Guillaume de Machaut
Guillaume de Machaut (c. 1300 – April 1377) was a French poet and a composer in the Ars nova style. He is considered the leading figure in the music of his century.
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Quotes
[edit]- Et musique est une science
Qui veut qu'on rie et chante et dance.
Cure n'a de merencolie,
Ne d'homme qui merencolie
A chose qui ne puet valoir,
Eins met tels gens en nonchaloir.
Partout ou elle est joie y porte;
Les desconfortez reconforte,
Et nes seulement de l'oir
Fait elle les gens resjoir.- And Music is an art which likes people to laugh and sing and dance. It cares nothing for melancholy, nor for a man who sorrows over what is of no importance, but ignores, instead, such folk. It brings joy everywhere it's present; it comforts the disconsolate, and just hearing it makes people rejoice.
- "Le Prologue", line 85; translation from Ross W. Duffin (ed.) A Performer's Guide to Medieval Music (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000) p. 190.
- Qui de sentement ne fait,
Son dit et son chant contrefait.- He who makes songs without feeling
Spoils both his words and his music. - "Remede de Fortune", line 407; translation from Josiah Fisk and Jeff Nichols (eds.) Composers on Music (Boston, Northeastern University Press, 1997) p. 5.
- He who makes songs without feeling
- Et quant ma maladie
Garie
Ne sera nullement
Sans vous, douce anemie,
Qui lie
Estes de mon tourment,
A jointes mains deprie
Vo cuer, puis qu'il m'oublie,
Que temprement m'ocie,
Car trop langui longuement.
Douce dame jolie,
Pour dieu ne penses mie
Que nulle ait signourie
Seur moy fors vous seulement.- And since my malady
Will not be
Cured at all
Without you, sweet enemy.
Who are glad
At my torment.
With folded hands I pray
To your heart, since it forgets me.
That it should kill me quickly.
For I languish too long.
Sweet pretty lady.
For God's sake do not think
That any one has authority
Over me but you alone. - "Douce dame jolie", line 33; translation by Jennifer Garnham. [1]
- And since my malady
- Ma fin est mon commencement
Et mon commencement ma fin.- My end is my beginning, and my beginning my end.
- "Ma fin est mon commencement", line 1; translation from Donald N. Ferguson A History of Musical Thought (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, [1935] 1948) p. 94.
External links
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