Fair de Nostre Dame

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The composer Guillaume de Machaut while writing

La Messe de Nostre-Dame is a mass setting for four voices by Guillaume de Machaut (around 1300 / 1305–1377). In addition to the masses of Tournai , Toulouse , Barcelona and the Sorbonne, it is one of the oldest polyphonic settings of the Ordinarium , and the oldest known, which comes from the pen of a single, named composer.

Interior of the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Reims, where the mass was created and performed

The title of the exhibition refers to the Titles of Mary Our Lady , which also includes the Reims cathedral consecrated , the site of action Guillaume de Machaut.

The composition was probably written around 1360. The earlier widespread assumption that the composition was the cause of the coronation of King Charles V (May 19, 1364) is now considered unlikely, since Guillaume, as canon of Reims Cathedral, was present at the coronation and over she reported, but made no mention of a performance of his mass. The mass is not handed down in a liturgical collection, but in illuminated manuscripts of Guillaume's compositions.

Work description

The fair consists of six parts. In addition to the later usual ordinarium parts Kyrie , Gloria , Credo , Sanctus and Agnus Dei , the Mass, like the older Mass de Tournai , contains an Ite, missa est .

Two different composition techniques alternate in the measuring cycle. In Kyrie, Sanctus, Agnus Dei and Ite, missa est , the style of the isorhythmic motet with a Gregorian melody as the cantus firmus prevails in the tenor . In the Kyrie, for example, there are numerous hoquetus passages in the upper parts. In contrast, the Gloria and the Credo are set strictly homophonic without reference to Gregorian chant ; only the Amen closings are polyphonic again because of the festive closing effect.

In contrast to the other polyphonic mass settings of the 14th century, which are composed in three parts with treble , tenor and bass , Guillaume de Machaut expands the compositional technique by adding a contratenor to a complete four-part movement . In contrast to Guillaume de Machaut's other compositions, nothing is known about the use of instruments.

The performance lasts approx. 30–35 minutes.

literature

  • Article Mass and Liturgical Hymnbooks in: Music Past and Present .
  • Hans Gebhard (Ed.): Harenberg Chormusikführer. Harenberg, Dortmund 1999, ISBN 3-611-00817-6 .
  • Hanns Hübsch (ed.): Guillaume de Machault. La Messe de Nostre Dame. Score. Süddeutscher Musikverlag Willy Müller, Heidelberg 1953, W. M. 614 S. M.
  • Daniel Leech-Wilkinson: Machaut's Mass: An Introduction. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1990.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Guillaume De Machaut: Oevres complètes Volume III . Ed .: Leo Schrade. Monaco.