Response to Lindsay Lozito's Journal on Machaut's Messe de Nostre Dame

Lindsay Lozito’s journal on the Messe De Nostre Dame by Guillaume De Machaut immediately made me aware that Machaut was composing something totally unique with this setting of the mass. In her opening paragraph, Lindsay mentions that the Messe De Nostre Dame is the first complete polyphonic setting of the mass and that before the composition of this work, polyphony was reserved for the elements of the Mass Proper; this is all certainly unique. What really caught my attention though was her reference to the six movements of the Ordinary - Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, and Ite Missa Est – being linked by common motives, styles and tonality. I chose to listen to this work to try to discover these links.

The Kyrie features very interesting rhythms and use of rests. Lindsay mentions in her journal that the syncopated rhythms that are found in this movement, and throughout the piece, reminded her of another culture. For me, the culture that comes to mind is our own. The rhythmic interaction of the voices along with the complexity of each individual line reminds me of something that might be composed today. It is the alternating sections of monophonic chant in the Kyrie which remind me that this work was written for a Cathedral setting in the 1300s.

Many of the same rhythmic patterns featured in the Kyrie can be found in the Gloria, though the setting of the text is much more neumatic, as there are many more words to fit into the music. Machaut takes much more liberty on the last word of the movement, “Amen.” This one word is where a real connection to the Kyrie can be heard. The rhythms are almost identical at times, as are the pitch collections. Like the Gloria, the Credo displays this same trend of being mostly neumatic until the final “Amen,” which, in this case, is more than a full minute of the same rhythmic intricacy. Further listening proves that all of the elements of the Ordinary exhibit this common rhythmic connection.

The Messe de Nostre Dame was composed during the height of the Ars Nova movement in France. Because of advances in rhythmic notation, composers during this time began experimenting with more complex rhythms, and the evidence of that experimentation can be directly seen in the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, and Ite Missa Est of Machaut’s Mass. In addition to hearing interesting rhythms in these movements, a closer look shows us that Machaut also included a new compositional technique called isorhythm, in which sets of pitches and rhythms are repeated throughout, in four of these movements: the Kyrie, Sanctus, Agnus Dei and Ite Missa Est (Burkholder 127-132). Machaut’s use of isorhythm in these movements makes the ties between them even stronger.

Like Lindsay, I found this recording of Machaut’s Messe de Nostre Dame much more interesting and attention-getting than I anticipated, though perhaps for different reasons. While Lindsay featured more of the many styles displayed in Machaut’s Mass in her writing, what I found truly interesting was the way he used rhythm to unite the movements. The elements of motive, style and a tonal focus may have helped to unify the six movements of the Mass Ordinary, but I found the rhythm to be the dominant link. Lindsay’s journal really inspired me to delve deeper in Machaut’s work, and I am glad I did. I found the rhythmic choices that Machaut made in his Messe de Nostre Dame to be incredibly fascinating.




Works Cited

Burkholder, Peter J. and Claude V. Palisca. 2010. Norton Anthology of Western Music: Volume 1: Ancient to Baroque. New York, New York: W.W. Norton & Company