Guillaume de Machaut’s Medieval Love Songs

The text for Machaut’s rondeau “Rose, liz, printemps,” which four Chanticleer singers performed at Grace, praises a woman in florid terms: “Rose, lily, spring, verdure / Flower, balm, and most sweet fragrance / Belle, you surpass them in sweetness.” The music adds a rapturous complexity, as the intertwining parts seem to waver between 3/4 time and 6/8 time, and syncopations enliven the texture. In Chanticleer’s dulcet rendition, voices brushed against one another like roses swaying in a breeze. Across some six and a half centuries, a composer held an audience spellbound.