This Machaut motet could be connected to his Martyrum gemma, and possibly to the congregation of St. Quentin, for which Machaut may have composed both. Every particular meeting of this congregation began with a Mass for the Holy Spirit, including the hymn to the Spirit Veni Creator Spiritus. This offers a facile (though unprovable) context for his somewhat later motet Christe, qui lux es, which, uniquely among his works, uses this solemn hymn as a musical inspiration. The hymn Christe, qui lux es was otherwise well known in the medieval Catholic liturgy as a piece sung at the end of Compline, concluding the liturgical day with a prayer to Christ, who is the "night and day." Machaut's Triplum text only quotes the first few words of this hymn, then proceeds into a paraliturgical prayer for God's protection on His people despite wars and tribulations that they face; this text even concludes with an invocation of the prophet Habbakuk in a medieval understanding of him as the nourisher of Daniel in the den of the lion.

The lion offers a direct connection to Machaut's second text, an adaptation of the St. Quentin/ Holy Spirit hymn Veni Creator Spiritus. The potential political dimension of the Triplum text is enhanced in this second hymn paraphrase, in which "leopards and lions" represent the many enemies surrounding the singers, perhaps even a reference to Edward III and the English. This paraphrase both in honor of the Holy Spirit and of the beleagured French, and its particular use by a congregation known to have contacts with Machaut, on the other hand, indicates the (rare) potential of our knowing a specific service in which to imagine the performance of his music, perhaps during the very siege of Reims.

Scholars have noted that this motet, with the others in his "late" style, tends to open with expansive duo sections, and also tends to explore more extended musical forms. Only after an exteremely extended duo does the lower pair of isorhythmic voices enter, elaborating in long note values a chant about "tribulation," which is proper to "Passion" Sunday (before Easter). The lower pair of voices together support the piece's harmonies, proceeding once through the chant melody and its counterpart in four rhythmic talea, followed by a repeat of the interlocking melodies set to four further rhythmic "cuttings," at a faster pace. The increased rhythm, plus hocketing rhythms in the upper voices, cascades into the final word: an appropriate prayer for "peace."

© Timothy Dickey, Rovi