machaut and the remede de fortune
DESCRIPTION
An analysis of the musical inserts in Guillaume de Machaut's dit "Remede de Fortune". Written for Medieval and Renaissance Music class, Converse College, May 2011TRANSCRIPT
Guillaume de Machaut: Le Remede de Fortune
The Remede de Fortune was written by Machaut in the early part of his career, and is
usually dated before 1349. The Remede is one of eight long dits written by Machaut, and runs
to over 4,300 lines. The term dit was applied to a variety of different poetic forms in Medieval
French literature, but most commonly referred to a first-person reflection on personal or political
themes based on octo-syllabic rhyming couplets. The work may be regarded as a treatise on love
and also an instructional manuscript on lyric poetry in the Courtly Love tradition. Within the
Remede are inserted seven exemplar types of lyric song which Machaut set to music. These are,
in order, a Lay, Complainte, Chant Roial, Balladelle, Balade, Chanson Balladee, and
Rondelet, and they represent the seven popular types of lyric song that existed in France at the
time. Machaut introduces each one as though his express purpose was to give an example of how
such a song should be written.
Machaut had been in the service of John of Luxembourg, king of Bohemia, since
about 1323, but entered the service of his daughter, Bonne (wife of the future King John II of
France) some time later, perhaps after her marriage in 1332. There are specific references to Bonne
in the Remede which strongly suggest the dit was written for her. For example, lines 54 to 56
contain a pun on her name:
“...ma dame, qui est clameeDe tous seur toutes belle et bonne.Chascun par droit ce non li donne.”
i.e., “my lady, who is called “beautiful and Bonne, everyone properly gives her the name”. The
beloved lady of the poem is presented as mistress of a grand chateau, and the activities around it
closely resemble those of Bonne’s court. Bonne died in 1349, probably as a result of the plague.
The earliest publication of the Remede is in Machaut’s manuscript C, published
some time after 1350. Collaborating evidence from the illuminations within this manuscript also
support the argument that the Remede was written for Bonne, and that the manuscript itself was
originally intended for her, and possibly completed for her husband after her death. Manuscript C is
a parchment manuscript of 225 pages, which includes the complete text and music of the Remede
de Fortune, as well as other works. The manuscript is illustrated with miniatures depicting
scenes from the poetry, which art historians have identified as being the work of three artists, two of
which were assistants.1 All the miniatures for the Remede de Fortune are the work of the mas-
ter artist, and are considered masterpieces of fourteenth-century art. This artist has been connected
with other manuscripts belonging to John II, and was possibly the illuminator Jean de Viarmes.
Within manuscript C, the master artist concerned himself only with the illuminations of the
Remede de Fortune, suggesting that this dit was singled out for special treatment.
The narrative of the Remede concerns a simple, if rambling, love story. A poet attached
to a court has written a lay in praise of his lady, who is so high above him that he could never hope
to win her. She somehow comes across the poem, and wishes to know who wrote it. Embarrassed
and fearful, the poet does not answer her and departs to a garden, where he curses the cruelty of
Fortune - this text makes up the Complainte. He is visited by Esperance (Hope), who counters
his arguments, ending the first part of her speech with the Chant Roial. She follows this shortly
afterwards with the Baladelle in praise of Love. The poet is cheered, and composes the Balade
in thanks. He returns to the castle and joins the court in a song to accompany the dancing, a Chan-
son Balladee (also known as a Virelai). He confesses to his lady that he was the author of the
lay, and she agrees to accept him as her ami. They exchange rings, which joyful event prompts
him to compose a Rondelet (or Rondeau), which he sings on departing. However, on his next
visit, his lady cautions him that slanderers are about, and the necessity of concealing their love.
Thus, the dit ends on an ambiguous note.
The Lay: Qui n’aroit autre deport (He who has no other pleasure)
The lay was a 13th and 14th Century song form mostly commonly found in France and
Germany. As poems, they were designed to be sung to a popular melody. They reached their high-
est level of musical and poetic development in the hands of Machaut, who wrote 19 lays including
the exemplar in Remede. There is no set number of stanzas in the lay, and its form allows for a
considerable amount of variety within the verses. Consequently, the accompanying music varies
from one stanza to the next. The medieval lay had stanzas varying in length from about 6 to 16 or
more lines of 4 to 8 syllables. One or two rhymes were maintained throughout each stanza.
Machaut laid out Qui n’aroit autre deport in 12 stanzas, the last being identical to the first in
rhyming structure and melody, although the melody is transposed up a fifth in the last verse, which
was a signature device of his. Below is the first stanza from the lay. It is divided into two equal
parts, which have the same rhyming scheme and number of syllables. The letters and
numbers below show the rhyming scheme and number of syllables respectively.
Qui n'aroit autre deport
En amer
Fors dous Penser
Et Souvenir
Avec l'Espoir de joïr,
S'aroit il tort,
Se le port
D'autre confort
Voloit rouver;
Car pour un cuer saouler
Et soustenir
Plus querir
Ne doit merir
Qui aimme fort
Encor y a maint ressort:
Ramembrer,
Ymaginer
En dous plaisir
Sa dame vëoir, oïr,
Son gentil port,
Le recort
Dou bien qui sort
De son parler
Et de son dous regarder,
Dont l'entrouvrir
Puet garir
Et garentir
Amant de mort.
a7 b3 b4 c4 c7 a4 a3 a4 b4 b7 c4 c3 c4 a4a7 b3 b4 c4 c7 a4 a3 a4 b4 b7 c4 c3 c4 a4
The final stanza follows an identical pattern. The stanzas in between each have a different
structure, although all conform in one aspect - that of the division into two separate parts. In the
musical settings, which are different for each stanza, the first part of the stanza ends with an open
ending (ouvert) while the second part ends with a closed ending (clos). The only exceptions to
this are the first and last stanzas, which are tonally closed at the end of each half.
The entire lay is set in triple time and is monophonic, intended to be sung by a single voice
with possibly harp or lute accompaniment. Certain rhythmic motives unify the song as a whole, es-
pecially runs of four eighth-notes, which tend to precede cadence points.
The Complainte:
Tieus rit au main qui au soir pleure (He laughs in the morning who weeps in the evening)
The complainte is a song of mourning or lamentation, and, as a form, is one of the oldest
in antiquity. Examples can be found in the Iliad and the Odyssey, as well as in the Bible. In the
Remede de Fortune, the complaint is set as thirty-six strophic stanzas, all set to the same
monophonic music. This has a much more regular rhyming scheme, as demonstrated by the first
stanza below:
Tieus rit au main qui au soir pleure
Et tieus cuide qu'Amours labeure
Pour son bien, qu'elle li court seure
Et ma l'atourne;
Et tieus cuide que Joie acqueure
Pour li aidier, qu'elle demeure.
Car Fortune tout ce deveure,
Quant elle tourne,
Qui n'atent mie qu'il adjourne
Pour tourner; qu'elle ne sejourne,
Ains tourne, retourne et bestourne,
Tant qu'au desseure
Met celui qui gist mas en l'ourne;
Le seurmonté au bas retourne,
Et le plus joieus mat et morne
Fait en po d'eure.
This can be summarized as a8 a8 a8 b4 a8 a8 a8 b4 b8 b8 b8 a4 b8 b8 b8 b4.
Musically, Machaut has set the Complainte in a minor mode. It is, like the Lai, in triple
time, and the stanzas are divided into 4 equal parts. The phrase structure is aAbB, where the
smaller letters denote an ouvert ending, and the capitals denote the same phrase with a clos end-
ing. That the Complaint runs to 36 stanzas (over 500 lines) and is set completely strophically
poses some performance difficulties, and most modern performances and recordings tend to cut the
number of stanzas. The complainte was becoming an archaic form even in Machaut’s time, and,
in fact, he never set it again. This remains the only extant example of a complainte written by
Machaut.
The text deals with Fortune and her wheel, the protagonist blaming the personified Fortune
for all his troubles. It is rich in imagery and rather vicious in its denouncement. In Le Jugement
du Roy de Behaigne and Remede de Fortune2, the authors give the following translation
of lines 937 - 968:
“If Fortune loves, it’s from afar;she’s never there when neededand cares for no one,good or bad.And I testify she’s so false that she’d bear false witnessto entrap the best friend she has in the world.She flays more than she shears,and she abounds in wickedness,whereby she destroys her nursling;she doesn’t give a rotten applefor what she knocks down,and wants her works to be destroyed,in this there’s no one like her.I call her:
“Stupid, squint-eyed, false, and miserly.”She’s never satisfied with doing evil.She doesn’t give a fig for anyone,rather she treats them all just as the moon behaves,which is now full, bright, and shining,yet in two weekshas neither form nor brightness;except that Fortune fixes no month, week,day, or appointed hour,instead her vengeance is sudden;that’s well known,for when a person is at the peak of hishonor and of the the riches of this world,she brings him to naught with a turn of her wheel.Such is Fortune.
The Chant Roial:Joye, plaisance, et douce nourreture (Joy, pleasure and sweet sustenance)
The passionate denouncements of Fortune in the complainte could scarcely be left
unchecked, and, sure enough, Esperance, Hope herself, turns up to chide the poet and to put him on
a better path. She is described as the most beautiful lady the poet had ever seen, excepting, of
course, his own lady. She explains that Love has, in fact, treated him well in carrying his message
to his Lady, who now knows that he loves her with a sincere heart. Esperance promises that if he
will be governed by her, she will never leave him. To further distract him from his troubles, she
sings him the Chant Roial, the text of which deals with the importance of accepting Hope as a fair
return for Love.
The Chant Roial (or Chanson Royale) was a close relation of the Ballade, and dates
back to the chansons of the thirteenth century. It was often used for stately or heroic subjects,
and, because of complicated rhyming patterns and rules that precluded using a rhyming word more
than once, it was considered one of the more complex forms of poetry. Machaut’s setting uses five
stanzas of 9 lines each, followed by an envoi, a three-line post-script addressed to Love herself.
The stanzas are laid out in a rhyming scheme of a10 b10 a10 b10 c7 d7 d7 e7 e5, while the envoi
has a rhyming scheme of d7 e7 e5.
Like the Complainte, the chant roial was an older form which was declining in popu-
larity during Machaut’s time. Perhaps in full knowledge of this, Machaut also used more archaic
devices in the music. It is also monophonic, with a largely syllabic underlay. There is also evi-
dence of the old rhythmic modes in the triple rhythms of the piece.
This is the only known example of Machaut’s setting of the form.
1 Lawrence Earp, Guillaume de Machaut: A Guide to Research (New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc, 1995), 78.2 James I. Wimsatt and William W Kibler, Le Jugement du roy de Behaigne and Remede de Fortune (Athens, GA: The University of Georgia Press, 1988), 220.
The Balladelle:
En amer a douce vie (To be in love is a sweet life)
After some further philosophical discussions on Love and Fortune, Hope sings the poet a
balladelle to cheer him further before she leaves. The balladelle is a musical variant of the
ballade, and is also known as a Ballade duplex. The rhyming scheme is based on 12 lines in
four groups, with the following schema: a7 a3 b7 a7 a3 b7 b7 b3 b7 b7 b3 a7. Thus the overall
musical grouping is AABB, with tonal closure occurring at the end of the last phrase.
This is the first polyphonic setting in the Remede, and it includes a Triplum, Cantus,
Tenor and Contratenor. The text is applied only to the Cantus, but this does not neccessarily
imply that the other lines were taken by instruments, although this may have been the case. Al-
though the Balladelle is described in the poem as being sung by Hope, the polyphonic texture
suggests that, in performance practice, it was not considered dramatically important that the words
of a single speaker be taken by a solo voice.
The piece is in 9/8, an old-fashioned style which was somewhat dated even during
Machaut’s time, and the dissonant Triplum also looked backwards to earlier music.
The Balade:Dame, de qui toute ma joie vient (Lady, from whom all my joy comes)
Reassured by Hope, the poet sets on his way back to see his lady, pausing first to compose a
Balade. This form, also known as the Ballade simplex, is more typical of Machaut’s style, and
consists of three eight-line stanzas, laid out in a rhyming scheme as follows:
a10 b10 a10 b10 c7 c10 d10 d10. The final lines of each stanza are identical. Musically, each
stanza follows the form AABC.
This piece is considerably more modern in conception than the preceding Balladelle, as
evidenced first by the meter of the piece, in 3/4 rather than 9/8. The lines are of identical length,
except for one variant of seven syllables - this was standard in the eight-line stanza. It features very
melismatic writing in the cantus, while there is no underlay in the Tenor. The Tenor follows a
completely different rhythm, suggesting that, in this case, the line may have been intended for an in-
strument rather than a voice. In Manuscript C, there are only these 2 parts, but in later manuscripts,
the Balade was revised to include a triplum and contratenor, bringing the polyphony up to 4
voices, which are harmonically rather more successful than the dissonance of the Balladelle.
The Chanson Balladee:
Dame, a vous sans retollir (My lady, to you without reservation
The poet returns to his lady, and is rewarded with a sweet glance and an invitation to dance.
Later, she asks him to sing, and he offers her this Chanson Balladee. The Chanson Bal-
ladee is more commonly known as a virelai, and in the text, Machaut mentions both terms but
expresses his preference for the former term. Nonetheless, the virelai was the term by which the
form became known, and the other designation dropped out of usage.
The virelai allows for a variety of versification, but the form used in the Remede is the
one that Machaut most often favoured. It consists of three stanzas, with a refrain that opens and
closes the piece. Each stanza is in three sections, the first two having the same rhyming scheme,
and the last having the same scheme as the refrain. Machaut’s example has the following scheme:
← Stanzas: a7 a7 b4 b7 a4 a7 b4 b7 b7 a4 b7 b7 a4
← Refrain: a7 a7 b4 b7 a4 a7 b4
Musically, this has the phrase structure where the stanzas are ABB (with A being consider-
ably longer than B), and the refrain repeats exactly the A section. Because the refrain proceeds and
succeeds each stanza, the actual musical form is more similar to AABBA.
This song has a strong 6/8 dance rhythm, as it was intended to accompany the dancing at the
court. It is monophonic and also references the old rhythmic modes.
The Rondelet:
Dame, mon cuer en vous remaint (My lady, my heart stays with you)
After a happy exchange of rings as a token of mutual love, the poet departs his lady in
cheerful spirits. Joyfully, he sings a Rondelet, or rondeau, as he leaves.
The rondeau, with the ballade and virelai, made up the three formes fixés of Me-
dieval French poetry. Each was also a musical form, consisting of various repetitions of verse and
refrain. These three forms continued to be used in music until the end of the fifteenth century, al-
though their influence continued beyond that time. These are also the last three forms that Machaut
presents in this work - the other forms were either already declining in popularity or declined
shortly afterwards.
Machaut’s last musical offering in the work is polyphonic - set for triplum, cantus, and
tenor. It is just one stanza long - 8 lines of 8 syllables each. The rhyming pattern is based around
repeated lines, as follows: A B a A a b A B, where the capital letters denote lines of identical text,
and lowercase denotes, as before, different text but with a similar final rhyme. The musical struc-
ture follows an identical form ABaAbAB, where capital letters denote identical music and text, and
lowercase indicates identical music with different text.
This is the most melismatic of the pieces presented in the Remede, and has the most in
common with his later music. Again, Machaut has set a poem recited by a solo character to poly-
phonic music, demonstrating that the question of performance was of less importance that might be
the case today.
Conclusion
In his Remede de Fortune, Machaut set out to do more than to write a long courtly
poem with a relatively light-weight plot. The intention of the musical insertions, exemplifying the
major poetic and musical forms of the day, was to instruct - each is prefaced with an introduction
which explains how the poet or character in the poem came to write or recite the piece. The context
of each piece is also chosen deliberately, intending to demonstrate where and when such a piece
might be proper, be that to accompany a dance, or to praise a beautiful lady. The poems themselves
are clearly intended to be used as examples of the best usage of the various forms. They are also in-
serted in more-or-less historical order - the older poetic forms appearing first, and the more modern
later.
Throughout the text of the dit, Machaut also includes various remarks on musical matters -
describing the ideal voice as clear, sweet and rich; setting out common performance practice for
courtly songs; portraying the court musicians as being skilled in both the new and old styles; and in-
cluding an impressive list of instruments that were used to accompany the dancing. All of the
above suggests Machaut had a high degree of awareness of his own influence and place in history.
Thus the Remede is more than a courtly love poem to Bonne of Luxembourg, to whom he was
clearly devoted. It is also a summation of the state of both the poetic and musical forms of the day.
Áine Mulvey