Motets

Machaut, Guillaume de

album cover

A Marvel of Medieval Music

The next time you find yourself numbed by the lockstep hammering of contemporary music, slip into this medieval marvel. Within seconds, you'll be transported 650 years into the past, to an echoey place where five male voices sing in overlapping "parts" that are often in different languages, in a church that gives every perfectly rounded vocal utterance special resonance. There's no modern frame of reference for this ancient form of blues, which is built on long, low, hollowedout tones that seem to sustain indefinitely.

Guillaume de Machaut lived in fourteenthcentury France. He was one of the few medieval composers who left detailed instructions about how his work was to be performed—most music of his time was transmitted orally. He had talent as a poet and these pieces utilize his words, which chronicle thoughts on love and spiritual questing through contrasting vocal parts. In the motet form, one elongated line states the basic "story" using a melody that would be recognizable to churchgoers. On top are two other texts—the "triplum" is a florid and usually verbose elaboration, and the "motetus" provides the story's moral lesson. As these texts align, they form a kind of meditation on the specific emotional state: The luminous "He Who Loves Most" tells about the anguish of unrequited love; beneath the plot are deep tones of resignation, in such repeated phrases as "Thy will be done."

This 2004 recording of the Motets features England's Hilliard Ensemble, one of the most accomplished vocal groups devoted to early music. The words are often heated and intense, but the Hilliard voices are set at a cooler temperature—the singers don't embellish, delivering their lines with eerie detachment. This allows Machaut's often melancholy intent to glide right past the modern listener's external armor, and straight into the soul.

Genre: Classical
Released: 2004, ECM
Key Tracks: "With Sighing, Suffering Heart," "Because Pity Does Not Wish," "He Who Loves Most."
Next Stop: Hilliard Ensemble with Jan Garbarek: Officium
After That: The Bulgarian Women's National Radio and TV Chorus: Le mystère des voix bulgares
Book Page: 413

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