# Antoine Busnois (1430 -1492)



## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Many details of his life are largely conjectural. He probably came from the tiny village of Busnes in the province of Artois. He may havve been related to 'Messire et maître Philippe de Busnes', recorded as priest, dean and canon of Notre-Dame, Lens in 1499, a descendant of the noble counts of Busnes.

Nothing is known of his early musical training, though he surely attended an ecclesiastical choir school, as did most late-medieval singers, probably in northern or central France.

His documented career starts with a bloody assault on a fellow priest at Tours Cathedral. Busnois had to petition the Vatican in 1461 to remove an edict of excommunication. By 1465 Busnois had moved tothe collegiate church of St Martin, where Ockeghem held the dignity of treasurer. Busnois received promotion to Acolyte and then to Subdeacon around Easter 1465.

Busnois was probably master of the choirboys at this time. He used that title when in in September 1465, he applied for the same position at the allied church of St Hilaire le Grand, Poitiers.

Busnois' reputation by 1465 is made clear by the superlatives his advocates invoked to describe him: 'extremely skilled in music', 'exceptionally qualified in music and poetry, and best able to instruct the boys, especially in music and morals', 'a most dignified and eminent man'. Numerous allusions by 15th- and 16th-century theorists, as well as the profusion of pseudo-Greek terminology in prescriptive texts and canons in his music, suggest that Busnois' learning and erudition surpassed that of most 15th-century musicians. It has been suggested that Busnois may have wished to go to Poitiers to study at the University there

Busnois arrival sparked a flood of talent to Poitiers. However, his appointment was not popular with the canons of the chuirch and his abrupt departure in 1465 may have been due to irreconcilable power struggles within the chapter over his appointment.

Busnois moved to the Burgundian court by 1467 in the service of Charles the Bold.In addition to serving Charles as singer and composer, Busnois accompanied the Duke on his military campaigns as did many of the Duke's other singers. Busnois remained in the employ of the Burgundian court until 1482, but nothing exact is known about his exploits between then and the year of his death.

Busnois' contemporary reputation was immense; he was probably the best-known musician in Europe between Guillaume Dufay and Johannes Ockeghem. He wrote sacred and secular music.

The most important claim made about Busnois by 15th- and 16th-century theorist's is Pietro Aaron's : 'It is believed that the tune called _L'homme armé_ was invented by Busnois. A lovely story - much disputed by modern scholars. Busnois' _Missa 'L'homme armé'_ may or may not have been the original mass in the series of ultimately more than 40 composed on this tune, but in any case it was one of the first, probably written about 1460, and plainly the most influential of the first generation of _L'homme armé_ masses.

A late exponent of the tradition of the medieval poet-musician, Busnois was also exceptional among his contemporaries in enjoying a purely literary reputation as well. Quite apart from the likelihood that he wrote the Latin texts of _Anthoni usque limina_ and _In hydraulis_ as well as the French poems for many of his secular songs, he holds the singular distinction among 15th-century composers of having no less than three poems attributed to him in literary manuscripts and treatises of the period.

Busnois' chansons are the works on which his reputation mainly rests. Most are rondeaux, but some are bergerettes; many of them achieved the status of popular songs. Some of his tunes were use as _cantus firmus_ for Masses e.g. _Fortuna desperata_ which was used both by Obrecht and Josquin.


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

In Hydraulis






Missa "L'homme armé" - 2. Gloria






Fortuna Desperata


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I have a CD titled "A Musical Book of Hours," and there they spell it Busnoys. I understand it's spelled both ways, but doesn't the alternate spelling make it unnecessarily confusing to little people like me?


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

I've spent time trying to hear the secular music, songs. There's a very old recording of a handful of them, by Joshua Rifkin, but for me, the style is too old fashioned. There is a CD dedicated to the songs by the American duo Asteria, which has always struck me as a bit too samey and always managed to rapidly outstay its welcome. However prompted by this thread I listened to it again and it sounded like the best music in the world. Go figure.









Busnois was the composer who made me take Renaissance music seriously. Someone played me the Crux Lignum mass and at some point -- Credo or Gloria, I can't remember -- I thought "what the fk is that?!" It was the first time I heard renaissance music escape from rails, formula.


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