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• Machaut, Guillaume: 2 Rondeaux

Machaut, Guillaume: 2 Rondeaux

(Ma fin est mon commencement, Vos doulx resgards) for 3 voices or instruments.

These two pieces by Guillaume de Machaut (c. 1330-1377) are printed here after Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS f. frçs 1584. Ma fin est mon commencement has achieved a certain fame as one of the first examples of musical palindrome, with the B section being an exact reversal of the A (two upper parts exchanged).
Current notions on the performance of this music tend to favour keeping voices and instruments separate. The rather angular style of many of Machaut´s parts often looks very “instrumental”, but similar writing can be found in the mass and other purely vocal works. Both pieces can be performed purely instrumentally, on recorders, or bowed strings, or plucked strings. Familiarity with this repertoire brings with it the ability to play the quaver-crotchet-quaver rhythms without undue jerkiness. One area to experiment with is that of tuning: there is some dispute as to whether the major thirds should be wide (Pythagorean) or tempered. Whatever happens, however, attention should be paid to the tuning of the fifths, which should be pure, especially on longer notes.
The original note values have been quartered. Editorial accidentals appear small above the stay e, applying to the one note only. 1 am grateful to Jeannine Alton for translating the texts of these songs.