Guillaume de Machaut: Time-Altering Music from the Fourteenth Century
In Quartet for the End of Time, and in subsequent works, the French 20th century composer, Olivier Messiaen, sought to capture the “eternity of space and time.” According to the composer, the mystical endeavor resulted in bar line defying polyrhythmic structures which unfold independently of harmony and melody, “in the manner of Guillaume de Machaut [c.1300–1377], whose work I did not know at the time.” A leading figure in the 14th century ars …