New appreciation

[Machautology]

Hello, I'm Tiffany from New Hampshire USA. I am in an Humanities class and I have recently gained an appreciation for Classical music, particularly medieval compositions. I am writing an essay about Guillaume de Machaut's Motet 20, Trop plus/Biaute paree/Je ne suis. I am looking for Machaut's intentions when he wrote this. My research indicates that he wrote it for Dutchess Bonne of Luxembourg however, I am not sure why. I thought I read that they may have been romantically involved but I can not recover the document that I read that from. Does anyone know who or why he wrote this or any literature where I might find more on this particular Motet?

[DaveF]

Tiffany,

Good to hear from another Machaut enthusiast.  I don't know about a romantic link between Bonne and Guillaume - surely that would have been as unthinkable as an affair between, say Queen Victoria and her Scottish servant... or not.  Anne Walters Robertson in Guillaume de Machaut and Reims is good on the background and symbolism of Motet 20, and Lawrence Earp, Guillaume de Machaut: A Guide to Research fills out the historical background (including mention of a possible affair between Bonne and one Raoul de Brienne - but not Guillaume).  I'm sure you know these books anyway, but thought I'd mention them if for no other reason than for the pleasure of talking about G de M.

DF

[Karl Henning]

Welcome, Tiffany!

[micfuh]

Another Machaut enthusiast! That does bring back memories of Medieval musicology class at McGill University in Fall of 1976. It was my task to analyze the last eight motets of Machaut. Fortunately I was allowed to use modern manuscripts in modern notations but when I gave my presentation it had to be using the same terminology as Machaut used. Those last eight motets are very interesting works and analyzing them helped me to understand the music of Machaut's time. But we didn't get into the history of the works as we were there to discover the "machinery" that ran Medieval music.

[SonicMan46]

Hi Tiffany - welcome to the forum!

I own a lot of medieval & Renaissance music, so your question(s) piqued my interest - cannot provide an answer concerning a 'romantic' relationship, but Machaut was for a while in the service of Bonne of Luxembourg who was the first wife of John II of France, and also later served several of her sons; she died in 1349 from the bubonic plaque (one of the worst years for the Black Death that century) at the age of 34 y/o - Bonne & John had 9 children together, so she was likely pregnant most of the time in that short marriage - if there were other lovers in her life, she probably lived in a bedroom(s) -    Dave

P.S. - information above from HERE.

[Fafner]

Hello and welcome to the forum!