Leonel Power

(c.1375-1445)

English composer. He was associated during the

first part of his career, from about 1413 until 1421,

with the Household Chapel of Thomas, Duke of

Clarence (brother to Henry V and thus heir

presumptive to the throne). Later, from 1438

through 1445, he served as the first Master of the

Lady Chapel Choir at Canterbury, although his

association with Canterbury began as early as 1423.

The middle period of his life, between 1421 and

1438, is obscure, though some connection with the

Chapel Royal seems likely, probably involving time

spent abroad among the English possessions in

northern France. Whilst the bulk of his extant works

is found in the Old Hall MS, other sources provide

us with an important Mass (based on Alma

redemptoris mater as cantus firmus) and several

late motets in a new, more lyrical style. The style of

his later works shows Power clearly moving towards

the consonant, less rhythmically complex sound of

the 'contenance angloise' ('English countenance'),

typified by the music of John Dunstable and

composers such as Bedyngham, Plummer and Frye.

This music, for which English musicians became

famous, is characterised by a fullness of sound,

sweetened by the almost constant presence of thirds

and sixths, and rendered graceful by the suavity of

the interlacing melodic contours.

With Dunstable, he was one of the most influential

English composers on the Continent. He also wrote

a treatise on Descant.

John Dunstable

(c.1380-1453)

English composer. We know so little about him that

almost the only sure historical fact is that he died on

Christmas Eve 1453. Beyond that, the inscription of

his epitaph describes his different professions, and

in a book on astronomy in St John's College,

Cambridge, he states in his own hand that he was a

musician in the service of the Duke of Bedford.

The fact that much of his music survives in

Continental sources suggests that his fame was

widespread. Fifty-five works that are normally

considered as by Dunstable survive, including two

complete Masses (one isorhythmic) and several

paired and single Mass sections, a large number of

motets, and possibly two secular songs.

Thus all that we have of his music is in the form of

liturgical or votive church music; what may be

counted as secular music amounts to so little that

even the most celebrated 'O rosa bella' is not his for

certain. What is certain is that Dunstable was the

greatest English composer before William Byrd. He

was the man whose 'contenance anglaise' influenced

music for a century. it did so abecause of his

residence in France for a number of years as

musician to John, Duke of Bedford—Henry V's

brother and Regent of France from 1422 to 1435. It

seems likely that the composer visited Italy also,

judging from the number of his works that exist in

Italian manuscripts. At any rate he was sufficiently

renowned in France to be acclaimed by a

contemporary French poet, Martin le Franc, who in

1441-2 wrote:

The English guise they wear with graceThey follow

Dunstable aright,And thereby have they learned

apaceTo make their music gay and bright.

'They' refers to the two leading composers on the

Continent at that time, Dufay and Binchois.

The 'English guise' (or 'contenance anglaise') as

presented by Dunstable was not only an increased

sonority, but a more pronounced feeling for chords

and chord progressions, a more refined treatment of

discord, a fresher, more lyrical vocal line, and a

greater equality of part-writing than had existed

before, the chordal sense and equality of part-

writing being a natural outcome of English discant

and conductus style combined.

Although Dunstable might well be called the first

great composer in the early Renaissance period,

mediaeval features persist in much of his music—for

instance, isorhythm (which, like most of the

examples in the Old Hall manuscript, usually occurs

in all the voices), polytextuality, and distinction

between the parts, both through rhythmic

differences and (more especially) through the use of

voices and instruments, particularly in secular

pieces, the most common layout being a vocal top

part with two lower instrumental parts.

Guillaume Dufay(c.1400-1474)

Binchois with Dufay

Guillaume Dufay was born about 1400 and received

his musical education as a chorister in the Cathedral

of Cambrai. Very early in his life he started to show

great talent as a singer and composer and was

called to Italy, first to the Court of Malatesta at

Rimini and Pesaro, and later as a member of the

Papal Choir in Rome as well as the Court of Louis of

Savoy at Geneva. 1436 finds him in the service of

Pope Eugene IV in Florence, where he composed

motels for the inauguration of the dome built by

Brunelleschi. He frequently returned to his home in

Burgundy and later held canonries at Cambrai,

where he spent the rest of his life up to the time of

his death in 1474.

Dufay's travels brought him in close touch with the

musical style of both the North and the South. Thus

the year 1425 puts him down as the so-called

founder of the Netherland's Polyphonic School, and

from 1440 on he was generally considered the

leading master of church as well as secular music.

Gilles Binchois

(c.1400-1460)

Binchois with Dufay

Franco-Flemish composer. From c.1419 through

1423 he was organist at S. Waudru, Mons; later he

was in the service of the Duke of Suffolk in Paris

(1424/5) and may have traveled with him to

England. From some time before 1431 through 1453

he was chaplain at the Court of Burgundy. He was

also a canon at a church in Mons together with

Dufay , whom he undoubtedly came to know in

middle life.

Binchois is known to have written some twenty-eight

Mass sections, four Magnificats, some thirty motets

and hymn settings and around 55 chansons. His

chansons are particularly remarkable, and he ranks

with Dufay as a major exponent of the form. Many of

them have a rather sad, nostalgic quality, the texts

treating of unrequited love in the somewhat stilted

manner of the courtly tradition. Often highly formal,

he nevertheless often achieves a noteworthy depth

of feeling.