Gilles Binchois

(b ?Mons, c 1400; d Soignies, 20 Sept 1460). Franco-Flemish composer. He was one of the three leading musical figures of the first half of the 15th century (with Dufay and Dunstable). Organist at Ste Waudru, Mons, from 1419, he was granted permission to move to Lille in 1423 and apparently entered the service of William Pole, Earl of Suffolk, soon after. Later in the 1420s he joined the Burgundian court chapel where he was much honoured and appointed a secretary to the court (c 1437). He held prebends in Bruges, Mons, Cassel and Soignies, where he finally retired; there he was appointed provost of the collegiate church of St Vincent (1452), though he continued to receive a pension from the Burgundian court.

Although Binchois name was mentioned in contemporary literature only alongside Dufay's, his works had a more independent reputation and, though less widely circulated than Dufay's, were very popular. Six of his songs survive in keyboard arrangements; tenor lines of two or three were used to make basse danses, and numerous compositions from the mid- and late 15th century, including three mass cycles (Ockeghem's Missa ‘De plus en plus’, Bedyngham's Missa ‘Dueil angoisseux’ and the anonymous mass-motet cycle ‘Esclave puist il devenir’), were based on his works. The fact that many of his compositions survive in only one source, and that most of those were compiled in southern Europe, far from the Burgundian court, suggests that much of his work may be lost or survive only anonymously. His songs, mostly rondeaux, remain within the conventions of refined courtly tradition. They are nearly all for a single-texted upper voice supported by an untexted tenor in longer notes a 5th lower in range and a contratenor in the same range or a little lower. They are characterized by effortless, graceful melodies, uncomplicated rhythms and carefully balanced phrases. His sacred music tends to be more conservative. No complete mass cycle by him has survived, though some of the mass movements can be paired on the basis of similarity. He wrote only one isorhythmic motet, and many of his smaller sacred works are purely functional.

works:
Sacred music

• 3 Gloria-Credo pairs
• 5 Sanctus-Agnus pairs
• 12 single mass movements
• over 30 other works

Secular music

• c 50 rondeaux
• several ballets
• Filles a marier, combinative chanson

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• Period: Medieval (1-1449)
• Born: 1400 in Mons, Belgium
• Died: September 20, 1460 in Soignies, Belgium
• Genres: Choral Music, Vocal Music

Biography

Destined to become one of the most influential composers of the early fifteenth century, Gilles Binchois was born sometime around 1400, probably in Mons, to a well-placed bourgeois family. His father, Jean de Binche, was a councillor to Duke Guillaume IV of Hainaut and his daughter Jaqueline of Bavaria. His son may thus have received his first training at the court of Mons, with its ties to royal France and Burgundy. The earliest surviving documents of his life relate his service to the church of Ste.-Waudru in Mons, as organist from December 8, 1419, until July 28, 1423; it is likely that he also trained as a chorister. Duchess Jaqueline fled to England in 1423 and married Duke Humphrey of Gloucester; this may explain Binchois' early contacts with the English nobles occupying northern France. For some time around 1424, Binchois was in Paris, apparently lending courtly service to William de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk.

Two lines in Ockeghem's lament on Binchois' death suggest the possibility of military service in the composer's youth. The "honorable worldliness" in this poem, however, could as easily refer to his courtly service to Suffolk and, from the late 1420s, the court of Burgundy. Gaps in the surviving payment lists prevent certain dating of his arrival in the Burgundian court chapel, but by 1431 he was fifth in seniority. In this year, he composed his single isorhythmic motet, for the baptism of Duke Philip the Good's son.

Unlike the majority of fifteenth century musicians, Binchois never became a priest nor did he take a university degree. This did not prevent his service as chaplain to the Burgundian Dukes, however, with a long list of lucrative prebend incomes in absentia in Bruges, Mons, Cassel, and Soignies. In addition to his choir service, Binchois composed a great deal of sacred music, continued to compose widely in the courtly chanson genres, and likely performed his own songs to harp accompaniment. Around 1437 he was awarded an honorary secretariat. He travelled little during the decades of his Burgundian service, but was in Mons in 1449 -- with Guillaume Dufay.

A provostship at St.-Vincent in Soignies from 1452 led to Binchois' retirement there in February 1453. He continued to receive the income from his benefices there until his death in 1460. His musical contacts apparently also still throve in retirement, as the composers Guillaume Malbeque and Johannes Regis both worked in Soignies at this time. Upon Binchois' death, both Guillaume Dufay and Johannes Ockeghem composed moving laments in music: the one alluding to two specific chansons of Binchois, the other to his general style. Already in 1442, the Burgundian poet Martin le Franc had credited Binchois (and Dufay) with a rejuvenation of the art of music on the Continent; his chansons would serve composers throughout the century as models for elaboration and parody. A portrait of the legendary musician "Tymotheus" by Jan van Eyck may perserve the serious countenance of Binchois for posterity, while a number of important Continental music manuscripts offer his chansons to a later age. ~ Timothy Dickey, All Music Guide

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