"Lady, to you without reserve
I give my heart, thought and desire"
Listening Guide
Listening Guide
Composer: Guillaume de Machaut
Composition: "Lady, to you without reserve I give my heart, thought and desire" (Dame, à vous sans retollir")
Date: Fourteenth century
Genre: song
Form: Refrain [A] & Verses [bba]
Nature of Text: French poem about courtly love with a refrain alternating with three verses.
Performing Forces: soloist alternating with small ensemble of vocalists
What we want you to remember about this composition:
Other things to listen for:
Small group of women singing in monophonic text with tambourine; Mostly conjunct melody with a narrow range; Notes fall in rhyth-mic groups of three, but the accent patterns change often
A: Refrain
Female soloist still in monophonic texture without tambourine; the b phrase is mostly conjunct, starts high and descends, repeats, then returns to the a phrase as heard in the refrain
bba: Verse