Composers and their Songs, 1400-1521

Introduction

This second selection of essays by David Fallows draws the focus towards individual composers of the long fifteenth century and what we can learn about their songs.

Content Overview

In twenty-one essays on the secular works of composers from Ciconia and Oswald von Wolkenstein via Binchois, Ockeghem, Busnoys and Regis to Josquin, Henry VIII and Petrus Alamire, one repeated theme is how a consideration of the songs can help the way to a broader understanding of a composer’s output.

Since there are more song sources and more individual pieces now available for study, there are more handles for dating, for geographical location and for social alignment.

Thematic Focus

Another theme concerns the various different ways in which particular songs have their impact on the next generations.

Yet another concerns the authorship of poems that were set to music by Binchois and Ciconia in particular.

Additional Essays

A group of essays on Josquin were parerga to the author’s edition of his four-voice secular music for the New Josquin Edition (2005) and to his monograph on the composer (2009).