Guillaume de Machaut and Reims

Guillaume de Machaut, renowned fourteenth-century French composer and poet, wrote the first polyphonic Mass and many other important musical works. Friend of royalty, prelates, noted poets and musicians, Machaut was a cosmopolitan presence in late medieval Europe. He also served as canon of the cathedral of Reims, an ancient and influential archiepiscopal see and the coronation site of French kings. This exploration of Machaut’s life and work focuses on his music based on ecclesiastical chants: twenty-three motets, the David Hocket, and the Mass of Our Lady. The meaning of his music can often be understood through study of its context in fourteenth-century Reims. Machaut emerges as a composer deeply involved in the great crises of his day, one who skilfully and artfully expresses profound themes of human existence in ardent music and poetry.

Author Biography

Anne Walters Robertson is Professor of Music at The University of Chicago. She is the author of The Service Books of the Royal Abbey of Saint-Denis: Images of Ritual and Music in the Middle Ages (1991). She was awarded the John Nicholas Brown Prize of the Medieval Academy of America in 1995.