Customer Reviews

Guillaume de Machaut and Reims: Context and Meaning in his Musical Works

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I am just finishing up this book in preparation for presenting new insights into Machaut's Motets to my colleagues in a doctoral level choral literature seminar. In short, this book is a brilliant contribution to our understanding of the works of Machaut, and a must have for any serious student of the Middle Ages, especially musicologists.

Dr. Robertson's strikingly clear and original points are firmly supported by her familiarity with an exceptionally large and significant number of sources from that time. It is abundantly clear that she knows what she's talking about, and, indeed, what she knows is a great deal.

Additionally, it is apparent that Dr. Robertson possesses that rare gift found in only the finest of scholars: the ability to organize and convey her ideas with a clarity and vitality that is both riviting and a delight to read.

One hopes this is only one of several such landmark offerings in the history of music and culture that this exceptional scholar is capable of bequeathing the world.

For a whole host of reasons, this book belongs on your shelf.

Douglas Thompson
Tucson, AZ

As an early music scholar and enthusiast, I find, unfortunately, that too many scholarly books on the subject are overpriced and frightfully boring. Not this one! Author Anne Walters Robertson expounds not only on the structure of Guillaume de Machaut's work, but on the mystical side - and answers the often-pondered question of why a celibate priest like Guillaume would produce a huge body of poems and songs about passionate, romantic love. This is one of the few Cambridge University Press books (and I have consulted a lot of them) that I could actually sit down and read - and not only learn from it, but enjoy it as well. Congratulation to author Robertson for producing such a fine volume!