Gilles Binchois Overview

Gilles Binchois (c. 1400-1460) was a Franco-Flemish composer and along with his contemporary Guillaume Dufay, one of the leading composers of the court of Burgundy during the fifteenth century. Before he joined the court chapel of Burgundy towards the end of... [more]

Gilles Binchois (c. 1400-1460) was a Franco-Flemish composer and along with his contemporary Guillaume Dufay, one of the leading composers of the court of Burgundy during the fifteenth century. Before he joined the court chapel of Burgundy towards the end of the 1420s, he worked as an organist (in Mons) and as a soldier. Binchois’ oeuvre represents one of the highest points in French secular composition in the 15th century, with every song being a carefully crafted masterpiece. Most of his music, even his sacred music, is simple and clear in outline, and a greater contrast between Binchois and the extreme complexity of the ars subtilior of the previous century would be hard to imagine. Most of his secular songs are rondeaux , and are through-composed. The rondeaux was a common song type in the century, and Binchois rarely wrote using the strophic form, as he preferred instead to shape his melody independently of the verse’s rhyme scheme. [show less]