Franco-Flemish music

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Franco-Flemish music is the name of an epoch in occidental music which, starting from north-west Europe, held a leading position in the 15th and 16th centuries for about 200 years and which fundamentally determined the further development of occidental music.

Overview and cultural-historical background

After the term "Franco-Flemish music" was first used in 1939 by the musicologist Paul Henry Lang, this term (also known as the Franco-Flemish school ) has been used since the late 1970s for the work of several generations of composers from northern France , the Today Belgium and the southern Netherlands originated, but (between about 1380 and 1600) were active throughout Europe. Very few of these composers have had a teacher-student relationship, so the term “school” is misleading. A prerequisite for their formation can be seen that in the last decade of the 14th century there was a close political, economic and cultural connection between France and the previously relatively independent Burgundy and that the provinces of Flanders , Brabant , Hainaut and Limburg of the Holy Roman Empire were Germans Nation achieved pan-European importance in a sustainable way. The latter process is largely due to the political work of the four dukes of Philip the Bold (1342–1404), Johann Ohnefurchts (1371–1419), Philip the Good (1396–1467) and Charles the Bold (1433–1477) and on the music culture cultivated in their courts. The economic rise of the Flemish and northern French regions led to a cultural community of formative power and a special sense of togetherness, and over time made the musical culture of this region highly respected throughout Europe.

Many Franco-Flemish composers emerged from the so-called Maîtrisen , the musical training centers of the larger cathedral and collegiate churches in Liège , Tournai , Cambrai , Mons , Lille , Antwerp , Bruges , Ghent and other cities with their exemplary organization, many of them including held spiritual office. They all composed for choirs with which they themselves worked practically and musically. Their reputation for coming from the leading musical centers of the time prompted the secular and spiritual princes throughout Europe to win them over to their courts and keep them there. This explains the great breadth of her field of activity and the considerable number of composers that are also less well-known. In contrast to the composers of the 14th century, they wrote mainly sacred music ( masses , sacred motets as well as proprium and office chants such as hymns , antiphons , sequences , magnificats and psalms ), whereas the number of secular motets and polyphonic songs is lower. What all composers of this genre have in common is the striving for mastery of the musical composition and its progressive rationalization, whereby the three- to four-part movement predominated at the beginning, with the later masters the five- to six-part movement can be found. If the number of votes is even higher, the transition to multiple choirs ( Coro Spezzato ) is carried out, because otherwise the number of natural voices would be exceeded.

development

The Franco-Flemish period is subdivided into the predecessor period and into five periods (generations). The musical historical significance of Franco-Flemish music lies in the further development of polyphonic music and the development of counterpoint , which Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina finally brought to perfection.

Forerunners and pioneers (around 1380 to 1420)

The most prominent forerunner of Franco-Flemish music is Johannes Ciconia , who worked in Avignon , some Italian cities, Liege and Padua . His works are rooted in both the French Ars Nova and the Italian music of the Trecento . An influence of the English music of his time ( John Dunstable ), significant for other Franco-Flemish composers ( Guillaume Dufay ), cannot be proven with him. During this time, the perception of the third and sixth as a consonance also begins (see not only consonance but also dissonance ). This was mainly promoted and spread by John Dunstable and the Fauxbourdon . In addition to Ciconia, the forerunner group includes the following composers: Hugo Boy monachus , Johannes Carmen , Johannes Cesaris , Martinus Fabri , Pierre Fontaine , Nicholas Grenon , Mattheus Sanctus , Jacob de Senleches , Jean Tapissier and Petrus Vinderhout .

1st generation (around 1420 to 1450)

The main representative of this group (which includes the so-called Burgundian School ) is Guillaume Dufay (1397–1474). The impromptu practice of Fauxbourdon , which originated in England, can be found in his work . At first Dufay wrote in the style of the three-part French chanson , while later he went over to the four-part. In it there is a tendency for the standardization and summary as well as the concentration of the individual mass movements for measurement cycles, wherein the shape of the so-called Tenor Mass predominates (a foreign, often secular melody as main melody in the tenor location of all measurement sets). In addition to Dufay, Gilles Binchois has a special rank. The style characteristic of the works of the first generation is a melodic freshness of the upper part, especially in the chansons, less so in the motets and masses. In the case of Binchois, this led to his nickname as the "father of happiness". In this first generation, as in the 14th century, motet compositions are determined by the method of isorhythmy , and the mass becomes an independent musical form. The Discantus fair and the Cantus firmus fair develop .

In a contemporary manuscript there is a pictorial representation of the two leading composers, which shows Dufay as canon of the cathedral chapter of Cambrai in a blue coat next to a portative and opposite him Binchois as a member of the Burgundian court orchestra, dressed in red and leaning on a harp . In addition to Dufay and Binchois, the group of the first generation includes the following masters: Johannes Brassart , Simon le Breton , Thomas Fabri , Arnold de Lantins , Hugo de Lantins , Johannes de Limburgia , Robert Morton , Johannes de Sarto and Jacobus Vide .

2nd generation (around 1450 to 1490)

The leading head of this group is Johannes Ockeghem ; next to him, Antoine Busnoys is of high importance. During this time, after the end of the Hundred Years War in France in 1453, where the French kingship was also consolidated, the Duchy of Burgundy was drawn in as a "settled fiefdom". This created a second cultural center next to Paris in the Loire Valley around the city of Tours , from where strong impulses emanated in the art of chanson as well as motet and fair composition. The number of singers and composers who went to Italy from there now increased steadily, especially because many new bands had been founded at the Italian courts. After the minor wars of the previous period, stately duchies and empires had formed there, who now wanted to add a refined culture to the material prosperity they had achieved. Due to their level of training, the singers and composers from the Franco-Flemish region were precisely the forces that met this need. In the second half of the 15th century, the Franco-Flemish style spread almost across the board through the residences of Italy, the Italian town patrons and the papal court.

A stylistic device from the French tradition can be found in Ockeghem's compositions: the melodic lines flow into one another; Despite the clear structure, no clear turning points can be heard. The repertoire of contrapuntal compositions is supplemented by many canons , including those with encrypted instructions ("riddle canons") and "proportion canons" in mensural notation . In addition to Ockeghem and Busnoys, the group of the second generation includes the following composers: Johannes Agricola , Jacob Barbireau , Jacobus Barle , Willem Braxatoris , Firminus Caron , Petrus Elinc , Eloy d'Amerval , Guillaume Faugues , Jehan Fresneau , Hayne van Ghizeghem , Cornelius Heyns , Jean Japart , Gilles Joye , Guillaume Le Rouge , Johannes Martini , Johannes Pullois , Johannes Regis , Johannes de Stokem and Johannes Tinctoris .

3rd generation (around 1490 to 1520)

Undoubtedly, the spread of Franco-Flemish music reached its peak with the third generation. Their highest-ranking representatives are Jacob Obrecht , Heinrich Isaac and Josquin Desprez . The use of imitation is particularly characteristic of the works of the latter composer ; he has the possibility of having the individual voices inserted one after the other with the same theme at different pitches, developed to a particular compositional mastery that became a model well beyond his lifetime. In addition, the aim is to ensure that all votes are equal. During this time, Italy's residences and cities had developed into the most important musical centers in Europe and retained this rank through the entire 17th century. The concept of the Franco-Flemish composers had now fully established itself. After the papal chapel was rebuilt in Rome under Pope Sixtus IV (term of office 1471–1484), this had a great influence on the development of church music centers in other cities in Italy. The deficit in Italian music education gradually decreased because the complicated polyphonic mensural music required a trained type of singer, which was hardly available in Italy before that time. In addition, in Antwerp and Mechelen Petrus Alamire had specialized in providing the European music world with manuscripts, which were in great demand because of their high quality in terms of musical text and jewelry and which were requested by both court music bands and cathedrals. In addition, the printing process was used fairly quickly for the production of printed music with polyphonic mensural music, thanks to Ottaviano dei Petrucci (1466–1539). During this time, a gradual weakening of the claim to leadership of Franco-Flemish music became noticeable, accompanied by an emerging national differentiation in music. Shortly after 1500 , the Italian-speaking Frottola spread from Mantua and Verona , and the German tenor song flourished in southern Germany and Austria . The group of the third Franco-Flemish generation includes the following composers:

4th generation (around 1520 to 1550)

The tendencies of the previous period continued even more strongly during the fourth generation. The Franco-Flemish composers were still at the center of international musical life almost everywhere, such as Adrian Willaert as Kapellmeister of the State Church of San Marco in Venice or Jacobus Arcadelt as director of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. Josquin's style lived on and was revived, a process that occurred here for the first time in music history. The binding style of Franco-Flemish music was established and deepened, but could hardly be further developed. In the tradition of manuscripts and prints, the proportion of non-Franco-Flemish composers is growing steadily, especially in France, Germany and Spain. Although these composers adopted the Franco-Flemish style as their own, the genres of the mass and the motet had their own features that point to national origins, for example Costanzo Festa (~ 1480–1545) in Italy. The compositional style characteristic of Festa was further developed by Giovanni da Palestrina and the Roman School . The distinction between major and minor as well as the rules for restrictive dissonance treatment prevailed. Five and six voices became the norm, the cantus firmus lost its importance, and the parody mass emerged . The national musical styles such as the Italian madrigal (from 1530), the emerging Parisian chanson and the emerging German tenor song as well as the independent genres in Spain and England were increasingly carried by local composers, while the cross-national genres of madrigal (Cipriano de Rore) and new chanson (Jakob Arcadelt) by Franco-Flemish composers. The following composers are assigned to the fourth Franco-Flemish generation:

5th generation (around 1550 to after 1600)

In the second half of the 16th century there were two Franco-Flemish composers who far surpassed their composing contemporaries: Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and Orlando di Lasso . They crowned the closing stages of this music in very different ways. Palestrina dealt exclusively with the composition of masses and motets, the composition of which was based on a sum of elaborate sentence rules. Since then, his works have been regarded as models for all church music, especially with regard to the intelligibility of the text. Orlando di Lasso's work, on the other hand, encompasses all musical genres of the 16th century. Both composers are considered to be the overall finishers of the Franco-Flemish style. It is noteworthy that the art of the last Franco-Flemish composers was cultivated particularly sustainably at the court of the Habsburg princes, whereby the highest contrapuntal mastery could serve as a symbol of an all-unifying universal idea, so to speak. During the Counter-Reformation the Council of Trent took place, at which church music and its comprehensibility were significantly discussed. By contrast, a new development began in Venice, Florence , London and Paris in the last third of the century (from the prima to the seconda prattica , the emergence of the opera and the concert style). This revolutionary change in musical language, as exemplified by the work of Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643) from the year 1600, has not been prepared by any of these composers. The following composers belong to the fifth Franco-Flemish generation:

Genres of Franco-Flemish music

See also

literature

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  • A. Schering: The Dutch organ mass in the age of Josquin. Leipzig 1912.
  • K. Ph. Bernet-Kempers: The Walloon and French chanson in the 1st half of the 16th century. In: Liège Congress Report 1930.
  • A. Basic branch: Notes sur la musique des Pays-Bas au XVe siècle. In: Bulletin de l'Institut historique belge de Rome No. 18, 1937.
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  • J. Marix: Histoire de la musique et des musiciens de la cour de Bourgogne sous le règne de Philippe le Bon 1420–1467. Strasbourg 1939, reprint Baden-Baden 1974 (= collection of musicological treatises no.28, as reprint no.29)
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  • René Bernard Lenaerts: The 16th Century Parody Mass in the Netherlands. In: The Musical Quarterly No. 36, 1950.
  • Peter Gülke: Song principle and polyphony in the Burgundian chanson of the 15th century. Dissertation at the University of Leipzig in 1958.
  • Ludwig Finscher: The national components in the music of the 1st half of the 16th century. In: Congress report Salzburg 1964, Volume 1, pp. 37–45 and Volume 2, pp. 81–87 (discussion minutes)
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  • Ludwig Finscher (ed.): The music of the 15th and 16th centuries. Laaber 1989 (= New Handbook of Musicology 3, 1 and 3.2), therein: Klaus Hortschansky, Chapter 1: Musical life, pp. 23–128.
  • Klaus Hortschansky: Musicology and meaning research. Considerations on a heuristic in the field of Renaissance music. In: The music of the 15th and 16th centuries, edited by Ludwig Finscher, "Signs and Structure in the Renaissance", congress report of the Society for Music Research 1987, Kassel and others 1989, pp. 65–86.
  • A. Kirkman: Some Early Fifteenth-Century Fauxbourdons by Dufay and his Contemporaries: A Study in Liturgically-Motivated Style. In: Tijdschrift van de Vereniging voor nederlandse muziekgeschiedenis No. 40, 1990, pp. 3-35.
  • Laurenz Lütteken: Guillaume Dufay and the isorhythmic motet. Genre tradition and work character on the threshold of modern times. Hamburg / Eisenach 1993.
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Web links

sources

  1. ↑ Music in the past and present . (MGG), part volume 3, Bärenreiter et al., Kassel et al. 1995, ISBN 3-7618-1104-7 .
  2. ↑ Marc Honegger, Günther Massenkeil (ed.): The great lexicon of music. Volume 3: Elsbeth - Haitink. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau and others 1980, ISBN 3-451-18053-7 .
  3. ↑ Ulrich Michels: dtv-Atlas Musik, Volume 1. 22nd edition. dtv, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-423-03022-9 , p. 241.