Musical form and meaning in the Remede

Question 1

Selection of song forms

Answer 1

Carefully chosen to suit certain moments in the narrative and to convey certain moods

Question 2

RF1 - Lay - relationship between form and meaning

Answer 2

12 verses - long and complex form - enables the expression of the lover’s fluctuating moods

Question 3

Double function

Answer 3

Both represents Machaut’s poetic and musical skill (as the first item in the work) and also offers an immediate insight into the mental state of the dit’s protagonist

Question 4

David Fallows

Answer 4

“quadruple versicle” structure - creates a 12-song cycle he argues - each song = 4 versicles
adds to complexity

Question 5

Significance of first item being Lay? Wimsatt and Kibler

Answer 5

Machaut begins with the most complex form in the work and ends with the least (Rondeaux)

Question 6

Kevin Brownlee - technical excellence of this lay…

Answer 6

is ‘an indication of the presence of the poète in the very text of the dit’

Question 7

Leach on the function of the lay form

Answer 7

It ‘offers a composer - and a singer - a large canvas on which to develop melodic musical ideas’

Question 8

Leach on lay and fluctuation of lover’s mood

Answer 8

‘The length and complexity of the lay have allowed this fluctuation to take place inside a single musico-poetic piece.’

Question 9

Evidence for fluctuating mood of the protagonist

Answer 9

5th stanza = grief born from Desire
8th stanza = very joyful
10th and 11th - lover reveals that he is not always in the same mood - hence the variety in the lay he has just sung

Question 10

RF2 - Complainte - position in narrative?

Answer 10

Comes just after the lover feels as he cannot admit to his lady that it was he who had written the songs about her (that she overheard) - otherwise he would reveal his love for her

Question 11

Leach on complainte

Answer 11

‘the staging of the self as victim in the complainte is done overtly, bitterly, repetitiously, and lengthily’

Question 12

Nature of the complainte

Answer 12

Goes around and around - very repetitive - almost boring

Reflects the lover’s despair and inner torment