Machaut's Messe de Nostre Dame is a six-movement work in four-part polyphony, the oldest of its type attributed to a single composer, with austere harmony contrasted against subtle contrapuntal play and rhythmic motion.
While Machaut's Mass is impressive, his secular works like ballades and rondeaux are more modern and elusive, exploring courtly love with sensuous truth and uncanny immediacy through music adhering to austere formulas.
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