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• Personalities
• Classical
• Composer
• Medieval Era

(Zhel Bansh-wa’) c. 1400–60 Franco-Flemish composer Binchois spent his formative years in Mons (now Belgium) and appears to have led a remarkably static life. In the late 1420s he joined the itinerant Burgundian court chapel, and served there with distinction until his retirement in the early 1450s, continuing to draw a pension until his death. Although he left a substantial ...

• Personalities
• Forties
• Jazz & Blues

John Birks ‘Dizzy’ Gillespie shares the credit for creating bebop with Charlie Parker, but his place in the history of twentieth-century music rests on a considerably wider achievement. He was born in Cheraw, South Carolina in 1917 and acquired his nickname in the 1930s. He moved to New York and worked in big bands with Teddy Hill, Lionel ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Medieval Era
• Troubadour

(Ber-nar’ d∂ Van’-ta-dôrn) c. 1135–95 French Troubadour Bernart is regarded as perhaps the finest and most musically important of the troubadours. More of his melodies have survived than any other troubadour’s; one, ‘Quan vei la lauzeta mover’ (‘When I See the Lark Open His Wings’), was extremely popular and inspired poems to be sung to its melody in four different ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Composer
• Renaissance

(Pe-âr’ de La Rü) c. 1460–1518 Flemish composer Like Isaac, La Rue joined the Habsburg court after spending some years working in Italy. He served under four rulers: Maximilian, Philip le Beau (La Rue may have composed his Requiem for him), Margaret and Charles (the future Emperor Charles V). His works do not show the influence of Italian music, ...

• Styles & Forms
• Classical
• Medieval Era

The Middle Ages is the first period in the history of classical music whose composers can be identified by name. For centuries, following the Roman Empire’s collapse, the main centres of learning in Western Europe had been the monasteries. The monks’ vast repertory of Gregorian chant, or plainsong – highly ornate, unaccompanied melodies set to sacred Latin ...

• Arts & Culture
• Classical
• Medieval Era

In the second half of the twelfth century, the new cathedral of Notre Dame was the focus of an extraordinary effort by Leonin and others to create a whole new musical liturgy. Thanks to their efforts and to the presence of the increasingly independent University of Paris, whose curriculum was aimed towards ecclesiastical careers, the city became a ...

• Inside the Music
• Classical
• Medieval Era

The term contenance angloise (‘English manner’), was first coined by the poet Martin Le Franc in his poem ‘Le Champion des Dames’ (c. 1440–42), in which he described new French music and implied that Du Fay and Binchois had ‘taken on the contenance angloise and followed Dunstaple’. Although the poet did not define the term, the text immediately before this ...

• Major Operas
• Early & Middle Baroque
• Opera

‘Alceste, or the Triumph of Alcide’ Composed in 1674, Lully’s Alceste, ou le triomphe d’Alcide, a tragédie lyrique with a prologue and five acts, had a double link with ancient Greek culture. The libretto, by Philippe Quinault, was based on Alcestis, a tragedy by the ancient Greek dramatist Euripides that in turn derived ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Composer
• Medieval Era

(An-twan’ Bün-wa’) c. 1435–92 French composer Busnoys was a younger contemporary of Ockeghem and worked alongside him in Tours in the early 1460s, when he may already have been serving the future Duke Charles the Bold of Burgundy in an unofficial capacity. His association with the Burgundian court probably continued after Charles’s death in 1477, though evidence for this is ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Composer
• Medieval Era

(Ge-yom’ Düfa’) c. 1397–1474 French composer Du Fay is regarded as the leading musical figure of his generation, and his reputation in his own time is emphasized by his employment at many of the most important musical centres in Europe. He grew up in Cambrai, where his skills were recognized early by the ecclesiastical authorities, and in his late ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Composer
• Medieval Era
• Poet

(Zhä-no’ de Les-koo-rel’) fl. early 14th century French poet and composer Very little is known about Jehannot de Lescurel; his works survive only in an appendix to the most important manuscript of the Roman de Fauvel. This constitutes a collection of some 32 monophonic songs, a polyphonic rondeau and two longer poems. The works are ordered alphabetically but the sequence ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Composer
• Medieval Era

c. 1390–1453 English composer Dunstaple was the best known of an influential group of English composers which included Power. To judge by the number of his works in continental manuscripts, he was probably one of the most important composers of his day in Europe, although he may not have travelled particularly widely. He wrote early Mass cycles, including ...

• Styles & Forms
• Acid Jazz
• Jazz

Acid jazz is a lively, groove-oriented music style that combines elements from jazz, funk and hip hop, with an emphasis on jazz dance. The term ‘acid jazz’ was first used during the late 1980s, both as the name of an American record label and the title of a British jazz funk, ‘rare groove’ compilation series. Interest ...

• Styles & Forms
• Classical
• Renaissance

The main opportunities for professional music-making in the Renaissance continued to be provided by the church and by royal and ducal courts, particularly those in Italy. They sponsored musical entertainment both on a large scale, such as the lavish Florentine intermedi, and on a more intimate level, in the form of the madrigal. The influence of humanism ...