Guillaume de Machaut

Special Topics: Part 1

Remede de Fortune: Summary of Events
 RF1: Lai, “Qui n’aroit autre deport” (ll. 431-680)
Type (Lai)
Synopsis • What is it?
• The young lover presents a song that he has composed based on his love for his woman. The song mirrors his • a lyrical, narrative poem written in
sentiment and is composed solely out of his own fluctuating feelings surrounding the woman and his own octosyllabic couplets
self-worth. • has several stanzas, none of which have the
• The lay starts promisingly, praising his own ‘Sweet Thought, Souvenir, and Hope’ and the beauty of the lady, same form (accompanying music does not
as well as criticising those who don’t think such goods are enough. For him, remembering his lady’s repeat)
appearance and voice will protect him from death. • Is this significant?
• However, stanza six reveals that the lady is unaware of the lover’s feelings for her because he deems himself • Tells us that the young narrator is skilled in
too unworthy to reveal them. His commitment to concealing this are restated throughout the work, blaming the creation of poetry and music, even if his
the ‘god’ of Love who made him love the lady but now refuses to reveal his love to her. efforts are rather misdirected and out-of-touch
• A fluctuation of thought and emotion overcomes the singer, with stanza ten’s affirmation of living joyfully towards this old-fashioned style.
and happily in trust of hope undone by stanza eleven as Desire assails the lover. The final stanza brings the • Lai as a structure performs aspects of both
lay full circle, restating his requirement to serve, and think of, his lady at all costs. evolution and circularity, so here it both shows
• After he has performed the lay for us, the audience, the narrative recounts how the lady chances upon the lai. the narrator’s potential for growth in love but
He reads his lai for her, and this causes the man to become scared and run away to the Parc Edame (owned by leaves him where he began (Calin & Earp,
Machaut’s employer John of Luxembourg). 2000)

Interesting Features
• Stanza Five: uses tritone leap from g-c# when talking about griefs threatened by Desire. Is resolved to D locally, but the downwards contour of the phrase undoes
this somewhat (Leach, 2011)
• Stanza Eight: obsessive quality in all of the short phrases end with the feminine ‘-elle’, which just seem to sing “she, she and only she” (Leach, 2011)
• Stanza Eleven: exploits Desire’s violent imagery of battles and the piercing of the lover’s body by the amorous dart. Entry of Desire’s dart dissects the musical
structure (3.3.4), and repetition of the rhyme type “-aille” on repeated notes has pained effect (Leach, 2011)
RF2: Complainte, “Tels rit au main” (ll. 905-1480)
Synopsis
• After fleeing the lady, he takes himself into the isolation of the park at Hesdin (a large pleasure garden replete with magically self-moving
machinery and mazes) and writes a very long and self-indulgent ‘complainte d’amour’ about his love for the lady. While the complainte is
set to music (unusual for Machaut), it is never performed locally, as it were.
• He emphasizes that he is making the complaint from his own sorrows, his thoughts and tears, and that it will be “de tristre matiere” (of sad
matter), and the many stanzas that follow reflect his changing/flowing sentiment. He laments at extreme measures, stating he will die if he is
deprived of the presence of his dame, accuses ‘L’Amour’ treating him unfairly, and persistently reinstates his love for the woman.
• His fluctuation in mood is apparent in speaking style: he goes from clerkly to courtly diction, authorial to highly personal, didactic to lyrical
(Brownlee, 1983)

Type (Complainte)
• What is it?
• a vernacular version of the planctus, a lament whose roots go back to the ninth century and is closely related to the sequence and the lai.
• love complaints (complaints d’amour) appear from the twelfth century.
• Is this significant?
• a very archaic form for Machaut’s Lover to use in his complaint against Fortune, and this may signal how out of touch he is with how he
should be acting.
• completely farcical and parodic in quality, violating all of Machaut’s compositional principles: deeply self-indulgent, emotionally unstable,
musically tedious and extremely boring (Leach, 2011)

Interesting Features
• Unlike the lai, where each stanza has a different poetic form, and therefore a different accompanying melody, the complainte is strophic
meaning that the same melody is used to accompany every stanza. Since the complainte has a total of 36 stanzas, and each stanza’s two
internal sections is repeated, that means each segment of music is sung a total of 72 times (lasting 50 minutes).
• This excessive repetition can provide us with further insight into the Lover’s obsession with expressing the wrong done to him by Fortune,
while also partly resembling the accompanying illustration of Fortune’s wheel spinning constantly.
RF3: Chant Royal, “Joue, plaisance” (ll. 1985-2032)
Synopsis
• This song marks an important point of change, appearing at the end of Hope’s first speech to the lover as a
counterpart to his Complainte. The chanson royal’s relative brevity throws into relief and implicitly criticizes the
excess of the lover’s complaint with which it musically contrasts.
• The A section juxtaposes those who live in happiness (who find joy, pleasure and nourishment) and sadnesses (who
find pricks, sorrow, ardor, tears, sadness, and bitterness). The B section offers Hope’s judgment on these two
situations.
• During the performance, the lover falls into a trance during the song, trying to imprint both a visual picture of his
lady over the auditory image of her song (Enders, 1992)

Type (Chant Royal)

• What is it?
• a term given to a small group of songs in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
• use the same form as the ballade (a-a-b), but without refrain and with an ‘envoi’, a brief final stanza
• Is this significant?
• this is a form that Hope can use to communicate with the Lover, using a backward-looking monophonic song for
someone who has become stuck in obsolete styles.
• but, because it also uses the form of the modern ballade, she can begin to draw him out of his current state toward
more appropriate forms of song, and of loving.

Interesting Features
• As an older song form, this chant royal is also deliberately notated in the older, by this time antiquated, rhythmic
values of longues and breves. Hope’s later songs are notated in the newer style of minims and semibreves, and this
embodies not only the transformation of the lover’s attitudes, but also the transition from old to new in lyric poetry
and its musical setting.
 RF4: Baladelle, “En amer a douce vie” (ll. 2857–2892)
Synopsis
• Serves as the exit aria for Lady Hope, and the final example of what the lover should be doing to
impress his Lady. Before singing the song, she is relentless in insisting that the lover remembers her,
as if Hope herself becomes a kind of mnemonic vision for him during his new compositional
ventures (Enders, 1992)
• Once again, the lyrical content of the song highlights the importance of loving with a sense of joy
and happiness, and that joy will bring far more to a lover than suffering or sadness

Type (Ballade)
• What is it?
• one of the fourteenth-century formes fixes, used for polyphonic secular song
• three stanzas with refrain, each using the musical form a a’ b (though the b section here is divided
into two parts, which gives the name baladelle to mean ‘duple ballade’).
• Is this significant?
• Hope’s mastery of two historically differentiated poetic genres allows her to show the lover how he
can reinterpret his singing, developing a new attitude toward joy in music and love.

Interesting Features
• It has been suggested that the triplum and contratenor are alternatives, so the manuscript provides two
different versions (triplum-cantus-tenor or cantus-tenor-contratenor). This would be in keeping with
Hope’s bridging effort, since the use of a triplum was already fading from the polyphonic secular
song, while the three-voice texture with contratenor would soon become standard.
• Written in the new notational technology of minims and semibreves.
RF5: Ballade: “Dame de qui toute” (ll. 3013-3036)
Synopsis
• This marks the Lover’s first attempt to write a polyphonic song in the fixed forms uses
the ballade form Hope has given him. This is his attempt to prove that he is ready to be
reintegrated into courtly society
• The song is filled with praise for the lady, as opposed to thinking about himself, such as
how she gives him a hundred times more joy than he could deserve in a hundred
thousand years, as well as how the lady and Hope combine to nourish with all that he
needs to comfort him and bring joy to his heart.

Type (Ballade)
• What is it?
• one of the fourteenth-century formes fixes, used for polyphonic secular song
• three stanzas with refrain, each using the musical form a a’ b.
• Is this significant?
• after being instructed by Hope, he is able to sing a new song: in hopefulness, notation,
form, and focused lyrics, he is able to imitate the new fashions.

Interesting Features
• As this is his very first attempt to write in the new polyphonic style, he sensibly uses
only two voices, the cantus and tenor that are at the heart of this style (though, later
sources add a triplum and contratenor to this pair, such as Leach, 2011)
• Interestingly, the final sonority uses a minor third, rather than the perfect consonance
normally required at this point, which is perhaps intended to give a sense of
incompleteness?
 RF6: Virelai: “Dame a vous” (ll. 3451-3496)
Synopsis
• After a brief loss of confidence remedied by Hope’s reappearance, he is able to display his new compositional and
loving ability through this virelai, which he and his lover dance to. The text is once again relentless in its goal of
praising the lady and nothing but: her splendour is juxtaposed by being both healing through her grace, but with a
beauty whose force destroys all others.
• The refrain (or, A) repeats that he will give his undivided and unreserved attention to the woman, acting as a servant
to whatever she needs and desires (a common image in early romantic songs)

Type (Virelai)
• What is it?
• one of the fourteenth-century formes fixes, most closely retaining its origin in dance
• the virelai form is A-b-b-a-A, where the letters in capital represent the same lyrical material and the letters in
lowercase represent the same music accompanying different text (this can also be seen in the image to the right)
• this would lend itself to group participation, where the higher-case A signifies a ‘chorus’
• Is this significant?
• the group participation element is vital to why the virelay exemplifies the efficacy of Hope’s teaching.
• the narrator is transformed from an excluded and isolated individual to a participatory and performing lover,
dancing with his lady and others outdoors to a song whose text he has written and which he is singing.

Interesting Features
• Unlike his previous attempt, this is a monophonic forms fixes (this was most common in the fourteenth century,
probably due to its association with dance), however this is a much more appropriate use of monophony as opposed
to the Lover’s earlier efforts.
• Here, it is clear to see the lively rhythmic contour of the piece, particularly the alteration between iambic (♪♩) and
trochaic (♩♪)patterns that keeps the piece moving and interesting. The syllabic setting of verses complements this
RF7: Rondeau: “Dame, mon cuer” (ll. 4109-4116)
Lyric Translation
LADY, my heart with you remains
Though from your presence I depart.
Through the love that in me obtains,
Lady, my heart with you remains.
Now, I pray God your heart attains
Such love, and none else shares that
heart.
Lady, my heart with you remains,
Though from your presence I depart.
Type (Rondeau)
• What is it?
• one of the fourteenth-century formes fixes, most closely retaining its origin in dance
• the rondeau form is AB-a-A-ab-AB, where the letters in capital represent the same lyrical material and
the letters in lowercase represent the same music accompanying different text
• this would lend itself to group participation, where the higher-case letters signifies a ‘chorus’
• Is this significant?
• the fact that this is the last song of the text is interesting, as the rondeau form (just like the lai of RF1) is
both a linear and a circular form, implying that the sequence of songs throughout moves progressively
through the different genres, but also turns back upon itself (Calin & Earp, 2000)
• circularity seems to be an unnoticed motif here, which is further reflected in Fortune’s wheel, in the ring
Hope gives the narrator (which he later exchanges for the Lady’s ring), and even in the circular wall of
the garden (Calin & Earp, 2000)
• does this suggest that, even though the narrator appears to have become a mature lover, he may not have
completely grown out of his earlier errors (much like the equivocal ending of the narrative itself
highlights)?

Interesting Features
• This rondeau is set in three parts, with triplum-cantus-tenor, however it is argued that that the triplum part is actually a rather poor fit for the skilful duet between
the cantus and tenor (certainly it is less up-to-date in style than a contratenor would be). This might reflect the Lover’s still-developing skill, and perhaps even
foreshadow the mistakes he will continue to make in his relationship with the Lady.
• In addition, while the structure of the rondeau is kept to, it lacks the musical rhyme between the A and B sections that becomes the norm in Machaut’s output. This
may be the fault of the composer, as it is suggested that this is probably his first rondeau attempt, or it may again suggest that the Lover has more to learn to master
the style.
 Themes: Machaut’s views on the purpose of music
Wimsatt, 1983: Folios from MS C
• “He who does not compose according to his
Lover, f.26r
feelings falsifies his work and his song”
• “I decided to compose about Fortune and my
Lover, f.29v
sorrows, my thoughts and my griefs”
• “Do you think that an esteemed […] lady
Hope, f.37r would care for someone who implores her
love with polished, deceitful words”
• “But those who are sad, distressed […] I
Hope, f.39v
cannot conceive that they love without deceit
(RF3)
and that they are not overwhelmed by Desire.”
• “I summoned up all my senses together and
Lover, f.40v then forced myself to speak and said to her in
more lively fashion”
• “I don’t want you to think I’m forbidding you
Hope, f.45v to love; instead, I’m wanting and sincerely
urging you to love loyally”
Composing with Sentiment
• In the first section, it is clear that the
lover is dictated by his own thoughts
and feelings, and his compositional
strategy is to write according to his
emotions. RF1 & RF2 are the two
examples of his sentimentally-driven
music
• This philosophy, however, greatly
contrasts with Machaut’s own ideas
that music should be written with joy
and good-natured thought regardless
of personal feeling. As such, the
compositions are intentionally out of
touch with his contemporary society:
• His lai demonstrates perhaps a mis-
directed approach to love, with an
old-fashioned style.
• His complainte is deeply self-
indulgent, emotionally unstable,
musically tedious and extremely
boring (Leach, 2011)
• His fluctuation in mood is apparent
in speaking style: he goes from
clerkly to courtly diction, authorial
to highly personal, didactic to
lyrical (Brownlee, 1983)
Composing with Good Feeling
• Hope’s lesson, then, is for the lover to
approach his loving more positively,
and to write songs that reflect
messages that praise the lady. In both
of her songs (RF3 and RF4), their
lyrical content highlight the
importance of loving with a sense of
joy and happiness, and that joy will
bring far more to a lover than
suffering or sadness.
• While her teaching encompasses an
array of different aspects to help him
integrate himself into courtly life (the
move towards fashionable formes
fixes and new ars nova notation
certainly play a part in this), the
ultimate goal for him is to secure his
lover, and that he is able to do
through his change in mindset:
• His ballade in particular is short and
goal-oriented, with the lyrical
subject shifting from lamenting
about his own misfortune to
praising the lady unconditionally.
 Themes: Memorisation and Teaching
Hope’s teaching methods
Wimsatt, 1983: Folios from MS C
• Hope appears at the virtual centre of the poem, and she is obsessed with memory
throughout: she emphasizes teaching, learning, and retention frequently in her • “Now I’ve instructed and sketched out for
lessons. After refuting both of the Lover’s earlier attempts at courtship, you — if you have understood and retained it
immediately on her arrival she stresses the importance of committing her lessons Hope, 38r
to memory. — how your lady can know that you love her
• Her baladelle (RF4) is a particularly striking example of this. truly”
• With it being the first of the modern forme fixe types (the chanson royal is a
merging point, as it were), as well as the first type that ars nova notation is used, • “…with such a melody that soon I fell
it is a pivotal moment for the Lover in terms of his courting development, and
there is an awful lot for him to have to recall here. Lover, 38r asleep; but not so deeply that I didn’t
• Before it, Hope insists relentlessly that she be remembered, implying that the
accurately hear…”
only way for the tranced Lover to hear her song is if Hope herself becomes a
kind of mnemonic vision, communicating to him orally by using the inner
compasses of the mind. • “if you are so taken with seeing your worthy
lady that you cannot endure her sweet eyes
Hope, 45v
Lover’s learning techniques […] always remember me, however it may
• If Hope’s teaching mechanisms implore the Lover to memorise her lessons, then
be”
the Lover’s response couldn’t be more ideal. Immediately, hopes to attain ‘Hope’
by both visualizing and hearing her within his memory, and just before she begins • “I had to imprint it upon my memory; […] I
her chanson royal (RF3), the Lover falls into a trance (the classic mnemonic
had no heart or desire to think of anything
state). Lover, 46r
• When the Lover sees that Hope is done teaching and is about to fly off (2929-32), else (except that I constantly remembered
he realises that to maintain his power to speak and to create lyric poetry, he must her…)”
record her lessons permanently in his memory. On first sight of the lady, the
Lover takes to his natural state of trembling, but instead of ceding to fear he
remembers his dear friend Hope and her teachings which gets him through the • “it was inscribed in my heart by true and
difficulty. certain understanding a hundred times more
Lover, 47v
accurately and exactly than any clerk could
write it out by hand”
Enders, 1992