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Chapter 5: England and the Burgundian Lands in the Fifteenth Century: English Music
I. General Features of English Music
A. Close connections with folk style
B. Major tonality rather than modal system, including more use of imperfect
consonances (thirds and sixths)
C. Homophonic texture (note-against-note)
D. Contenance angloise (English guise or quality)
1. English music became known in France
2. Martin Le Franc (see vignette in CHWM) characterized it as pleasing.
II. John Dunstable (ca. 1390–1453)
A. Leading English composer of the early fifteenth century
1. Worked in France during English rule (1422–1435)
2. Composed in all of the polyphonic genres of his time
B. Motet: NAWM 25, Quam pulchra es
1. Classified as a motet: any polyphonic work on a Latin text other than the
Ordinary of the Mass
2. Text is from an antiphon.
3. The music is newly composed—not based on chant.
4. Passages of fauxbourdon (e.g., mm. 12–15): improvised middle voice
resulting in inverted triads
Music In The Burgundian Lands
The dukes of Burgundy, centered in east central France, ruled much of the surrounding
area and exercised power nearly equal to that of kings. Most of the leading northern
composers of the fifteenth century came from this region or were connected with the
Burgundian court.
I. Guillaume Du Fay (ca. 1400–1474)
A. Biographical background
1. Born ca. 1400 near or in Cambrai
2. Became a choirboy at the Cambrai cathedral in 1409
3. Worked at Italian courts and chapels, including the pope's chapel, as a young man
4. From 1439–50 and from 1458 until his death in 1474, lived in Cambrai
II. Gilles Binchois (ca. 1400–1460) was a master of the chanson.
A. He served in the chapel of Duke Philip the Good, 1420s–53.
B. He composed over fifty courtly love songs (chansons).
C. Many of his chansons are in rondeau form.
D. His songs were frequently used as the basis for later works.
III. Burgundian Genres
A. Masses
B. Magnificats
C. Motets
D. Secular chansons with French texts
IV. Characteristics of Burgundian Music
A. Three voice parts: tenor, contratenor, and treble or discantus
1. Tenor and contratenor in the same narrow range
2. Discantus the principal voice
B. Cadences
1. Continued use of "Landini" cadence
2. New cadence type has lowest voice skipping up an octave (HWM, ex. 5.4)
leading the ear to hear a rising fourth in the lowest range.
C. Rhythm and meter
1. Triple meter favored, with duple meter for contrast in long works
2. Cross-rhythms (hemiola)
V. Burgundian Chanson (any polyphonic setting of a French secular poem)
A. Rondeau form for most love poems, with refrains of two, four or five lines
B. Ballade by Du Fay: NAWM 27, Resvellies vous et faites chiere lye
1. For a ceremonial occasion (as are most ballades): marriage of Carlo Malatesta
and Vittoria Colonna in 1423
2. Treble-dominated style
3. Standard aabC musical form for each stanza (C is refrain)
4. Passages of text specific to the couple are marked musically.
a. "Noble Charles" (m. 50) marked by chords
b. Malatesta family name (mm. 57–59) marked by triplets
5. Imitation used in measures 7–10, 15–19, and 60–64
VI. Sacred Music in the Burgundian Style
A. Chanson style (treble-dominated three-voice texture) was used for masses and motets.
B. The treble voice (discantus) carried the principal melody.
C. Hymn settings by Du Fay, e.g., NAWM 28, Conditor alme siderum
1. Embellished chant melody in the top voice
2. The tenor voice was written out, moving mostly in sixths against the top melody until
cadencing at an octave.
3. An improvised voice filled in between tenor and cantus (marked Faux bourdon in NAWM).
4. Stanzas alternated polyphony and chant.
D. Isorhythmic motets continued to be written for solemn public ceremonies.
1. In 1436 Du Fay composed Nuper rosarum flores (Recently roses) for the dedication of
the dome of the Church of Santa Maria del Fiore (the Duomo) in Florence (see illustration
in CHWM).
2. An account of the 1436 performance describes instrumentalists and choirs (see vignette
in
HWM).
E. Mass Ordinary
1. After ca. 1420 Mass Ordinary movements were composed as a unified whole.
2. At first, each movement was based on a different plainsong melody.
3. Motto technique, in which each movement begins with the same melodic motive, or
"head motive," was the first unifying device.
4. Cantus firmus mass, or Tenor mass (Mass Ordinary cycle in which each movement
is based on the same melody, placed in the tenor voice), superseded motto technique.
a. Invented by English composers
b. Adopted by continental composers
c. Became the customary style by the second half of the fifteenth century
VII. The Cantus Firmus Mass (Tenor Mass)
A. Four-voice texture
1. Tenor voice "held" the cantus firmus, as in isorhythmic motets.
2. Top voice was called cantus, discantus, or
superius.
3. The other two voices were contratenor bassus (later bass), below the tenor, and
contratenor altus (later alto) above the tenor.
B. Cantus firmus melody
1. Melody came from chant or from the tenor of a secular song.
2. Rhythm
a. When the melody came from chant composers created a rhythm for it.
b. When the melody came from a secular song composers used the original rhythm.
c. Repetitions of the cantus firmus might be in slower or faster note values.
3. Title of melody became title of the Mass (e.g.,
Missa Se la face ay pale).
C. Du Fay's Missa Se la face ay pale (NAWM 29a and 29b), after ca. 1450
1. The tenor of Du Fay's own ballade from the 1430s (NAWM 29a) serves as cantus
firmus for the whole Mass.
2. The Gloria uses the cantus firmus three times.
3. The harmonic style includes full sonorities (triads) and only brief dissonances used as
suspensions or passing tones.
4. "Layered texture" is used in which each voice has its own melodic and rhythmic logic
and function. (CHWM, ex. 5.4)
© 2002 W. W. Norton & Company