"The last great poet who was also a composer." Daniel Leech-Wilkinson
Although Guillaume's ("the first true genius of Western Music") early life is not well documented, most people date his birth at the year 1300 in Champagne. More than 130 of his musical works have survived to this day, he composed both liturgical and secular music, a great list can be found here. Though the greater percentage of his work is secular, his greatest work and the most well know work of all Medieval music is the Messe de Nostre Dame (Mass of Our Lady). Messe de Nostre Dame is the earliest complete Mass attributed to a single composer, it has 5 movements, check out the Gloria. He is also one of the first to compose polyphony music, unlike chant (monophony) which uses one voice, polyphonic music is two or more simultaneous melodic lines. He greatly impacted the music that followed him. He was a great innovator in both music and poetry. The thing that makes Guillaume so great, is his music still sounds current, it was beautiful music then and still is today, I don't think any amount of time will subdue his works. He passed in 1377 but left us with wonderful art, so enjoy!
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