The “new forms and perfect amorous lays” of Guillaume de Machaut (c.1300-1377)
Presented in conjunction with Les Délices
Saturday, April 17, 2021 at 7:30 PM
Live pre-concert talk at 6:30 PM by Anne Stone (The Graduate Center, City University of New York)
Tickets: $50 / $35 / $10
Click here for more information about virtual concerts.
| Apres vint maistre Guillaume de Machault, le grant retthorique de nouvelle forme, qui commencha toutes tailles nouvelles, et les parfais lays d’amours.
Then came master Guillaume de Machault, the great rhetorician of the new school, who originated all manner of new forms, and perfect amorous lays. -Les regles de la Seconde Rettorique, early 15th century |
Kim Leeds, voice
Scott Metcalfe, fiddle
Charles Weaver, lute
Video by Kathy Wittman, Ball Square Films
Audio by Joel Gordon
Sets, scenery, & décor by Paul Guttry
Our spring program offers a delightful assortment of works by Machaut in the three new poetic-musical forms which he established for French song, as well as a complete performance of one of his “perfect amorous lays,” a beguiling display of poetic and melodic virtuosity. Part of an online Machaut Mini-Fest presented by Blue Heron and Cleveland’s Les Délices.
Et Musique est une science
Qui vuet qu’on rie et chante et dance.
Guillaume de Machaut, Prologue, 199-200
And Music is an art
Which wishes us to laugh and sing and dance.
Anne Stone is Associate Professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She has published books and articles on late medieval manuscripts of secular music, the history of musical notation, and the intersection between theoretical, practical, and embodied perceptions of musical time in the late middle ages. Among her current projects are a new edition of the polyphonic songs of Guillaume de Machaut and a digital installation of Machaut’s Remede de Fortune, which won the 2020 Noah Greenberg Award of the American Musicological Society.
Program
Le lay de plour: Qui bien aimme a tart oublie
Ce qui soustient moy (rondeau)
Riches d’amour, mendians d’amie (ballade)
Je voy le bon tens (instrumental) – Anonymous
Mors sui se je ne vous voy (virelai)
Honte, paour, doubtance de meffaire (ballade)
Hont paur (instrumental) – Anonymous (Faenza codex)
Cinc, un, treze, wit, nuef d’amour fine (rondeau)
Adeu mon cuer (instrumental) – Anonymous
Sans cuer, dolens, de vous departiray (rondeau)
Biauté parfaite (ballade) – music by Antonello da Caserta / text by Machaut
Voices
Kim Leeds
Owen McIntosh
Jason McStoots
Sophie Michaux
Margot Rood
Aaron Sheehan
Sumner Thompson
Instrumentalists
Charles Weaver, lute
Scott Metcalfe, fiddle & harp
All concert dates, programs and personnel are subject to change without notice.
Blue Heron is engaged in the exploration of Renaissance and medieval vocal music, putting the study of original sources in the service of vivid live performance. Widely regarded as the finest ensemble of its type in North America, Blue Heron presents a subscription series in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a catalog of exceptional recordings is available on the Blue Heron label. The ensemble’s accolades include the 2018 Gramophone Classical Music Award for Early Music, making Blue Heron the first group from outside Europe to receive the award; the Noah Greenberg Award from the American Musicological Society; and the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik. Touring engagements have taken the group across the United States, Canada, England, and Europe.
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