Middle AgesGuillaume de Machaut
Guillaume de Machaut was born more than seven hundred years ago in Champagne, near Reims.
Guillaume de Machaut’s life
The big moments of this life, and what was happening in the world at the same time.
A life at a glance
- 1300👶 Birth
Born around 1300 in Champagne
- 1323🎩 Careerabout age 23
Secretary to John of Luxembourg, King of Bohemia
- 1329🧳 Journeyabout age 29
Travels with the king to Bohemia, Poland and Lithuania
- 1337🎩 Careerabout age 37
Canon of Reims cathedral
- 1337🌍 Meanwhile
The Hundred Years’ War begins
- 1346🏛️ Landmarkabout age 46
John of Bohemia is killed at the Battle of Crécy
- 1348🌍 Meanwhile
The Black Death sweeps across Europe
- 1349🎼 Workabout age 49
The Judgement of the King of Navarre; plague strikes France
- 1363🎼 Workabout age 63
Le Voir Dit, a love story in verse and music
- 1365🎼 Workabout age 65
Messe de Nostre Dame (c. 1360–65)
- 1377🕯️ Deathabout age 77
Dies in Reims in April
Listen to the music
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How does this music feel to you?
How does this music feel to you?
How does this music feel to you?
Excerpts of up to 90 seconds, freely licensed recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
Once upon a time…
Guillaume de Machaut was born more than seven hundred years ago in Champagne, near Reims. As a young man he became secretary to an adventurous king, the King of Bohemia, and rode with him as far as Poland and Lithuania.
Later he settled in Reims, near the great cathedral. He wrote love poems and set them to music: dance songs, ballades, rondeaux. He also composed a whole mass for four voices, one of the oldest in the world.
Machaut cared a lot about his works: he had them copied into magnificent books decorated with paintings. Thanks to those books we can still sing his music today.
Guillaume de Machaut’s instruments
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