Machaut left us numerous examples of secular polyphony, that is, polyphony independent from the church. He composed many motets using isorhythmic techniques. And, though he was still close enough to the trouvères to write beautiful monophonic songs, he also adapted their old tradition of chivalric love songs to complex, ars nova polyphony. These songs, or chansons (shahn-sohn), had no trace in them of Gregorian chant.

“Dame, de qui toute ma joie vient,” a chanson with four voices, is an excellent example of non-imitative polyphony, the characteristic texture of Machaut’s music. The top line was clearly intended to be sung, but the other three might have been meant for either vocal or instrumental performance; if he had a preference, Machaut didn’t tell us. On our recording, all four parts are sung. The words are parceled out slowly, with long melismas on many syllables, a feature that looks back to the style of organum.

Because of this melismatic style, the song is much longer than Bernart’s “La dousa votz.” Each stanza takes about two minutes in our performance, and only the first is included here. Still, the form of “Dame, de qui toute ma joie vient” is identical to that of Bernart’s song. Each stanza falls into an a a′ b arrangement; this was one of several standardized song forms Machaut adapted from the trouvères. Given the length of Machaut’s song, a letter now stands for a whole section rather than a melodic phrase or two. Each section comes to a clear stop on a strong cadence. The three sections are signaled in the Listen box that follows.

The most general impression of this song is of a lively and flowing set of intertwining melodies. The words — hard to follow because of the abundant melismas — seem to be little more than an excuse for the complex polyphony. Certainly the music does not show any obvious attempt to reflect the meaning or emotion of the poem. We will see in Chapter 7 that, by the time of the Renaissance, this rather neutral relation of music and words would change.