Ma fin est mon commencement (Genge/Machaut)

for flute, clarinet, violin and cello (1995)

Duration: ca 3 minutes

Ma Fin Est Mon Commencement (Et Mon Commencement Ma Fin) is an arrangement for flute, clarinet, violin and cello of a a three-voice rondeau  by the 14th century French composer and poet Guillaume de Machaut (1304?-1377).  The original, a wonderfully inventive work, is a retrograde canon (or a palindrome) both musically (and almost in the text!). The text translates as follows:

My end is my beginning

and my beginning is my end,

and this holds truly.

My end is my beginning,

My third song three times only

reverses itself and thus ends.

My end is my beginning

and my beginning is my end.

Musically, the work is divided into two parts.  In a vocal performance the form would be ABAAABAB. 

The upper two voices of the piece share the same material, starting at oppisite ends.  Thus these two voices have the same material in each half, but in a mirror image meeting in the middle. The lowest part, the tenor, uses different material but in this case the same material is used in each half, but in a mirror image of itself, meeting at the middle of the piece. Therefore it uses the same material twice, first forward and then backwards.

In this arrangement, I have tried to stay true to this musical scheme while at the same time dividing the 3 voices into 4 by using voice exchange, octave doublings, etc.