be identified as the F.Andrieu who composed a lament on the death of Machaut to texts
by Eustache Deschamps, Armes, amours/O flour des flours. Pykini, whose virelai in the
Chantilly codex was possibly written for Pope Clement VII, probably served at Pamplona
in the court of King Charles II of Navarre in the years 1374–87.
Hasprois (fl. 1378–1428), from Arras, who served Clement VII and Benedict XIII
from 1393 until 1403, was earlier in the service of King Charles V. One of his ballades,
the complex Puisque je sui fumeux, was probably written for Eustache Deschamps’s
society of fumeux. Haucourt (fl. 1390–1410) also sang in the chapels of popes Clement
VII and Benedict XIII, and Matheus de Sancto Johanne served Clement VII in the years
1382–86. Johannes de Bosco (d. 1406?), a singer in Clement’s chapel in 1391, also
served Duke Louis I of Anjou, and followed Pope Benedict XIII from court to court later
in the century. Other members of the papal choir at Avignon who cultivated complex Ars
Subtilior chansons include Goscalch (fl. 1385–95), whose one ballade in Chantilly, En
nul estat, is rhythmically one of the most complex compositions of the Ars Subtilior, and
Philippus de Caserta.
A number of composers represented in the Chantilly codex are linked to the
Francophile court of Aragon. Gacian Reyneau served at Aragon from 1398 until 1429.
His rondeau Va t’en mon cuer looks forward to the simpler style of the early 15th
century. Trebol (alias Borlet), composer of the virelai He, tres doulz roussignol, served
under Martin I of Aragon in 1409. Trebor, perhaps the same person as Trebol, worked for
Gaston Phoebus at Foix and later at Aragon under King John I. One of his ballades,
Passerose de beauté, was written for the wedding of John, duke of Berry, to Jeanne de
Boulogne on May 25, 1389. Three of the ten compositions of Solage (fl. 1370–90) were
also destined for the duke of Berry. His rondeau Fumeux fume, written for Deschamps’s
society of fumeux, exploits surprising chromaticism and a low range unusual in 14th-
century music.
Cuvelier (fl. 1372–87), faiseur to Charles V of France and author of a chronicle on
Bertrand du Guesclin (1387), composed three complex ballades found in the Chantilly
codex. Hymbert de Salinus, a member of the generation of composers who formed the
transition from the Ars Subtilior style to the simpler style of the early 15th century, wrote
En la saison, a ballade on a text by Cuvelier praising Olivier du Guesclin. Philippe
Royllart, whose only known composition is the widely transmitted and influential
isorhythmic motet Rex Karole/Letitie pacis in honor of King Charles V, is another late
14th-century composer of unknown origin.
The Modena manuscript, copied in Bologna in 1410/ 11, contains French chansons
from the courts of popes Alexander V and John XXIII. Matheo da Perugia (d. ca. 1418),
an Italian composer who probably assembled the manuscript, is represented by over thirty
compositions, at least twenty-two of which are French chansons in 14th-century style.
Other Italian composers writing French chansons were associated with the antipope
Alexander V; for example, eight French chansons by Anthonello de Caserta are found in
the Modena manuscript. His Beauté parfaite sets a ballade text by Machaut, and Dame
d’onour quotes from Vaillant’s Par maintes foys, evidence of the continuing influence of
French music in Italy.
Benjamin Garber
[See also: ARS SUBTILIOR; CESARIS, JOHANNES; CICONIA, JOHANNES;
COMPOSERS, MINOR (15TH CENTURY); CORDIER, BAUDE; CUVELIER;
The Encyclopedia 469