16 - A Motet Conceived in Troubled Times: Machaut’s Motet 22

Summary

MACHAUT'S FOUR-VOICE MOTET Tu qui gregem/Plange regni respublica/Apprehende arma et scutum/Contratenor, positioned twenty-second within the series of motets preserved in the late manuscript collections of his oeuvre, begins poignantly with the single word ‘Plange’ (‘Weep’) uttered at length (nine breves) by the motetus voice alone, followed by the words ‘regni respublica’; see Example 16.1. It is the French kingdom's body politic (to which Machaut's original listeners belong) that is commanded to weep. On the last syllable of ‘regni’, the triplum enters with the pronoun ‘Tu’, the intimate ‘you’. Only after the tenor and contratenor have entered is the referent of ‘Tu’ revealed – it is the person who leads the flock, that weeping body politic, the person who, as the text then reveals, has so far failed as an effective leader. The opening words of the two poems announce the complementary relationship between them, as may be seen in the texts with their translation that appear on the next page. The triplum text exhorts an unnamed person in authority to step up and lead effectively, while the motetus text expresses the suffering and hope for relief of the French people who urgently need a protective, caring, and effective leader. The acute problem of leadership is hammered home rhetorically by the triplum's intensive repetition of ‘dux’ (‘leader’), ‘ducere’ (‘to lead’) and their cognates – twenty times in as many poetic lines. The texts directly voice the concerns of those who would have heard this motet when it was first performed in Reims circa 1358–9.

Triplum

Tu qui gregem tuum ducis, You who lead your flock,

Opera fac veri ducis, do the deeds of a true leader,

Nam ducere et non duci, for to lead and not to be led,

Hoc competit vero duci. this constitutes a true leader.

Dux prudentium consilio Let the leader, counseled by judicious men,

Ducat nec sit in octio lead, and not be passive.

Debetque dux anteire, For a leader should go before,

Ductus autem obedire. and those led should obey.

Sed si ductor nescit iter But if the leader does not know the way,

Ambo pereunt leviter. they both easily perish,

Nam ambulat absque luce for he who is led by a blind leader

Qui ducitur ceco duce. walks deprived of light.