levarie s. guillaume de machaut

Guillaume de Machaut lived in the fourteenth century, which produced suchmen as Dante, Giotto, and Petrarch.. Guillaume de Machautand His Time UILLAUME DE MAGHAUT, composer and poet, was

GUILLAUME DE MACHAUT

NATUREPRESENTS TO MACHAUT HER THREE CHILDREN: REASON,RHETORIC,AND MUSIC (seep 2O).

Quillaume de JVtachaut

Great Religious Composers

Edited by John J Becker

Library of Congress CatalogCardNumber54-1 1 137 Manufactured in the United States ofAmerica

ToPauland Fromm

in whose hospitable country homethis book was begun andfinished

Guillaume de Machaut lived in the fourteenth century,

which produced suchmen as Dante, Giotto, and Petrarch

Although even thenameof Machautis comparatively little

knowntoday, in hisowntimehisrenown wasequaltotheirs.

With one great exception, Machaut's musical tionswere in a secular vein.That oneexception the great

composi-Mass with which this bookis concerned is ofsuch

magni-tude that it alone gives him his position of importance as

a churchcomposer. For Machaut's Mass wasthefirsteverto

be composedasapolyphoniccycle,inshort,thefirstmusicalstructure of its kind

This book might have been entitled Machaut and his

Mass; foritdealswith theman inhis historical settingand withhisonegreat religiouscomposition, the aestheticprob-lemsitsolved,andthe structureand symbolismof themusicitself.

JOHN J. BECKER, B.M Mus. D.Editor

Composer in Residence and

Professor of Music

Barat College of the Sacred Heart Lake

Siegmund Levarie

Siegmund Levarie is both a practicing musician and amusicologist, a dual rolewhichaccounts forhis performing Machaut's Mass at the University o Chicago in 1951 and

hiswritingaboutthework andthecomposer twoyearslater.Levarie'sperformancesofMachaut's works (includingmany

secular songs)withhisCollegium MusicumattheUniversity

were probablythefirstin Chicago

Educated at the University of Vienna and the Vienna

Conservatory, Levarie began his career as teacher ofmusic

theory and history in the Department ofMusic and as chestra conductor at the University of Chicago in 1938

or-Exceptfor fouryears service in the UnitedStates Army, he was active at the University until 1952 at which time he became Dean of the Chicago Musical College In the same

year he also was appointed director of the Fromm Music

Foundation, a newly established organization for the therance of contemporary music. Mr. Levarie's immediate

fur-futureinvolvestaking overthechairmanship of the

Depart-ment of Music at Brooklyn College and the conductorship

of the Brooklyn Community Symphony Orchestra

Twootherbooks by Mr. Levariehave recentlybeen

pub-lished: Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro A Critical Analysis(1952) and FundamentalsofHarmony (1954).

B

CONTENTS

GUILLAUME DE MACHAUT

I. Guillaume de Machaut

and His Time

UILLAUME DE MAGHAUT, composer and poet, was born around 1300 in the village of Machault near R^thel

in the Champagne in France and died in 1377 as a canon

of Rheims. Chronologically and artistically he represents

his century, with which his life almost coincided and from which he emerges as the outstandingcreativemusician

The dryfacts, "He wasborn, lived, and died," are ofno

distinction unless related tothespecificforcesaroundthem

The particulars of Machaut's life, as we know them from

hisownwritingsas well asfromotherwitnesses, will shine

more clearly after we have quickly thrown a light on thepolitical, religious, and artisticsituation of his generation*

A mere enumeration of contemporaneous events leaveslittle doubt about the physical and spiritual tension of hisday France wasinvolved in a miserablewar with England,

which, fought entirely on French soil, lasted a "Hundred

4 GuillaumedeMachaut

people, theBlack PlaguestruckFranceinthemiddleof thefightingandofthe century.ThePopes,losing their strugglefor secular as well as religioussovereignty, had to abandon

Rome and live in "Babylonian captivity" in the south ofFrance Religious thought permeated almost all phases ofdaily life. The big Gothic cathedrals of France had justbeenbuilt Parisians, then as now, worshipped underneath

the vast vault of Notre Dame and, on special occasionsreserved for privileged people, amidst the intimate colored

windows of Sainte-Chapelle. They could also study at theSorbonne, which had received its name from Robert de

Sorbon, the confessor of the saintedking Louis IX.Amidst

the external and impersonal violence, humanistic art

sud-denly blossomed. Dante's vision initiated the century.Petrarch, Boccaccio, Chaucer, and Giotto achieved indi-

vidualized expression of a spiritual power that, unlike thepoliticalupheavals, has neverlost its directimpact on our

civilization Totheirranks belonged the poetand musician Machaut, who, amongcomposersknown by name, waswith-

out peerinanycountry.

This enumeration of events deservesafuller

description

Interms of their influenceon Machaut's life, we need not

investigate the many causes of the Hundred Years* War

between England andFrance the

vanityofrulingfamilies,thedisintegration offeudalism

(infavor ofaconstitutionalsovereign inEngland, ofanautocrat in

France),the

rivalryforcommercialgains in the trade with theLowCountries,

anda chain ofpersonal irritants. Whatinterestsushere is

the possible effect of the political turmoil on a

Guillaume Machaut and His Time 5

exposed to it. The conflict, which had been simmering throughout Machaut'syouth,brokeoutintotheopen when

he wasin his thirties. In 1337, King EdwardIII ofEngland invaded Flanders; and for the remainder of Machaut'slife, the French people, of whom he was one, were losing

ground, life, and honor Although the actual fighting was

intermittent and hostilities were interrupted by frequent

truces, misery and danger were the daily companions of

the French The one major respite of the war occurred inthe decades following Machaut's death

Howthewar appearedto Machaut may beelucidatedby some authentic reports. Jean de Bueil, famous as a soldier

and as the author of a kind of military textbook, Le

Jouvencel, writes: "In going myway, I found myself in averydesolate anddesertedcountry, because therehad been war between the inhabitantsof thecountryfora longtime,

andtheywere verypoor and fewinnumber; for, Imaytell

you,itseemedrather a place forwildbeasts than a tionforpeople."4Theconflictofinterestswas notrestricted

habita-to that of the two kings. "The storm of civil war," writesthe chronicler Jean Chartier, "rose everywhere; between

the children of the same house, between men of the same rank were committedthe outrages ofcruel wars; the multi-plied wars of the lords became mixed up in these con-

flicts."17

Two big battles between the English and the French,fought around the middle of the century when Machaut was writing his Mass, ended in disaster for his side At

in 1346, "therewasa veryhard struggle and

wonder-6 Guillaume Machaut

ful fight. TheEnglish archerswere in ambush behind thehedges and, with theirvolley, killedmany horsesand men.

And on this day men were killed by horses; for as the

French werethinkingtorangethemselves, their horseswere

fallingdead.What need toprolong thestory? Byhastiness

and disarray were the French discomfited."8

Among thethirtythousandreportedlyslainwastheoldCount ofLux- emburg,theKingofB&hemia, Johnthe Blind.He had been

Machaut's benevolent employer for over two decades.The

composer doubtless suffered from this blow

At Poitiers, ten years later, "the clamour and uproar were heard more than three leagues away And there was

great sorrow to see the flower of all nobility and hoodthusgiven over todestruction Byforcewas taken

knight-King John of France."8 When he bought his liberty afterfouryears of imprisonment at the price of half his king-

dom, the road from Calais to Paris was so infested with

bandits that theKing had to negotiateasafeconduct from

them "A lamentable thing," Petrarch writes about thisincident, "and truly shameful! The King himself, on hisreturn from captivity, found obstacles to his re-entry intothecapital. He wasforced to treatwith the brigands Pos-teritywill refuse to believe it." 17 These events must have been felt by Machaut, who lived amidst them To help

defray the expenses of the war, the clergy of France were

frequently taxedbyagreementoftheFrench Popes andthe

Frenchkings. Machaut musthavebeenliable to aform of

income tax The law passed shortly after the defeat atPoitiers established a but with a

Guillaume Machaut and His Time 7

progression An income ofa thousand pounds was liable to

a tax of two percent; an income of ten pounds, to one often percent.17 We need only imagine ourselves in the role

of a contemporary observer to experience some emotional

pangs that may not have been foreign to Machaut: "In

1363 were seen only the crushing and oppression of thepeople . not only by the brigands but by the heavy

impositions and taxes What murders in the villages and woods! Thepeoplefound nodefenders Quite theopposite,the aristocracy seemed pleased at the prevalence of these

diligenthands/'17

OneyearafterMachaut hadlosthis benefactor, theKing

of Bohemia, in the battle of Cr^cy, a terrible onset of the

bubonicplaguebegantoravage France.The "Black Death" had been imported from Asia to the port of Genoa The

opening pages of Boccaccio's Decamerone describe thedevastation, be itFlorence orParis: "There was nota day

that thousandsofthem didnotfall sick, who, through not being helped orsuccoured inanyway, nearlyalldied. And

therewerequitea number whodied inthestreets, day and

night; andotherswho died in theirhouses firstmade theirneighbors awarethat theywere dead by the stenchof theirdecaying corpses." In towns likeAvignon, the residence of

the Popes, "theredied in one day one thousandthree dred and twelve persons, according to a count made forthe Pope.'*25 In Paris, eight hundred people died daily.

8 Guillaume de Machaut

computes that "the third part of the world" perished by

thedouble scourge.16

Machaut was deeply touched by the calamities around

him In the opening pages of Le Jugement dou Roy de

Navarre, a long allegoric poem written in 1349, he gives

vent tohisfeelingsin wordsof sinceremelancholy.32 He is

alone in his chamber and grieves that justice and truth

have died Avaricerules supreme.Everybody tries to cheat

and deceive: father, son, daughter, sister, brother, mother,godmother, cousin, aunt, uncle, neighbor, neighboress, hus-band, wife, friend, sweetheart bring destruction on one

another withoutpity andcompassion. Neverin historyhas

hereadofsuchhard andhorribleperilsasthose of hisown

time Five hundred thousand men and women lose body andsoul because of the war, and nobody cares The Jews

are being cruelly persecuted hanged, broiled, drowned, andbeheaded.ManyChristianslose theirminds and madly

flagellatethemselvesasifthey could thereby reachparadise

When Nature sees that manis so destroyingher work, she

summons thefourwindstospread horror and disease overtheearth.Theplaguekillssomanypeople thatnobody can

count their number, nor imagine, think, name, compute,

deduce,or describe it. Machautexpresses his thoughts, but

whois there toknowthem,"commentqu'assezde mes amis

Fussentmorset enterre mis."Mostof hisfriendsare dead andburied

Theplague had subsided,but thegeneral situation was

much the same when Charles V, the son ofJohn who had been at Poitiers, was crowned king of France in

Guillaume Machaut and His Time g

1364 Machaut's Mass, allegedly written for the occasion,

remains associatedwith the event The mostsplendid Mass

ofthe age,itmightwellhave been performedat thetion,although notforthe firsttime.The King "understood

corona-so well every aspect of music, which is the science of

har-monizing sounds byslowandfastnotes, . thatnodiscordcould pass unperceivedby him."38He was onintimate terms

with the composer When Charles journeyed to Rheims

afewyearsbefore the coronation, he advised the aldermen

ofthetown tomeet himathislodgings "chez maistre

Guil-lyaume de Machault."32 A subtle interpretation of certainpassages inMachaut's works persuades us that he was em- ployed by the gentle King in some capacity, probably as asecretary.32 Once he calls the King his rightful Lord by

whom he has been nourished, his "droit Signeur . Car

fais suis de sa nourriture, Et suis sa droite creature."38

The King, a generation younger than Machaut, deservedhis surname, "The Wise," if we judge him by his interest

in arts and letters. It was he who rebuilt the old fortress

of theLouvreto giveitthe storybookaspect,fullofterraces

and turrets, well known from an illustration in the Book

ofHoursofhis brother,theDuke Johnof Berry Itwas he

who ordered Aristotle's Ethics and Politics to be lated from Latin into French These accomplishments, so

trans-encouraging to a spirit like Machaut's, were matched by

hissupport of thenewartofartilfery. Inhis reign, French cannon were made which were capable of throwing stone

bulletsweighingahundredpounds.17

10 GuillaumedeMachaut

impactofthe composer's deathwasfeltlessthanthe taneous deaths of two ruling political figures. Edward III

simul-of England, who had willfully pursued the war from its

beginnings, was succeeded bya ten-year-old child, Richard

II, whosedownfall attheendofthe centuryiswell known

tous throughShakspere's tragedy In Avignon, the French Pope Gregory XI died A conclave in Rome elected an

Italian, Urban VI, as his successor; but a new conclave

intheKingdomofNaplesgaveRobert ofGenevathetiara,

which he assumed underthenameofClementVII CharlesV

supported the latter, the University of Paris the former;.and the Great Schism, which split Europe in half, lasteduntil 1415.

The religious sphere around Machaut must have encedhislifeandthoughtasmuchasthepolitical. Thebig

influ-external event is the physical presence of the Popes in

France Their exile from Rome in Avignon, on the banks

of the Rhone, a safe distance inland from the mouth oftheriver, coincides with Machaut's century.At the time ofthe composer's birth, PhilipIV, theFair, was king. A con-temporary,thelawyerandpoliticianGuillaume deNogaret,

praisestheKing's humilityandmodesty."Heisneverangry.

He hates no one; he is jealous of none; full of grace and

charity; pious, merciful; pursuing at all times truth and

justice."17 This is the same King who, letting his need of

moneydictatehispolicy?raidedthehoardsoftheJews and

the Lombard bankers; debased the coinage; allowed the

serfs of the royal domain to commute their services for

Guillaume de Machaut and His Time n

taryOrderofKnightsTemplarsbefore dissolving theOrder and burningalive theGrand MasterJacquesde Molay; and

extorted money from every institution and class in hisdominions.35Hedid not spare theclergy When PopeBoni-face VIII issued a bull Clericis Laicos forbidding secularprinces to tax the clergy, Philip the Fair struck back by

closingthe exportofgoldandsilverfromFrance, thus drying

up a main source of the Papal revenues. Boniface VIII'sthirstforgoldassigns tohim, evenbeforehisactual death,aplacein the Inferno ofhisFlorentine contemporary, Dante,

atthebottomof the thirdchasm(CantoXIX): "Are you

al-ready there, Boniface, are you already there? Are you yet

satisfied with those riches for which you prostituted the

Arch-the Popes lived in French Provence, virtual prisoners of asecularpower

Their physical presence may betakenas a symbolofthepermeation byreligion of almost all activities of the daily

lifein France, "There is not an object nor anaction,

how-evertrivial, thatisnot constantly correlatedwithChristorsalvation All thinking tends to religious interpretation ofindividualthings; thereisan enormousunfolding ofreligion

indailylife/'24Onestartling illustrationmayhere take the

of a detailed list. The cloister of the churchyard of

Guillaume Machaut

the Innocents at Paris, which was torn down in the teenth

seven-century,wasfrequentedbyMachaut's contemporaries

asasort ofcounterpartof the Palais Royal of 1789 or ofapublic park ormarketoftoday.Preferredbyrichand poor

to every other place of burial, the churchyard was

hand-somely adornedbysculpturesandpaintings.Machaut's factor, the Duke of Berry, commissioned statues to be

bene-carved for the

portal In order to dear space, skulls and

bones were frequently dug up and, in heaps along thecloistersenclosing theground onthreesides,layopento theeye by thousands Day after day, crowds of people prome- naded underthe cloisters. "Inspite of the incessant burials

and exhumations going on, it was a public lounge and arendezvous Shops were established before the charnel-housesandprostitutesstrolledunderthe cloisters.Afemalerecluse was immured on one of the sides of the church,Friarscame topreachandprocessionswere drawn up there

. Even feasts were given there/'24

The political misery and religious tension of Machaut's

centuryproved notaverse tocreativesensitivity. Are weprisedtofindartblossomingunderthe heels ofwar, famine,

sur-and pestilence? Ithas

alwaysbeenso, andour own century

makes noexception. Composers and

poets rather than erals and kings are

gen-responsible for the continuity of our

civilization.Thereligious tension,inparticular,could

easilyfind an outlet in sensualactivities. "Amor spiritualis facile

labitur innudum carnalemamorem," goes the diagnosis of

JeanGerson, thereligiouschancellor of the Paris

university,

be-Machaut and His Time 13

comesworldly love The wonderful dulcedoDei, the nessexperienced through God, might bea temptationofthe

sweet-fV* ,

devil.24 To the historian of the late Middle Ages, the separability of thereligiousand secularspheresis expressed

in-in the liveliest manner by the fact that profane melodies

might be used indiscriminately for sacred purposes, and

sacred for profane.24 Machaut did not hesitate to build a,

passionate motet (Nr. 10), "Hareu! le feu d'ardant desir,"

onaGregoriantenor,"Christusfactusestpronobisobediensusque mortem," ofwhichthe phrase "obedientuntodeath"

is used to interpret the lover's declaration; or to combine

in another motet (Nr. 17) an ardent love poem addressed

to his "pucellette maistrie" with a tenor on the Gregorian

melodyof"Averegina."28Onecenturyafterhim andheir tohis culture,Guillaume Dufay composedMassestothethemes

of lovesongs,suchas"Tant

jemed^duis"("SomuchIenjoymyself"), "Se la face ay pale" ("If my face is

pale"), and

"L'homme arnw" ("The armed man"). This blurred

dis-tinction between spiritual and temporal matters could

be-come responsible for the unleashing of new humanisticforces.Itcould, of course,easilyturntoirreverence Choris-ters did not scruple to sing the profane words of thesongsinto the Mass which was built on their themes: "Baisez-

moi" ("Kissme"), "Rougesnez" ("Rednoses").24

Irreverent but popular amongMachaut's contemporaries

wasBoccaccio,whose Decameronedescribes old topicswith

a newspirit.HiscompatriotPetrarch,withwhomtheFrench

themselvescompared Machaut,revealsagreat force ofmind

in his poems and treatises. But he is also known as one

whom the true art of painting was recovered/' painted a

likeness ofhisfriendDante Machaut was notalone in the

artisticrealm of his times, norwas heunrecognized. cer's literary debt to Machaut (who, one must not forget,was a poet aswell as a composer) is so well acknowledged

Chau-that he has been referred to as the Frenchman's disciple.His "Legende of Good Women" interweaves phrases and

lines derived from theFrench poet Whether the two ever

metin personis

subject toapleasant speculation. Chaucer

fought withtheEnglisharmyinFrancein 1359-60 and was

takenprisonernear Rheims,where Machaut was living asa

canon of the cathedral.He maywellhave paidhis respects

tothefamous andolder master

Againstthepolitical, religious,andartisticbackgroundofthe fourteenth century, Machaut's lifemay appear inmore

vivid outline He was born about 1300. The editor of hisworks (whose definitive guidance we here follow) believesthat Machaut was of humblebirth because the documents

nevermentionhis

origin.82 Machaut once refers to himself

as a "clerc." In other documents he is called "maitre," a

title

suggesting thathe hadreceivedthe degree of magister(master of theology, we wouldsay today) atthe

university.Eitherbecause oftheecclesiasticalgarb orhisartisticgenius,

hesoon foundhimself in thegood company of the highest

Guillaume Machaut and His Time 15

men in the country.His first patronwas the colorfulJohn

of Luxemburg, King of Bohemia, whom Carlyle described

as a"restless, ostentatious, far-grasping, strong-handedman,

who keptthe worldin a stirwherever hewent."7 He went

all overEurope from LithuaniatoItaly, and from Poland

to France and took Machaut with him after meeting theyoung maninParisin 1323. Certaindocumentsinthe Vati-

can archives tell us of various benefices obtained by theKing of Bohemia for Machaut, "pro . familiari et do-mestico, notario, secretario suo."42 From 1333 to his death

in 1377, Machaut held a canonicate at Rheims, where thekings of France were traditionally consecrated. His ecclesi-asticalpositiondidnotinterferewithhisjourneysandotherduties towardhisworldly patrons The Papal dispensation

was commonlyobtainedbypeoplelessexaltedthantheKing

of Bohemia. Details of Machaut's life must be pieced

to-gether from trivial as well as historical events We know

thathesold a horse in 134O.32

King John ofBohemia, blind, insisted onbeingled intothe battle of Cr^cy in 1346, "assez avant pour nf

en plus

revenir."10 His glorious death in the cause of the French

aristocracyforcedMachauttolookforanotherroyalpatron.Charles II, KingofNavarre, proved the most attractivefor

abouta decade.When heearnedthesurname "the Bad,"byallyinghimselfwiththe English,MachautlefthimtocasthislotwiththehouseofFrance.Heprobablyfoundvariousem-

ployers; there is a record of a payment of three hundred crowns toMachaut by Amadeus VI, Countof Savoy.82 But

16 Guillaume Machaut

familyitself. Twosons ofKing JohnII,who was a prisoner

in English hands, favored Machaut with their personalfriendship Charles V's assumption of the Crown in 1364has been associated with Machaut's Mass But it was the

youngerroyal brother, John, Duke of Berry, who had theleisure and the passion to become the most famous biblio-phileandartconnoisseurofhis age.Hislibrarycontained theworksof Boethius, Ovid,Virgil, Terence,Seneca,St. Augus-tine, Boccaccio, and Petrarch.21 He also owned the most

lavishofallMachautmanuscripts.28 The personalcare and

expensivebindings bestowedontheDuke'slibrary arepartlyresponsible for the goodpreservation of Machaut's output.

When Machaut was approachinghissixtiethyear, shortlybefore thecoronationofCharlesV, ateen-age

girlofanoble

family in Champagne, Peronnelle d'Armantifcres, sent him

a rondel a poetic fan letter, we would say beginning

withthe words,"Shewhohas never seenyou and who loves

youloyallygivesyouallherheart." Theinvitationto enterwith her into a poetical love correspondence excited thepoet, who by that time was sickly, blind in one

eye, and

gouty The development of this

strange love affair is scribedatgreatlengthinMachaut's autobiographicalpoem

de-VoirDitandshouldinterestushere forcastingarare

Peronnelle wishes to meet thegreat composer. "Le plus

grant desirquej'ay,ceestde vousveoir IfIcouldtravellikeaman,Ipromiseloyallyto seeyouoften."Machaut,forhis part, is atfirsttoo ill to travel and too

Guillaume Machaut and His Time 17

the insecurity of the bandit-ridden countryside. He writesher: "Are yousorrybecausewe have begun solate?By God,

so am I. Here is the remedy: letus enjoy life as much ascircumstancespermittomake upforthetimewe havelost."83

A pilgrimagewas the common excuse for the meeting of

twolovers.The ChevalierdelaTour-Landry, teachinggood manners to his daughters, warns them against the profane

pleasures of jousts and pilgrimages. "L'on ne doit pas aler

aux sains voiaiges pour nulle folle

plaisance." Those who

often go onpilgrimages, says Thomas Kempis, rarely

be-come saints; and his friend Friedrich of Heilo dedicates aspecial treatise, Contra peregrinantes, against the foolishpleasures of pilgrims.24

Machaut, a canon but nosaint, goes on a pilgrimagefor

a tryst with Toute-Belle, as he calls her His bad physical

conditionmakes himfearfulof theirfirstmeeting.Whenhisbeloved's admiration for him appears undiminished afterseeing him,hishappiness knows nobounds.Under a cherrytree, she falls asleep with herhead onhis knees Machaut'ssecretary places a leaf on Peronnelle's mouth and asks his

masterto kiss the leaf.When theaging poet overcomeshisshyness, the secretary pulls the leaf away, and the lovers'lips meet "Nonpourquant sa douce bouche Fis lors une amoureuse touche."33 The lipsmeet again at Mass "When

the priest said Agnus Dei by my faith in St. Capraissweetly she gave me a pax, the kiss of peace, between two

pillarsof the church.AndIneededitindeed, formy

amor-ous heartwastroubledthatwe hadto partsosoon."33

At another to Saint Denis and theFoire du

i8 Guillaume deMachaut

Lendit, the lovers spendseveral days together.33 After

mak-ing their devotions they find themselves in a little town

called La Chapelle. It is June They are tired from the

crowd and the noonheat A man rents them a room with twobeds,"unebellechambretteA.ii lis,quiest asses nette.'

'

The blinds are drawn. Peronnelle's sister-in-law, who has

comealong,sleepsin oneof the beds "Ma dame en1'autre

secoucha,Et.ii.foisou.iii.mehucha." Machautisordered

toliedown intheotherbetweenPeronnelle and her maid.

"Onm'efforcel"he cries out She requests tobe kissed, and

he tries toreconcile bashfulnesswith desire, embraces with

honneur They continueto liveon intimateand gay termsfor theremainderof the trip.Later Peronnelle marries an-othermancloser toherage,but thepoetresolves to revereher in his art till the end of his days.

Hedied in April 1377and wasburied inthe cathedral ofRheims His fame remained alive. Eustache Deschamps, a

prolificpoet in his ownright, professed that Machaut had

nourished him with much sweetness He dedicated two

balladestothememoryofMachaut,"theflowerofflowers of

all melody/' "the God of harmony on this earth," whose

death will be mourned by princes and kings because "hissong gavemuchpleasuretonobles,ladies,andbourgeois."82Deschamps'eulogymaybetingedbyhispersonalrelation to

Machaut, whose disciple and perhaps nephew he was But

heisby no means aloneinhisexalted praise. Foralmost a

hundred years after Machaut's death a long survival ofliteraryfameinthe Middle Ages onefindshisnamelisted

inone breath with the best authors like de

Machaut and His Time 19

AlainChattier, Boccaccio,andPetrarch.Heiscreditedwiththe invention ofnewformsaswellastheperfectionoflovesongs Froissart and Christine dePisanhonor Machaut by

themostconvincingflatteryofcopyingsomeof hiswritingswithout indicating the source of their inspiration.82

His fame spread also geographically outside France

Twelve years after his death, Queen Yolande of Cataloniathanks her cousin, the Count de Foix, for sending her a

"libre molt bell 6 bo de Guillem Maixaut." Although no

compositionsby Machauthave been foundinSpain,hemust

havebeen wellknownthere; forSpanishnobleswereeager

toobtain

copiesofhisworksfromFrance.The authorof afifteenth-centuryhuntingbookin Portugal praised the noise

of the hounds bystating that not even Guillaume de

Ma-chautmadesucha beautifulconcordanceofmelody

"Guil-herme de Machado nom fez tarn fermosa concordanga demelodia, nem que tarnbem pare^a como a fazem os canes

quando bem correm."28 The compliment probably worked

both ways (asWilliamspointsout).45InItaly,around 1400,Ugolino of Orvieto dedicates a whole chapter to Machaut and callshimsingular in thedisciplineof music, oneof thebest composers, whose songs continue to be used becausethey are well done and adorned with sweetest sounds.82

Machaut'sinfluencecanbetracedbyreferences to hisworks

as well as bythe distributionof his scores throughout rope Cyprus, at one end, and Poland, at the other, were

Eu-underhis influence.Copies ofhisworksreachedcitiesacrossthe continent, from Strasbourg to Prague and Stockholm

We various of the role ofmusicin the

20 Guillaumede Machaut

lifetime of Guillaume de Machaut Music represented a

philosophicconviction to creativespirits.Itbrought menttosociety.Itbecameatool ofreligion.

amuse-The philosophicconviction ofa composer mustoften be deduced from carefully selected clues Machaut, as skilled

with wordsaswithnotes,hasleftusanexplicitstatementofhis artisticaims Towardthe endofhislifehe wrote a Pro-logue apreface,we wouldsaytoday to themost complete

collection of his manuscripts.82Hepersonallysupervised the

arrangement of the collectionwith a self-consciousness that

maywellbethecause forthesurvival ofalmostallhisworks

When he promised hislady-friend Peronne a complete

edi-tion of hisworks ("toutesleschoses . queje fis onques"),

he mentioned the existence of more than twenty copies,

"carje l'ay fait faire pour aucun de mes seigneurs." They

served as presents to important members of the society ofhisday.83 His contemporaryPetrarchactedwithequal con-

cern forhis own poetry.Compare this attitude with Bach'slack ofapprehensionforthefateofhis creations andfame.Machaut'sPrologueisin theform ofan allegory. Nature and LovevisitMachaut, presenthim withcertain

gifts, and

sethimvarious tasks Nature's gifts are her three children:Reason, Rhetoric, and Music,* Love's three children areSweet Thinking,Pleasure,and Hope Thesepersonificationsare in linewiththetrulymedievalrepresentations of virtues

mediumin Machaut'stime; the successoftheRoman de la

Rose with its

figures of Dame Leisure, Gaiety, S,weet

*

Guillaumc deMachaut and His Time

Thought, Sweet Speech, and otherswas universal One can

wonder aboutthe borderline betweenthese images andthefreshly revived nymphs, satyrs, and spirits of the Renais-sance.Thespheresof origindiffer,buttheirfantasticvaluesare the same; and the costumes ofthe persons around the

Rose remind Huizinga of the flowery creations by celli.24

Botti-Music is a gift of Nature Machaut proudly suggests an analogybetween-thecreativepowersofNature andthose of

himself.Naturehasformed Guillaume totheendthat he, inturn, may form new compositions Love lends him inspira-

tion He should be gay, for a sad heart cannot sing well

Music is a science which makes one laugh and sing and

dance "Et Musique est une science Qui vuet qu'on rie etchante et dance." Song is born from gladness, because theessence of joy is musical or harmonious Nature builds inperfect proportions, and so does music Hence the universe

is fundamentally musical. Music and musical instruments,

in turn, follow natural laws and reveal perfect proportionbetterthananythingelseon earth Incourtlysociety,music

presidesoverthedance.Inchurch, menpraise Godinsong.

But saints, angels, and archangels also sing praisesto God,

because Hehassetthemin glory, andtheysee Himface toface.Hence thereismusicinparadise."DoneestMusique en

paradis."

Musicseemstobe the favorite child ofNature; for

sixty-twolines are devotedtoherpraisein the pertinentsection

of the Prologue as compared to a total of twenty-two

be-has abrilliantcoloriscalledbeautiful.2On suchphilosophic

premises,beauty could beanalyzed.ButneitherMachaut nor anyofhiscontemporaries care to delvebelow thesurfaceofexperience.Denisthe Carthusianwritesatreatiseonbeauty.Herbsare beautiful,hesays,because theyare green;preciousstones,because theysparkle; thehumanbody, the

dromedary and the camel, because they are functional; the earth, be-causeit islong andwide; the

heavenlybodies, because theyareround andlight.24

Anyonefirst

familiarizing himselfwithmedievalaesthetics

might feel apprehensive before a system that links music

with rhetoric or arithmetic He will lose his apprehension

bystudying thelongtradition ofmusicasaliberal art.He

maybe

temporarily assuagedbyreadinginMachaut'sletters

to Peronnelle that the composer valued the, ear as much

as themind, sentimentas much astheory. He writes: "My

sweetheart,Ihave composedtherondelwhichcontainsyour name andIwould havesentit

bythismessenger; but by my

soul, I have never listened to itand I am not accustomed

to

sendingoffanything IcomposebeforeIhave listened to

it." In another letter he says: "There is

nothing so just

andtrueasexperience."He continuesby quoting from one

Machaut and His Time 23

of his earlierworks: "Qui de sentementne fait, Son dit et

son chantcontrefait."83 He whodoesnot createoutof realfeeling, counterfeits his words andsongs.

DenistheCarthusianhimself, whosetreatise attemptedtointellectualizebeauty,isnot immuneto the sensuouspower

ofmusic, although he instantly translates the consciousnessof

beautyintoreligion.Heonce enteredthechurchof Saint

John in Hertogenbosch while the organ was playing The

sweetmelody transportedhim intoaprolonged ecstasy.24

The beauty ofmusic, and of art in general, was readily

translated into areligiousexperience. It was also oftenderstood in symbolic terms In the Middle Ages, a sym-bolist attitudewasprevalent inallthinkingand

un-living.The

whole world unfolded itself within avast symbolic context

"a cathedral of ideas," Huizinga calls it, "the richest

rhythmic and polyphonicexpressionofeternalharmony .

Symbolism is a sort of short-circuit of thought Instead oflooking for the relation between two things by following

the hidden detours of their causal connections, thought makes a leap and discovers their relation not in a connec-tion of cause oreffects, butin a connectionof significationor

finality . White and red roses are blooming among

thorns The medieval mind at once establishes a symbolicassimilation: virgins and martyrs shine with glory in the

midstof their

persecutors.Howisthisassimilationproduced?

Theattributes are thesame: thebeauty, tenderness, purity,

and color of the roses are also those of the virgins and

martyrs."

The forceofmusic asmanya medieval

2 GuillaumedeMachaut

writerstated, toallthingsand thoughts. The numericallations of musical intervals determined the circling of theplanets The harmony of a motet made by men was the

re-imageoftheharmonyofthe spheresmade by God. The same

basicnumbersrecurred inthecrystallizationof rocks,in the

morphology of plants, and in the structure of man's soul

Thereareseventones toamusicalscale ormode They respond, in a system of symbolic assimilation, to thesevenvirtues, the seven supplications of the Lord's Prayer, thesevengifts ofthe HolySpirit, thesevenbeatitudes, and theseven penitential psalms. These dusters ofseven are againconnectedwith the seven moments of the Passion and theseven sacraments Each numberwithin eachgroup ofseven

cor-corresponds asa countermeasure tooneof theseven deadly

sins, which in turn are represented by seven animals lowed by seven diseases.24

fol-Thissymbolicattitude willhave tobe rememberedin thechapter dealingwith certain technicalnicetiesofMachaut's

Mass.A good exampleofsymbolismissuppliedbyWilliams'

discussion of oneof Machaut'sshorter(andstillunprinted)compositions,theLai XVI.45Alaiwasadefinitepoetic form.Machaut's disciple Deschampsdescribesit aslong and diffi-

cult: "C'est une chose longue et malaise faire et &

trouver."12 Machaut's Lai XVI is dedicated to the Virgin.

The mystery of the Virgin's relation to the Holy

Trin-ity is artistically expressed by both the text and themusic A metaphor of a fountain assimilates the spout

toGodthe Father,thejetofwatertotheSon,andthe

forth-comingstream totheHolyGhost The evokes the

Machaut and Time 25

traditionalideasofthewateroflifeandthewashing awayofsins Musically, the compositionisacanonforthreevoices:thesame melodyis sung bythreevoices, enteringthreelong

timebeats apart.Themysterious onenessofthe Trinityfinds

aperfectsymbolic expression inthis three-partcomposition

gained from one melody Threein One.

Notonly compositionsbutalso musical instruments lentthemselves readily to a symbolic interpretation and enjoy-ment Thepsalter (calledinItalytestadiporco) symbolizedthe body of Christ Because it was straight on all sides, it

could also allegorize the even way to God The tones are

produced on the upper part of the psalter, and thereforethe spirit is directed upward.5 On the cithara, the stringscross the sound board It was because it symbolized thecross that David's cithara drove out Saul's evil spirit. The

curvesofthesound boxofthecithara, moreover, depict thetortuouswayto God The timpaniaremade ofa stretched

animal membrane and hencerepresent the crucifixion of theflesh St. Augustine compares the trumpet with those who

like Job bear suffering patiently, because the metal of the

trumpetissubjectedtoprolongedbeating.Itwasadoctrine

of the Neo-Platoniststhatman himselfisan instrument on which God plays.11

In Machaut'stime, artand music werestillwrapped upin

life. Their task was to beautify the daily life. Music was notreserved, asit isnow, for special moments of elevation

Rather itwas used to add intensification and splendor toroutine matters, whether religion, chivalry, trade, or love

In a thatconsideredpomp essentialand that

identi-26 GuillaumedeMachaut

fied glamor with beauty, music accompanied many daily

activities. For anillustrationwe canfollow Machaut's own

words.Attheendof hispoem Remede deFortune, thelover

is reunited with his lady and her friends.32 They spend a

pleasantmorningin amannerbefittingthepolite society ofthe day. The lady tells Machaut: "Danciez avec nousl"

Dancewithus!Afterawhileshe suggests thathesing alay He obliges with three lilting strophes, introduced and

vire-separated from each other by a rhythmically bouncing frain Although the song is probably unaccompanied, it

re-inspiresagirlofthecompanytodancetoit.Therearemore

songsand amorouspleasantries beforethewhole groupwalks

toa chapeltoattend Mass.Attheendof theservice,Machaut

hears aloudtrumpet.Dinnerisready "But who comesaftereating but themusicians, without mishap, all combed and

dressed up. They made many different accords For I saw

there inone groupviol,rebec,gittern, lute, Moorishguitar,

smallpsalter, citole, and thebigpsalter,harp, drum, pets, kettledrums, organs, horns (more than ten pairs),cornemuses, flageolets, chevrettes, dulzainas, cymbals, bells,timbrel, the Bohemian flute, and the big German cornet,

trum-flutes, fistula,pipe,bagpipe,littletrumpet, trombones,

porta-tives,monochord wherethereisonlyonestring,andmusette

alltogether.And

certainly,itseems tome thatnever was

suchmelody seen or heard, for each of them, according tothe sound of hisinstrument, without discord, viol, gittern,

citole, harp, trumpet, horn, flute, pipe, souffle, bagpipe,kettledrum, drum, and whatever one can do with finger,and bow,Ihave seenand heard on

Guillaumede Machaut and His Time 27

"After theyhad danced anestampie, theladies andtheir

companions wentaway, in twos andthrees, holding fingers,

to a very beautiful chamber And there was no one, man

orwoman, wanting tobe amused, to dance, sing, be tained at tricktrack, checkers, parsons [part singing?], by

enter-games, bynotes or bysounds, who did notfind there tinuouslyallamusementreadyfor his wish Andtherewere

con-musicians, so muchbetterand more learned in the old and

new fashion than Music herself who fashions songs, that

Orpheus himself, who sang so well that he enchanted all

those of the underworld by the sweetness of his singing,

would not dare sing before them When we had been

to-gether for a long time, one of the knights merrily calledforwine andspices.Ithinkitwashisoffice,forwithoutdelay

at thatmoment cametheservants

"After one had eaten the spicesand drunk the red wine,

noonpassed.Threeo'clockcame.Itwas nowagreedto takeleave Every man and woman left according to common

custom But I lingered behind, as if I were in the clouds,because ofmysweet gentleladywhom Isaw tobethere."

In another poem, Prise d'Alexandria, Machaut describesthefestivitiesaccompanying thevisitof the KingofCyprus

to Prague. The castlewas turned into "paradise on earth

There they had all instruments." And to protect himselfagainsttheaccusation of untruthfulness, thepoetrecites allinstruments by name The list runs through twenty-oneversesandidentifies thirty-fivedifferentinstruments (amod-

ern orchestra seldom contains more than twenty), most of

themin the Theflute,for instance, isrepresentedin

?8 Guillaume Machaut

more than ten pairs, thatmeanstwenty samples, loud and

soft Evenamonochord wasthere, "which harmonizes withall instruments/' The bells begin to ring and make "suchnoise that itwas a marvel The King marveled verymuch

and said that in his life had he never experienced suchgreat melody."34

Music, thenasnow,could be turnedintosocial

entertain-ment of a rather low order Festivities occurred in which

themusicians had to dress up as animals Boars blew thetrumpets, goats sanga motet, wolves played the flute, and

four large donkeys appeared as singers Some of these ports date from the period after Machaut's death, but we

re-mention thembecause thesocialattitude toward music had not changed fundamentally We read, for instance, of a

banquetatwhich-the orchestra of twenty-eight playerswas

placed inapie.

Once MachautsentPeronnethemusicfora song shehad

ordered "By God,it isa long time since Ihave madesuch

a good thing to my taste; and the melodies (tenures) are

as gentle as fine pap." He added a suggestion: "Whoever

performsit onorgans, bagpipes, or other instruments, that

is itsproper nature!"83 Imagine Ravel sending a song to afriendand suggesting thatitbe performed by anyavailablecombination of instrumentsl Hindemith, to name anothertwentieth-century composer, has done so; he has also re-peatedlyanddeliberatelypaidhis

respects toMachaut and

to performance practices of earlier centuries The lack ofconcern for the specific timbre in which a score may be

realized is characteristic of old music in general What

Machaut and His Time 29

mattered were the relationships of pitches and rhythms.These farmthe essence of a composition. Thespecificsolu-tion in the performance of a composition was incidental.Pieces could be sung, orplayed, or both sung and played.

Organs, bagpipes,stringed instruments,windinstruments

none contradicted the "propernature" ofacomposition.

Nordiditmatteratwhatpitcha Machautballademight

besung.Themanuscripts suggesta tenorrange formostofhis songs. Yet Peronne, an altoor soprano, sang them; forshe writes her lover: "And please send me some of your

songsasoftenasyoucan; forwhenIhaveyours, I have no

desire to singany others."38

Recently two ballades by Machaut were identified in a

fifteenth-century transcription, or rearrangement, lor a keyboardinstrument,probably anorgan.39This factspeaks

not only for Machaut's popularity but primarily for die

independence of old music from the rigidity of only one

specific solution. The underlying philosophic attitude isnot indifference to sound but subordination of sound tospirit

As long as the differentparts ofa Machaut composition

could be clearly differentiated, the listeners were satisfied.

The melodylineswere not meanttobe blended butrather

tobe sharply profiled. Let no one think that the ances heard by Machaut were therefore of a low standard*

perform-His contemporary Jacobus of Li^ge writes in the book SpeculumMusicae,a kind ofcritical encyclopediaofmusic

in the fourteenth century: "I think in allfairness that the

modern musical instruments are far more

jo Guillaumede Machaut

fecciores) thanthose thatwereused in the pastwhensimple

and modest music was therule I also think that modern

singersandperformersaremuchbetterthan formerones."20

This complimenttothehighquality ofthe performers inMachaut's time really hides a severe criticism of the com-

plexand immodeststylethatmade themnecessary.Jacobus

of Liege was alarmed by the modern manner of tion, by the ars nova, with its syncopations, its fast notes,

composi-and its neglect of the sacred triple rhythm. The old style,the ars antiqua, was hisideal Machaut may have tried toplease both the conservative and the modern elements ofhis audience, particularlyin the Mass, asweshall find out

But he must havefeltattackedbyJacobusof Ltege'swidelyread treatise. There were two camps Philippe de Vitry, amusicianand churchdignitarylikeMachaut, had come out

emphatically for the new style, the ars nova So had Johannes de Muris, whoheld achair ofmusicology, as we

wouldsay today,attheSorbonne.Buttheconservative forcescould apply political pressure on a public figure likethe canon of Rheims. Neither the vast middle classes nor

the Church approved of modern music Machaut's new

style developed under the protection of the court and thenobility, as did the individualized music of Dufay and Ockeghem a century later. But the tranquil circles of the

devout burghers disapproved of polyphony and even oforgans.Therule ofWindesheimforbade any embellishment

invocalmusic; and evena centuryaftertheintroduction ofthe new style, the ars^nova, by Machaut and some of his

Thomas i Kempis writes: "If you cannot

Machaut and Time 31

sing like the lark and the nightingale, then sing like theravens andthefrogs in the mire, which singas God meant them to."

The strongest opposition to any new expression in theart of composing came from the Church. St. Thomas

Aquinas had raised the question whether God should be

praisedwith songatall 2

Although hereachestheconclusionthattheuseofmusicin the divinepraisesisasalutaryinsti-

tution, many serious and forceful objections have to be

overcome Jerome had said that God is to be sung not

with the voice but with the heart But the praise of theheart is hindered by singing because the attention of thesingers is distracted from devotion Easing the throat and

jaws with medicaments makes the church resound with

theatrical measures, and instruments rather move the soul

to pleasure than create agood dispositionwithin it. Denis

the Carthusian, who died in the same year as Thomas

& Kempis, about a century after Machaut had written hisMass, still had not become accustomed to the introduction

of the modern polyphonic musicinto the service Breaking

a melody into small notes (fractio vocis) is indicative ofa

broken soul It is comparable to frizzed hair in a man orpleated dresses in a woman vanity, nothing else. Certainpeople who had participated in polyphonic singing had

confessed to him that they had thereby experienced a tain pride and "lasciviousness of the spirit." Melodies, he

cer-recognizes, may stimulatecontemplation anddevotion, and

theChurchistherefore rightintoleratingorgans.But when

artful music tickles the ear and toamuse the

audi-32 Guillaume de Machaut

ence, particularly thewomen,thenitbecomesas dangerous

as sin.24Ascetic and ecstatic elements, both profoundly ligious, werehereopposedwithin therealm ofmusic.

re-The Church, one must remember, found itself in a

pe-culiar crisis during Machaut's lifetime. On one hand, ligion penetrated all phases of life. The atmosphere was

re-saturated with religious thought. On the other hand, the

Popeslived in "Babylonian captivity" inAvignon ist tendencies alarmed the pious, and the Great Schism

Reform-considerably weakened the Church toward the end of thecentury In such a period of strain, any novelty is apt to

be regarded with suspicion. The religious writers of thetimewho condemned newfeatures of the liturgyandof thereligious realm as a whole seemed concerned not merely about the

piety, but also about the steady increase, of theinnovations The author of a treatise De Reformatione,

Pierre d'Ailly, who shortly after Machaut's death became

chancellor ofthe University and of the Notre Damedralin Paris, denounced the growing number of churches,saints, and holidays. He warned against the multitude ofimages and paintings, the overloading of the service He

cathe-protested against the introduction of new hymns and

prayers What seemed to alarm him was not so much theideaofnoveltyastheevilofsuperfluity.24

The constant blending of holy and profane thought, so

typical of the fourteenth century, results in the danger ofreducinganyspiritual situation toa profane commonplace.

Complaints about the behavior of church, choirs multiply.

In 1330, when Machaut was a young man,

Guillaume de Machaut and His Time 33

Bishop Grandison of Exeter decries offenses committed in

the cathedral: "Those who stand at the upperstalls in thechoirand have lights within theirreach at mattins, know-

ingly and purposely throw drippings orsnuffings from thecandlesupon theheads or the hair ofsuch asstand at the

lowerstalls,with the purposeof excitinglaughter andhaps of generating discord." He goes on: "Whereas some

per-ministers do sometimes (and,aswe grieve tosay, too often)

commitplain faults in singing or readingincorrectly, thenothers who knowbetter (andwhoshould ratherhave com-

passion on the ignorant and bewail the defects of theirbrethren) break out, in the hearing of many, into vulgar

words of imprecation and derision." We read of aspecial

devil, Tutivillus, whose duty it was to collect carelessly

dropped notes and syllables in a large sack.11

Thestrongest blast against thenewstyle ofcomposition,against the ars nova, of which Machaut was an ingenious

exponent, came from the Papal palace itself. In Provence,

a short geographic distance from Machaut, Pope John

XXII in 1324-5 issued a strong bull against the ern polyphonic compositions To what extent Machaut,

mod-himself a canon of the Church, deliberately bowed to thePope'sadmonition when composinghisMass a fewdecadeslater, the detailed discussion oftheMass in alater chapterwill attempt to elucidate. He did not altogether sacrificethe complicated rhythms, thefast notes, the peculiar break-ingupofa melody among twovoices (hoqueting, asitwas

called), and the setting of a liturgical text for four

in-voices But he was impressed, perhaps coerced,