Remede de Fortune
Blue Heron 2019
The fact that this was a piece by Guillaume Machaut was what caught my attention and persuaded me to attend as we had learned about him earlier in the term. Before attending, I did not look up what the topic or theme of this piece was, but as it was to be performed at the Christ Church Cathedral I simply assumed that it must be some sort of religious music. Perhaps some sort of chant or hymn? But my assumptions were entirely wrong! After reading the programme, I realized that this piece was about the one sided love a man harbored for his lady, and when the lady finally spoke to him he became too frightened and ran into a forest. There he wallowed in his miseries until lady hope came and cheered him up. Now that is something I was not expecting to be seen performed at a church, but nevertheless I enjoyed it.
The performers consisted of a handful of string instruments (including a lute!) and a few male singers who also narrate as the songs were in French, if I am not mistaken. The format of the performance was the narrator telling the story in English, and then followed by the original piece that is sung along with the music.
Just listening along to the music without looking at the translation of the lyrics, it conveyed this sense of yearning to me as the music was soft and slow and the voices of the singers were gentle. It really did make me feel the longing that the man had for the lady he pined for. The music sounded truly like an accompaniment to the singers as it was not obtrusive or took the focus away from their voices as it just remained steadily in the background. The majority of the pieces were performed solo, one singer at a time, but later on there were a few pieces that had two or three singers all performing together at once. As Machaut played a part in the ars nova movement, I could clearly hear that when multiple singers sang together, it sounded more polyphonic with each singer following a distinct melody. Each singer’s part could be taken on its own as an independent song, yet when combined together it still created a piece that was cohesive and complementary to the music as a whole.
Not taking the actual storyline of the performance into consideration, I did find the music reminiscent of what I associate with church music: a little bit melancholy but not to the point of genuine anguish; at times uplifting and very warm. However, I did find it quite unexpected that a secular instead of sacred music by Machaut would be chosen and performed at a church. Perhaps it was the sincerity in the singer’s voice that made the music sound holy and religious to me, but in reality the sincerity was directed to the man’s love interest and not god.