Guillaume de Machaut

About Guillaume de Machaut

Guillaume de Machaut (c. 1300–1377) was a French composer and poet who was highly regarded by his contemporaries, both in France and elsewhere in Europe. Machaut is now considered to be the most significant French poet and composer of the 14th century and the most important exponent of the ars nova style of musical writing. Machaut was ordained as a priest and spent much of his career in service to noble patrons. He took up a position as canon of Reims Cathedral in approximately 1340, and he resided in the city for the rest of his life. Machaut wrote both sacred and secular music and many poems, and his works give us an insight into both political and social contexts of the time.  The sheer volume of Machaut's works and the way they were distributed attests to the importance in which he was held both within and after his lifetime. Among his best-known musical works are the Messe de Nostre Dame, almost certainly the earliest existing complete polyphonic setting of the Mass Ordinary by one composer, and Le Livre dou Voir Dit, a work combining poetry and music that appears to tell the story of a love affair between the composer and a younger noblewoman.