Machaut
Instrumentation: voice, organetto, recorder, lute, vielle
Guillaume de Machaut (ca. 1300-1377) is one of the most important poets and composers of the 14th century. Although known today foremost as a composer, to his contemporaries he was known as a great poet as well. Moreover, Machaut was canon of Rheims cathedral as well as clerk to John of Luxemburg, King of Bohemia and supporter of the arts. Thanks to his own efforts, Machaut’s unique oeuvre has been handed down in manuscripts that include solely his own poems and compositions. In them he unified language and music in absolute perfection, and is therefore referred to, not incorrectly, as the Last of the Minstrels. Machaut’s works are, on one hand rooted in and inspired by earlier forms, such as the lai which he brought to refinement, and on the other, forged new musical directions which broke ground for generations of composers to come, playing a crucial role in the development of three genres later established and known to us as the Formes fixes - the Ballade, the Rondeau and the Virelai.
Santenay’s program presents these forms of chanson as well as intabulations of Machaut’s pieces from the Codex Faenza and, finally, an ode to Machaut’s death composed by his pupil Eustache Deschamps.
