however, preclude him from service as a chaplain to the duke of Burgundy. He was also
able to secure profitable prebends in Bruges, Mons, Cassel, and Soignies, which added to
his considerable salary from the duke.
Binchois died in retirement at Soignies in 1460. His music was renowned throughout
Europe, and in the Champion des dames (ca. 1442) by the Burgundian poet Martin Le
Franc he was lauded with Dufay as one of the leading musicians of the day. It is apparent
from Dufay’s emotional déploration on Binchois’s death that Dufay knew and respected
his contemporary’s music. Binchois’s death is also lamented in a ballade by his younger
colleague Johannes Ockeghem. Although Binchois’s songs were outdated in style by the
time of his death, they remained popular as subjects for polyphonic elaborations until the
end of the 15th century.
Binchois composed a great deal of sacred music, much of it presumably for services in
the ducal chapel of Burgundy. Over two dozen surviving Mass Ordinary movements are
ascribed to him, but none of the surviving movements appears to have been part of a
cyclic Mass. Most of the Mass music is set in a simple style, often resembling
contemporary English music in its counterpoint and in its use of texture changes. There
are over thirty additional sacred works by Binchois, mostly settings of the Magnificat,
antiphons, and hymns. Several of these works are set in fauxbourdon, and as in the Mass
settings most of them are in a simple style, suggesting day-to-day use in chapel services.
Two of his more ambitious sacred works, however, were apparently written for specific
events or personages. Binchois’s only isorhythmic motet, Nove cantum/Tanti gaude
(incomplete in its unique source), was written for the baptism of Philip the Good’s short-
lived son Antoine in 1431. The triplum text of this motet provides a list of Binchois’s
musical colleagues at the Burgundian court. His Domitor Hectoris was apparently written
in 1438 to honor Nicholas Albergati, cardinal of the Holy Cross of Jerusalem and the
pope’s envoy in the delicate three-way peace negotiations among Burgundy, France, and
England.
It was Binchois’s songs that had the widest circulation and the broadest influence.
Nearly sixty surviving songs may be attributed to him, forty-six of which are rondeaux.
With the exception of Files a marier, Binchois’s texts are couched in the language of
courtly love, an idiom perfectly suited to the chivalric Valois aesthetics of the
Burgundian court. Among the lyrics set by Binchois are three texts by prominent 15th-
century poets, Dueil angoisseux by Christine de Pizan, Triste plaisir by Alain Chartier,
and Mon cuer chante joyeusement by Charles d’Orléans. Virtually all of his songs are set
in a three-voice texture that is entirely dominated by the melody of the uppermost voice.
Binchois was unequaled among 15th-century composers as a creator of flowing, arch-
form melodies. His rondeaux and ballades feature a carefully contrived formal balance
between sections, and the approach to tonality is strikingly modern. The high quality and
reputation of his songs and his musical leadership at the court of Burgundy during the
apex of its political and artistic power ensured Binchois’s strong influence on the next
generation of Franco-Flemish composers, including Ockeghem and Antoine Busnoys.
J.Michael Allsen
[See also: CONTENANCE ANGLOISE; DUFAY, GUILLAUME; FAUXBOURDON;
ISORHYTHMIC MOTET; PHILIP THE GOOD]
Binchois, Gilles. Die Chansons von Gilles Binchois, ed. Wolfgang Rehm. Mainz: Schott, 1957.
——. The Sacred Music of Gilles Binchois, ed. Philip R.Kaye. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1992.
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