Fortuna’s (luck’s) hidden rules: A member of the public will have the chance to throw a giant dice, resembling the blindfolded Fortuna as she makes her decisions: a happy and prosperous future or one that demands despair and torment.

User Instruction of the Game 

By participating in the dice throw, you will take the temporary role of Fortuna herself, juggling the fate of the Ensemble Pampinea, and deciding what will happen next in the concert programme.
1. In throwing I, Ensemble Pampinea enters a stage of Hope and Uncertainty. On the one hand, the ensemble members celebrate joyful moments in life, such as discovering a beautiful and pure lover; on the other hand, they fear that frustration and pain are on the way, lurking out and ready to induce pain on them. In other words, it is like a normal life!
2. In throwing II, you grant the ensemble a ray of sunlight: the musicians’ lives are filled with Happiness and Sweetness. They treasure that and enjoy themselves as much as they can, as they know it might be temporary.
3. In throwing III, you are essentially throwing the ensemble into Pain and Despair. What better way to get through the difficult period than playing melodies of despair and beautiful sadness for You, esteemed audience?



Fortuna caeca est. 
(Fortune is blind)

In Greek comedy and in the words of Roman Latin authors, Fortuna, the goddess of Fate, was often depicted blindfolded and with the Rota Fortunae (Wheel of Fortune). This image continued into the medieval worldview through influential writers such as Boethius. Luck is blind; nobody, even the Fate’s deity herself, controls it. The fickleness of her character led St. Augustine to write, in De civitate Dei contra paganos (AD 426) “How, therefore, is she good, who without discernment comes to both the good and to the bad?” Medieval representations of Fortuna emphasize her duality and instability. The old French poem Le Roman de la Rose (1230/1270) depicts a lover whose hopes were dictated by Luck; in Dante’s Inferno, Fortuna is explained by Virgil as both a devil and a ministering angel, subservient to God. The great composer and poet Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1377), in De fortune me doy pleindre, praises yet also complains that Fortuna permits such a fair and perfect lady to be found; however, the poet is also uncertain whether the love will continue to exist as Fortuna can choose to turn her wheel against him at any moment.

Tonight’s concert commences with a piece by Guillaume de Machaut that succinctly iterates the nature of Fortuna. Known by his sizeable oeuvre, Machaut worked for numerous wealthy and powerful patrons of his time – not only was he a canon at the Reims Cathedral, but he also worked for John I of Luxembourg and King of Bohemia, Pope Benedict XII, Charles V, Duke of Normandy, and later King of France, among others. Composing in a wide range of styles and forms, Machaut was particularly known for his secular works, including the Lais and the forms fixes: rondeau, virelai and ballade. These works dealt mostly with courtly love, which usually began and ended according to decisions by our protagonist, Fortuna. Lovers rejoice over the existence of a perfect lover; and mourn over an unrequited love under the interventions by Fortuna.

One of the main reasons why Guillaume de Machaut is often praised in modern times as the “greatest composer” of the medieval period is that the works of other composers at the time just did not completely survive, nor in an organized manner. The poet-composer started working on a planned collection of his entire oeuvre in the 1350s, himself supervising the copying of the large six books and deciding the order of which the pieces appeared in the collection, allowing his oeuvre to survive in almost entirely up to today.

Not only was his preservation of oeuvre cutting-edge, but Machaut’s music also exhibits elements that brings him apart from his contemporaries. His ballads, for example, were the first specimens of an entirely new genre of French song that featured a formal, fixed text structure with voice parts conceived in relation to each other rhythmically; and he experiments with the counterpoint in terms of using new combinations of perfect and imperfect intervals.

The secular works of Machaut, as well as some of his contemporaries such as P. des Molins (fl mid-14th century) and Philippe de Vitry (1291-1361), are composed in the style called Ars nova, polyphonic music in the “new style” that flourished in France and its surroundings during the late medieval times. With Machaut being such an iconic figure, scholars referred his death year (1377) as the start of the phenomenon of Ars subtilior, a musical style that embraces rhythmic and notational complexities and targets a small audience of refined connoisseurs. It is not difficult to see parallels between Ars nova and Ars subtilior, in that the latter seemed to develop as a subcategory of the former – they tackle similar topics, namely love, death and of course, the spontaneity of Fortuna. Manuscripts that contain a large repertoire of ars subtilior works include the Chantilly Codex and the French Cypriot Codex. In our concert today, works by Machaut and from these two ars subtilior codices are presented.

Prima pars: Hope and Uncertainty
Esperance qui m’asseure / Tres douce dame / Puisque amé sui doulcement

As much as hope brings us assurance and joy, it also brings disappointment. We wish for sweet thoughts, delicious meals, a good fortune, a pleasant welcome. Our plans don’t always go well. Yet, we are still hopeful with our pursuit, the rewards in life are often without equal.

Secunda pars: Happiness and Sweetness 
Tres douce, playsant figure / Double hoquet / Douce dame jolie / La Seconde Estampie

Delight and Pleasure in the medieval lyric, however sweet they are, are temporary and short-lived. Sometimes, to be able to dance with somebody, or to enjoy a moment of music, are indeed already great moment of happiness. Love’s complexity is what makes life memorable and worthwhile.

Tertia pars: Pain and Despair
Biaute qui toutes autres père / Ay me! Dame de valour / Ha Fortune / Merce o morte

Poor me. The worthy lady whom I love and desire inflicts pain on me. I feed my heart on signs that others don’t see, and I live bitterly on tears.

The protagonists in the pieces experienced despair and agony as their fine and noble lovers left them in a state of sadness. Fortuna has thrown them into situations that their lovers became unattainable and unreachable – the longing, the expectations, and the subsequent despair – classic topos of music in the 14th-century France.

If our future is not in our own hands, if Fortuna is as fickle as they say – why are we still trying hard? Ancient Roman thoughts also claimed that Fortuna’s identity was closely tied to virtus. People who lacked virtues attracted ill-fate. Machiavelli brings us further assurance in The Prince, saying that Fortuna only rules one half of men’s fate, the other half being of their own will.

Our concert ends with Machaut’s Ma fin est mon commencement. If Fortuna works as a cycle of fate, our end brings us back to our beginning. 

Fiona Kizzie Lee