The Music of Guillaume de Machaut

The Music of Guillaume de Machaut

Guillame de Machaut was one of the foremost composers of the 14th century. His music presents a very clear picture of the changes that were taking place in the music and musical style in the 1300's. In this essay we will analyze one of Machaut's most famous secular songs “Foy Porter” and observe the techniques that he used. This can help us learn more about the new styles of music that were evolving during his life time and how they were used.
In Europe during the 1300's, new ways of thinking were beginning to emerge. People started to have new ideas about secular parts of life and sacred parts of life and what the relationship between the two should be. We can see that music followed a similar course. The Ars Nova is a term that describes a style of music being written in France during the period of these changes. It was characterized by more freedom in rhythm and melody. This period saw the invention of what would become the modern notation system which allowed composers to notate much more complicated melodies and rhythms. Songs that were based on chant melodies were given secular words and used for a secular purpose. Secular musicians, like the scientists of the time, were becoming more and more focused on the senses and the pleasure that could be perceived through them. It was quite a change from the church music, which was unaccompanied simply because it would have made it to enjoyable and therefore not spiritual enough. Professional musicians who entertained the nobility were interested in pleasing their audience in both poetry, and in complex melody and rhythm. 
Guillaume de Machaut, was born around 1300 and died in 1377, so his life spans the Ars Nova. In fact it is his death that scholars classify as the end of the period. He was a priest but also served in the courts of the King of Bohemia and the King of Navarre during his life.