Guillaume de Machaut
c. 1300 – April 1377
Guillaume de Machaut was a French composer and poet, the leading figure of the fourteenth-century Ars Nova. His Messe de Nostre Dame is the earliest complete polyphonic setting of the Mass Ordinary attributable to a single composer, and his lyric poetry and narrative dits shaped French literature for generations, influencing writers including Chaucer. He spent his later decades as a canon of Reims Cathedral.
Lived at the same time
Well-documented people whose lives overlapped with Guillaume de Machaut.
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Life events
Guillaume de Machaut was born around 1300, probably in or near Reims in Champagne; nothing certain is known of his family.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgMachaut became a secretary and clerk to John of Luxembourg, King of Bohemia, accompanying him on journeys and campaigns across Europe.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgThrough papal provision supported by his royal patron, Machaut received a canonicate at Reims, which became his permanent base.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgMachaut's longtime patron was killed fighting the English at the Battle of Crécy, after which the composer served other noble patrons including John's daughter Bonne.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgMachaut survived the plague that devastated Europe, later describing its horrors in the opening of his poem Le Jugement dou Roy de Navarre.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgFor Reims Cathedral, Machaut composed his four-voice mass, the earliest complete Mass Ordinary setting known to be by a single composer.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgMachaut composed his late masterpiece Le Livre dou Voir Dit, a long narrative poem with interpolated songs recounting a love affair between the aging poet and a young admirer.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgIn his final years Machaut oversaw the compilation of lavish manuscripts collecting his poetry and music, an unprecedented act of authorial self-preservation.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgMachaut died in April 1377 and was buried in Reims Cathedral; the composer F. Andrieu set a double ballade deploring his death.
Source: en.wikipedia.org