D'après les ballades et rondeaux de Machaut (2022-23)

for acoustic piano

Vie amoureuse et joie à Dieu commant / I leave to God my life and joy

notes (in progress)

These fragments are taken from the ballades and rondeau of Guillaume de Machaut, a poet-composer working in the 1300s. While studying his work, I found myself continuously encountering moments where polyphonic threads intertwined with incredible lyricism, expression, and contrapuntal momentum. This collection of fragments represents these moments.

I do not see these fragments as arrangements, but rather as an unfolding of Machaut's tightly wound vertical voicings within the horizon of the piano. For instance, the fauxbourdon, which is a common device used by Machaut, is often stretched over the range of the piano, allowing the harmonic structure of the notes to reinforce themselves. In this way, I feel that these choices are not solely my own, but rather emerge from this difference in resonant potential across an almost 650-year period.

I highly encourage any interpreter of these scores to do so with patience and poetic sensibility; these fragments are a sorbet for any program or at-home routine. In the coming months, for interest, I will incorporate scans of the facsimile into the scores and make these publicly available.

scores & demo recordings

Ballade 25: Honte, paour, doubtance de meffaire / Shame, fear, a dread of doing wrong

score / demo recording

Ballade 6: Doulez amis, oy mon compleint / Sweet friend, hear my complaint

score / demo recording

Rondeau 18: Puis qu’en oubli / Since I am Forgotten

score / demo recording

Ballade 19: Amours me fuit desirer / Love makes me desire

score / demo recording

Ballade 14: Dame, ne regardes pas / Lady, do not look

score / demo recording