Transcript Machaut
Please take handout Leonin & Perotin Paris, ca. 1200 A. D. Organum (pl. orgamum) Organum/Discant Style Tripla/Quadrupla 14th-century Centers of musical activity shift from cathedral to court I. Ars nova (lit., The New Art) A. Ars nova = Music in Late Middle Ages in France (1300s) opposed to Ars antiqua (Notre Dame School, Leonin, Perotin, 1200s) B. Ars nova named after treatise by Philippe de Vitry II. Guillaume de Machaut A. Biography 1. Ca. 1300-1377 B. Poetry 1. courtly, complex, chivalric Musical analogy = “My End Is My Beginning” 10 9 10 9 8 9 9 9 If I love you with true faithful courage As I have loved and will love you still, And you have taken another in marriage, Must I be sent from you far? And will I be not even a memory? No, no, indeed: since there is in me A heart so true it eschews false art, You mustn’t divorce me from your heart. Rather, keep me here to serve on suffrage, As a slave you’ve bought, and paid the bill, Whose wish it is to commit no outrage. And you must love, and this thought fulfil, Your husband as husband see, And your friend as friend, dear as could be. And since in this you take honour’s part You mustn’t divorce me from your heart. And if your heart should learn to stray, No love would be ever betrayed so ill, As I should be: but you are so sage And your heart so gently nurtured, it will never dare to deceive me. In order to love elsewhere. So hear me: Since your sweet form, above all, I chart, You mustn’t divorce me from your heart. II. Guillaume de Machaut A. Biography 1. Ca. 1300-1377 B. Poetry 1. courtly, complex, chivalric C. I Should Lead a Happy Life (Je vivroire lement) 1. Basic features: monophonic texture clear rhythm and meter secular lyrics 2. Virelai (one of several formes fixes) =a Refrain Form (Refrain = words and music return, typically 2 or more times) Form of the Virelai Form of the Viralai: Music of A w/ new words A refrain Phrases: 4 asymmetrical 8+8+8+12 bb’a stanza A bb’a A refrain stanza refrain III. Isorhythmic Motet (Quant en moy) (central musical genre of Ars nova) A. Polyphonic (usually 3 voices) Triplum: top voice: poem #2, most active Falsetto voice Motetus: middle voice, poem #1 moderate speed Tenor: lowest voice, least active, based on chant viol B. Polytextual 2 poems (triplum/motetus) + chant text (implied) C. Employs Isorhythmic Technique (usually in Tenor) =compositional technique of Ars nova based on the separability of pitch & rhythm 1. Borrowed Pitches = Color (30) 2. Rhythmic Pattern = Talea (5) Talea or Rhythmic Pattern: L L R S L L R D. Other Features: triple meter; dissonance E. Hocket (Hoquet) (= lit. hiccup) •Short rest in one voice filled by notes in another She’s _____ up ______ dress-ing. she’ll be down in a jiffy Look_____ her_____ face could launch 1000 ships Espoir________d’avoir To hope to have Doubter________celer Fearing pretending L L R S L L R F. Layers of meaning in Quant en moy: •Mathematical pattern/proportion •Complex interplay of 3 poetic texts •Biblical references in tenor (chant) •Hocket (more double meaning) •Text = Advice on chivalric love •Poems that are structurally complex Purely musical interest: Musical counterpoint of 3 voices/3 speeds Dissonance and hollow 5ths at cadences