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The University High School Band
The History and Theory of Music

Guillaume de Machaut

1300 - 1377

Born in France at the turn of the fourteenth century, Guillaume de Machaut entered the priesthood at the age of 23, travelling around Europe as a chaplain and scribe before returning to France, where he took up a position at Rheims Cathedral in 1337. Machaut wrote and composed for both the Church and a number of influential monarchs across Europe, including King John of Bohemia, John II of France, and Charles II of Navarre, one of the Christian kingdoms in northern Spain.

Machaut was the pioneer of a new musical style called Ars Nova ("new art.") This style pushed beyond the boundaries of Notre Dame School organum, creating an intricate polyphonic texture where independently moving melodies interact to form incidental harmonies. Occasionally, these melodies are so independent as to be written in different languages: Machaut was known to simultaneously mix together Latin and French lyrics into a single piece. Due to his powerful patrons, Machaut's new style of music spread quickly across Europe and his manuscripts have been well preserved.

In the penultimate measure of this excerpt, note how the C♯ leads into the D by a semitone, and likewise the F♯ is raised to lead into the G by a semitone. This is known as a double leading tone cadence and is very common in fourteenth century music.

Compositions

Messe de Notre Dame

Kyrie

Gloria

Credo

Sanctus

Agnus Dei