Machaut worked for John of Luxemburg, king of Bohemia, around 1323. The king travelled around Europe, fighting, and Machaut went with him, working as his secretary. After 1330 he became canon of several cathedrals. After John of Luxemburg died during a battle in 1346, Machaut worked for John's daughter Bonne (who later married King John II of France), then King Charles the Bad of Navarre, Charles of Normandy who became King Charles V in 1364 and the King of Cyprus. He also worked for wealthy dukes. With all that work it is surprising that he had time to compose. He seems to have spent his later years living in Rheins, working on his compositions.
Machaut wrote many motets and the secular songs, as well as many poems including rondeaus, virelais and ballades). Machaut wrote a mass known as "Messe de Nostre Dame". It is the earliest known setting of the complete text for the mass, and it had a lot of influence on later composers.
Many of his poems belong to the type which were known as "dits". A "dit" (meaning: "spoken") was a poem that was not meant to be sung. It was in the first person (the "I" form). Many of them are about a lover trying to get the attentions of a lady he loves.
Machaut's poetry had an influence on many later poets, including Geoffrey Chaucer.
Pérotin
Pérotin (lived around 1200), was a medieval composer. He was probably French. Nothing is known about his life except that he worked in or around Paris in the late 12th century to early 13th century. People have tried to find out who he was by studying the archives of Notre Dame Cathedral, but his name has not been found there. He probably had another name, and used the name Pérotin for his compositions.
Pérotin worked on a very important collection of polyphonic music called "Magnus Liber" (meaning: Big Book). The composer Léonin had written a lot of this music. He may have been Pérotin's teacher, but we do not know. He seems to have written music for four voices which are settings of words for the Feast of the Circumcision and St Stephen's Day. He wrote three and four voice music of a type called organum. It was a very important development in the history of Western music. He wrote music in a polyphonic style. Often he took a tune and arranged it so that one voice sang it incredibly slowly while another voice sang something much faster on top.
It is difficult to work out any dates for his works because of the way the music was written. Often it is not even clear what mode they are in.
Pérotin's music has been an influence on some 20th century composers who wrote minimalist music such as Steve Reich.
Stratford station
Stratford station is a railway station in Stratford, Newham, East London.
It is on National Rail, London Underground, London Overground and Docklands Light Railway (DLR) lines. It is served by the Underground Central and Jubilee lines, and by London Overground, Abellio Greater Anglia, TfL Rail and c2c. It is in Travelcard Zone 3.
To distinguish the station from Stratford-upon-Avon this station is called Stratford (London) by National Rail, and is sometimes referred to as Stratford Regional to distinguish it from Stratford International station away.
There were three primary goods facilities in the Stratford area in the steam age, although the nearby Stratford Works and engine shed generated their own traffic. A short distance to the north of Stratford station (on the line to Cambridge) there were marshalling yards at Temple Mills. There was a small goods yard north of the station on the east side of the line which occupied a constrained site. The mainstay of traffic was domestic coal although shortly before closure in the 1960s the site was used as a reception point for concrete components for the building of tower blocks in Newham.
There was a small depot at Carpenters Road about a quarter of a mile south of Stratford station. Opened in 1900, the depot consisted of four long sidings and primarily dealt with coal and building materials. It was closed on 7 December 1964.
There was a large depot at Stratford Market railway station. All of these three facilities were operated by the Great Eastern Railway up until 1923 before being taken over by the London & North Eastern Railway until nationalisation in 1948 when they became part of British Railways Eastern Region.
There was also a goods terminal at Bow operated by the Midland Railway which is still open today mostly for building materials. This yard operated as the terminal for building materials for the adjacent Olympics site.
Between Stratford and Maryland stations Windmill Lane cattle pens existed on the down side of the line whilst four private sidings belonging to Young & Martens were located on the up side.
During the 1960s part of the Stratford Works site was converted to the London International Freight Terminal (LIFT) which opened in 1967 and there was a freight liner terminal that operated on the far side of the Stratford railway complex (on the Channelsea Loop line) between 1967 and 1994. The former site is now occupied by the international station and shopping centre.
The nearby Stratford International station opened on 30 November 2009 (for preview services only). Since 13 December 2009 Southeastern began its full domestic high-speed service between London St Pancras, directly to Ebbsfleet International and Ashford in Kent. The Docklands Light Railway 'Stratford International' extension has provided a link between the two stations since 31 August 2011. There is also a walking route between the two stations passing through the newly built Westfield Stratford City Shopping Centre.
Despite Stratford International's name, no international trains call there, and Eurostar (currently the only international operator) has no plans to do so. Passengers instead interconnect on high-speed trains travelling to either London St Pancras or Ebbsfleet in Kent, there are a number of other potential operators that may use the station for international services. These include Deutsche Bahn's proposed London-Frankfurt/Amsterdam service and the proposed "Transmanche Metro" service to Calais via local stations.
In preparation for the Olympics and the Stratford City development, a new north-facing exit and ticket hall has been built. Both existing passenger subways have been extended north to connect with the ticket hall, and the abandoned subway at the eastern end of the station, which formed part of the old station complex, has been reopened and refurbished to allow interchange between platforms 3–12 and the new high-level platforms 1 & 2. A new pedestrian bridge has also been built to connect Stratford shopping centre with the Stratford City development. This also connects the mezzanine-level ticket hall with the northern one. The northern ticket hall and the footbridge opened along with Westfield Stratford City on 13 September 2011.
Stratford bus station is to the south of the station and Stratford City bus station is to the north. Both are served by bus services right across London and to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
Léonin
Léonin (lived in the late 12th century) is the first composer we know about who wrote organum, a kind of church music. We know nothing about his life. He was probably French. He seems to have worked at Notre Dame Cathedral because he wrote a collection of music called "Magnus Liber" (meaning: Big Book), or, at least, he wrote some of it. This book has music for two voices. It was designed for services at Notre Dame. A younger composer called Pérotin did some more work on the collection, changing some of it.
Ipswich railway station
Ipswich railway station is a railway station serving the town of Ipswich in Suffolk, England.
Dmitri Kabalevsky
Dmitri Kabalevsky (born Saint Petersburg, 30 December 1904; died Moscow, 18 February 1987) was a Russian Soviet composer.