Nicholas Grenon

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Nicholas Grenon , also Nicolas Grenon (* around 1380; † October 17, 1456 in Cambrai ) was a French composer , singer and music teacher of the early Renaissance .

Live and act

Unlike his peers in the early 15th century, Nicholas Grenon's rise as a singer and choir master is unusually well documented. He first worked as a cleric at the Paris Church of Notre Dame from 1399 and then received the canonicals of his late brother Jean Grenon at the Church of Saint-Sépulchre in Cambrai . There he is referred to in a document as a deacon , having previously worked as a subdeacon at the same place . From 1403 at the latest, he moved to the cathedral in Laon , where he worked as “magister puerorum” (master of the choirboys) until May 25, 1407. Then he worked until mid-1409 as a grammar teacher for six choirboys at the cathedral in Cambrai and sang as “petit vicair” in the choir. In July 1409 he took over the position of "magister puerorum" of the Duke of Berry at the Sainte Chapelle in Bourges until the middle of 1412 and before August 1, 1412 he moved to the Burgundian court of Duke Johann Ohnefurcht (reign 1404–1419) where it was also part of his job to look after the choirboys and to give them music lessons. After the Duke's death on September 10, 1419, Grenon left the Burgundian service and went back to Cambrai, where he worked from 1421 to 1424.

With the singer Gilles Flannel and four choirboys Grenon traveled via Bologna to Rome in 1425 and was there under Pope Martin V (reign 1417-1430) master of the choirboys in the papal chapel until 1427. During this time (1424-1425 ) he was " in absentia " canon at Saint Donatien in Bruges . In 1427 Grenon returned to Cambrai after becoming a canon at the cathedral there on February 14, 1426, thus ensuring his livelihood. He held various musical and canonical offices at the Cathedral of Cambrai until his death; For example, he was head of the “petits vicaires” from 1437 to 1442, was rewarded for reading out 10 “parvum requiem” in the financial year 1439/1440, tested the skills of a scribe in the financial year 1442/1443 and copied various compositions into the choir's music books . When Duke Philip the Good moved into Cambrai in 1449, Grenon received him in the cathedral and in the church of Saint Gery.

In addition, he maintained close professional and friendly contact with Guillaume Dufay (~ 1400–1474) from the end of the 1420s until the end of his life . For example, Grenon gave the Cambraier chapter letters on May 19, 1429 dealing with Dufay and was Dufay's procurator (advocate) in 1436 when he was designated for a canonical at the cathedral. From 1445 he lived as a neighbor of Dufay in the rue de l'Écu d'or opposite the bakery. In addition, in 1446 he bought a house for the composer Simon le Breton (~ 1420–1473), who was in Burgundy at the time. The following year the Cambraier Chapter twice warned him to remove from his house a certain Jeanne Rousselle whom, despite her bad reputation, he had taken in as a cook. Grenon followed the admonition and dismissed Jeanne; but this was soon taken over by a certain Simon Mellet, which then leads to the temporary detention led -Stay.

Grenon died on October 17, 1456, and on October 19 the vigil of his exequies (funeral service the day before the burial) was held in the cathedral; a day later he was buried there in front of the image of Saint Agnes under the church clock. The bronze plate of his grave was still there in the 18th century.

meaning

Grenon is one of the outstanding composers of the early 15th century. He wrote in the most important musical forms of his time and is considered a rare example of a longer-living composer who can boast of the end of the 14th century but occupies the first place among the masters among whom the music of the Renaissance took its shape afterwards. Only a small fraction of his works have survived.

In Grenon's only surviving mass movement , a Gloria , the two voices that have been handed down have something in common with other mass settings of this time on the European continent. Together with Dufay and John Dunstable (~ 1390–1453) Grenon is one of the last composers who used the isorhythmic setting in mass compositions. In addition, his four surviving motets are among the most outstanding examples of this genre in the early 15th century. The five French songs are also remarkably skilful and can be regarded as prime examples of the Franco-Burgundian song style in the generation before Dufay and Binchois . Of these, the ballad Je ne requir de ma dame found the admiration of his contemporaries. The other songs are more simple: “Je suy defait” and “La plus belle” have lyrical melodies in the upper parts, which are accompanied by a simple tenor or contratenor duet, while the song “La plus jolie” is composed mainly homophonically .

Nicholas Grenon is one of the forerunners and pioneers of Franco-Flemish music due to his musical style with his early creative period, together with Johannes Ciconia , Hugo Boy monachus , Martinus Fabri and others . With his later creative period (from around 1420) he is already part of the 1st generation of this European musical epoch. “In particular, the already mentioned ballad Je ne requir (handed down with a contratenor part by Matteo di Perugia and consequently composed before 1418) with its approaches to the complex subtilior style shows a quality that cannot be compared with Dufay's dedication ballad Resvellies vous of 1423 need to be shy ”(J. Michael Allsen in his MGG article on Nicholas Grenon).

Works

Complete edition: G. Reaney (editor): Early Fifteenth-Century Music VII, Neuhausen near Stuttgart 1983

I. Measurement set

  • Gloria to 3 or 4 (?) Voices (only the two upper voices have survived; in the complete edition the "tenor" is reconstructed)

II. Motets

  • "Ad honorem Sancte Trinitatis" / "Celorum regnum" / "Iste semper" with 4 voices, for Trinity and All Saints' Day (Rome 1424-1427)
  • "Ave virtus virtutum" / "Prophetarum fulti suffragio" / "Infelix" with 4 voices, for Christmas (Rome 1424-1427)
  • "Nova vobis gaudia" to 3 votes (also for Christmas)
  • "Plasmatoris humani" / "Verbigine mater ecclesia" / ["Haec dies"] to 4 votes, for Easter

III. Songs

  • "Je ne requier de ma dame", ballad with 3 voices (before 1418), contratenor part by Matteo di Perugia (~ 1370− ~ 1418)
  • “Je suy defait”, Rondeau to 3 votes
  • “La plus belle et doulce figure”, Virelai to 3 votes, for the New Year
  • “La plus jolie et la plus belle”, Virelai to 3 votes
  • "Se je vous ay bien", Virelai with 2 or 3 voices (handed down in two versions)

IV. Not attributable to Nicholas Grenon with certainty

  • "Argi vices Poliphemus" / "Cum Pilemon rebus paucis" with 4 voices (for antipope John XXIII .; in the Motetus text attributed to "Nicolaus")

Literature (selection)

  • E. Dannemann: The late Gothic music tradition in France and Burgundy before Dufay's appearance , Strasbourg 1936
  • J. Marix: Les Musiciens de la cour de Bourgogne au XVe siècle , Paris 1937
  • The same: Histoire de la musique et des musiciens de la cour de Bourgogne sous le règne de Philippe le Bon , Strasbourg 1939, reprint Geneva 1972, Baden-Baden 1974
  • Gustave Reese : Music in the Renaissance , New York, WW Norton & Co. 1954, ISBN 0-393-09530-4
  • Craig Wright: Dufay at Cambrai: Discoveries and Revisions , in Journal of the American Musicologal Society No. 28, 1975, pp. 175-229
  • The same: Music at the court of Burgundy, 1364-1419: a Documentary History , Henryville / Pennsylvania 1979
  • Richard H. Hoppin: Medieval Music . New York, WW Norton & Co. 1978, ISBN 0-393-09090-6
  • AE Planchart: Guillaume Du Fay's Benefices and His Relationship on the Court of Burgundy , in Early Music History No. 8, 1988, pp. 117-171
  • P. Higgins: Music and Musicians at the Sainte-Chapelle of the Bourges Palace, 1405-1415 in the Congress Report of the International Musicological Society 1987, Volume 3, Turin 1990, pages 689-701
  • JM Allsen: Style and Intertextuality in the Isorhythmic Motet, 1400−1440 , dissertation at the University of Wisconsin-Madison 1992 (University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor / Michigan, No. 9 231 671)

Web links

swell

  1. ^ The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie, Macmillan Verlag London 1980, here: "Nicholas Grenon" by Craig Wright
  2. ^ The Music in Past and Present (MGG), Person Part Volume 7, Bärenreiter Verlag Kassel and Basel 2002, ISBN 3-7618-1117-9
personal data
SURNAME Grenon, Nicholas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Grenon, Nicolas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French composer, singer and music teacher of the early Renaissance
DATE OF BIRTH around 1380
DATE OF DEATH October 17, 1456
Place of death Cambrai