IIID: The Netherlanders to Ockeghem



As the Middle Ages drew to a close, music was in a state of separatism, mannerism, and confusion. From this disorder Dunstable and Dufay forged a new International style that was to serve as a model for well over a century. Because virtually all the important composers writing in this style emanated from what is today central and southern Holland, Belgium, and the northeastern portion of France, they have commonly been labelled Franco-Flemish, and the century 1450-1550 is known as "the age of the Netherlanders." Most of these composers worked for the Emperor, the King of France, the Pope, or at one of the Italian courts (while Italy did not actually produce any major composers during this period, it did provide employment for some of the greatest).

The most significant composers of the generation after Dufay and Binchois were Antoine Busnois and Johannes Ockeghem . In many respects their careers paralleled those of their predecessors. Busnois, like Binchois, spent most of his career in the employ of the Burgundian court, and excelled in elegant and refined chansons, often to hedonistic texts of his own creation. But unquestionably the dominant musician of his era, and the successor to Dufay as master of the large-scale form, was Ockeghem.

The Composers, (and some others)
Supplemental Materials Poetry and Prose Articles


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