Studio der Frühen Musik – Thomas Binkley, conductor
Andrea von Ramm: Mezzosoprano, Harp, Organetto Richard Levitt: Alto Sterling Jones: Vielle, Lyra #, Rebec *
Thomas Binkley: Lute, Guittern +, Recorder, Dulcian «Qui de sentement ne fait son dit et chant contrefait.» He, whose words and song lack true feeling, falsifies all.
The spiritual center in the life of Guillaume de Machaut was the city of Reims in the Champagne. In the domain of this diocese he was born, possibly in the small borough of Machault a few miles away from Reims. About 1327 he became a prebendary of the cathedral of Notre Dame in Reims and seems to have lived in this town for the rest of his life until 1377. But he undertook long journeys. As a young man, he was familiarus and secretary of Jean de Luxembourg King of Bohemia. He accompanied him on his various trips and campaigns throughout Europe between 1327 and 1337. We find him present during the siege of Znaim in Lithuania in December 1328. In January 1329 he was in Königsberg, visiting Breslau afterwards and taking part in the conquest of Poland and Silesia in March; in May he was at the king’s court in Prague and in June already back in Paris preparing himself for a trip to the South, to Brescia, Bergamo, Cremona and Parma. Later in his life, he retired from politics, settled and lived as a singer at Reims on a prebend, and continued to work for various masters, among them Jean’s daughter Bonne, the wife of Jean le Bon of France. Subsequent to her death in 1349, he worked occasionally for Charles II King of Navarre; for Jean Duc de Berry and probably also for Charles V of France. And it may have been for the coronation of this king that he wrote the Mass of Notre Dame in Reims in 1364. One of the last benefactors in his life was Pierre de Lusignan, King of Cyprus, between 1361 and 1369, and through him Machaut travelled as far as to Alexandria, possibly also to Cyprus. It was also towards the end of his life that he fell in love with a noblewoman of the Champagne, Péronne d’Armentieres. In 1360, he saw her for the first time when she was not yet 20 years old. His poem “Le Voir Dit”, written between 1362 and 1365, contains 45 letters exchanged between them and more than 9000 lines of poetry telling of their relationship and containing interesting remarks on his work and her influence on him. «Toutes mes choses ont été faites de vostre sentement, et pour vous especialement.» “All my works result from your sentiment and are especially for you”.