Guillaume de Machaut: Medieval music from the time of plague and courtly love (c.1350-1370)

Guillaume de Machaut lived in an age of unimaginable turmoil and uncertainty. He lived through two of the most catastrophic events to have ever struck France: the Black Death and the Hundred Years' War. It is likely that half the population of the nation perished in the bubonic plague that arrived in 1348/49. Machaut had already lost his first patron, King John of Luxembourg & Bohemia at the Battle of Crécy in the year 1346; and in 1349, he lost his second patron, Princess Bonne (King John's daughter) to the pestilence. In his epic poem, "Jugement du roi de Bohème," Machaut grieved bitterly over the monumental tragedy that destroyed his bohemian world.

He withdrew to his hometown of Rheims away from trade routes where the disease was spreading like wildfire. There, he wrote his music and poems quietly. Yet, the music he created was amorous, gentle, funny, sometimes nonsensical. His themes obsessed about the beauty, charm and power of noble ladies at court. Did the Plague not affect Machaut's music? Perhaps the sorrow and anxiety in his heart was expressed not in the lyrics of his ballades and motets, but in the notes themselves. His musical passages contain an abundance of strange dissonances and surprising chromaticisms. They smashed the mold of the rigid and conservative structure promoted by the School of Notre Dame in the previous century.

Machaut recognized his greatness as a poet, thinker and composer. He knew that he was endowed with a genius and diligence that was unique for his age. In the last decades of his life, he devoted all his energies to collecting his life' works for posterity into richly illuminated manuscripts, inserting miniature portraits of himself between lines of poetry.

In this video, I collected 12 MIDI files from different websites and extensively edited them to creat the sounds of 14th century instruments like the vielle, rebec, recorder, flute, harp, psaltery, lute and bagpipe. Below is a list of the musical selections. To jump to another piece, click on the time stamp next to the song title. Details of the artworks are described beneath the song titles.
Abbreviations: BnF (Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris), FVMMS (Ferrell-Vogüé Machaut MS)
MIDI sources: NNM (N.Nakamura, maucamedus.net), GA_IMSLP (Gayk Aboyan, IMSLP.org), CB_AO (Christian Brassy, apemutam.org)

0:11 Comment qu'a moy (CB_AO)
a. Guillaume de Machaut with falcon, BnF1584, c1372
b. Bagpiper, Poésies, G.d.Machaut, BnF 1586, c1355
c. Machaut reciting, Jugement du roi de Boheme, c1355
2:02 Cinc un treze (GA_IMSLP)
a. FVMMS, c1370
b. Man playing psaltery, Politica et economica of Aristotle, 1376
3:02 Se je souspir (NNM)
a. FVMMS, c1370
3:43 Tres douce dame (NNM)
a. FVMMS, c1370
b. Man at music stand, Jean de Salisbury, c1372
c. Courtly love scene, FVMMS, c1370
d. Vielle players, Maastricht Hours, Stowe MS 17, c1325
e. Scenes of courtly love, ivory mirror case, Anon.French, c1330
6:23 Rose liz printemps verdure (CB_AO)
a. FVMMS, c1370
b. Organetto player, Piero Giovanni Tedesco, c1387
7:32 Puis qu'en oubli (CB_AO)
a. Courtly love scenes, Roman de la Rose, Morg.MS120, c1370
b. Psautier Jean de Berry, Bibl.Nat.Fr.13091
8:29 Quant j'ay l'espart (CB_AO)
a. FVMMS, c1370
b. Lady and knight, Manesse Codex, c1330
9:24 Riches d'amour (NNM)
a. FVMMS, c1370
b. Musicians, Manesse Codex, c1330
c. Machaut with Lady Fortune, Bibl.Nat.Fr.1584, c1372
d. Machaut with female messenger, c1360
e. Poésies, G.d.Machaut, Bibl.Nat.Fr.1586, c1355
f. Seige of the Castle of Love, c1370
g. Lovers, Roman of Alexander, Bodleian Lib. 264, c1344
12:59 Ma fin est mon commencement (NNM)
a. BnF 1585
b. Angel with harp, fresco Cathédrale St.Julien du Mans, 14th c
c. David with 2 musicians, Jean Pucelle, c1345
d. Les Grandes Heures de Jean de Berry, c1400
14:52 Mes Esperis (NNM)
a. BnF 22546
b. Machaut with lion, Le Dit du Lyon,
c. Angel with psaltery, Tommaso del Mazza, c1380
d. Angel with harp, Pere Serra, c1380
16:54 Je puis trop bien (CB_AO)
a. FVMMS, c1370
b. Angel with recorder, Pere Serra, c1385
c. Circle dance, Machaut, Le remède de Fortune, 1356
18:25 Gais et Jolis (NNM)
a. FVMMS, c1370
b. Musical angels, Paolo Veneziano, c1370
c. Angel with vielle, Tres Belles Heures, Jean Limbourg c1400
d. Circle dance, Romance of Alexander, Bodl. 264, c1344
e. Angel with vielle, Paolo Veneziano, Rome, c1350
f. Rose garden, Tacuinum sanitatis, Anon.Italian, c1390
g. Bluetit, Royal 3 D VI, c1300
h. Lone monk in garden, FVMMS, c1370
i. La louage des dames, Machaut, Le dit dou vergier, c1380
j. Kissing couple, Poésies, Maître de la Bible Jean de Sy, c1372