Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1377)

Guillaume de Machaut, a French poet and musician, was born in Rheims Champagne (Northern France). During his early adult years, he became Secretary to John of Luxembourg, King of Bohemia. He then went back to Rheims Champagne to accept the position of cannon (church official) at the Cathedral of Rheims. During his life, he also served the French High Nobility and did take minor orders with the church when he was young.

Guillaume de Machaut wrote secular and sacred poetry and music. While he did write monophonic forms (single line melody with no accompaniment), he expanded upon the Polyphonic form (multiple melody lines) by changing the structure, including meter and rhyme scheme. He used repetition/imitation (melody line presented and then repeated in another voice overlapping each other) of voices and set 4th and 5th octave harmony in place. He often wrote music about courtly love, and he refined the Ballade and Rondeau forms.

Guillaume lived during the plaque and the Hundred Years War between France and England. He is esteemed as the most important figure during the French Ars Nova (New Art), and he is considered the most famous composer from the Middle Ages. He was well known for his French secular Chansons (French polyphonic song about courtly love), Sacred Masses, and Motets (polyphonic and polytextual vocal music).