General Cultural Background, early 15th century

Continued conflict within the catholic church

The "Great Schism" healed by the Council of Constance (1414-18)

The "Conciliar Conflict"

Council of Bishops claimed higher authority than the Pope and Cardinals

Lasted 1409-1460

Holy Roman Empire

Remained largely Germanic

Jan Hus in Bohemia was an early Protestant reformer

Hundred Years' War

St. Joan captured by Burgundians in 1430, burned in 1431

War ends in 1453; France drives the English off the Continent (except Calais)

Followed in England by the Wars of the Roses until 1485

Byzantine Empire

Falls to the Turks in 1453 after 1,000 years

Italy dominated by 5 great city-states; many rulers supported the arts

Venice (ruled by the Doge & a secret council)

Florence (ruled by the Medici family)

Milan (ruled by the Visconti and then the Sforza dukes)

The Papal States (remember the Donation of Pepin?)

Kingdom of Naples (as often ruled from Spain as not)

Guillaume duFay (c. 1400-1474)

First of the new generation of musician-composers trained in Northern Europe, in an area ruled by Burgundy

Known for secular songs (chansons)

Accompanied solo song

87, most in French, most in 3 voices with melody, tenor, contratenor

Use the cantilena style pioneered by Machaut

His sacred music tended to be the old Late Medieval style mixed with the new Renaissance style

22 Motets, often for special, formal occasions

Often had old fashioned isorhythmic tenors

Melody lines in the upper parts are inventive and very singable

Our example is Nuper Rosarum Flores--TeTerribilis est locus iste

His masses

7 complete mass settings & quite a few separate mass movements

He calls attention to certain texts

Thins out the texture to 2-part to contrast and draw attention

Sometimes sets important words homophonically to contrast and draw attention

Often found in the Christe, Pleni sunt coeli (in the Gloria), Benedictus (in the Sanctus), and the Agnus Dei II

Duchy of Burgundy (1364-1477)

Most powerful force in Europe for a little over 100 years

Established 1364 as a gift from the King of France to his brother

Located in Eastern modern France, with capital at Dijon

Subsequent Dukes expanded the territory

Ended abruptly in 1377 when Charles the Bold was killed at the battle of Nancy and the King of France took back the lands

Held the balance of power between France and England in the Hundred Years' War

Known for liturgical music plus lots of chansons, on poems by court poets

"Motets" became settings of non-mass Latin religious texts for special occasions

Basse danse popular court dance

Gilles Binchois (c. 1400-1460)

Antoine Busnois (c. 1430-1492)

Johannes Tinctoris (c. 1435-1511)--theorist; 12 treatises

Another Franco-Flemish musician-composer

Better known as a theorist and writer of 12 treatises on music

Liber de arte contrapuncti (1477)--detailed instruction on improvisation

De inventione et usu musicae (1486)--detailed information on musical instruments

Terminorum musicae diffinitorium (1495)--earliest music dictionary

The Situation in Other Countries at this Time

Spain allied with Naples

Spanish composers worked in both places

Germanic countries

Lots of music made by an active middle class

Stadtpfeifer--"Town Pipers"--professional musicians with their own guild

Meistersänger--continuing the tradition; mostly monophonic songs

Tenorlied--distinctively German polyphonic style with melody in the Tenor

Glogauer Liederbuch--collection of Tenorlieder produced in 3 separate part books

Beginning of Music Printing

Manuscript to woodblock to notes from type to Petrucci's triple impression method (1501)

Bible printed by Johann Gutenberg c. 1453-1455