Guillaume de Machaut: Ballades

"The work of Guillaume de Machaut dominates the French 14th Century. It was bequeathed to us thanks to 6 illuminated manuscripts kept in the French National Library in Paris.Those manuscripts assemble the full poetical and musical works of the composer, structured as a very precisely organised entity.The musical part is composed of motets, virelais, ballads, lais, rondeaux and the famous Messe de Notre Dame. Thanks to the research of 20th century musicologists, we can now assess the full importance of this work enabling performers to read his music directly from manuscript sources and make us more and more familiar with this ancient media.This proximity with Guillaume de Machaut is an essential component of our work as a polyphonic ensemble. In this new recording devoted to the canon of Reims, we invite you to follow our poet-musician in the fantastic and experimental world of his ballads." Lucien Kandel