1 Jan 1350 Jahr - Machaut: virelai, “Douce dame jolie” (“Sweet lovely lady”)

Beschreibung:

Narrative of a man longing for an unattainable woman

Can be performed in multiple ways

Unaccompanied song
Common for women to sing this kind of text despite the intended gender of the subject
Three continuous stanzas
Three phases of the first A section share the same rhythmic pattern with memorable syncopations at the end
Fourth line acts as a resolution, with performer using musica ficta to create a leading tone at the end of the section
B section has two different endings, stays around upper fifth, ultimately descends in the return of the A section to the modal final

Instrumental dance
Shows how medieval musicians could have improvised

With instrumental accompaniment
Melody is harmonized in the way it might have been in the mid-16th C.