Horologium Sapientiae
98
Steps of the spiritual journey Susos Horologium Sapientiae and Machauts Motets 117
103
The beginning of loves journey
105
Beginning of love service in Motet 1
112
Sighs for the beloved in Motet 2
115
Death of the beloved in Motet 3
118
Hope for mercy merci in Motet 4
120
Willingness to suffer in Motet 5
122
Joy in the sighttocome in Motet 6
125
The middle of loves journey the struggle with sin
130
The sin of pride and the feminine voice in Motet 7
131
Sin and Lady Fortune in Motet 8
134
Face to face with sin and the Devil in Motet 9
139
The deadly sins and Motet 9
141
Dreux de Hautvillers scholaster and poet of Reims
142
Musical construction and Scens in Motet 9
147
The end of loves journey union with the beloved
154
Comings and goings of the beloved in Motet 11
156
a valediction for Bonne of Luxembourg
186
Machauts late motets and the Hundred Years War in Reims
191
Motets 2123 and the late style
192
Cries for help hymn paraphrase animal imagery and apocalyptic allusion in Motet 21
194
Personifying regni respublica and admonishing a duke in Motet 22
208
Motet 23 and the beginning of the Salve service in Reims
217
The ordering of Motets 2123 in Machauts manuscripts
223
Machauts David Hocket and the coronation of Charles V 1364
226
The David Hocket and the question of function
227
The David Hocket and the motet tradition
230
of Old Testament kingship
231
Rex christianissimus King David and the French polemical literature
236
King David and Charles V
239
King David and Machauts David Hocket
243
Notre Dame de Reims and the Marian tenor of the David Hocket
250
Machaut and the coronation of Charles V
253
Machauts Moss of Our Lady and composer remembrance through music
259
An inscription for the Machaut brothers
260
Machauts Mass in the liturgy and music of Reims Cathedral
262
Endowments and wills the Machaut brothers epitaph and the performance of the Mass
271
The altar near the Rouelle in Reims Cathedral
272
Machauts Mass and composer remembrance
274
Context meaning and artistry in Machauts music
278
Innovation and musical artistry
280
Implications
282
Documents
284
Texts and translations of Machauts motets Old French translations by Colleen Donagher
296
Manuscripts consulted for the musical examples
334
Notes
339
Bibliography
410
Index of works
442
Index of manuscripts
444
General index
447
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About the author (2002)

Anne Walters Robertson is Professor of Music at The University of Chicago. She is the author of The Service Books of the Royal Abbey of Saint-Denis: Images of Ritual and Music in the Middle Ages (1991). She was awarded the John Nicholas Brown Prize of the Medieval Academy of America in 1995.

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