Text-Music Relationships in Guillaume de Machaut’s Secular Works

Alison Li

HMU225: Historical Survey I

December 7, 2023
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Guillaume de Machaut (ca.1300–1377) was a French composer and poet known for both

his poems and musical settings of liturgical and secular texts. Specifically, many of his Formes

fixes secular works set poems both of his own and other poets, ranging from his monophonic lai

and virelai to more texturally-complex polyphonic ballades and rondeaux. Scholars have

identified various relationships between music and text among his poetic settings – while some

point to the function of music in conveying textual meaning in his ballades, others argue that in

his lais and virelais, music highlights textual structure and sounds, with some suggesting

disconnections between music and text.

On one hand, some scholars propose that music serves to express and symbolize textual

messages and thematic ideas. Firstly, Lawrence Earp suggests that Machaut performs careful

musical declamations of texts to highlight their expressive qualities, manipulating and

corresponding varying musical features to textual elements to express and symbolize thematic

ideas and images. He explores the interaction of musical elements, in his Virelai Douce dame

jolie and Ballade De toutes flours, with the textual properties of poetic structure, rhythms, and

ideas. Notably, De toutes flours (“Of all flowers”) is especially effective, as a polyphonic setting

of his own poem, in portraying images of a standing rose amongst his garden of withered

flowers. In this primarily syllabic setting, Machaut delays resolutions of rhyme syllables with

extended melismas to accentuate textual expression – he splits the word “rose” and resolves to

“-se” only after an expressive 27-note melisma, symbolizing its beauty and “lingering perfume”.1

His close musical declamation, as an “expressive parameter”,2 is also noted in Douce dame jolie

(“Sweet, beautiful lady”), a love poem expressing his longing for a woman. In highlighting

1
Lawrence Earp, “Declamation as Expression in Machaut’s Music,” A Companion to Guillaume de Machaut 33, no.
11 (2012): 223.
2
Earp, “Declamation as Expression,” 211.

Excellent!
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stanzaic patterns alternating between optimism and hopelessness, Machaut corresponds musical

rhythms to syllables in contrasting ways to emphasize atmospheric shifts, matching anacruses to

opening syllables of phrases in certain stanzas to also highlight textual structure.3 In evaluating

the practice of manuscript analysis, Earp discusses the implications of Ars Nova's rhythmic

complexity on complicating scribal practice and impacting the accuracy of text-music

representations in manuscripts.4

Although Elizabeth Eva Leach also supports, to an extent, music’s role in text expression,

she proposes that, while Machaut’s settings of poems regarding contemporary societal beliefs

may be seen as forms of political commentary, the extent to which their musical features

represent textual messages is up to interpretation. In her article, she analyzes how musical

features in Ballades 22 and 23 accentuate or conceal the poems’ mutual theme of Fortune. First

exploring differences in poetic features to create political versus erotic approaches to the topic,

she analyzes how musical features reflect such differences. Unlike Earp’s suggestion that music

clarifies and emphasizes textual meaning, Leach suggests that the settings serve a “similarly

executed subversive purpose” and identifies instances where music masks textual meaning.5

Both ballades displace musical structure against poetic verse structure, rendering them

“unconventional, reading the poem against its versification”.6 Specifically, strong harmonic

cadences, which typically signify pauses or ends in musical phrases, are placed at random points

of textual lines rather than coinciding with “sense break in the poem”.7 While this disruption to

3
Earp, 212.
4
Earp, 226.
5
Elizabeth Eva Leach, “Fortune’s Demesne: The Interrelation of Text and Music in Machaut’s ‘Il meat avis’ (B22),
‘De fortune’ (B23), and Two Related Anonymous Balades,” Early Music History 19, no. 19 (2000): 57.
6
Leach, “Fortune’s Demesne,” 57.
7
Leach, 61.

I might smooth the transition from the topic sentence (which is great) to
these ideas by using something like "she comes to this conclusion by....'
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textual flow elicits perplexity hindering the direct communication of ideas, confusion, however,

may also implicitly symbolize textual meaning, where “removing musical security to poetic

structure reflects Fortune’s disruptive actions”.8 This infers challenges in interpreting the extent

to which musical features represent text overall, and valuable is Leach’s acknowledgment of the

complexity of artistic intentions that lend multiple interpretations.

While the arguments hitherto explore how music moulds around text, this unidirectional

and possibly reductionist approach to analysis neglects that there is limited available evidence

indicating whether the music or text was initially created, for his settings. Therefore, considering

their reciprocal relationships by exploring how the text fits the music, could enrich insight into

Machaut’s musical and poetic intentions.

Using more holistic methods, scholars have suggested relationships other than conveying

meaning. In instances of syllabic text setting, David Maw proposes that musical features

highlight syllabic rhyme patterns to emphasize textual metrical structure, ultimately orienting the

performer’s understanding of musical meter and rhythm.9 While there were no specific

indications of meter in Machaut’s manuscripts,10 Maw examines manipulations of melodic

rhythm, pitch, and musical representation of textual syllables and rhymes to highlight metrical

structure in his 26 Virelais, in providing performers of the dance songs an understanding of

musical meter and rhythm. Specifically, he notes strong structural correspondences between

“musical phrase and poetic line”.11 The systematic alignment of metrical stresses and cadences

8
Leach, 58.
9
David Maw, “Meter and Word Setting: Revising Machaut’s Monophonic Virelais,” Current Musicology, no. 74
(Fall 2002): 72.
10
Maw, “Meter and Word Setting,” 72.
11
Maw, 73.

Such as?
Good!
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against rhyme syllables, with oxytonic and paraoxytonic syllables against strong and weak beats

respectively, illustrate conformations to textual accentual patterns, therefore “reinforcing the

song’s metrical effect in performance”.12 However, Maw acknowledges the strict focus on meter

as a reductionist interpretation of compositional intentions, highlighting the dangers of upholding

“anachronism by imposing modern preconceptions” in interpreting historical works.13

Additionally, he underscores how the absence of barring in manuscripts often leads scholars to

overlook the role of the word-setting in providing a sense of rhythm, especially in syllabic

settings where often only note-syllable relationships are considered.14 Consequently, he proposes

the investigation of text-music relationships in neumatic and melismatic settings.

From examining Machaut’s neumatic Virelai Tuit mi penser, John Latartara proposes that

musical features embody the natural sonic qualities of spoken language in the poem, rather than

emphasizing textual meaning. In exploring connections between musical structure and “language

sounds, pitch space, performance, and meaning” by analyzing scores and performance

spectrographs,15 he highlights correspondences between pitch range and timbral differences of

phonemes (i.e. vowels/consonants), syllables, and textual intonation, to provide authentic

representations of natural language patterns – upholding contemporary ideals of “natural” versus

“artificial” music.16 Specifically, systematic melodic direction articulates shifts from “brighter”

to “darker” language tone qualities in phrases,17 marked by the prevalence of “grave, neutral, or
12
Maw, 75.
13
Maw, 96.
14
Maw, 95.
15
John Latartara, “Machaut’s Monophonic Virelai Tuit mi penser: Intersections of Language Sound, Pitch Space,
Performance, and Meaning,” The Journal of Musicological Research 27, no. 3 (2008): 226.
16
Latartara, “Machaut’s Monophonic Virelai,” 231.
17
Latartara, 236.
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acute vowel sounds”.18 Notably, higher musical pitches correspond to the brighter phonemes (e, i,

s) that prevail at the beginning of phrases, before descending along textual contour through

“neutral” (a) to “darker, grave” (u, o) phonemes to highlight the darkening language tone.19 Like

Maw, he recognizes the possible influence of modern perspectives,20 and the challenges of

deciphering meaning in historical works.21 Nevertheless, he suggests analyzing Machaut’s other

virelais to explore alternative hypotheses – whether “language sounds link with other musical

aspects, such as rhythm”.22

While the arguments so far suggest reciprocal text-music relationships, settings featuring

heightened complexity in text-music interplay have inspired suggestions of their independence.

Instead of highlighting textual structure, Maw argues that, in Machaut’s lai and virelai, the

frequent contradiction of musical features against phrasal syntax disrupts textual flow, separating

text-music relationships. Investigating the extent to which musical features allow congruence to,

or deviation from textual structure, he notes that his settings were often not strict reflections of

textual properties, and while musical features can be moulded around textual structure, inherent

variations in poetic structure illustrating artistic variety challenge musical correspondence.

Moreover, various musical techniques contradict textual momentum, creating further

disconnections between their structures: The misalignment of musical cadences and metrical

stresses against verbal rhythms,23 as well as spontaneous musical breaks causing sudden
18
Latartara, 238.
19
Latartara, 236.
20
Latartara, 229.
21
Latartara, 250.
22
Latartara, 253.
23
David Maw, “The Mimetic Basis of Pure Music in Machaut’s Refrain Songs: Part 1, Musical Mimesis,” Plainsong
& Medieval Music 29, no. 1 (2020): 42.
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disruptions to textual lines, suggest possible text-music separations – trends Leach also identifies

in Ballade 23.24 While Maw discusses how such ‘disconnection’ techniques increase polyphonic

complexity reflecting transformations in aesthetic ideals accompanying the development of a

new poetic form,25 examining settings from earlier in his career could offer alternative insights

into text-music connections and his compositional developments.

In conclusion, various text-music relationships in Machaut’s secular musical settings of

poems have been proposed. Some scholars employ more unidirectional and possibly reductionist

approaches by analyzing how music moulds around textual frameworks, arguing that certain

musical features accentuate textual meaning, though to a debatable extent. In contrast, other

scholars employ more holistic perspectives to analysis by considering the reciprocity and

interdependence of music and text, arguing that their mutual interactions highlight both their

structural and rhythmic patterns. Nevertheless, the validity of the relationship has been

questioned. Overall, the presented arguments have allowed insight into Machaut’s possible

artistic intentions in both music and text, justifying the sophistication of his compositions that

epitomize the Ars-Nova's aesthetic ideals. Nonetheless, some scholars recognize the influence of

modern perspectives in interpreting historical works, thereby suggesting more comprehensive

examinations of his oeuvre to better understand possible artistic intentions, which can benefit

reinterpretations of past inferences and guide subsequent analysis. Ultimately, it is integral that

researchers employ unbiased approaches in deciphering artifacts.

[Word Count: 1,400]

24
Leach, 61.
25
Maw, 50.

Stellar!
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Bibliography

Earp, Lawrence. “Declamation as Expression in Machaut’s Music.” A Companion to Guillaume

de Machaut 33, no. 11 (2012): 209–38.
https://doi-org.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/10.1163/9789004228191_013.

Latartara, John. “Machaut’s Monophonic Virelai Tuit mi penser: Intersections of Language

Sound, Pitch Space, Performance, and Meaning.” The Journal of Musicological Research
27, no. 3 (2008): 226–53. https://doi.org/10.1080/01411890802212592.

Leach, Elizabeth Eva. “Fortune’s Demesne: The Interrelation of Text and Music in Machaut’s ‘Il
meat avis’ (B22), ‘De fortune’ (B23), and Two Related Anonymous Balades.” Early
Music History 19, no. 19 (2000): 47–79. https://www.jstor.org/stable/853858

Maw, David. “Meter and Word Setting: Revising Machaut’s Monophonic Virelais.” Current
Musicology, no. 74 (Fall 2002): 69–102. https://doi.org/10.7916/cm.v0i74.4906.

———. “The mimetic basis of pure music in Machaut’s refrain songs: Part 1, musical
mimesis.” Plainsong & Medieval Music 29, no. 1 (2020): 27–50.
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0961137120000054.