Hildegard of Bingen	Sacred Monophony	12th century	Germany	Spent her life at a monastery composing and writing music, with prose works in the Scivias (religious poems set to music) and her major work Ordo virtutum (The Virtues) (sacred music drama in verse).
Leonin	Notre Dame Polyphony	13th century	Paris	Priest and poet-musician
Perotin “The Great”	Notre Dame Polyphony	13th century	Paris	Probably trained as a singer under Leoninus. Composed Organum duplum, triplum, quadruplum, utilized rhythmic modes (combinations of longs and shorts)
Philippe de Vitry	Ars Nova & Isorhythmic motets	14th century	France	Defines French musical style, first half of the 14th century. Innovations in rhythm and its notation, carried to extremes. De Vitry’s motets are the earliest examples of isorhythms.
Guillaume de Machaut	Ars Nova	14th century	France	Leading composer and poet of French Ars Nova. Middle-class, educated as cleric in Reims, with strong support from royal patrons. Used fixed forms, and his motets were longer and more rhythmically complex, with a clever use of hocket. Composed the Mass: Messe de Nostre Dame
Franceso Landini	Ballata and Trecento	14th century	Italy	Leading composer of ballata, foremost Italian musician of the Trecento. Blind, master of many instruments, and never wrote sacred music despite being a chaplain. Example work: Non avrà ma’pietà (she will never have mercy
John Dunstable	Polyphony	14th century	England	Leading English composer of his time, he composed in all polyphonic genres of the time. His motets were 3-voice, sacred works, syllabic, and with attention to text declamation. Example work: Quam pulchra es (How beautiful you are) [fully original work]
Guillaume Du Fay	Sacred Music	Renaissance	Burgundian Lands	Represents the Cosmopolitan style of the late (14th) century and is the most famous composer of his time. He used French and Italian elements in his compositions. Thought to be the first to use Fauxbourdon in his compositions. Example Work: Se la face ay pale
Binchois	Chansons	Renaissance	Burgundian Lands	At the center of Burgundian court, the chapel of Duke Philip the Good. His chansons followed the 15th century tradition of being any polyphonic setting of French secular poems, following rondeau form. Example work: De plus en plus
Jean de Ockeghem	Masses	1450-1520	Franco- Flemish	Singer, composer, and teacher, especially well-known for his masses. Less cosmopolitan and “worldly” because of serving French kings for 40+ years. Wrote his masses for 4 voices, independent melodic lines, extended range of bass, full, thick texture (dark, homogenous sonority).
Henricus Isaac	Lied/Lieder	Renaissance	Franco- Flemish	Pulled from Italian style for his German Lieder. Example work uses homophonic texture as opposed to polyphonic texture: Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen (Innsbruck, I must leave you)
Josquin de Prez	Chansons, motets, and masses	Renaissance	Franco- Flemish (b. In France)	Regarded as the greatest composer of his time (first composer in the history of Western music not to have been forgotten after his death). His chansons completely abandoned de formes fixes and were strophic texts with polyphonic texture and all voices equally structured. Example work: Mille regretz (A thousand regrets). With his motets, he put a lot of focus on making the music communicate the meaning of the text. Example work: Ave Maria… virgo serena Wrote cantus firmus masses. Example work: Missa Pange lingua (Sing, tongue, of the glorious)
Juan del Encina	Villancico	16th century	Spain	Leading composer of villancicos, first Spanish playwright. Example work: Hoy comamos y bebamos
Jacques Arcadelt	Italian Madrigals	16th century	Italy	Wrote one of the most famous of early madrigals. Musical setting plays with poetic conceits (used to compare two completely unrelated things). Example Work: Il bianco e dolce cigno (The white and sweet swan)
Carlo Gesualdo	Madrigals	Mid-16th century	Italy	Wrote about torment and death and utilized Chromaticism (new at the time). Example work: “Lo parto” e non più dissi (‘I am leaving’, and I said no more)
Claudio Monteverdi	Madrigals	Late Renaissance	Italy	Made crucial stylistic transition - polyphonic vocal ensemble to instrumentally accompany song for duet or larger ensembles and published 8 books of madrigals. Example work: Cruda Amarilli (Cruel Amaryllis)
Claudin de Sermisy	Chansons	Early 16th century	France	Proponent of the new types of chansons that developed in France during this time that were suited for amateur performance. Example work: Tant que vivray (As long as I live)
Tielman Susato	Dance music	Renaissance	Antwerp	Example work: La Morisque (The Moor). Instrumentation not specified. Example Work: Susato’s Danserye, a dance pair of a pavane and a galliard
Narváez	Lute	16th century	Spain	First published sets of variations: Los seys libros del Delphin (the Six Books of the Dauphin). Example work: Guárdame las vacas, the first example of the genre
William Byrd	Virginal	16th century	England	One of two of the Queen’s music publishers at the time. Spent most of his career under a protestant Queen (Elizabeth I), but remained Catholic so he wrote Anglican and Catholic service music, and both secular and sacred music. Most important English composer since Dunstable. Example work: John come kiss me now
Giovanni Gabrieli	Canzona	16th century	Italy	The king of the antiphonal or double ensemble composition of his time. Example work: Camzpm septimi a 8 (Canzona in Mode 7 in Eight Parts) - from Sacrae symphoniae (Sacred symphonies, 1567)
Martin Luther	Lutheran Church Music	Reformation	Germany	Luther admired Franco-Flemish polyphony, especially Josquin, believed in the educational and ethical power of music, and retained much of Catholic liturgy. He wrote poems and melodies himself, and German masses and Chorale.. Example work: Ein feste Burg isn unser Gott (A mighty fortress is our God) [his best known work, anthem of the reformation]
Thomas Tallis	Church music	1500s	England	Career reflects religious upheavals and influences English church music. Example work: If ye love me
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina	Church music	Late Renaissance	Italy	“The Prince of Music” - was commissioned to revise official chant books after the Council of Trent but also wrote his own music. “Palestrina style” became standard for later centuries of polyphonic church music (First style in history of Western music to be consciously preserved and imitated). Example work: Pope Marcellus Mass [allegedly “saved polyphony”].
Tomás Luis de Victoria	Sacred music	End of 16th century	Spain	Catholic priest, organist, and singer; most famous Spanish composer of the period. Composed exclusively sacred music with greater expressive intensity, and more notes outside diatonic modes Example work: motet O magnum mysterium
Orlando di Lasso	Motets	End of 16th century	Germany	Most international with both his careers and composition, Maestro di cappella ducal chapel in Munich. He was influential as an advocate of text expression. Example work: Cum essem parvulus

Midterm Composers