Today, this programme is devoted to Guillaume de Machaut.
Machaut is regarded as the most important poet/composer of the fourteenth century. Even during his lifetime he was held in high esteem. There was great demand for his literary works, and as a result almost his entire oeuvre has been preserved.
One of his most important literary works is Le Voir Dit, translated as ‘A true story’. It contains letters and lyric poems which, according to Machaut, were exchanged between himself and his much younger beloved. The truth of that claim, however, has been questioned.
Le Voir Dit includes nine songs, of which we shall hear eight: three ballades, four rondeaux and one lai, Le lay de Bon Esperance. The latter is a long poem in 24 stanzas of unequal length for a single voice.
Playlist
Guillaume de Machaut (ca. 1300-1377)
1. Plourés dames, ballade [32] à 3
2. Dame, se vous n’avez aperceü, rondeau [13] à 3
3. Ne que on porroit, ballade [33] à 3
4. Sans cuer dolens, rondeau [4] à 2
5. Longuement me sui tenus (Le lay de Bon Esperance), lai [13/18] à 1
6. Dis et sept, cinq, rondeau [17] à 3
7. Puis qu’en oubli, rondeau [18] à 3
8. Quant Theseus / Ne quier veoir, ballade [34] à 4
The Orlando Consort
(CD: “Songs from Le Voir Dit” – Hyperion CDA67727, 2013)
Addition:
Guillaume de Machaut
9. Foy porter, honneur garder, virelai [22] à 1
Norbert Rodenkirchen, medieval traverso
(CD: “Flours de flours – Lais & Virelais” – Raumklang MA 20041, 2008)
Image: Illustration from Le Voir Dit (wikimedia.org)
