Antoine
Busnois
(ca.
1430-1492)
Career Summary
- musical personality formed
by his long association with the Burgundian court
- worked for Charles the Bold
before and after Charles became duke
- served Charles's duchess,
Margaret of York
- sang in the chapel of their
daughter, Mary of Burgundy after she had married Maximillian
- had contact with Parisian
circles: several chansons allude to Jacqueline d'Hacqueville as being his
beloved
- never worked in Italy, though
may have visited: set ballata text
- spent final years at Church
of St. Sauveur in Bruges
- poet; exchanged poems with
Burgundian court chronicler Jean Molinet
- wrote 65 chansons; also one
Mass and a few motets
Chanson
- rondeaux or bergerette texts
- several polyphonic arrangements
of popular tunes
- popular tunes serve as CF
for a few as well
- 3 voices predominate stereotypical
love poems, but over a third have 4 voices, which became standard by 1500
- some originally for 3 voices,
but an optional fourth voice was later added by Busnois or another
Je ne fay plus (also
credited to Gilles Mureau in some sources)
- representative example:
rondeau laye-short lines alternate with long
- long and elaborately
shaped vocal lines; melodic cliches, cadence formulae, turns of phrases common
to all Franco-Flemish composers of the time
- opening phrase of
superius divided into two parts by rest which coincides with poetic caesura
- first four syllables
set syllabically; moves more slowly with greater metric emphasis than remainder
of text
- continues with faster
motion on a melisma for penultimate syllable
- contrasted differing
formal and melodic functions of phrase beginnings and endings
- aware of reflecting
metrical structure and accent pattern of text
- not concerned with
reflecting emotional concern of text
- links phrases: achieves
clarity without losing continuity
- superius and tenor
cadence simultaneously, while contratenor continues motion
- three voices homogeneous,
though convention of principal melody is supported by tenor and contratenor
fills in
- parallel 3rds or
10ths
- superius sometimes
imitated by other 2 voices, but seldom at phrase beginnings
- amount of imitation
varies from chanson to chanson; some include fully developed points of imitation
between 2 or all voices at phrase beginnings
- 3 part canons; free
canon
- 4-3 or 7-6 suspensions
supply only dissonances
- tonal cadences on
I and V
- voices seldom cross;
each in own territory
- extended bottom
range to notes below G2; upper range to top of treble stave
- set "rather more earthy and
direct poems", as well as the love songs
- used simple monophonic polyphonic
melodies as CF for rondeaux settings
- sometimes combined two CF
beneath a rondeau settings
- in others, set popular tunes
simply without any interference from a second text; in these 4-part arrangements,
tune appears in tenor while other voices provide imitation, sing complex
counterpoint around it
Sacred
- used CF technique in most
of his sacred music
Missa L'homme arme
- tune used once or
twice in each movement
- movements related
also by motto beginnings
- motets use plainsong CF in
canon, paraphrase
- other motets freely composed,
or based on CF of Busnois's invention
- sacred music exhibits same
delicacy, refinement and melodic gifts that mark his chansons