Product Description
Guillaume de Machaut, fourteenth-century French composer and poet, wrote the first polyphonic Mass and many other important musical works. Friend of royalty, prelates, noted poets, and musicians, Machaut was a cosmopolitan presence in late medieval Europe. He also served as canon of the cathedral of Reims, the coronation site of French kings. From this penetrating study of his music, Machaut emerges as a composer deeply involved in the great crises of his day, one who skillfully and artfully expressed profound themes of human existence in ardent music and poetry. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Fascinating!
As an early music scholar and enthusiast, I find, unfortunately, that too many scholarly books on the subject are overpriced and frightfully boring. Not this one! Author Anne Walters Robertson expounds not only on the structure of Guillaume de Machaut's work, but on the mystical side - and answers the often-pondered question of why a celibate priest like Guillaume would produce a huge body of poems and songs about passionate, romantic love. This is one of the few Cambridge University Press books (and I have consulted a lot of them) that I could actually sit down and read - and not only learn from it, but enjoy it as well. Congratulation to author Robertson for producing such a fine volume!

An Extremely Important Volume
I am just finishing up this book in preparation for presenting new insights into Machaut's Motets to my colleagues in a doctoral level choral literature seminar.In short, this book is a brilliant contribution to our understanding of the works of Machaut, and a must have for any serious student of the Middle Ages, especially musicologists.

Dr. Robertson's strikingly clear and original points are firmly supported by her familiarity with an exceptionally large and significant number of sources from that time.It is abundantly clear that she knows what she's talking about, and, indeed, what she knows is a great deal.

Additionally, it is apparent that Dr. Robertson possesses that rare gift found in only the finest of scholars: the ability to organize and convey her ideas with a clarity and vitality that is both riviting and a delight to read.

One hopes this is only one of several such landmark offerings in the history of music and culture that this exceptional scholar is capable of bequeathing the world.

For a whole host of reasons, this book belongs on your shelf.

Douglas Thompson
Tucson, AZ ... Read more

Product Description
Ardis Butterfield examines the relationship between the poetry and music of medieval France. Beginning when French song was first set into writing in the early thirteenth century, Butterfield describes the wide range of contexts in which secular songs were quoted and copied. Including narrative romances, satires and love poems, the book reveals the development of French song and narrative genres during a significant period of history. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This book provides an overview of the current state of research on Machaut, the major figure of 14th-century French music and poetry, giving fair representation to the many areas of Machaut research that are pursued in fields outside music.
Coverage of the current state of knowledge on each of the manuscripts includes the newly discovered Aberystwyth manuscript, described in detail here for the first time.A section on the large narrative poems pulls together recent research of several scholars and offers new views. An up-to-date concordance of the miniatures in all of the illustrated Machaut manuscripts gives information on where published studies and facsimiles may be found.The discography is the most complete list of Machaut recordings yet compiled and provides critical evaluations of recordings most valuable for instruction, according to our latest conception of performance practice in the 14th-century.
A biography section organizes the documentary material in a way that will facilitate further research. The bibliography of secondary works cites books, editions, articles, and dissertations (including forthcoming works) from 1740 to 1991, in French, English, the other western European languages, Polish, Russian, and Japanese.The volume is fully indexed. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Everything you want to know on Guillaume de Machaut
A mine of information on Guillaume de Machaut's music. Biographic elements, works, editions, chronology, essays, single articles are easily found in this remarkable guide. As it is a recent edition, all major sources are included. A really well-written book. Medieval music lovers will enjoy reading it. ... Read more

Product Description
This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1875 edition published in Paris. ... Read more

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Guillaume de Machuat, a man famous for both his poetry and musical compositions, wrote his "Prise d'Alexandrie" (or Capture of Alexandria) just a few years after the death of his hero, King Peter I of Cyprus (1359-69). It is a verse history of Peter's reign and was Guillaume's last major literary work. Peter's ancesters had ruled the island of Cyprus since the 1190s, and in 1365 Peter gained notoriety throughout western Europe as a leader of a crusading expedition which captured the Egyptian port of Alexandria. His forces, however, were unable to retain control, and Peter was left with a war against the Egyptian sultan. It was his increasingly desperate measures to continue the struggle and carry opinion with him that resulted in his murder in 1369. Guillaume relied on information relayed by French participants in Peter's wars, but although he was not an eyewitness of these events, his account is independent of other narratives of the reign which were written in Cyprus apparently under the auspices of the king's heirs. ... Read more

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This Book Is In German. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description

Guillaume de Machaut (1300–1377) was the master poet of fourteenth-century France. He established models for much of the vernacular poetry written by subsequent generations, and he was instrumental in institutionalizing the lay reader.In particular, his longest and most important work, the Voir dit, calls attention to the coexistence of public and private reading practices through its intensely hybrid form: sixty-three poems and ten songs invite an oral performance, while forty-six private prose letters as well as elaborate illustration and references to it’s own materiality promote a physical encounter with the book.

In Controlling Readers, Deborah McGrady uses Machaut’s corpus as a case study to explore the impact of lay literacy on the culture of late-medieval Europe. Arguing that Machaut and his bookmakers were responding to contemporary debates surrounding literacy, McGrady first accounts for the formal invention of the lay reader in medieval art and literature, then analyses Machaut and his bookmakers’ innovative use of both narrative and bibliographical devices to try to control the responses of his readers and promote intimate and sensual reading practices in place of the more common public performances of court culture.McGrady’s erudite and exhaustive study is key to understanding Machaut, his works, and his influence on the history of reading in the fourteenth-century and beyond.

Product Description
This Book Is In French. ... Read more