Johannes Cesaris

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Johannes Cesaris (active between 1390 and 1420) was a French composer and cleric of the late Middle Ages.

Live and act

Not much is known about the life of Johannes Cesaris other than the years he was active in Bourges . He is mentioned for the first time in a document roll from October 1394, which the Archbishop of Bourges to Avignon to antipope Benedict XIII. (Term of office 1394–1423) sent; here Cesaris is called a clergyman from the diocese of Thérouanne . With this request he wanted to get a benefice at the collegiate church Beata Maria in Harelbeke in West Flanders . As a confidante of the bishop, Cesaris came into contact with the court of Duke Jean de Berry (1340-1416), who had newly founded a Sainte-Chapelle in Bourges. This foundation obviously took place in competition with other royal and princely chapels, including the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris , and Jean de Berry was able to win leading musicians of his time for his chapel, including members of the Burgundian chapel and the private chapel of the Pope in Avignon. Cesaris served in this chapel in the ducal palace in Bourges from 1406 to 1409 and was a colleague of Pierre Fontaine , Mathieu Paullet and Guillaume Legrant . Here he had the function of a clergyman, organist and teacher of the choirboys ( enfants d'aube ), whom he taught in singing and counterpoint and for whose material well-being he was responsible. His successor in this position was the composer Nicholas Grenon .

Little is known about the further life of Johannes Cesaris after his departure from Bourges. There is evidence that he in 1417 as organist at the Cathedral of Angers worked.

meaning

One motet , two ballads and five rondeaus of the works of Johannes Cesaris have been preserved; another rondeau from the same source is more likely to come from the contemporary composer Passet . Stylistically, the compositions that have survived are, on the one hand, of the Ars subtilior type , which was practiced in Avignon in the 1390s, and are more mannerist-complicated; on the other hand, they are in the relatively simple singing style of the early 15th century, such as he developed at the courts of France and Burgundy. The motet "A virtutis ignitio / Ergo beata / Benedicta filia" with three texts sung at the same time is isorhythmic in all parts. The rondeau “A l'aventure va Gauvain” shows the style of a later generation and may have been written after 1417. The ballad “Le dieus d'amours” has been copied into the well-known Codex Chantilly , an illustrated manuscript which is the main source of the Avignon repertoire of the Ars subtilior.

Works

  • Motet “A virtutis ignitio” / “Ergo, beata nascio” / “Benedicta filia tua a Domino” with four voices
  • Ballad “Bonté, biaulté” for three voices
  • Ballad “Le dieus d'amours, sires de vrais amans” for three voices
  • Rondeau “A l'aventure va Gauvain” with three votes
  • Rondeau “Je ris, je chante, je m'esbas” with three voices
  • Rondeau “Mon seul voloir, ma souveraine joye” / “Certes m'amour, c'est ma vye” with three voices
  • Rondeau “Pour la douleur, l'annoy, le grief martire” / “Qui dolente n'aura veu en sa vie” for two voices
  • Rondeau “Se par plour ou par dueil mener” with three votes
  • Rondeau of doubtful authorship “Se vous scaviés, ma tres douce maistresse” with three voices, presumably by Passet

Literature (selection)

  • A. Pirro: La Musique à Paris sous le règne de Charles VI , Strasbourg 1930
  • E. Danneman: The late Gothic music tradition in France and Burgundy before the appearance of Guillaume Dufay , Strasbourg 1936
  • G. Boone: Dufay's Early Chansons: Chronology and Style in the Manuscript Ox 213 , dissertation at Harvard University, Cambridge / Massachusetts 1987
  • Paula Higgins: Music and Musicians at the Sainte-Chapelle of the Bourges Palace, 1405-1515. In: Congress report SMI Bologna 1987, Volume 3, Turin 1990, pages 689–701
  • WH Kemp: Burgundian Court Song in the Time of Binchois , Oxford 1990
  • David Fallows: A Catalog of Polyphonic Songs, 1415-1480 , Oxford 1999

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ The music in past and present (MGG), person part Volume 4, Bärenreiter and Metzler, Kassel and Basel 2000, ISBN 3-7618-1114-4
  2. ↑ Marc Honegger, Günther Massenkeil (ed.): The great lexicon of music. Volume 2: C - Elmendorff. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau a. a. 1979, ISBN 3-451-18052-9 .
  3. ^ The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians , edited by Stanley Sadie, 2nd Edition, Volume 5, McMillan Publishers, London 2001, ISBN 0-333-60800-3
personal data
SURNAME Cesaris, Johannes
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cesaris, Jean; Sezaris, Jehan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French composer and cleric of the late Middle Ages
DATE OF BIRTH before 1390
PLACE OF BIRTH unsure: Northern France
DATE OF DEATH after 1420