Liement me deport is a monophonic song by the fourteenth-century French composer Guillaume de Machaut (c.1300-1377). It is an example of the genre known as the virelai, one of the formes fixed of the fourteenth century (the others were the ballade and the rondeau). Schrade catalogues this work as Virelai No. 27.

Liement me deport is fairly typical of one of Machaut's later monophonic virelais. In comparison to many of his earlier works, it includes a more complex rhyming structure, unpredictable line length, longer texts and a more melismatic text setting. More of his later works were polyphonic, although monophonic virelais, such as this one, still predominate.

Machaut is known primarily as a composer of polyphonic music, particularly of the monumental Messe de Notre Dame. However, he also wrote a great deal of monophonic song, much of it rarely performed and researched. Most of his virelais and almost all his lais are monophonic as well as his sole surviving chanson royal and complainte.

© All Music Guide

Portions of Content Provided by All Music Guide.
© 2008 All Media Guide, LLC. All Music Guide is a registered trademark of All Media Guide, LLC.