Machaut

Chanticleer turns to the fourteenth century's most towering figure, Guillaume de Machaut, presenting both faces of his remarkable career: the devout cleric of Reims Cathedral and the courtly poet-composer of secular love song. The album's centerpiece is the Messe de Nostre Dame, one of the era's only surviving polyphonic mass settings by a single composer, its rocketing rhythms and sonorous blocks of sound still astonishing nearly seven centuries later. Alongside it, Chanticleer performs Machaut's ballades, rondeaux, virelais and motets. Intricate, pun-laden love songs written for his noble patrons, brought to life with an improvisatory, historically-informed approach to ornamentation and color.

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Chanticleer Tim Keeler, Director & Countertenor