Book contents
- The Cambridge History of Fifteenth-Century Music
- Series page
- The Cambridge History of Fifteenth-Century Music
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Music examples
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Historiography
- Part II Improvisation and composition
- Part III Humanism
- Part IV Music and other arts
- Part V Music in churches, courts, and cities
- Part VI Religious devotion and liturgy
- Part VII Theory and practice
- Part VIII Sources
- Part IX Genres
- Part X Reception
- 41 The most popular songs of the fifteenth century
- 42 The nineteenth-century reception of fifteenth-century sacred music
- 43 The modern reception of the music of Jean d’Ockeghem
- 44 Recordings of fifteenth-century music
- 45 Solidarity with the long-departed: fifteenth-century echoes in twentieth-century music
- Index
41 - The most popular songs of the fifteenth century
from Part X - Reception
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 July 2015
Book contents
- The Cambridge History of Fifteenth-Century Music
- Series page
- The Cambridge History of Fifteenth-Century Music
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Music examples
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Historiography
- Part II Improvisation and composition
- Part III Humanism
- Part IV Music and other arts
- Part V Music in churches, courts, and cities
- Part VI Religious devotion and liturgy
- Part VII Theory and practice
- Part VIII Sources
- Part IX Genres
- Part X Reception
- 41 The most popular songs of the fifteenth century
- 42 The nineteenth-century reception of fifteenth-century sacred music
- 43 The modern reception of the music of Jean d’Ockeghem
- 44 Recordings of fifteenth-century music
- 45 Solidarity with the long-departed: fifteenth-century echoes in twentieth-century music
- Index
Summary
In this chapter "songs" refers to written polyphonic songs, usually in two or three voices, a genre that stretches back to the beginning of the fourteenth century and exists in all the main European languages. Monophonic song also exists, though much more survives from the twelfth to fourteenth and early sixteenth centuries than from the fifteenth. The chapter provides the number of known sources for fifteenth-century songs from each decade from the 1410s to 1480. Se la face ay pale is the only Guillaume Du Fay song that competes against the nine most successful songs of Binchois. For listeners and particularly commentators today, Du Fay seems the more attractive song-writer. With the 1440s, something entirely different comes across European song, namely the phenomenon of John Bedyngham. In the 1440s and 1450s the songs have much more melismatic writing, reflected too in the emphasis on elegance and flow.
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- The Cambridge History of Fifteenth-Century Music , pp. 787 - 801Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015