My Composer : Guillaume De Machaut

Giovanni Gabrieli was a legendary composer of the 16th century. As the fundamental structure and ideas of the Catholic Church were being challenged by the Protestant Reformation and the Counter-Reformation, Gabrieli’s compositions were given the opportunity to be successful and influential to music in the coming centuries. His works helped to transform not only church music of the Catholic Church, but also secular music as well. Giovanni Gabrieli wrote significant works that ultimately shaped the rise of the symphony, including the development of purely instrumental works, the art of orchestration, and the concerto style. Without his innovations in composition, it is arguable that instrumental music would not have developed as quickly, or developed

Only a few composers in the history of time have ever successfully left their mark throughout our musical world we live in today. It’s been over two hundred years since the birth of Beethoven and his music still speaks to us today as he originally expressed and composed it. Ludwig Van Beethoven was born in the city of Bonn Germany on December 16th 1770 and has since been one of the most influential composers known to man. A common theme of early age learning and mastering seems to emerge in Beethoven’s life because while living in a musical family as a child, his father taught him how to play the piano, violin and in addition how to compose musical pieces since he was four years of age. A few short years later, he gave his first public piano performance at the age of seven. While Beethoven certainly gained a lot of knowledge from his peers, he also supported his family by giving music lessons and also by playing in the court orchestra. In the year 1792, Beethoven worked under an Austrian composer Franz Joseph Haydn and by the year 1800, his compositions established him as a strong Mozart successor.

The church during the 1500’s, was changing greatly. This was the time of the reformation where the protestants took over from the Catholics, and therefore causing the Catholics to create a counter reformation. The shift from henry VIII to Edward VI was also a shift from Catholicism to protestants. This amount of change in religion created an immense change in what music was produced and what was actually composed as these two religions had very different ideas about music.

One of the greatest composers of music, even though it was only slightly notated at the time, was Guillaume de Machaut (d. 1377), “one of the undisputed pinnacle geniuses of Western music…” His most famous piece was the four-voice Mass of Notre Dame, which maintained his reputation through the changes in fashion (Roberge). After almost a millennium’s worth of music was composed and contributed, the style of music began to change with the next era.

Pérotin is hailed as a sort of Mozart of his time. He was a scholarly musician and musical innovator . Pérotin is called by many different names: Perotinus – his Latin Name and Perotinus Magnus – Pérotin the Great ; and even “optimus discantor”, or great composer of discant. According to Hussman, Pérotin was a court composer for Notre Dame, but his connection to Notre Dame is not entirely confirmed. It is because of an account by the English traveler Anonymous IV and letters to a Bishop that it is accepted that Pérotin was associated with Notre Dame. Whether he wrote specifically for Notre Dame or not, Pérotin wrote magnificent music that has been preserved for several centuries to this day .

The Renaissance period occurred from 1400-1600. It can be separated into third smaller periods. The early, middle, and the late period, but for the sake of this paper, they will be referred to as stages to avoid confusion. This paper will compare two composers one from the early stage and another from the late stage. The early stage composer will be John Dunstable, and the late stage composer will be Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. The purpose of this paper is to compare these two composers’ composition style through the analysis of two of their works.

From the age of 31, which was in the year 1690, Henry Purcell produced a large amount of quality music. He was best known as a songwriter because of the many songs that were printed during his

Looking back in time at the great composers of the world, only one foreign composer stands out for his many contributions to classical music and in helping America to find its own music. Antonin Leopold Dvorak was born on September 8th, 1841, in a small village of Nelahozeves in Bohemia that lies on the bank of the Mauldau River. The village Dvorak was born into was in good company and surroundings however also retained much of its native luster even through the worst times of political oppression (1).

The second article was also found using the Academic Search Complete database. The article is from Early Music Performer, a journal of the National Early Music Association (NEMA), and it contains findings from a 2-day symposium about the citole. Titled “The British Museum Citole: New Perspective 4-5 November 2010”, this article is comprised of discussions, papers, discourses, and commentaries written about the citole on display in the British Museum in London, England. A wealth of art history scholars present papers categorized in sessions depending on the focus. Multiple sessions spread over 2 days gave way to a lot of information and conjectures concerning several physical, social, historical, and artistic aspects of the citole throughout history. Some sections are in-depth descriptions regarding the physical structure of the citole, its wooden material, the nature of its decorations, its method of tuning, comparisons to other instruments, and the physical and social implications of its playstyle. Other sessions dissect various aspects of the citole and attempt to identify its historical significance, origins, influence, associations, relevance, social order, artistic value, role in medieval cities, and artistic context in manuscript. The article ends with a

Guillaume de Machaut, son of Guillaume de Machaut, was born in the village of Machault in Champagne, near Reims, in the year of 1300. He was a greatly admired by contemporaries as a master of French versification and regarded as one of the leading French composers of the Ars Nova musical style of the 14th century. He became a priest, and in 1323 entered the service of John of Luxembourg, king of Bohemia, whom he accompanied on his wars as chaplain and secretary. He was rewarded for his service by his appointment in 1337 as canon of Reims cathedral. Guillaume de Machaut's lyric output comprises around 400 poems, including 235 ballades, 76 rondeaux, 39 virelais, 24 lais, 10 complaintes, and 7 chansons royales, and Machaut worked hard long hours

Who is the composer (full name and dates)? List three points about his life and environment.

Achille-Claude Debussy born 1862-1918 was one of the most key French musicians of the early twentieth century. Calude Debussy was born in a town called St. Germain-en-Laye near Paris France. At the age of eleven he entered the Paris Institute of Arts and where (The Enjoyment of Music Claude Debussy page 291) he was known as one of the clearest individuals connected with Impressionist music. (Politoske, Daniel T, Martin Werner (1988). Music, Fourth Edition. Prentice Hall. p. 419.) In 1903 in Debussy’s home in France , where he was made Chevalier of the Legion of Honour and was among the most powerful composers of the late 19th and 20th centuries, and his preparation of non-traditional scales and chromaticism swayed several musicians who

(2) Schubert was one of the most prominent composers in the Romantic era. He was the first composer to live off only the money he got from composing. He wrote many compositions during his short lifetime, especially art songs (“OnMusic”).

On Sunday, November 13 in the afternoon I attended a concert in the mansion. The piece that was performed was Sonata in G major for violin and piano. The composer of this piece was Mozart. Mozart who learned how to play the piano at a very young age and he also composed music too. Mozart was what people would call a music prodigy.  His father, Leopold, recognize his son’s talents and went on a tour of Northern Europe to show what he could perform. He traveled around Europe playing for kings, and popes earning money at the events he performed at. His most important piece was Requiem. It was thought to be about his death. He passed away before he could finish the piece. His student finished it using notes he had written down has ideas for the piece.

John Dunstable lived among some of the best composers at the beginning of the Renaissance. Although nobody truly knows when and where he was born, they do know that some of his earliest works date