Book Review
Dec. 19th, 2014 10:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariGuillaume de Machaut
by Gilbert Reaney
This short book concentrates on Machaut's music, rather than his life. Reaney looks at each of the genres that Machaut composed (Virelais, Motet, Ballade, etc.) as well as his Messe de Notre Dame and Hocketus, delving into the stylistic features of each and the techniques Machaut uses. Reaney also comments on how these pieces fit into both the established styles and the emerging Ars Nova. The discussions are fairly technical, with plenty of musical examples. I kind of wish I had brushed up on basic theory and form for medieval music before starting this book, but it was written such that this wasn't too much of a problem. It was still very interesting to see the details and innovations in Machaut's music, which I have always found very beautiful.
by Gilbert Reaney
This short book concentrates on Machaut's music, rather than his life. Reaney looks at each of the genres that Machaut composed (Virelais, Motet, Ballade, etc.) as well as his Messe de Notre Dame and Hocketus, delving into the stylistic features of each and the techniques Machaut uses. Reaney also comments on how these pieces fit into both the established styles and the emerging Ars Nova. The discussions are fairly technical, with plenty of musical examples. I kind of wish I had brushed up on basic theory and form for medieval music before starting this book, but it was written such that this wasn't too much of a problem. It was still very interesting to see the details and innovations in Machaut's music, which I have always found very beautiful.
