"Lady, to you without reserve
I give my heart, thought and desire"
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:
- It is a French song about courtly love.
- It is monophonic, here with tambourine articulating the beats
- Its form consists of an alternation of a refrain and verses
Other things to listen for:
- Its melodic line is mostly conjunct, the range is a little over an octave, and it contains several short melismas.
- Its specific form is Abba, which repeats three times
Timing
Performing Forces, Melody, and Texture
Text and Form:
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