The lively Court culture of fifteenth-century France and Burgundy cultivated both the arts of warfare—celebrated in chivalric military orders such as the Order of the Golden Fleece—and the arts of peace—seen in the Burgundian patronage of artists such as Hubert and Jan Van Eyck and of musicians such as Binchois and Antoine Busnois. A revival of composition in the formes fixes of the courtly chanson is witnessed by a plethora of manuscript chansonniers from the time—anthologies for noble recreation and edification, preserving the vernacular works of the greatest composers of the day, from Guillaume Dufay to Josquin Desprez. The wildly popular chanson Ma bouche rit, by Johannes Ockeghem, survives in nearly twenty separate manuscripts of this kind, in addition to being included in the first printed book of music ever, the Odhecaton of Ottaviano Petrucci (1501).

Guillaume de Machaut, poet and musician extraordinaire of the fourteenth century, is credited with codification of the French vernacular formes fixes. Ma bouche rit is a bergerette (a virelai of one stanza only). Text and music follow this form explicitly: a refrain (five lines), two verses (three lines each), verse conclusion (five, same music as the refrain), and a repeat of the refrain. (AbbaA) The numerous stylized contradictions in the text are indicated by the very first line of the refrain: "Ma bouche rit et ma pensée pleure" ("My mouth laughs, and my thoughts weep"). The verses go on to describe the efforts of the stereotypical lover to hide the deadly pains of unrequited love, described as "the benefit that dissipates health" and " the pleasure for which death pursues."

Ockeghem's musical setting subtly embodies some of these contradictions. The memorable opening line, for instance, begins with a bouncy and syllabic melody for "Ma bouche rit," but slips immediately into a flowing, syncopated melisma on the word "weep." Throughout the piece, the long lines of the melody often take surprising turns, and do not often find the satisfaction of a cadence; the untexted lower voices continue blithely on. In one striking moment, at the text "Que de faulser" (speaking of the "lying" heart), the melody dips completely underneath the lower two voices, turning the musical world upside down in protest at the Beloved's injustice (or is it the injustice of his own deceitful heart?).

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