Binchois, music that establishes their reputation as the finest song composers of the
century.
There is also a fair number of evidently famous and distinguished composers for
whom there is no identifiable music. The theorist Tinctoris in the 1470s asks whether
there could be anybody who does not know the fine music of Jacobus Carlerius;
elsewhere, he mentions Courbet as though he were a household name, an impression
reinforced by the position allotted to him in Compère’s motet Omnium bonorum plena
(ca. 1472). Payments for copying entered in two of the most distinguished musical
establishments of the century, Cambrai Cathedral and Saint-Donatien in Bruges, mention
substantial sacred works by Bauduin Mijs, Pasquin, Rasse de Lavanne, Johannes Fremiel,
Alanus de Groote, Petit Jehan, and Heniart; the last two are now known from one slender
secular piece each. Gafforius mentions Guillaume Guarnier (fl. 1470s) as optimus
contrapunctista and names one of his Masses, Vincenzo Calmeta calls him a superb
composer who taught the poet Serafino dall’Aquila, and as late as 1548 Heinrich Faber
cites him as a composer of the highest distinction. Ramos de Pareja praises his teacher
Johannes de Monte, presumably from Mons and perhaps active in the middle years of the
century. Other such composers are mentioned in the writings of Simon Greban and
Guillaume Crétin. Similarly, the poor source situation may explain why the greatest
composer of the late 15th century, Josquin des Prez, was apparently born ca. 1440 though
not a note of his music can be dated with any confidence earlier than ca. 1475, when he
was already a middle-aged man by the standards of his time.
Moreover, the slender survival of documentary material from 15th-century France
means that there are evidently famous composers for whom there is no biographical
material. Barbingant may be a classic example: he is known from three songs and two
Mass cycles, but his music strongly suggests that he was a substantial influence on the
young Ockeghem and probably on Busnoys and Compère as well. There is a good case
for believing that Barbingant was the main composer in Paris in the years ca. 1450.
Johannes Tourant (fl. 1450–70) has yet to be located in any document, despite an
impressive output of three Mass cycles and fifteen smaller pieces, some found in many
sources. Yet another example is the prolific Caron.
On another front, there are major courts and churches for which no useful information
survives. René d’Anjou had such a fine musical establishment at his death in 1480 that
Louis XI appropriated the entire choir and installed it at the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris,
remarking that it contained the finest singers of the time. Almost accidental
documentation tells us that René was the only man to have served as patron to the two
greatest composers of the century, Dufay and Josquin. Only the slenderest information
survives about the evidently generous musical patronage of Jean II, duke of Bourbon (d.
1488), though it is all but certain that he employed two of the finest song composers of
that generation, Hayne van Ghizeghem and Loyset Compère.
Music history is one of the smallest and most recent humanistic disciplines; many
sources of information remain virtually untouched by researchers. Only within the last
few years has exploration of the material at Bourges thrown light on the musical
patronage of John, duke of Berry, producing the first biographical information on many
eminent composers in the Bodleian manuscript. Recent research in the Vatican archives
has brought valuable new details about the lives of such figures as Arnold and Hugo de
Lantins, Pulloys, and Busnoys.
The Encyclopedia 471