Contenance angloise
The Contenance Angloise or English manner, is the term used to describe a distinctive style of polyphony developed in fifteenth-century England. It used full, rich harmonies based on the third and sixth. It was highly influential in the fashionable Burgundian court of Philip the Good and through that on European music of the era in general. The leading figure was John Dunstable, followed by Walter Frye and John Hothby.
Orgins of the term
The phrase 'Contenance Angloise' was coined by Martin le Franc in a poem dedicated to Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy (1396–1467) in 1441-2 to descibe the distinctive musical style of the era. He mentioned English composer John Dunstable (c. 1390–1453) as the key figure and as a major influence on the major Burgundian composers Guillaume Dufay and Gilles Binchois.[1]
Characteristics
The style was a distinctive form of polyphony that used full, rich harmonies based on the third and sixth.[2]
Major composers
Although nearly all of John Dunstable's manuscript music in England was lost during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, some of his works have been reconstructed from copies found in continental Europe, particularly in Italy. The existence of these copies is testament to his widespread fame within Europe. He may have been the first composer to provide liturgical music with an instrumental accompaniment.[3]
This tradition was continued by figures such as Walter Frye (ca. 1420–1475), whose masses were recorded and highly influential in France and the Netherlands.[4] Similarly, John Hothby (ca. 1410–1487), an English Carmelite monk, who traveled widely and, although leaving little composed music, wrote several theoretical treatises, including La Calliopea legale, and is credited with introducing innovations to the medieval pitch system.[5]
Decline
The influence of English composers on the continent seems to have declined towards the end of the fifteenth century. Having lost their major possessions in France and entering the Wars of the Roses,the English may have been more preoccupied with domstic matters and Frano-Flemish music became dominant force in European music, and the distinctiveness of English music begane to fade.[6]
Notes
- ^ R. H. Fritze and W. Baxter Robison, Historical dictionary of late medieval England, 1272-1485 (Greenwood, 2002), p. 363.
- ^ R. H. Fritze and W. Baxter Robison, Historical dictionary of late medieval England, 1272-1485 (Greenwood, 2002), p. 363.
- ^ S. Sadie and A. Latham, The Cambridge Music Guide(Cambridge University Press, 1990), pp. 101-2.
- ^ J. Caldwell, The Oxford History of English Music (Oxford University Press, 1998), pp. 151-2.
- ^ T. Dumitrescu, The early Tudor court and international musical relations (Ashgate, Aldershot, 2007), pp. 197-9.
- ^ R. H. Fritze and W. Baxter Robison, Historical dictionary of late medieval England, 1272-1485 (Greenwood, 2002), p. 363.
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