Ha fortune is a motet by the medieval French composer Guillaume de Machaut. It is written for three voices, a motetus, triplem and tenor, and is catalogued by Schrade as Motet No. 8. Most of Machaut's motet utilise isorhythmic techniques, and this work is no exception. The isorhythm in Ha fortune is noteworthy in that the talea and color of the tenor do not match precisely which necessitates the insertion of a small rhythmic addendum at the end.

The motet grew out of an early thirteenth century form known as the conductus. It involved the embellishment of a segment of plainchant (which became known as the 'tenor') with a polyphonically independant part or parts (known as the duplum, triplem and quadruplem). In the early part of the fourteenth century, motets were set to secular French texts, although sacred Latin texts dominate for most of the century. Machaut, however, does not follow this trend in that most of his motets are set with French secular texts. This work is typical of Machaut's motets in that it has a secular French triplem and triplem, but a Latin tenor.



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