THOMAS TALLIS (1510-1585)

Thomas Tallis, an English

composer, flourished as a church
musician and is considered one
of the church's best early
composers. Tallis served under
four English monarchs and was
treated very well. Queen
Elisabeth granted him and his
pupil, William Boyd, exclusive
rights to use England's printing
press to publish music; a first of
its time. Although Tallis
composed many styles of music,
the majority of it is arranged for
choir as Latin motets and English
anthems.

Early Works

The earliest surviving works by Tallis, Salve intemerata virgo, Ave rosa sine spinis and Ave Dei
patris filia are devotional antiphons to the Virgin Mary, which were sung in the evening after
the last service of the day and were cultivated in England until at least the early 1540s. Henry
VIII's break repudiation of the authority of the Pope over the Catholic Church in 1534 (Henry
did not repudiate the doctrines of the Church) and the rise of Thomas Cranmer noticeably
influenced the style of music written. Cranmer recommended a syllabic style of music (which
is a setting of text where each syllable is sung to one pitch), as his instructions for the setting of
the 1544 English Litany make clear. As a result, the writing of Tallis and his contemporaries
became less florid. Tallis's Mass for Four Voices is marked with tendencies toward a syllabic
and chordal (consisting of or emphasising chords) style and a diminished use of melisma. Tallis
provides a rhythmic variety and differentiation of moods depending on the meaning of his
texts. Tallis helped found a relationship that was specific to the combining of words and music.

LATER WORKS

Toward the end of his life, tallis resisted the musical development seen in his younger
contemporaries such as William Byrd, who embraced compositional complexity and adopted
texts built by combining disparate biblical extracts. Tallis's experiments during this time period
were considered rather unusual. Tallis was content to draw his texts from the liturgy and
wrote for the worship services in the chapel royal. Tallis composed during a difficult period
during the conflict between catholicism and protestantism, and his music often displays
characteristics of the turmoil.
JOSQUIN DES PREZ (1440-1521)
Widely recognized by just his first name, Josquin
Des Prez was Europe's most sought after musician
during his lifetime. His popularity, no doubt, was a
result of combining many contemporary styles of
music, his originality, and his ability to unveil the
meaning and emotions of a text through music.
Much of Josquin's music survives today, with his
masses and chansons being the most popular.

Josquin des Prez, des Prez also spelled Desprez, des

Prs, or Desprs (born c. 1450, Cond-sur-
lEscaut?, Burgundian Hainaut [France]died Aug
27, 1521, Cond-sur-lEscaut), one of the greatest
composers of Renaissance Europe.

Josquins early life has been the subject of much

scholarly debate, and the first solid evidence of his
work comes from a roll of musicians associated
with the cathedral in Cambrai in the early 1470s.
During the late 1470s and early 80s, he sang for
the courts of Ren I of Anjou and Duke Galeazzo
Maria Sforza of Milan, and from 1486 to about
1494 he performed for the papal chapel. Sometime
between then and 1499, when he became
choirmaster to Duke Ercole I of Ferrara, he apparently had connections with the Chapel Royal
of Louis XII of France and with the Cathedral of Cambrai. In Ferrara he wrote, in honour of his
employer, the mass Hercules Dux Ferrariae, and his motet Miserere was composed at the
dukes request. He seems to have left Ferrara on the death of the duke in 1505 and later
became provost of the collegiate church of Notre Dame in Cond.

Josquins compositions fall into the three principal categories of motets, masses, and chansons.
Of the 20 masses that survive complete, 17 were printed in his lifetime in three sets (1502,
1505, 1514) by Ottaviano dei Petrucci. His motets and chansons were included in other
Petrucci publications, from the Odhecaton (an anthology of popular chansons) of 1501
onward, and in collections of other printers. Musical laments on his death by Nicolas Gombert,
Benedictus Appenzeller, and Hieronymus Vinders are extant. Martin Luther expressed great
admiration for Josquins music, calling him master of the notes, which must do as he wishes;
other composers must do as the notes wish. In his musical techniques he stands at the summit
of the Renaissance, blending traditional forms with innovations that later became standard
practices. The expressiveness of his music marks a break with the medieval tradition of more
abstract music.

In his chansons Josquin was the principal exponent of a style new in the mid-15th century, in
which the learned techniques of canon and counterpoint were applied to secular song. He
abandoned the fixed forms of the rondeau and the ballade, employing freer forms of his own
device. Though a few chansons are set chordally rather than polyphonically, a number of
others are skilled examples of counterpoint in five or six voices, maintaining sharp rhythms,
straightforwardness, and clarity of texture.
PIERRE DE LA RUE (1460-1518)
Pierre de la rue (c.1452 20 november 1518) was a franco-
flemish composer and singer of the renaissance. His name also
appears as piersson or variants of pierchon and his
toponymic, when present, as various forms of de platea, de
robore, or de vico. A member of the same generation as
josquin des prez, and a long associate of the habsburg-
burgundian musical chapel, he ranks with agricola, brumel,
compre, isaac, obrecht, and weerbeke as one of the most
famous and influential composers in the netherlands
polyphonic style in the decades around 1500. Pierre de La Rue
wrote many styles of music (almost as much as Josquin). La
Rue's repertoire consists entirely of vocal music. His style of
voicing shows that he preferred low voice types, often
composing Cs and B flats below the bass clef. His most
popular work, the Requiem, and one of the earliest
surviving Requiem masses emphasizes the lower voices. As
well as low voicing, various rhythmic patterns and long,
flowing melodies are main characteristics of La Rue's music.

La Rue wrote masses, motets, Magnificats, settings of the Lamentations, and chansons, a diverse
range of compositions reflective of his status as the primary composer at one of Europe's most
renowned musical institutions, surrounded by other similarly creative people. Some scholars
have suggested that he only composed music for about the last 20 years of his life, mainly
when he was in the imperial service; but it has proven difficult to date any of his works
precisely, although it has been possible to suggest groupings based on a rough chronology.
Stylistically, his works are more similar to Josquin than to any other composer working at the
same time. In fact, misattribution of doubtful works has gone both ways. Yet there are some
unique features to La Rue's style. He had a liking for extreme low voice ranges, descending
sometimes to C or even the subterranean B flat below the bass staff; he employed more
chromaticism than most of his contemporaries; and much of his work is rich in dissonance. He
also broke up long, dense textures by inserting contrasting passages for two voices only,
something done also by Ockeghem and Josquin. He was one of the first routinely to expand
vocal forces from the standard four, to five or six. One of his masses for six voices, the Missa
Ave sanctissima Maria, is a six-voice canon, a technically difficult feat reminiscent of some of
the work of Ockeghem. This is also the earliest six-voice mass known to exist.

Canonic writing is a particularly important feature of La Rue's style, and he has been
particularly celebrated for this. He liked to write canons of considerable complexity, rather
than restricting himself to simple imitation. The second of his two masses based on
the L'homme arm tune begins and ends with mensuration canons, canons in which all the
voices sing the same material, but at different speeds; this is yet another feat
of contrapuntal virtuosity worthy of Josquin or Ockeghem; indeed La Rue sometimes seemed to
be in conscious competition with the more renowned Josquin. The closing Agnus Dei of this
mass is the only known mensuration canon of the entire era for four voices, with all four
voices singing the same tune.[1][12] La Rue wrote six pieces that are completely canonic from
start to finish, including two masses, three motets, and a chanson; and he wrote three more
masses, two motets, and three chansons which are based on canon but contain some free
sections; and there are numerous other works which include canonic sections.
CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI (1567-1643)
Linking the Renaissance to the Baroque, Claudio
Monteverdi's revolutionary music included the first
dramatic opera, Orfeo. Much of Monteverdi's early
years were spent composing madrigals; nine books in
total. These books clearly mark the change in thinking
and compositional style between the two musical
periods. Book 8, Ottavo Libro, includes what many
consider to be the perfected form of the
madrigal, Madrigali dei guerrieri ed amorosi.

Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (Italian:

[klaudjo monteverdi]; 15 May 1567 (baptized) 29
November 1643) was an Italian composer, string player
and singer. A composer of both secular and church
music, and a pioneer in the development of opera, he is
considered a crucial transitional figure between the
Renaissance and the Baroque periods of music history.
Born in Cremona, where he undertook his first musical
studies and compositions, Monteverdi developed his career first at the court of Mantua (c.
15901613) and then until his death in the Venetian Republic where he was maestro di
capella at the basilica of San Marco. His surviving letters describe in detail the life of a
professional musician in Italy of the period, including problems of income, patronage and
politics.

Much of Monteverdi's output, including many dramatic and stage works, has been lost. His
surviving music includes nine books of madrigals, large-scale sacred works such as his Vespers
of 1610, and three complete operas. His opera L'Orfeo (1607) is the earliest of the genre still
widely performed; towards the end of his life he wrote works for the commercial theatre in
Venice, including Il ritorno di Ulisse in patria and L'incoronazione di Poppea. While he worked
extensively in the tradition of earlier Renaissance polyphony, such as in his madrigals, he also
made great developments in form and melody and began employing the basso continuo
technique, distinctive of the Baroque. No stranger to controversy, he defended his sometimes
novel techniques as elements of a secondo pratica, contrasting with the more orthodox earlier
style which he termed the primo pratica. Largely forgotten during the eighteenth and and
much of the nineteenth centuries, his works enjoyed a rediscovery around the beginning of the
twentieth century. He is now established both as a significant influence in European musical
history and as a composer whose works are regularly performed and recorded.

The last years of Monteverdi's life were much occupied with opera for the Venetian
stage. Richard Taruskin, in his Oxford History of Western Music, gives his chapter on this topic
the title "Opera from Monteverdi to Monteverdi." This wording, originally proposed
humorously by the Italian music historian Nino Pirrotta, is interpreted seriously by Taruskin as
indicating that Monteverdi is significantly responsible for the transformation of the opera
genre from a private entertainment of the nobility (as with Orfeo in 1607), to what became a
major commercial genre, as exemplified by his opera L'incoronazione di Poppea (The
coronation of Poppea, 1643).
WILLIAM BYRD (1543-1623)
William Byrd is perhaps the greatest English
composer of all time. With hundreds of
individual compositions, Byrd seemingly
mastered every style of music that existed
during his lifetime, outshining Orlando de
Lassus and Giovanni Palestrina. Apart from his
choral works, Byrd is considered by many to be
the first "genius" of the keyboard. Many of his
piano works can be found in "My Ladye Nevells
Book" and the "Parthenia." William Byrd
(/brd/; birth date variously given as
c.1539/40 or 1543 4 July 1623, was an
English composer of the Renaissance. He wrote
in many of the forms current in England at the
time, including various types of sacred and
secular polyphony, keyboard (the so-called
Virginalist school), and consort music. He
produced sacred music for use in Anglican
services, although he himself became a Roman
Catholic in later life and wrote Catholic sacred
music as well.

CHURCH MUSIC
Byrd's compositions for the church can be separated into two categories; those for the Catholic
liturgy and those designed for the officially recognised Church of England. The first category
includes settings of the Mass for three, four and five voices, and a large quantity of other works
for the various seasons of the church year. For the Church of England Byrd wrote a Great
Service and three other service settings, using the texts of the Anglican liturgy. In addition to
the above compositions Byrd composed a number of anthems and psalm-settings, and consort
songs with sacred texts of one sort or another.
VOCAL MUSIC
Byrd also wrote a number of secular consort songs. These are songs with accompaniment
entrusted to varying numbers of instruments.
CONSORT MUSIC
Not unlike the popular music of the time, Byrd provided music for various groups of
instruments. These were usually works for Viols. Bowed and fretted string instruments were
held in high social esteem. Byrd's consort music includes a number of In nomines, a curious
English form of music based on fragment taken from a setting of the Benedictus by the 16th
century composer Taverner. Byrd also composed a series of Fantasias and a great deal of
contrapuntal instrumental music.
KEYBOARD MUSIC
Byrd was well known as a keyboard-player. He wrote a wealth of music for the virginals,
Fantasias, Pavans and Galliards, the fashionable paired dances of the time, and several song
variations. The Earl of Salisbury Pavan and Galliard is a familiar recital piece as are
the Variations on Sellinger's Round and The Carman's Whistle.
Johann Sebastian Bach
While in school, Bach studied orthodox
Lutheranism, logic, rhetoric, Latin and Greek,
arithmetic, history, geography and German
poetry.
Bach was a keyboard virtuoso. He mastered
organ and later harpsichord.
Although Bach received formal lessons, his
virtuosity was self-taught.

Bach's father, Johann Ambrosius, married Maria

Elisabeth Lmmerhirt on April 8, 1668.
They had eight children, five of which
survived; Johann Sebastian (the youngest), his three
brothers and his sister. Bach's father worked as a
houseman and a musician in the ducal court of Saxe-
Eisenach. Bach's mother died in 1694 and a few
months later, Bach's father married Barbara
Margaretha. Unfortunately, three months into his second marriage, he died of a serious illness.

When Bach was 9 years old, he attended his oldest brother's (Johann Christoph) wedding
where he met Johann Pachelbel, composer of the famous Pachelbel Canon. When Bach's father
died, he and his brother were adopted by Christoph. Christoph was an organist at St. Michaels
church in Ohrdruf. Bach received his first lessons in organ from Christoph, but became "a
pure and strong fuguist" by himself. Bach attended Lyceum until 1700. While at Lyceum, he
learned reading, writing, arithmetic, singing, history, natural science, and religion. He was
forth in his class when he finished his schooling. He then left school and went to Lneburg.
Bach learned a bit about organ building while staying with his brother in Ohrdruf; due
entirely to the frequent repairs of the church organs. In 1707, Bach was hired to play for
special services at a church in Mhlhausen; Bach composed the music in which he was to play.
Shortly thereafter, his uncle died and left him 50 gulden. This provided him with enough
money to marry Maria Barbara.

SELECTED WORKS BY BACH:

PASSIONS
St. Matthew Passion, BWV. 244-perf. 1729
St. John Passion, BWV. 245 - perf. 1724
St. Mark Passion, BWV. 247 - perf. 1731
BRANDENBURG CONCERTOS - 1731
No. 1, BWV. 1046 - F Major
No. 2, BWV. 1047 - F Major
No. 3, BWV. 1048 - G Major
No. 4, BWV. 1049 - G Major
No. 5, BWV. 1050 - D Major
No. 6, BWV. 1051 - B flat Major
ORCHESTRAL SUITES
BWV. 1066, C Major - 1725
BWV. 1067, b minor - 1739
BWV. 1068, D Major - 1731
BWV. 1069, D Major - 1725
GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL
George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel
(/hndl/;[a] born Georg Friedrich Hndel,[b]
German pronunciation: [hndl]; 23 February
1685 (O.S.) [(N.S.) 5 March] 14 April
1759)[2][c] was a German, later British, baroque
composer who spent the bulk of his career in
London, becoming well known for his operas,
oratorios, anthems, and organ concertos. Handel
received important training in Halle and worked
as a composer in Hamburg and Italy before
settling in London in 1712; he became a
naturalised British subject in 1727.[4] He was
strongly influenced both by the great composers
of the Italian Baroque and by the middle-German
polyphonic choral tradition.

Within fifteen years, Handel had started three

commercial opera companies to supply the
English nobility with Italian opera. Musicologist
Winton Dean writes that his operas show that
"Handel was not only a great composer; he was a
dramatic genius of the first order."[5] As Alexander's Feast (1736) was well received, Handel
made a transition to English choral works. After his success with Messiah (1742) he never
composed an Italian opera again. Almost blind, and having lived in England for nearly fifty
years, he died in 1759, a respected and rich man. His funeral was given full state honours, and
he was buried in Westminster Abbey in London.

Born the same year as Johann Sebastian Bach and Domenico Scarlatti, Handel is regarded as
one of the greatest composers of the Baroque era, with works such as Water Music, Music for
the Royal Fireworks and Messiah remaining steadfastly popular.[6] One of his four Coronation
Anthems, Zadok the Priest (1727), composed for the coronation of George II, has been
performed at every subsequent British coronation, traditionally during the sovereign's
anointing. Handel composed more than forty operas in over thirty years, and since the late
1960s, with the revival of baroque music and historically informed musical performance,
interest in Handel's operas has grown.

Handel's compositions include 42 operas, 29 oratorios, more than 120 cantatas, trios and
duets, numerous arias, chamber music, a large number of ecumenical pieces, odes and
serenatas, and 16 organ concerti. His most famous work, the oratorio Messiah with its
"Hallelujah" chorus, is among the most popular works in choral music and has become the
centrepiece of the Christmas season. The Lobkowicz Palace in Prague holds Mozart's copy of
Messiah, complete with handwritten annotations. Among the works with opus numbers
published and popularised in his lifetime are the Organ Concertos Op. 4 and Op. 7, together
with the Opus 3 and Opus 6 concerti grossi; the latter incorporate an earlier organ concerto
The Cuckoo and the Nightingale in which birdsong is imitated in the upper registers of the
organ. Also notable are his sixteen keyboard suites, especially The Harmonious Blacksmith.
ANTONIO VIVALDI
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (Italian: [antnjo luto
vivaldi]; 4 March 1678 28 July 1741) was an
Italian[2] Baroque composer, virtuoso violinist,
teacher and cleric. Born in Venice, he is
recognized as one of the greatest Baroque
composers, and his influence during his lifetime
was widespread across Europe. He composed
many instrumental concertos, for the violin and
a variety of other instruments, as well as sacred
choral works and more than forty operas. His
best-known work is a series of violin concertos
known as The Four Seasons. Many of his
compositions were written for the female music
ensemble of the Ospedale della Piet, a home for
abandoned children where Vivaldi (who had
been ordained as a Catholic priest) was
employed from 1703 to 1715 and from 1723 to
1740. Vivaldi also had some success with
expensive stagings of his operas in Venice,
Mantua and Vienna. After meeting the Emperor
Charles VI, Vivaldi moved to Vienna, hoping for
preferment. However, the Emperor died soon after Vivaldi's arrival, and Vivaldi himself died
less than a year later in poverty.

A composition by Vivaldi is identified by RV number, which refers to its place in the "Ryom-
Verzeichnis" or "Rpertoire des oeuvres d'Antonio Vivaldi", a catalog created in the 20th
century by the musicologist Peter Ryom. Le quattro stagioni (The Four Seasons) of 1723 is his
most famous work. Part of Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione ("The Contest between
Harmony and Invention"), it depicts moods and scenes from each of the four seasons. This
work has been described as an outstanding instance of pre-19th century program music.
Vivaldi wrote more than 500 other concertos. About 350 of these are for solo instrument and
strings, of which 230 are for violin, the others being for bassoon, cello, oboe, flute, viola
d'amore, recorder, lute, or mandolin. About forty concertos are for two instruments and strings
and about thirty are for three or more instruments and strings. As well as about 46 operas,
Vivaldi composed a large body of sacred choral music. Other works include sinfonias, about
90 sonatas and chamber music. Some sonatas for flute, published as Il Pastor Fido, have been
erroneously attributed to Vivaldi, but were composed by Nicolas Chdeville. Vivaldi's works
attracted cataloging efforts befitting a major composer. Scholarly work intended to increase the
accuracy and variety of Vivaldi performances also supported new discoveries which made old
catalogs incomplete. Works still in circulation today may be numbered under several different
systems (some earlier catalogs are mentioned here). Because the simply consecutive Complete
Edition (CE) numbers did not reflect the individual works (Opus numbers) into which
compositions were grouped, Fanna numbers were often used in conjunction with CE numbers.
Combined Complete Edition (CE)/Fanna numbering was especially common in the work of
Italian groups driving the mid-20th century revival of Vivaldi, such as Gli Accademici di
Milano under Piero Santi. For example, the Bassoon Concerto in B major, "La Notte" RV 501,
became CE 12, F. VIII,1
GEORGE PHILIPP TELEMANN
Georg Philipp Telemann was a German Baroque
composer and multi-instrumentalist. Almost
completely self-taught in music, he became a
composer against his family's wishes. After studying in
Magdeburg, Zellerfeld, and Hildesheim, Telemann
entered the University of Leipzig to study law, but
eventually settled on a career in music. He held
important positions in Leipzig, Sorau, Eisenach, and
Frankfurt before settling in Hamburg in 1721, where
he became musical director of the five main churches.
While Telemann's career prospered, his personal life
was always troubled: his first wife died only a few
months after their marriage, and his second wife had
extramarital affairs and accumulated a large gambling
debt before leaving Telemann. Telemann was and still
is one of the most prolific composers in history (at
least in terms of surviving oeuvre) and was considered
by his contemporaries to be one of the leading
German composers of the timehe was compared
favorably both to his friend Johann Sebastian Bach,
who made Telemann the godfather and namesake of
his son Carl Philipp Emanuel, and to George Frideric
Handel, whom Telemann also knew personally. Telemann's music incorporates several national
styles (French, Italian) and is even at times influenced by Polish popular music. He remained at
the forefront of all new musical tendencies and his music is an important link between the late
Baroque and early Classical styles.

Telemann was one of the most prolific major composers of all time: his all-encompassing
oeuvre comprises more than 3,000 compositions, half of which have been lost, and most of
which have not been performed since the 18th century. From 1708 to 1750, Telemann
composed 1,043 sacred cantatas and 600 overture-suites, and types of concertos for
combinations of instruments that no other composer of the time composed.[4] The first
accurate estimate of the number of his works was provided by musicologists only during the
1980s and 1990s, when extensive thematic catalogues were published. During his lifetime and
the latter half of the 18th century, Telemann was very highly regarded by colleagues and
critics alike. Numerous theorists (Marpurg, Mattheson, Quantz, and Scheibe, among others)
cited his works as models, and major composers such as J.S. Bach and Handel bought and
studied his published works. He was immensely popular not only in Germany but also in the
rest of Europe: orders for editions of Telemann's music came from France, Italy, the
Netherlands, Belgium, Scandinavian countries, Switzerland, and Spain. It was only in the early
19th century that his popularity came to a sudden halt. Most lexicographers started dismissing
him as a "polygraph" who composed too many works, a Vielschreiber for whom quantity came
before quality. Such views were influenced by an account of Telemann's music by Christoph
Daniel Ebeling, a late-18th-century critic who in fact praised Telemann's music and made only
passing critical remarks of his productivity.
JOHANN PACHELBEL
Johann Pachelbel was a German
composer, organist, and teacher who
brought the south German organ
tradition to its peak. He composed a
large body of sacred and secular music,
and his contributions to the
development of the chorale prelude and
fugue have earned him a place among
the most important composers of the
middle Baroque era. Pachelbel's music
enjoyed enormous popularity during
his lifetime; he had many pupils and his
music became a model for the
composers of south and central
Germany. Today, Pachelbel is best
known for the Canon in D, as well as
the Chaconne in F minor, the Toccata in
E minor for organ, and the
Hexachordum Apollinis, a set of
keyboard variations.

He was influenced by southern German composers, such as Johann Jakob Froberger and
Johann Caspar Kerll, Italians such as Girolamo Frescobaldi and Alessandro Poglietti, French
composers, and the composers of the Nuremberg tradition[citation needed]. He preferred a
lucid, uncomplicated contrapuntal style that emphasized melodic and harmonic clarity. His
music is less virtuosic and less adventurous harmonically than that of Dieterich Buxtehude,
although, like Buxtehude, Pachelbel experimented with different ensembles and instrumental
combinations in his chamber music and, most importantly, his vocal music, much of which
features exceptionally rich instrumentation. Pachelbel explored many variation forms and
associated techniques, which manifest themselves in various diverse pieces, from sacred
concertos to harpsichord suites.

During his lifetime, Pachelbel was best known as an organ composer. He wrote more than two
hundred pieces for the instrument, both liturgical and secular, and explored most of the genres
that existed at the time. Pachelbel was also a prolific vocal music composer: around a hundred
of such works survive, including some 40 large-scale works. Only a few chamber music pieces
by Pachelbel exist, although he might have composed many more, particularly while serving as
court musician in Eisenach and Stuttgart.

Several principal sources exist for Pachelbel's music, although none of them as important as,
for example, the Oldham manuscript is for Louis Couperin. Among the more significant
materials are several manuscripts that were lost before and during World War II but partially
available as microfilms of the Winterthur collection, a two-volume manuscript currently in
possession of the Oxford Bodleian library which is a major source for Pachelbel's late work,
and the first part of the Tabulaturbuch (1692, currently at the Biblioteka Jagielloska in
Krakw) compiled by Pachelbel's pupil Johann Valentin Eckelt, which includes the only known
Pachelbel autographs).
BERNART DE VENTADORN
Bernart de Ventadorn, also known as Bernard de
Ventadour or Bernat del Ventadorn, was a prominent
troubadour of the classical age of troubadour poetry.
Now thought of as "the Master Singer" he developed
the canons into a more formalized style which
allowed for sudden turns. He is remembered for his
mastery as well as popularisation of the trobar leu
style, and for his prolific canons, which helped
define the genre and establish the "classical" form of
courtly love poetry, to be imitated and reproduced
throughout the remaining century and a half of
troubadour activity.
Bernart was known for being able to portray his
woman as a divine agent in one moment and then, in
a sudden twist, as Eve the cause of man's initial sin.
This dichotomy in his work is portrayed in a
"graceful, witty, and polished" medium. According to
the troubadour Uc de Saint Circ, Bernart was
possibly the son of a baker at the castle of Ventadour
(Ventadorn), in today's Corrze (France). Yet another
source, a satirical poem written by a younger contemporary, Peire d'Alvernha, indicates that he
was the son of either a servant, a soldier, or a baker, and his mother was also either a servant
or a baker. From evidence given in Bernart's early poem Lo temps vai e ven e vire, he most
likely learned the art of singing and writing from his protector, viscount Eble III of Ventadorn.
He composed his first poems to his patron's wife, Marguerite de Turenne.
Forced to leave Ventadour after falling in love with Marguerite, he traveled to Montluon and
Toulouse, and eventually followed Eleanor of Aquitaine to England and the Plantagenet court;
evidence for this association and these travels comes mainly from his poems themselves. Later
Bernart returned to Toulouse, where he was employed by Raimon V, Count of Toulouse; later
still he went to Dordogne, where he entered a monastery. Most likely he died there. About 45
of his works survive. Bernart is unique among secular composers of the twelfth century in the
amount of music which has survived: of his forty-five poems, eighteen have music intact, an
unusual circumstance for a troubador composer (music of the trouvres has a higher survival
rate, usually attributed to them surviving the Albigensian Crusade, which scattered the
troubadours and destroyed many sources). His work probably dates between 1147 and 1180.
Bernart is often credited with being the most important influence on the development of the
trouvre tradition in northern France, since he was well known there, his melodies were
widely circulated, and the early composers of trouvre music seem to have imitated him.
Bernart's influence also extended to Latin literature. In 1215 the Bolognese professor
Boncompagno wrote in his Antiqua rhetorica that "How much fame attaches to the name of
Bernard de Ventadorn, and how gloriously he made cansos and sweetly invented melodies, the
world of Provence very much recognises.
PHILIPPE DE VITRY
Philippe de Vitry (31 October 1291 9
June 1361) was a French composer,
music theorist and poet. He was an
accomplished, innovative, and
influential composer, and may also have
been the author of the Ars Nova treatise.
He was widely acknowledged as the
greatest musician of his day, with
Petrarch writing a glowing tribute,
calling him: "... the keenest and most
ardent seeker of truth, so great a
philosopher of our age.

Philippe de Vitry is most famous in

music history for the Ars nova notandi
(1322), a treatise on music attributed to
him which lent its name to the music of
the entire era. While his authorship and
the very existence of this treatise have
recently come into question, a handful
of his musical works do survive and
show the innovations in musical
notation, particularly mensural and
rhythmic, with which he was credited
within a century of their inception.
Such innovations as are exemplified in
his stylistically-attributed motets for the Roman de Fauvel were particularly important, and
made possible the free and quite complex music of the next hundred years, culminating in the
Ars subtilior.

In some ways the "modern" system of rhythmic notation began with the Ars Nova, during
which music might be said to have "broken free" from the older idea of the rhythmic modes,
patterns which were repeated without being individually notated. The notational predecessors
of modern time meters also originate in the Ars Nova.

He is reputed to have written chansons and motets, but only some of the motets have survived.
Each is strikingly individual, exploiting a unique structural idea. He is also often credited with
developing the concept of isorhythm (an isorhythmic line consists of repeating patterns of
rhythms and pitches, but the patterns overlap rather than correspond; e.g., a line of thirty
consecutive notes might contain five repetitions of a six-note melody or six repetitions of a
five-note rhythm).

Five of his three-part motets have survived in the Roman de Fauvel; an additional nine can be
found in the Ivrea Codex.
LORENZO DA FIRENZE
Lorenzo Masi, known as Lorenzo da
Firenze (Magister Laurentius de
Florentia) (d. December 1372 or
January 1373), was an Italian
composer and music teacher of the
Trecento. He was closely associated
with Francesco Landini in Florence, and
was one of the composers of the period
known as the Italian ars nova.

Little is known about his life, but some

details can be inferred from the music.
He was active as a teacher in Florence,
probably as a teacher of Landini
himself. He became a canon at the
church of San Lorenzo in 1348, a post
which he retained for the rest of his
life.

Lorenzo is represented in the

Squarcialupi Codex, the illuminated
manuscript which is the most
comprehensive source of Italian music
of the 14th century, with 16 pieces of
music, 10 madrigals, 6 ballate and one
caccia. In addition to his contribution
to that collection, he wrote two mass
movements which have survived (one
of which is of doubtful attribution) and
a pedagogical piece (the Antefana), the text of which shows that he was a teacher.

His style is progressive, sometimes experimental, but curiously conservative in other ways.
While he used imitation, a relatively new musical technique, and heterophonic texture, one of
the rarest textures in European music, he also still used parallel perfect intervals. Voice
crossings are common, when he wrote for more than one voice (most of his music is
monophonic). In addition he used chromaticism to a degree rare in the 14th century, at least
prior to the activity of the composers of the ars subtilior.

French influence is evident in some of his music, for example isorhythmic passages
(characteristic of Machaut, but rare in Italian music). Some of the notational quirks in his
work also suggest a connection with France.
GILLES BINCHOIS
Gilles de Binche (called Binchois; also
known as Gilles de Bins; ca. 1400 20
September 1460), was a Netherlandish
composer, one of the earliest members of
the Burgundian school and one of the
three most famous composers of the early
15th century. While often ranked behind
his contemporaries Guillaume Dufay and
John Dunstable by contemporary scholars,
his works were still cited, borrowed and
used as source material after his death.

Binchois was probably from Mons, the son

of Jean and Johanna de Binche, who may
have been from the nearby town of
Binche. His father was a councillor to
Duke Guillaume IV of Hainault, and also
worked in a church in Mons. Nothing is
known about Gilles until 1419, when he
became organist at the church of Ste.
Waudru in Mons. In 1423 went to live in
Lille. Around this time he may have been a
soldier in the service of either the
Burgundians or the English Earl of
Suffolk, as indicated by a line in the
funeral motet composed in his memory by
Ockeghem. Sometime near the end of the
1420s he joined the court chapel of Burgundy, and by the time of his motet Nove cantum
melodie (1432) he was evidently a singer there, since the text of the motet itself lists all 19
singers in place at that time. He eventually retired in Soignies, evidently with a substantial
pension for his long years of excellent service to the Burgundian court.

Binchois is often considered[by whom?] to be the finest melodist of the 15th century, writing
carefully shaped lines which are not only easy to sing but utterly memorable. His tunes
appeared in copies decades after his death, and were often used as sources for Mass
composition by later composers. Most of his music, even his sacred music, is simple and clear
in outline, sometimes even ascetic; a greater contrast between Binchois and the extreme
complexity of the ars subtilior of the prior (fourteenth) century would be hard to imagine.
Most of his secular songs are rondeaux, which became the most common song form during the
century. He rarely wrote in strophic form, and his melodies are generally independent of the
rhyme scheme of the verses they are set to. Binchois wrote music for the court, secular songs of
love and chivalry that met the expectations and satisfied the taste of the Dukes of Burgundy
who employed him, and evidently loved his music accordingly. About half of his extant secular
music is found in the manuscript Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Canon. misc. 213.
JOHANNES BRASSART
Johannes Brassart (also Jean Brasart) (c.1400
before 22 October 1455) was a composer of the
early-Renaissance Burgundian school. Of his
output, only sacred vocal music has survived,
and it typifies early-15th-century practice.

He was most likely born in the village of Lauw

near Tongeren in the prince-bishopric of Lige
(now in the province of Limburg, Belgium),
though the date is only known approximately.
From 1422 to 1431 he worked at the church of
St John the Evangelist in Lige, where he was a
succentor. In the mid 1420s he visited Rome,
moving there in 1431, where he was employed
in the papal chapel as a singer and probably as
a composer as well; he was in the choir at the
same time as composers Arnold de Lantins and
Guillaume Dufay. During this period Brassart
most likely composed the motet O flos fragrans,
which was popular enough to appear in several
manuscripts of the time, as well as Te dignitas
presularis.

In 1432 Brassart went to Basle, where he was a singer at the Council chapel, and two years
later Emperor Sigismund employed him as rector of the chapel, a post which he retained until
1443. In 1445 he moved to Lige, where he had a post at the collegiate church of St. Paul. A
notice of 22 October 1455 of a supplication for his benefice there indicates he had recently
died.

Survival of music from this age is spotty, and many sources of music from Lige were destroyed
when Charles the Bold sacked the city in 1468. Nevertheless, some of Brassart's music has
survived, including 11 motets, 8 introits, and many individual mass movements. His music is
typical of the early Burgundian style, using fauxbourdon techniques (frequent 6-3 parallelism
in two voices singing above the principal melody part in the tenor voice), isorhythm, and the
Burgundian under-third cadence. All of his surviving music is sacred, and includes mass
movements, introits, and numerous motets; one of his pieces is on a German text, and almost
certainly was written during his employment with the Imperial chapel. Often he used cantus
firmus techniques, and frequently wrote with the melodic part in the top voice.

The introits are among the earliest known polyphonic settings of this section of the Proper of
the Mass. The mass movements, all for three voices, most often employ the fauxbourdon style,
while the motets are typically isorhythmic. Many of the motets are for four voices. One of the
distinguishing features of his motet style is the frequent use of an opening duet for two high
voices, after which the remaining voices join in; this was to become a hallmark of the
Burgundian style. His most famous motet, O flos fragrans, is modeled on a similar work by
Dufay, and the two composers may have known each other well.