L'art musical et poétique de Guillaume de Machaut

L'art musical et poétique de Guillaume de Machaut: Motets / Ballades / Virelays - Le Remède de Fortune - Le Veoir Dit
Jean Belliard / Ensemble Guillaume de Machaut de Paris - Guy Robert
Adès 13.294 (2 CDs)
Adès 203 712 (2 CDs)

Motet: Felix virgo / Inviolata genitrix (2 voices, krumhorn, shawm, organ, lute, rebec)
Virelay: Comment qu'a moy lointeinne (voice, recorder, 'ud, vielle, percussion)
Motet: Bone pastor Guillerme (2 voices, krumhorn, vielle, organ)
Rondeau: Ma fin est mon commencement (voice, rebec, flute, organ, lute)

Le Remède de Fortune

Variations (Faenza Codex): De toutes flours (2 lutes, krumhorn, rebec)
Lay: Qui n'aroit autre deport (voice, 'ud, Moorish guitar, vielle, flute, recorder, percussion)
Complainte: Tels rit au main qui au soir pleure (Voice, Moorish guitar, lute, vielle, recorder)
Chanson Royale: Joie, plaisence et douce norriture (vielle, recorder, 'ud, Moorish guitar, percussion)
Ballade: Dame, de qui toute ma joie (voice, 2 lutes, rebec, krumhorn, recorder)
Poeme - Estampie (voice, vielle, recorder, Moorish guitar, 'ud, percussion)
Virelay (chanson baladée): Dame, a vous sans retollir (voice, vielle, Moorish guitar, flute, bells)
Balladelle: En amer a douce vie (voice, rebec, Moorish guitar, lute, flute)
Rondelet: Dame mon cuer (voice, krumhorn, vielle, lute, recorder)

Chanson: Pour quoy me bat mes maris (voice, rebec, Moorish guitar)
Motet: Pour quoy me bat mes maris (3 voices, rebec)
Ballade: Honte, paour, doubtance ('ud, lute, rebec, flute)
Ballade: Sanz cuer / Amis dolens / Dame par vous (3 voices, recorder, vielle, organ, lute)
Virelay: Quant je sui mis au retour (voice, 'ud)
Motet: Quant en moy / Amour et biaute (2 voices, rebec, krumhorn, organ)
Hoquet David (krumhorn, vielle, shawm, lute, organ)
Andrieu: Ballade: Deploration sur la mort de Machaut (2 voices, vielle, organ, flute, krumhorn, lute)

Le Veoir Dit

Virelay: Douce dame jolie (lute)
Text: Lors our alleger (voice)
Ballade: Ploures dames (voice, rebec, recorder, flute, organ)
Text: Je vous envoie une ballade (voice)
Virelay: Se medisants (recorder, flute, lute, vielle, percussion)
Ballade: Je ne cui pas (voice, viele, organ, lute, recorder)
Ballade: Nes que on porroit les estoiles nombrer (voice, rebec, organ, krumhorn, Poitou oboe, lute, percussion)
Ballade: Quant Theseus ne quier veoir (2 voices, rebec, lute, organ, shawm, krumhorn)
Lay de bonne esperance (voice, vielle, flute, recorder, lute, Moorish guitar, percussion)
Text / Rondeau: Dix et sept, cinc (voice, rebec, flute, organ, lute, krumhorn)
Text: J'ai veu le rondel (voice)
Virelay: Moult sui de bonne heure nee (voice, vielle, lute, flute)

Performers: Jean Belliard (countertenor, recitant, percussion), Bernard Huneau (flutes, recorders, krumhorns), Elisabeth Robert ('ud, lute, organ), Guy Robert (lute, Moorish guitar, percussion), Julien Skowron (vielles, rebecs), Annie Bartelloni (contralto), Alain Zaepffel (countertenor), Jean-Claude Veilhan (recorders, krumhorns, Poitou oboe, shawms)

Playing time: 139'

Original release date: 1977; re-issued: 1991

These are classic performances, re-issued as a 2 CD set. At the time, Arabic models for medieval instrumental performance were in fashion, and this set often adopts that tone (witness the use of the 'ud and rebec, instruments from the Arabic classical tradition). Many of the instrumental interludes have a Moroccan feel. This approach has since been discredited as "inauthentic" but this set continues to have a following and a historical importance.

Jean Belliard sings to instrumental accompaniment on most of the tracks, as well as recites some of Machaut's poetry. The presentation style shows these performances as the intellectual fore-runners of the Ensemble Gilles Binchois recording, in which the Arabic influences are discarded for a more sumptuous French instrumental sound. Although the above tracks often list several instruments (many more than there are polyphonic lines), the accompaniment is generally discreet.

This set consists of the Remède de Fortune (the same pieces as on the Ensemble PAN recording), the Veoir Dit, and various other pieces highlighting the best of Machaut's output. Like Le Remède de Fortune, Le Veoir Dit is a large book of poetry and music. This volume was written around 1363, near the end of Machaut's life, and anticipates many of the trends of the Ars Subtilior. Also included is Andrieu's Ballade-Lament on Machaut's death (one of the best pieces of the Ars Subtilior style).

An original recording from which this reissue is taken:

Machaut - Le Remède de Fortune: Jean Belliard / Ensemble Guillaume de Machaut de Paris - Guy Robert
Alvarès 499 (LP)

Other recordings by the present ensemble:

L'Ars nova française: Guillaume de Machaut et son temps: Borlet, Carmen Cesaris, Tapissier
Ensemble Guillaume de Machaut de Paris
Adès 14040 (LP)
Gautier de Coincy: Les Miracles de Nostre-Dame: Ensemble Guillaume de Machaut de Paris
Arion 38347 (LP)
Le chant des troubadours: Ensemble Guillaume de Machaut de Paris
Arion 38503 (LP)
Dufay: Hymnes, chansons et motets: Musiciens à la Cour de Bourgogne
Ensemble Guillaume de Machaut de Paris
Calliope 1874 (LP)
Musiciens à la cour de Bourgogne: Anon., 15th c. - Morton et Hayne
Ensemble Guillaume de Machaut de Paris
Alvarès 811 (LP)
Musique des trouvères et jongleurs: Ensemble Guillaume de Machaut de Paris
Cezame 1055 (LP)

Similar to this classic recording, another series whose influence cannot be overstated:

Machaut: Chansons, Volume 1: Studio der Frühen Musik - Thomas Binkley
EMI Reflexe 63142
Machaut: Chansons, Volume 1: Studio der Frühen Musik - Thomas Binkley
EMI Reflexe 63424

Finally, another classic recording devoted partly to Machaut & Landini:

Pour l'amour: Liebeslieder des 14. und 15. Jahrhunderts
Instrumentalkreis Helga Weber
Christophorus Entrée 0042

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Todd M. McComb