The Interplay of Language and Music in Machaut's Virelai 'Foy Porter'

Authors

Phyllis Brown, Santa Clara UniversityFollow
William Peter Mahrt

Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

1997

Publisher

The Institute of Mediaeval Music

Abstract

Scarcely anywhere else in the repertory of lyric poetry is the identity of the poet and the composer quite as apparent as in the works of Guillaume de Machaut, the foremost French poet and musician of the fourteenth century (d1377). His works with music should be approached confidently as integral lyrics, as composite works of poetry and music, because he wrote about the process of providing music for poetry and writing texts to be set to music. Furthermore, he specified the sequence of his own compositions- narrative and lyrical, poetical and musical - all in a single book.

Chapter of

Tradition and Ecstasy: The Agony of the 14th Century

Part of

Claremont Cultural Studies;v.62 no.3

Editor

Nancy van Deusen,

Comments

Republished with permission by author and publisher.

Recommended Citation

Brown, Phyllis and William Peter Mahrt. "The Interplay of Language and Music in Machaut's Virelai 'Foy Porter.'" Tradition and Ecstasy: The Agony of the 14th Century. Ed. Nancy van Deusen. Claremont Cultural Studies 62.3. Ottawa, Canada: The Institute of Mediaeval Music, 1997. 235-50.