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Composer Guillaume Dufay (left) and Gilles Binchois (right), Martin le Franc, "Champion des Dames"
Composer Guillaume Dufay (left) and Gilles Binchois (right), Martin le Franc, "Champion des Dames"

The Burgundian School is a term used to denote a group of composers active in the 15th century in what is now northern and eastern France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, centered on the court of the Dukes of Burgundy. Guillaume Dufay ( Du Fay, Du Fayt) ( August 5, 1397 ? &ndash November 27, 1474) was a Franco-Flemish composer Gilles Binchois, also known as Gilles de Binche or Gilles de Bins (c This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. The Kingdom of Belgium is a Country in northwest Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts its headquarters as well as those The Netherlands ( Dutch:, ˈnedərlɑnt is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which consists of the Netherlands the Netherlands Burgundy (Bourgogne Burgund is a region historically situated in modern-day France and Switzerland, inhabited in turn by Celts ( Gauls) The main names associated with this school are Guillaume Dufay, Gilles Binchois, Antoine Busnois and (in England and her empire of that time in France) John Dunstaple. Guillaume Dufay ( Du Fay, Du Fayt) ( August 5, 1397 ? &ndash November 27, 1474) was a Franco-Flemish composer Gilles Binchois, also known as Gilles de Binche or Gilles de Bins (c Antoine Busnois (also Busnoys) (c 1430 &ndash November 6, 1492) was a French Composer and Poet of the early John Dunstaple or Dunstable (c 1390 &ndash December 24, 1453) was an English composer of polyphonic Music of the late The Burgundian School was the first phase of activity of the Franco-Flemish School, the central musical practice of the Renaissance in Europe. In Music, the Franco-Flemish School refers somewhat imprecisely to the style of polyphonic Vocal music composition in Europe in the 15th Renaissance music is European music written during the Renaissance, approximately 1400 - 1600

Contents

Background

In late Medieval and early Renaissance Europe, cultural centers tended to move from one place to another due to changing political stability and the presence of either the spiritual or temporal power, for instance the Pope, Anti-pope or the Holy Roman Emperor. The Renaissance (from French Renaissance, meaning "rebirth" Italian: Rinascimento, from re- "again" and nascere History See also History of the Papacy Catholics recognize the Pope as a successor to Saint Peter, who Jesus named as the "shepherd" and An antipope ( Latin: antipapa) is a person who makes a widely accepted claim to be the lawful Pope, in opposition to the pope recognised by the Roman The Holy Roman Emperor (Römischer Kaiser or Römisch-Deutscher Kaiser Romanorum Imperator was the elected monarch ruling over the many varying numbers of states In the 14th century, the main centers of musical activity were northern France, Avignon, and Italy, as represented by Guillaume de Machaut and the ars nova, the ars subtilior, and Landini respectively; Avignon had a brief but important cultural flowering because it was the location of the Papacy during the Western Schism. Avignon (/aviɲɔ̃/ in French) ( Provençal: Avinhon in classical norm or Avignoun in Mistralian norm is a commune Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest Guillaume de Machaut, sometimes spelled Machault (c 1300 – April 1377 was an important Medieval French Poet and Composer. Ars nova was a stylistic period in Music of the Late Middle Ages, centered in France, which encompassed the period roughly from the preparation Ars subtilior (more subtle art is a Musical style characterized by rhythmic and notational complexity centered around Paris, Avignon Francesco Landini or Landino (around 1325 &ndash September 2, 1397) was an Italian Composer, organist, singer poet The Great Schism of Western Christianity or Papal Schism (also known as the Western Schism) was a split within the Roman Catholic Church from 1378 to 1417 When France was ravaged by the Hundred Years' War (1337 – 1453), the cultural center migrated farther east, to towns in Burgundy and the Low Countries, known then collectively as the Netherlands. The Hundred Years' War (Guerre de Cent Ans was a prolonged conflict lasting from 1337 to 1453 between two royal houses for the French throne vacant with the extinction of the senior The Low Countries, the historical region of de Nederlanden, are the countries on low-lying land around the delta of the Rhine, Scheldt The Netherlands ( Dutch:, ˈnedərlɑnt is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which consists of the Netherlands the Netherlands [1]

During the reign of the House of Valois, Burgundy was the most powerful and stable political division in western Europe, and added, a bit at a time, Flanders, Brabant, Holland, Luxembourg, Alsace and Lorraine. See also France in the Middle Ages, Early Modern France Unexpected inheritance The Capetian dynasty seemed secure both during and Flanders (Vlaanderen Flandre Flandern is a geographical region located in parts of present day Belgium, France, and the Netherlands. Brabant was a province of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands from 1815 until 1830 and a province of Belgium from 1830 until 1995 Holland is a region in the western part of the Netherlands. A maritime and economic power in the 17th century Holland today consists of the Dutch provinces of Luxembourg (Groussherzogtum Lëtzebuerg Grand-Duché de Luxembourg Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small Landlocked country in Western Europe, bordered by Alsace (Alsace alzas Alsatian and Elsass pre-1996 German: Elsaß; Alsatia is one of the 26 Regions of France, located on the eastern Lorraine (Lorraine Lothringen is a historical area in present-day northeast France. Especially during the reigns of Philip the Good (1419 – 1467) and Charles the Bold (1467 – 1477), this entire area, loosely known as Burgundy, was a center of musical creativity. Philip the Good (Philippe le Bon also Philip III Duke of Burgundy ( July 31, 1396 &ndash June 15, 1467) was Duke of Burgundy Charles the Bold or Charles the Rash (Charles le Téméraire ( 21 November 1433 &ndash 5 January 1477) baptised Charles Martin Most of the musical activity did not take place in what is modern-day Burgundy, which has its capital in Dijon (even though the Dukes of Burgundy maintained an administrative center there). Dijon ( diʒɔ̃ is a city in eastern France, the capital of the Côte-d'Or departement and of the Bourgogne region The main centers of music-making were Brussels, Bruges, Lille, and Arras, as well as smaller towns in that same general area. Brussels (Bruxelles pronounced; Brussel pronounced) officially the Brussels Capital-Region, is Bruges (Brugge is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. Lille (lil Rijsel is a city in northern France. It is the principal city of the Lille Métropole, the fourth-largest Metropolitan area in the country Arras (Atrecht is the capital of the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. [2]

Musicians from the region came to Burgundy to study and further their own careers as the reputation of the area spread. The Burgundian rulers were not merely patrons of the arts, but took an active part: Charles the Bold himself played the harp, and composed chansons and motets (although none have survived with reliable attribution). The harp is a Stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicular to the soundboard. A chanson ( French for " Song " from Latin cantio) is in general any lyric -driven French songs usually Polyphonic In Western music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions The worldly dukes also encouraged the composition of secular music to a degree seen only rarely before in European music history, a characteristic which itself defines the Burgundian epoch as a Renaissance phenomenon. [3]

This migration of musical culture east from Paris to Burgundy also corresponds with the conventional (and by no means universally accepted) division of music history into Medieval and Renaissance; while Guillaume de Machaut is often considered to be one of the last Medieval composers, Dufay is often considered to be the first significant Renaissance composer. The term medieval music encompasses European music written during the Middle Ages. Renaissance music is European music written during the Renaissance, approximately 1400 - 1600 Guillaume de Machaut, sometimes spelled Machault (c 1300 – April 1377 was an important Medieval French Poet and Composer.

Charles the Bold was killed in 1477 in the Battle of Nancy, during one of his attempts to add territory to his empire. The Battle of Nancy was the final and decisive battle of the Burgundian Wars, fought outside the walls of Nancy, France on After his death, music continued to flourish as before, but the region was split politically, with the duchy of Burgundy being absorbed into France, and most of the Low Countries becoming part of the holdings of the Spanish Habsburgs. Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Both the French court and the Habsburgs were patrons of music; however a French style began to diverge from that of the Low Countries, especially in secular music, and in the period after 1500.

Composers

The history of Burgundian music began with the organization of the chapel in 1384 by Philip the Bold; by the time of his death twenty years later, it rivaled the famous establishment at Avignon in splendor. Names associated with this early phase of Burgundian music include Johannes Tapissier and Nicolas Grenon, who carried the tradition across to the next phase of the chapel, when it was reorganized in 1415. Johannes Tapissier (also Jean Tapissier, Jean de Noyers) (c1370 – 1408 to 1410 was a French composer and teacher of the late Middle Ages, in the period Nicolas Grenon (c 1375 &ndash October 17 1456) was a French composer of the early Renaissance. Other early composers there were Hugo and Arnold de Lantins, both of whom Dufay later met in Italy. Hugo de Lantins (fl 1420 &ndash 1430 was a Franco-Flemish composer of the late Medieval era and early Renaissance. Arnold de Lantins (fl 1420s d before July 2, 1432) was a Franco-Flemish composer of the late Medieval era and early Renaissance

Of all the names associated with the Burgundian School, the most famous was Guillaume Dufay, who was probably the most famous composer in Europe in the 15th century. Guillaume Dufay ( Du Fay, Du Fayt) ( August 5, 1397 ? &ndash November 27, 1474) was a Franco-Flemish composer He wrote music in many of the forms which were current, music which was melodic, singable and memorable (more than half of his sacred music consists of simple harmonizations of plainsong, for example). For the band see " Plainsong (band " For the song on The Cure's 1989 album see " Disintegration " Contemporary with Dufay were composers such as Gilles Binchois, who was at the Burgundian court between approximately 1430 and 1460, and Hayne van Ghizeghem, a composer, singer and soldier who may have been killed in the last military campaign of Charles the Bold. Gilles Binchois, also known as Gilles de Binche or Gilles de Bins (c Hayne van Ghizeghem (c 1445 &ndash 1472 or possibly later New Grove says he died between 1472 and 1497 was a Flemish composer of the early Renaissance Burgundian

After the death of Dufay in 1474, the most prominent Burgundian musician was Antoine Busnois, who was also a prolific composer of chansons, and who possibly wrote the famous L'homme armé tune. Antoine Busnois (also Busnoys) (c 1430 &ndash November 6, 1492) was a French Composer and Poet of the early L'homme armé was a French secular song from the time of the Renaissance.

Musical style and forms

Burgundian composers favored secular forms, at least while they worked in Burgundian lands; much sacred music survives, especially from those composers who spent time in Italy, for example in the papal choir. The most prominent secular forms used by the Burgundians were the four formes fixes (rondeau, ballade, virelai, and bergerette), all generically known as chansons. The ballade (bəˈlɑːd not to be confused with the Ballad) is a verse form typically consisting of three eight-line Stanzas each with a consistent A virelai is a form of Medieval French verse used often in Poetry and Music. A chanson ( French for " Song " from Latin cantio) is in general any lyric -driven French songs usually Polyphonic Of the four, the rondeau was by far the most popular; at any rate more rondeaux have survived than any other form. Most of the rondeaux were in three voices, and in French, though there are a few in other languages. In most of the rondeaux, the uppermost voice (the "superius") was texted, and the other voices were most likely played by instruments. The bergerette was developed by the Burgundians themselves; it was like a virelai, but shorter, having only one stanza.

Most of the composers also wrote sacred music in Latin; this was to remain true for the next several generations. They wrote both masses and motets, as well as cycles of Magnificats. Mass is a fundamental concept in Physics, roughly corresponding to the Intuitive idea of how much Matter there is in an object In Western music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions The Magnificat (also known as the Song of Mary) is a Canticle frequently sung (or spoken liturgically in Christian church services During the period, the mass transformed from a group of individual sections written by different composers, often using a head-motif technique, to unified cycles based on a cantus firmus. Head-motif (German Kopfmotiv) refers to an opening musical idea of a set of movements which serves to unite those movements In Music, a cantus firmus ("fixed song" is a pre-existing Melody forming the basis of a polyphonic composition. Dufay, Binchois, Busnois, Reginald Liebert and others all wrote cyclic masses. One of the favorite tunes used as a cantus firmus was the renowned l'homme armé, which was set not only by the Burgundians but by composers of subsequent centuries; indeed it was commonest tune used as a basis for mass composition in all of music history. L'homme armé was a French secular song from the time of the Renaissance.

During the period the motet transformed from the isorhythmic model of the 14th century to the smoothly polyphonic, sectional composition seen in the work of the later Burgundians such as Busnois. Isorhythm (from the Greek for "the same rhythm" is a musical technique that arranges a fixed pattern of pitches with a repeating Rhythmic pattern In Music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent Melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice ( Monophony In the motets, as well as the masses and other sacred music, a common musical technique employed was fauxbourdon, a harmonization of an existing chant in parallel 6-3 chords, occasionally ornamented to prevent monotony. Fauxbourdon (also Fauxbordon, and also commonly two words Faux Bourdon) &ndash French for false bass &ndash is a technique Composition using fauxbourdon allowed sung text to be clearly understood, but yet avoided the plainness of simple chant.

Instrumental music was also cultivated at the Burgundian courts, often for dancing. A peculiarity of the Burgundian instrumental style is that the dukes preferred music for loud instruments (trumpets, tambourins, shawms, bagpipes) and more of this survives than for other current instruments such as the lute or the harp. A tambourin is a piece of music in imitation of a drum coming from the French word "tambourin" meaning an old type of drum The shawm was a Medieval and Renaissance Musical instrument of the Woodwind family made in Europe from the late 13th century until Bagpipes are a class of Musical instrument, Aerophones using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag In contemporary practice, the loud instruments would usually play from an elevated location, such as a balcony, while the other instruments would play closer to the dancers. [4]

Instrumental forms included the basse danse, or bassadanza, which was a ceremonial dance of a rather dignified character, and relatively slow tempo. The basse danse, or "low dance" was the most popular Court dance in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries especially at the Burgundian Typically it was in a duple meter subdivided into threes (in modern notation, 6/8), and often the dance would be immediately followed by a quick dance, the tordion or pas de Brabant. [5]

The Burgundian School was the first generation of what is sometimes known as the Netherlands School, several generations of composers spanning 150 years who composed in the polyphonic style associated with the mainstream of Renaissance practice. In Music, the Franco-Flemish School refers somewhat imprecisely to the style of polyphonic Vocal music composition in Europe in the 15th In Music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent Melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice ( Monophony Later generations, which were no longer specifically associated with either the court or the region Burgundy but were interlinked by adjacent geography and by common musical practice, included such names as Johannes Ockeghem, Jacob Obrecht, Josquin des Prez, Adrian Willaert and Orlandus Lassus. Johannes Ockeghem (also Jean de; surname Okeghem, Ogkegum, Okchem, Hocquegam, Ockegham; other variant spellings are also Jacob Obrecht (1457/1458 &ndash late July 1505 was a Dutch composer of the Renaissance. Josquin des Prez (c 1450 to 1455 &ndash August 27 1521 often referred to simply as Josquin, was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance. Adrian Willaert (c 1490 &ndash 7 December 1562 was a Flemish Composer of the Renaissance and founder of the Venetian School. Orlande de Lassus (also Orlandus Lassus, Orlando di Lasso, Roland de Lassus, or Roland Delattre) (1532 (possibly 1530 &ndash June

Manuscript sources

There are approximately 65 manuscript sources which contain music by Burgundian composers. The most prominent of these include:

Burgundian Composers

References

Notes

  1. ^ Wright, Grove
  2. ^ Wright, Grove
  3. ^ Reese, p. 4-8
  4. ^ Wright, Grove
  5. ^ Gleason, p. 101-102.
  6. ^ Gleason, 95-96
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