Who was Guillaume de Machaut and why was he important to the music of the Middle Ages?

Who was Guillaume de Machaut and why was he important to the music of the Middle Ages?

He was the first composer to write single-handedly a polyphonic setting of the mass ordinary, a work that has been recorded in modern performance. In most of this four-part setting he employs the characteristic Ars Nova technique of isorhythm (repeated overlapping of a rhythmic pattern in varying melodic forms).

What is Guillaume de Machaut known for?

Guillaume de Machaut (sometimes spelled Machault; c. 1300–April 1377) was a medieval French poet and composer. Machaut helped develop the motet and secular song forms (particularly the lai and the formes fixes: rondeau, virelai and ballade).

Who is Guillaume de Machaut what are the parts that compose his polyphonic setting of the Ordinary of the Mass?

It is a polyphonic setting of the entire Mass Ordinary (the portions sung at every Mass except at the Requiem Mass, the Mass for the Dead), consisting of six sections: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, and Ite Missa Est (the last section is rarely set by other composers).

Was Guillaume de Machaut a monk?

[1] He was a monk of the abbey of Arras in northern France; the area was at the time a center of trouvère activity, and his contemporaries included Adam de la Halle and Colin Muset. [2] His songs were all monophonic songs in the traditions of pastoral romance and courtly love; he also wrote religious songs.

What was de Machaut’s most famous work?

Among his only surviving sacred works, Messe de Nostre Dame, is the earliest known complete setting of the Ordinary of the Mass attributable to a single composer. Other notable works include the rondeaux “Ma fin est mon commencement” and “Rose, liz, printemps, verdure” as well as the virelai “Douce Dame Jolie”.

What era is Guillaume de Machaut?

Guillaume de Machaut (c. 1300–1377) is recognized by most scholars as the most important French poet and composer of the 14th century.