COMPLANT/MÉPLANT
. The complant, or méplant, contract (Lat. medium vestum) was used primarily to put land
back into cultivation or to convert arable or waste to viticulture, or to make such capital
improvements as the construction or repair of mills, although a variation was also used
for animal husbandry. Its terms involved a grant of land by owner to laborer for a term of
years during which the laborer was to clear it, enclose it and plant vines, or build a mill
on it. Generally, costs were borne by the laborer, as were any profits, for the term of the
contract. At the end of the term specified (three, five, seven years, or longer), the land
with improvements was divided in half between the original owner and the improving
laborer, and each henceforth owned half of the holding as an allod. Such contracts were
used frequently in the 11th and 12th centuries as a means of instigating reclamation and
land improvement.
Constance H.Berman
COMPOSERS, MINOR (14TH
CENTURY)
. Virtually no music manuscripts supply composer attributions until late in the 14th
century. Although many early 14th-century composers are named in the texts of two
isorhythmic motets (Musicalis scientia/Sciencie laudabili and Apollinis
eclipsatur/Zodiacum signis), we cannot identify specific works by them, except for some
isorhythmic motets of Philippe de Vitry and the complete works of Guillaume de
Machaut. For the late 14th and early 15th centuries, ascriptions in the Chantilly codex
(Chantilly, Musée Condé 564) and the Modena manuscript (Modena, Biblioteca Estense,
α.M.5, 24) together supply about forty names of composers of French music.
Pierre des Molins and Matheus de Sancto Johanne were with King John II in captivity
in England from 1357 to 1359. Pierre’s ballade De ce que foul pense, probably written in
England, was the most widely transmitted musical work of the 14th century. To judge
from the style of his five surviving works, Grimace was a contemporary of Machaut (d.
1377). His virelai A l’arme, a l’arme exhibits realistic vocal effects, a lover’s emergency
call to arms to his lady. Jean Vaillant (fl. ca. 1360–90), teacher at a singing school in
Paris, may have served John, duke of Berry. His virelai Par maintes foys, which imitates
birdcalls, was widely transmitted in the 14th century, even supplying the music for a
contrafact by Oswald von Wolkenstein. Jean de Susay, active in the 1380s, is represented
in Chantilly by one ballade close in style to Machaut and two ballades in a more complex
Ars Subtilior style. He is also credited with the composition of one Gloria, possibly
written for Avignon.
A center of composition for the Ars Subtilior was the papal court at Avignon. Magister
Franciscus may have served under popes Gregory XI and Clement VII and perhaps can
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