The latest in this series of recordings of Machaut's chansons on Hyperion Records is entitled The Lion of Nobility. It includes a lengthy lai, as well as shorter, more intimate songs. Machaut wasn’t just the most important French poet of the fourteenth century; he was also France’s and Europe’s finest composer. As well as a host of secular pieces, he also wrote sacred music, including the famous Messe de Notre Dame, composed in the 1360s for Rheims Cathedral where he was a canon in later life.

The focus of the Hyperion project is the chansons, i.e. the songs, with a primary emphasis on the polyphonic chansons, which is to say those in more than one vocal part. This allows us to feature some of the solo songs and the lais – long narrative poems – both because they are very important works and because they lend variety and interest.