Gilles Binchois

Gilles Binchois (c.1400-1460)

Biography

Gilles de Bins (c.1400-1460), known by the coined name Binchois, was the leading and most prototypical composer of the Burgundian Age. The early-to-mid-1400s saw the court of Burgundy rise to prominence as the most lavish and traditional in Europe, and it was the musical style developed there which was to form the foundation for the next generation of pan-European music. Although today, Binchois is usually seen as the lesser of the triumvirate of composers who developed the Northern style, behind Dufay & Dunstaple, his contemporaries apparently thought otherwise. In sources of the period, Binchois' music was the most frequently copied, the most frequently cited, and the most frequently used as the basis for other settings. Although he was not heavily involved in the creation of such landmark genres as the cyclic mass, Binchois' music essentially defines the Burgundian style. The individuality of other composers is often measured by their music's relation to Binchois'.

Binchois was born in Mons to a wealthy family. The earliest surviving reference to his career dates from 1418, when he was engaged as an organist. According to Ockeghem's song-motet honoring Binchois at his death, he was also a soldier, and may have been employed by the Earl of Suffolk during the English occupation of France. Burgundy was an English ally in this period, and Binchois joined the Burgundian court choir around 1427. Although he was not ordained as a priest, he became a chaplain, and was eventually awarded significant prebends. It is known that Binchois met with Dufay in 1449 at Mons, and it is likely that they met several times. Indeed, their families may have had connections in the previous generation, such that they may have known each other since childhood. Of the two, Binchois is praised for his humility, while Dufay apparently had the more aggressive personality. This fits with their career paths, as Binchois was never employed far from his home. In 1453, he retired to Soignies on a pension, where he would have worked with Johannes Regis (c.1430-1496), thought to have been Dufay's clerk by the 1460s.

Binchois is known primarily for his courtly chansons, of which over 60 survive. Typical of his generation, he wrote overwhelmingly in the rondeau form, and all but one of his songs (Filles a marier) is in three parts. Binchois' songs are constructed according to a standard pattern, with a main line in the highest voice and accompaniment in the lower two. Many songs have untexted interludes. Many are settings of poems by famous authors of the day, although many may use texts by Binchois himself. Thematically, they are firmly within the conventions of courtly poetry, in keeping with the refinement and restraint Binchois adopted in his musical settings. It is Binchois' sense of melody which establishes his songs as some of the finest of the period, especially in their perfect sense of balance. Although Binchois' melodies are known for their sense of balance & proportion, and their own inherent logic is unimpeachable, the music does not always fit the poetry in conventional ways. Musical repeats may not align with poetic repeats, and cadences appear on an unexpected note or beat. This is what gives Binchois' songs much of their subtlety and their yearning quality.

Binchois' left approximately 50 pieces of sacred music, which were also accorded a high status in their time. Although they make less of an impression today, Binchois' sense of melody and grace are also evident. Again overwhelmingly in three parts, his liturgical settings tend to be of a highly functional nature. Perhaps presciently, they emphasize clear audibility over counterpoint, with lower voices often in direct support of the main line. Binchois' service settings paraphrase the relevant chant, and do not use the emerging cantus firmus technique. Likewise, Binchois' did not adopt the mass cycle, but did write paired ordinary movements, typical of composers of his generation. Although seldom heard today, his mass ordinary movements show the most contrapuntal independence and rhythmic invention in Binchois' output, and are actually among the longest of the period. He left only one isorhythmic motet, and only two other motets of a scale traditionally associated with the genre.

Binchois' reputation today rests almost entirely on his songs, and especially on their continued use as the basis for extended contrapuntal settings by the next generation of composers. The authoritative attributed sources for Binchois' music in Italy might represent only a fraction of his surviving music, as many unattributed settings copied nearer his home in Burgundy show traits of his style. He is usually regarded as Ockeghem's teacher, and certainly played a major role in creating the early idioms which were to become characteristic of the Franco-Flemish style. Binchois' most famous settings, such as Triste plaisir & Dueil angoisseux, have a special grace and sublimated passion about them which have come to typify the courtly conventions which were soon swept aside by the rising humanism of the Renaissance.