Guillaume
de Machaut, "Ma Fin Est Mon Commencement"
As
its name suggests, the conventional rondeau,
with its ABaAabAB structure, is "round,"
its circularity suggested by the recurrence
of each of two musical sections, either in their
original form (A, B) or with a different text
(a, b). Cyclical repetition of this kind, in
which "The thing that hath been is that
which shall be," is common in music of
all periods, but Machaut devised far more ingenious
means of illustrating the meaning of his lyrics:
the top two parts present the same melody, but
in opposite temporal directions, and the lowest
of the three parts (i.e., the "third voice")
literally retraces its steps once it reaches
the midpoint of the song. Since the two musical
sections are repeated consecutively a total
of three times, the third voice, true to the
text, reverses itself exactly "trois fois"
before the end.
[A]
Ma fin est mon commencement |
My
end is my beginning |
[B]
Et mon commencement ma fin |
And
my beginning my end |
[a]
Est teneüre vraiement |
And
[this] truly holds |
[A]
Ma fin est mon commencement. |
My
end is my beginning |
[a]
Mes tiers chans trois fois seulements |
My
third voice just three times |
[b]
Se retrograde et einsi fin. |
Reverses
itself and thus ends. |
[A]
Ma fin est mon commencement |
My
end is my beginning |
[B]
Et mon commencement ma fin. |
And
my beginning my end. |
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