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Guillaume de Machaut c.1300–1377
12 SANCTUS & BENEDICTUS
Ensemble Gilles Binchois Dominique Vellard, director
13 Pater Noster
CD 1
14 AGNUS DEI 56’47
5’11 7’05
(AS, GT, EB, JB)
3 GLORIA IN EXCELSIS DEO
4’59
(AS, GT, EB, JB)
4 Collectio: Veneranda nobis
1’06
(DV)
5 Epistulum: Lectio libri Sapientiae
2’04
(PB)
6 Graduale: Propter veritatem
3’20
(DV, HL, PB, WW)
7 Alleluia, assumpta est Maria
2’05
(DV, HL, PB, WW)
8 Evangelium: In illo tempore intravit Jesus
1’57
(HL)
9 CREDO IN UNUM DEUM
7’17
(AS, GT, EB, JB)
10 Offertorium: Diffusa est gratia
1’28
(PB, WW, JB)
11 Praefatio (DV)
3’32
(AS, GT, EB, JB)
15 Communio: Regina mundi
4’43
(DV, HL, PB, WW)
16 Postcommunio: Mense celestis
1’06
(DV)
17 ITE MISSA EST
1’42
(AS, GT, EB, JB)
(DV, HL, PB, WW, JB)
2 KYRIE ELEISON
1’38
(DV)
Messe de Nostre Dame with the Gregorian propers of the Mass of the Assumption, 14th c. 1 Introitus: Gaudeamus omnes in domino
4’39
(AS, GT, EB, JB)
2’48
Mass: Andreas Scholl (AS) countertenor Gerd Türk (GT) tenor Emmanuel Bonnardot (EB) baritone Jacques Bona (JB) bass
Dominique Vellard Akira Tachikawa
Andreas Scholl
Propers Dominique Vellard (DV) tenor Hervé Lamy (HL) tenor Philippe Balloy (PB) baritone Willem de Waal (WW) baritone Jacques Bona (JB) bass Mass transcription: Leo Schrade, revised by Dominique Vellard Plainchant transcription: Marie-Noël Colette Recording: September 1990, Collégiale Saint-Martin de Champeaux, Seine et Marne Engineered by Dominique Matthieu Digital editing: M.C.2 Chevreuse, Yvelines, France. Recording supervision: Marie-Pierre Brun Executive producers: François-Dominique Jouis, José Carlos Cabello
Jean-Paul Racodon
Brigitte Lesne
Anne-Marie Lablaude
Dominique Vellard 2
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including the textless parts, which should be vocalized. The fact that there is some evidence that a number of musical establishments (among those set up by kings, princes and noblemen) did not have instrumentalists serving, but only singers, does not say much in itself. Those documents show only that, for whatever reason, there were no minstrels listed in the payrolls, but this cannot exclude the possibility that a singer could also play an instrument, while he was listed only as a singer. Such a suggestion reflects a concrete practice in a concrete time, for other sources list many more instrumentalists than singers serving other patrons. What is more, Machaut himself provides us with many poetic examples in which he mentions not just a few, but many dozens of instruments. In Le Jugement du Roi de Navarre, it is precisely upon hearing the sound of cornemuses, trompes, naquaires / Et d’instruments plus de set paires (bagpipes, horns and percussions / and more than seven pairs of instruments), coming from a wedding celebration, that the poet-composer begins to feel better, after several months of being seriously ill [11]. In his poem La, firent mains divers acors, from Remede de Fortune, Machaut mentions more than 30 woodwind, stringed and percussion instruments. Does this mean that we must flood Machaut’s pieces with the sound of all kinds of instruments? We prefer to approach this from another direction: which kinds of vocal music are more appropriate for performance with some sort of instrumental accompaniment, and which will sound better in purely instrumental renderings? Performing this music cannot depend on dogma or fixed principles, unless we could be lucky enough to consult Machaut in person, who without a doubt would have some lucid advice to give… The Ensemble Gilles Binchois possesses a familiarity with the repertory, together with a deep knowledge of the sources, vocal and instrumental techniques and poetic structure of the pieces, that will give a wider perspective on how to inject new life into a wonderful music already full of surprises. José Carlos Cabello, 2011
CD 2
15 Long sont mi jour
0’38
from Le Livre du Voir-Dit (J-PR)
16 Tels rit au main
Le vray remède d’amour 1 Je, Guillaumes 2 Dame, vostre doulz viaire
0’50 6’03
Virelai (DV1, PH3, RC)
3 Amours qui ha le pouoir/ Faus samblant
2’31
3’05
Virelai (BL1, PH3)
5 Ce qui soustient moy
2’57
Rondeau (DV1, EB1)
6 La, firent mains divers acors
1’08
from Le Remède de Fortune (J-PR)
7 Dame se vous m’estes lonteinne
2’04
Ballade (B1, DV2, EB2, PH1, RC)
8 Je ne cuit pas
6’02
Ballade (A-ML, DV2)
9 Doulz viaire gracieus
1’48
Rondeau (A-ML, BL1, PH1)
10 Christe, qui lux est/ Veni creator spiritus
4’29
Motet (A-ML, BL1, DV1, EB1)
11 Qui des couleurs
17 Liement me deport
1’36
5’30
Virelai (AM-L, BL1 & 2)
18 Des que on porroit
1’25
from Le Livre du Voir-Dit (J-PR)
19 De toutes flours
6’36
Ballade (BL2, DV1, RC)
20 Mon cuer, ma suer”
Motet (A-ML, BL1, EB1)
4 Je vivroie liement
2’16
Complainte (PH1)
from Le Jugement du Roi de Navarre (J-PR)
2’39
from Le Livre du Voir-Dit (J-PR)
21 Felix virgo/Inviolata genitrix
4’35
Motet (A-ML, BL1, DV1, EB1)
Anne-Marie Lablaude (A-ML) voice Brigitte Lesne (BL) (1) voice (2) harp (3) percussion Dominique Vellard (DV) (1) voice (2) gittern Emmanuel Bonnardot (EB) (1) voice (2) fiddle Pierre Hamon (PH) (1) recorders (2) flute (3) bagpipes Randall Cook (RC) fiddle Jean-Paul Racodon (J-PR) reader
from La Loange des Dames (J-PR)
12 Puisqu’en oubli
1’35
Rondeau (BL1, EB2, RC)
13 Dame ne regardes pas
3’32
Ballade (EB1, RC)
14 Doulz amis Ballade (DV1, EB1)
10
67’59
6’27
Recording: October 1988, Eglise Saint-Martin de La Motte Ternant, Côte-d’Or Engineered by Dominique Matthieu Digital editing: M.C.2 Chevreuse, Yvelines (France) Recording supervision: Marie-Pierre Brun Executive producers: François-Dominique Jouis, José Carlos Cabello
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CD 3
65’04
16 Honte, paour, doubtance
3:46
Ballade (PH1, RC2)
17 Adont commensa Souffissance...
Le Jugement du Roi de Navarre 1 Joie, plaisance et douce nourriture
1:19
18 Nes que on porroit les estoilles nombrer
3:53
19 Quant leur consaus fu affinez...
Chanson roial (EB2, DV2, PH1, BL3)
2 Tres douce dame que j’aour Ballade (A-ML, BL2)
3 Un po apres le temps d’autonne...
1:38
from Le Jugement du Roi de Navarre (J-PR)
4 Plange regni/Tu qui gregem tuum ducis
2:52 1:54
from Le Jugement du Roi de Navarre (J-PR)
6 O livoris feritas/Fons totuis superbie 2:42 Motet (BL1, AT, EB1)
7 Et quant Nature vit ce fait...
1:39
from Le Jugement du Roi de Navarre (J-PR)
8 Puis que ma dolour
2:41
Virelai (EB2, PH2, DV2)
9 Si que ces tempestes cesserent...
3:16
from Le Jugement du Roi de Navarre (J-PR)
10 Kyrie (Messe de Nostre Dame)
6:33
(BL1, AT, DV1, EB1)
11 Si que tres bien me confessay...
1:12
from Le Jugement du Roi de Navarre (J-PR)
12 J’aim sans penser
2:16
Virelai (RC1, EB3, DV2, PH3, BL3)
13 Esperance
5:11
Ballade (AT, DV1)
14 Quant Theseüs/Ne quier veoir
5:17
Double ballade (A-ML, BL1, DV1, EB1)
15 Damoiselle, la traïson de Theseüs...
5:31
Ballade (BL1, DV1, EB1)
1:22
from Le Jugement du Roi de Navarre (J-PR)
20 Amours me fait desirer
5:21
Ballade (A-ML, PH2, RC1)
Motet (A-ML, AT, DV1, EB1)
5 Et tout einsi com je cuidoie...
3:32
from Le Jugement du Roi de Navarre (J-PR)
Anne-Marie Lablaude (A-ML) voice Brigitte Lesne (BL) (1) voice (2) harp (3) percussion Akira Tachikawa (AT) voice Dominique Vellard (DV) (1) voice (2) gittern Emmanuel Bonnardot (EB) (1) voice (2) fiddle (3) rebec Pierre Hamon (PH) (1) recorders (2) flute (3) bagpipes Randall Cook (RC) (1) fiddle (2) recorder Jean-Paul Racodon (J-PR) reader Recording: October 1994, Eglise de Grancey le Château, Côte-d’Or Engineered by Dominique Matthieu Recording supervision: Jacques Bona Executive producers: François-Dominique Jouis, José Carlos Cabello
immediacy of the textes dits (poems) is to complement them with musical pieces written during different creative periods of Machaut’s life and that are an aesthetic and even ideological continuation of the poems. Le Vray Remède d’Amour presents a selection of Machaut’s poetical and musical works out of which we have tried to construct a coherent story of refined love and desire. In the particular case of this CD, it is hard not to feel moved by the intimate bareness of Long sont mi jour and the musical piece associated with it in this recording, the complainte Tels rit au main (tracks [15] and [16]), performed solely with a recorder, or by the impressive sequence of the tracks [18], [19] and [20], which begins with the reading of Nes que on porroit, one of Machaut’s most beautiful poems, continues with the memorable version that Dominique Vellard makes of the ballade De toutes flours, accompanied by harp and fiddle, and is followed by the moving, achingly beautiful performance by Racodon of the text Mon cuer, ma suer, ma douce amour, another of the composer’s most devastatingly beautiful verses. Le Jugement du Roi de Navarre is a puzzling work divided in two parts. The first one includes a masterful depiction of the terrible episodes of the Black Death and the Hundred Years War, and the second part develops a courtly scene proposed by the King of Navarre: the monarch should decide whether the pain of a lady whose lover has died was larger than the sorrow of a knight betrayed by his lady. Again, we have decided to combine some of the best poems of Le Jugement with outstanding ballades, virelais and motets of the best Machaut, to provide a musical context to the story. The overwhelming power of Et tout einsi com je cuidoie... [5] seems to be perfectly complemented by a dazzling (and partly disturbing, too) motet like O livoris feritas / Fons totuis superbie [6], just as the joy of Si que tres bien me confessay... [11] finds a perfect counterpart in a virelai of infectious rhythmic structure such as J’aim sans penser [12]. Many authors have recently insisted that Machaut’s polyphonic works (both sacred and profane) should be given exclusively vocal performances, with no instruments,
2:58
from Le Jugement du Roi de Navarre (J-PR)
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The use of four solo voices in the polyphonic sections gives this performance a tremendous clarity and transparency, a fundamental aspect when working with such complex textures, and allows for a more accurate articulation and phrasing. This is also essential bearing in mind the large number of isorhythmic fragments (repetitions of rhythmic or melodic motifs within the piece’s structural development), hoquetus (literally ‘hiccup’, successive silences and short notes) and syncopation present in the Mass. The voices barely use vibrato, while the natural timbre of each singer’s vocal delivery is always respected. As for tempo, a moderate pace has been taken, allowing easy comprehension of the text and free movement of the polyphony lines, and making it simple to follow the rhythmic exchange between voices.
Le Vray Remède d’Amour & Le Jugement du Roi de Navarre A fundamental idea inspired our production team when we planned to devote two CDs to Machaut’s secular output: how to give a more complete portrait of such a unique artist like Machaut, who was not only an extraordinary composer but also the best poet of his time? We made the decision to ‘perform’ some of his texts that have no music. Given that along his career Machaut wrote works such as Remede de Fortune and Le Voir Dit, long poems with musical interpolations which emphasise some aspects of the poetic texts, why not follow his own system and take some of his most expressive texts and ‘perform’ them in the voice of a reader, with interpolations of different musical pieces which heighten their meaning? The fascinating beauty of Old French texts, Machaut’s poetic fluidity, and the expressive power of his imagery, are music in themselves, especially when an actor of the stature of Jean-Paul Racodon imbues them with new life. We firmly believe that a good way to appreciate better the quality and
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Machaut’s Love and Life Guillaume de Machaut was born about 1300 and probably received his education and musical training in Reims before around 1323, when he entered the service of John of Luxembourg, ‘the royal vagabond adventurer from Bohemia’, as poet and secretary. He remained with this ‘king with a taste for banquets and tournaments, hard fighting and lovely ladies’ until about 1340, when he settled into his own home in Reims, near the Cathedral, where he was to serve as canon until his death in 1377. One of Machaut’s most important musical-poetic works, Remede de Fortune, is regarded as being a truly perfected, refined expression of medieval courtly love. In fact, all the aspects of Machaut’s life and works are in turn a reflection and example of medieval courtly love. Machaut, in this sense, was not that avant-garde, innovative, modern figure that some historians have attempted to portray, but rather a man who faithfully continued and cultivated a given behaviour and attitude whose roots were to be found over a hundred years before he was born. Machaut was the perfect archetype of the medieval ‘loyal servant for love’. Exquisitely educated, his life was not free of exciting episodes worthy of an adventure film: the years in which he served the king of Bohemia, following him around Europe on his military campaigns, or those when he was on the verge of perishing from the Black Death; the way he was admired and respected by the nobility; and the exceptionally beautiful love story in the autumn of his life, leading him to experience a second youth during his almost legendary relationship with Péronne d’Armentières, never fully proven, never fully refuted. The fact that all his works were compiled on richly-illuminated manuscripts is good evidence of his remarkable existence and his importance, and some of these were prepared under his direct supervision (an almost unique honour in the history of music, and a particularly unusual merit in those days), and illustrated by artists who contributed decisively to developing the art of illumination in France. It was to the French nobility that Machaut dedicated his works and presented the manuscripts that 5
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conform a monumental oeuvre: long narrative poems, lyric poetry, thousands of verses in all; and, in the realm of music, ballades, rondeaux, lais, virelais, motets and a Mass which was by itself sufficient to make the name of Machaut famous from at least the 20th century until our days.
Messe de Nostre Dame Machaut’s Messe de Nostre Dame is probably his most popular work among music lovers, but it is also the one which raises the most questions. Is it really the first complete polyphonic Mass in the history of music? When was it composed? For what purpose? Was Machaut inspired by similar works? Did he ever actually hear it? How should it be performed? It is one of the longest works in all medieval music (sacred or secular) and also the oldest complete polyphonic cycle of the Ordinary of the Mass (that is, the parts of the Mass which remained the same throughout the ecclesiastical year: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei and Ite missa est) to have come down to us. The famous Messe de Tournai is probably somewhat earlier, but it was conceived by different composers, and then without any real stylistic or thematic unity in mind. An in-depth study of the manuscripts where the Mass is kept (and even those in which it is not preserved) and its main technical features leads to the conclusion that Machaut must have composed it by 1360-62. A traditional school of thought held that the work was written to be used during the coronation ceremony of King Charles V in Reims Cathedral, on 19 May, 1364. However, Machaut’s reputation was based mostly on his poetic work, and not so much on his music, which in any case was mostly secular. In short, there would have been other composers, not so famous today, but unquestionably more familiar with composing church ceremonial music than him. Recent scholarly research invites us to think that towards 1360, in a moment of 6
extraordinary creative maturity, and also at which he was old enough to have had the thought that death was approaching, Machaut decided that he should leave his musical testament as a Mass for the Virgin Mary, which was to be sung in his memory (and in that of his brother Jean), every Saturday in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Reims, where both were also canons. These Masses in memoriam were sometimes held even during their donors’ lifetimes, so Machaut could have heard it more than once during his life. This may have led him to make some revisions, as suggested by the changes reflected in two manuscripts. Different reasons have led Dominique Vellard to conceive the piece basically as the Ordinary of a polyphonic Mass incorporated into the development of a Gregorian Mass with its other sections in plainchant, as performed by a small group of singers. This of course agrees with Machaut’s intention of creating a Mass with a double objective: honour to Our Lady and to preserve the memory of both brothers’ souls. The 300 florins that Guillaume left ‘to provide for... salaries and nourishment for each person present’, although a considerable sum at the time, did not allow for a large number of performers over many years. It was then a semi-private liturgical service, held in a side altar for and by a reduced number of attendants, including celebrants, singers and relatives. One of the most important points for this performance has been trying to recover the lyricism and serenity of the musical discourse underlying the amazing complexity of all the technical resources used, taken to their culmination in this work. After a relatively conservative start (the first Kyrie section) and with the logical exceptions of the longtexted, homophonic sections (Gloria and Credo, treated syllabically, with all parts moving together), the composer goes on to what Daniel Leech-Wilkinson accurately termed ‘rhythmic exuberance’. In a similar way, the use of dissonances in the Mass surpasses all known limits in Machaut. He actually worked with a very precise mental layout of the interplay between dissonances and the basic progression of the piece’s chords from the outset. 7