Guillaume de Machaut: Medieval music ()

Guillaume de Machaut lived in an age of unimaginable turmoil and uncertainty. He lived through two of the most catastrophic events to have ever struck France: the Black Death and the Hundred Years’ War. It is likely that half the population of the nation perished in the bubonic plague that arrived in 1348/49. Machaut had already lost his first patron, King John of Luxembourg & Bohemia at the Battle of Crécy in the year 1346; and in 1349, he lost his second patron, Princess Bonne (King John’s daughter) to the pestilence. In his epic poem, “Jugement du roi de Bohème,“ Machaut grieved bitterly over the monumental tragedy that destroyed his bohemian world. He withdrew to his hometown of Rheims away from trade routes where the disease was spreading like wildfire. There, he wrote his music and poems quietly. Yet, the music he created was amorous, gentle, funny, sometimes nonsensical. His themes obsessed about the beauty, charm and power of noble ladies at court. Did the Pl