
John Dunstaple (or Dunstable; – 24 December 1453) was an English composer whose music helped inaugurate the transition from the
medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...
to the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...
periods. The central proponent of the ''
Contenance angloise
The ''Contenance angloise'', or English manner, a distinctive style of musical polyphony, developed in History of England, fifteenth-century England. It uses full, rich harmonies based on the Interval (music) , third and sixth. It became highly in ...
'' style (), Dunstaple was the leading English composer of his time, and is often coupled with
William Byrd
William Byrd (; 4 July 1623) was an English Renaissance composer. Considered among the greatest composers of the Renaissance, he had a profound influence on composers both from his native country and on the Continental Europe, Continent. He i ...
and
Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell (, rare: ; September 1659 – 21 November 1695) was an English composer of Baroque music, most remembered for his more than 100 songs; a tragic opera, Dido and Aeneas, ''Dido and Aeneas''; and his incidental music to a version o ...
as England's most important
early music
Early music generally comprises Medieval music (500–1400) and Renaissance music (1400–1600), but can also include Baroque music (1600–1750) or Ancient music (before 500 AD). Originating in Europe, early music is a broad Dates of classical ...
composers. His style would have an immense influence on the subsequent music of continental Europe, inspiring composers such as
Du Fay,
Binchois,
Ockeghem and
Busnois.
Information on Dunstaple's life is largely non-existent or speculative, with the only certain date of his activity being his death on
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve is the evening or entire day before Christmas, the festival commemorating nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus. Christmas Day is observance of Christmas by country, observed around the world, and Christma ...
of 1453. Probably born in
Dunstable
Dunstable ( ) is a market town and civil parish in Bedfordshire, England, east of the Chiltern Hills, north of London. There are several steep chalk escarpments, most noticeable when approaching Dunstable from the north. Dunstable is the fou ...
in Bedfordshire during the late 14th-century, Dunstaple was associated with
Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester
Humphrey of Lancaster, Duke of Gloucester (3 October 1390 – 23 February 1447) was an English prince, soldier and literary patron. He was (as he styled himself) "son, brother and uncle of kings", being the fourth and youngest son of Henry IV ...
and
Joan of Navarre, and, through them,
St Albans Abbey. Another important patron was
John, Duke of Bedford
John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford (20 June 1389 – 14 September 1435) was a medieval English prince, general, and statesman who commanded England's armies in France during a critical phase of the Hundred Years' War. Bedford was the third son ...
, with whom Dunstaple may have travelled to France.
Dunstaple's surviving music is exclusively vocal, and frequently uses
isorhythm
Isorhythm (from the Greek for "the same rhythm") is a musical technique using a repeating rhythmic pattern, called a ''talea'', in at least one voice part throughout a composition. ''Taleae'' are typically applied to one or more melodic patterns o ...
s, while pioneering the prominent use of harmonies with thirds and sixths.
Life and career
Nothing is known for certain of John Dunstaple's background or early life. This uncertainty, and the general vagueness surrounding most details of his life, has led to much speculation and sometimes fictionalized information concerning his life and career. Some of the spurious information comes from misreadings of
Johannes Tinctoris
Jehan le Taintenier or Jean Teinturier (Latinised as Johannes Tinctoris; also Jean de Vaerwere; – 1511) was a Renaissance music, Renaissance music theory, music theorist and composer from the Franco-Flemish School, Low Countries. Up to his ...
's writings, leading to the erroneous identification of the composer with the 10th-century saint
Dunstan
Dunstan ( – 19 May 988), was an English bishop and Benedictine monk. He was successively Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, Bishop of Worcester, Bishop of London and Archbishop of Canterbury, later canonised. His work restored monastic life in En ...
. Dunstaple's birthdate is a conjecture based on his earliest surviving works from around 1410–1420, which suggests he was born in the late 14th century; the musicologist
Margaret Bent records .
His birthplace is unknown, though it is assumed that his family adopted their surname after the town of
Dunstable
Dunstable ( ) is a market town and civil parish in Bedfordshire, England, east of the Chiltern Hills, north of London. There are several steep chalk escarpments, most noticeable when approaching Dunstable from the north. Dunstable is the fou ...
, Bedfordshire. Modern scholarship has sometimes used the spelling 'Dunstable' to match the town's name, though sources of the composer's time generally refer to him as 'Dunstaple' instead. The musicologist
Margaret Bent notes that the 'p' spelling is more than twice as common as the 'b' variant in musical sources, and while the few extant English sources use the 'b' and 'p' variants with equal frequency, contemporary non-musical sources almost exclusively follow the 'p' spelling. Less common spellings include 'Dunstapell', 'Dumstable' and 'Donstaple', among others; one source simply inscribed 'J. D.'. Records from the early 15th century include many references to people named (or with a similar name to) 'John Dunstaple', making it difficult to identify the composer. The more plausible candidates include a canon of
Hereford Cathedral
Hereford Cathedral, formally the , is a Church of England cathedral in Hereford, England. It is the seat of the bishop of Hereford and the principal church of the diocese of Hereford. The cathedral is a grade I listed building.
A place of wors ...
(1419–1440) named 'John Dunstavylle', though there is no convincing evidence for this. However, the composer is usually identified as the 'John Dunstaple' that owned a series of astronomy treatises and was described as a 'musician with the Duke of Bedford'.
He is widely held to have been in the royal service of
John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford
John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford (20 June 1389 – 14 September 1435) was a medieval English prince, general, and statesman who commanded England's armies in France during a critical phase of the Hundred Years' War. Bedford was the third son ...
, the fourth son of
Henry IV and brother of
Henry V Henry V may refer to:
People
* Henry V, Duke of Bavaria (died 1026)
* Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor (1081/86–1125)
* Henry V, Duke of Carinthia (died 1161)
* Henry V, Count Palatine of the Rhine (–1227)
* Henry V, Count of Luxembourg (1216–1281 ...
. As such he may have stayed in France for some time, since the duke was
Regent
In a monarchy, a regent () is a person appointed to govern a state because the actual monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge their powers and duties, or the throne is vacant and a new monarch has not yet been dete ...
of France from 1423 to 1429, and then Governor of
Normandy
Normandy (; or ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy.
Normandy comprises Normandy (administrative region), mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular N ...
from 1429 to his death in 1435. He owned property in Normandy, and also in
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfor ...
, Essex and London, according to tax records of 1436. After the death in 1437 of another patron, the
Dowager
A dowager is a widow or widower who holds a title or property – a "dower" – derived from her or his deceased spouse. As an adjective, ''dowager'' usually appears in association with monarchical and aristocratic titles.
In popular usage, the n ...
Queen Joan, he evidently was in the service of
Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester
Humphrey of Lancaster, Duke of Gloucester (3 October 1390 – 23 February 1447) was an English prince, soldier and literary patron. He was (as he styled himself) "son, brother and uncle of kings", being the fourth and youngest son of Henry IV ...
, the fifth son of Henry IV.
Unlike many composers of the time, he was probably not a cleric or monk, though there are links with
St Albans Abbey (see below); he was probably married, based on the record of women sharing his name in his parish, and he also owned a manor in
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...
.
Dunstaple's connections with St Albans Abbey are at least twofold:
*the abbot
John Whethamstede
John Whethamstede (died 20 January 1465) was an English abbot and one of the leading literary figures in fifteenth-century England.
Life
He was a son of Hugh and Margaret Bostock, and was born at Wheathampstead in Hertfordshire, owing his name, ...
is associated with the Duke of Gloucester (who was buried at St Albans following his death in 1447), and Dunstaple's isorhythmic
motet
In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the preeminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to the Eng ...
''Albanus roseo rutilat'', possibly with some of the Latin words adapted by Whethamstede from an older poem, was clearly written for St Albans, possibly for a visit to the abbey by the Duke of Bedford in 1426.
*Whethamstede's plan for a magnificent library for the abbey in 1452–53 included a set of twelve
stained glass
Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...
windows devoted to the various branches of learning. Dunstaple is clearly, if indirectly, referred to in some of the verses the abbot composed for each window, not only music but also
astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...
,
medicine
Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...
, and
astrology
Astrology is a range of Divination, divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that propose that information about human affairs and terrestrial events may be discerned by studying the apparent positions ...
.
Epitaphs written upon Dunstaple's death identify him as not only a musician, but as well as respected mathematician, astronomer and
astrologer
Astrology is a range of Divination, divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that propose that information about human affairs and terrestrial events may be discerned by studying the apparent positions ...
. Dunstaple is referenced in at least three non-musical manuscripts. Of these, Bent considers ''GB-Ce 70'' (
Emmanuel College, Cambridge
Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican mo ...
) the most important and it includes astrological works with accompanying drawings which may be his own. Another, ''GB-Ob'' Laud misc. 674 (
Bodleian Library
The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1602 by Sir Thomas Bodley, it is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second-largest library in ...
, Oxford), demonstrates "high competence but no more originality than any of his contemporaries" according to Bent. Although no extant mathematic or scientific manuscripts written by him survive, he is known to have made copies of other's manuscripts. Dunstaple also owned two manuscripts by
Boethius
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, commonly known simply as Boethius (; Latin: ''Boetius''; 480–524 AD), was a Roman Roman Senate, senator, Roman consul, consul, ''magister officiorum'', polymath, historian, and philosopher of the Early Middl ...
: a copy of ''De musica'' and ''De arithmetica''.
Dunstaple died on
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve is the evening or entire day before Christmas, the festival commemorating nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus. Christmas Day is observance of Christmas by country, observed around the world, and Christma ...
1453, as recorded in his epitaph in London's church of
St Stephen Walbrook
St Stephen Walbrook is a church in the City of London, part of the Church of England's Diocese of London. The present domed building was erected to the designs of Sir Christopher Wren following the destruction of its medieval predecessor in the ...
, where he was buried.
Music
The musical output of medieval England was prodigious, yet almost all music manuscripts were destroyed during the
English Reformation
The English Reformation began in 16th-century England when the Church of England broke away first from the authority of the pope and bishops Oath_of_Supremacy, over the King and then from some doctrines and practices of the Catholic Church ...
, particularly as a result of the
Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536–1540. As a result, most of Dunstaple's work has had to be recovered from continental sources (predominantly those from northern Italy and the southern
Alps
The Alps () are some of the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia.
...
).
Because numerous copies of his works have been found in Italian and German manuscripts, his fame must have been widespread. Two problems face musicologists of the 15th century: first, determining which of the many surviving anonymous works were written by which composers and, second, unraveling conflicting attributions. This is made even more difficult for English composers such as Dunstaple: scribes in England frequently copied music without any ascription, rendering it immediately anonymous; and, while continental scribes were more assiduous in this regard, many works published in Dunstaple's name have other, potentially equally valid, attributions in different sources to other composers, including
Gilles Binchois
Gilles de Bins dit Binchois (also Binchoys; – 20 September 1460) was a Franco-Flemish composer and singer of early Renaissance music. A central figure of the Burgundian School, Binchois is renowned a melodist and miniaturist; he generally a ...
,
John Forest
John Forest (1471 – 22 May 1538) was an English Franciscan friar and martyr. Confessor to Queen Catherine of Aragon, Forest was burned to death at Smithfield for "heresy", in that he refused to acknowledge the King as head of the church.
L ...
and,
Leonel Power.
Of the works attributed to him only about fifty survive, among which are two complete masses, three sets of connected mass sections, fourteen individual mass sections, twelve complete isorhythmic
motet
In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the preeminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to the Eng ...
s (including the famous one which combines the hymn ''
Veni creator spiritus
''Veni Creator Spiritus'' (Latin: Come, Creator Spirit) is a traditional Christian hymn believed to have been written by Rabanus Maurus, a ninth-century German monk, teacher, archbishop, and saint. When the original Latin text is used, it is norma ...
'' and the sequence ''
Veni sancte spiritus'', and the less well-known ''
Albanus roseo rutilat'' mentioned above), as well as twenty-seven separate settings of various liturgical texts, including three ''
Magnificat
The Magnificat (Latin for "y soulmagnifies he Lord) is a canticle, also known as the Song of Mary or Canticle of Mary, and in the Byzantine Rite as the Ode of the Theotokos (). Its Western name derives from the incipit of its Latin text. This ...
s'' and seven settings of
Marian antiphons, such as ''
Alma redemptoris Mater
"Alma Redemptoris Mater" (; "Loving Mother of our Redeemer") is a Marian hymn, written in Latin hexameter, and one of four seasonal liturgical Marian antiphons sung at the end of the Liturgy of the Hours, office of Compline (the other three bein ...
'' and ''
Salve Regina, Mater misericordiae''. Dunstaple was one of the first to compose masses using a single melody as ''
cantus firmus
In music, a ''cantus firmus'' ("fixed melody") is a pre-existing melody forming the basis of a polyphonic composition.
The plural of this Latin term is , although the corrupt form ''canti firmi'' (resulting from the grammatically incorrect trea ...
.'' A good example of this technique is his ''
Missa Rex seculorum''.
He is believed to have written secular music, but no songs in the vernacular can be attributed to him with any degree of certainty: although the French-texted ''
rondeau'' ''Puisque m’amour'' is attributed to Dunstaple in two sources and there is no reason to doubt his authorship, the ''
ballade'' remained the more favoured form for English secular song at this time and there is limited opportunity for comparison with the rest of his output. The popular melody "
O rosa bella", once thought to be by Dunstaple, is now attributed to
John Bedingham (or Bedyngham). Yet, because so much of the surviving 15th-century repertory of English carols is anonymous, and Dunstaple is known to have written many, most scholars consider it highly likely—for stylistic as well as statistical reasons—that some of the anonymous carols from this time are actually by Dunstaple.
Influence
Dunstaple's influence on the continent's musical vocabulary was enormous, particularly considering the relative paucity of his (attributable) works. He was recognized for possessing something never heard before in music of the
Burgundian School
The Burgundian School was a group of composers active in the 15th century in what is now northern and eastern France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, centered on the court of the Dukes of Burgundy. The school inaugurated the music of Burgundy.
Th ...
: ''
la contenance angloise'' ("the English countenance"), a term used by the poet
Martin le Franc
Martin le Franc ( – 1461) was a French poet of the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance.
Life and career
He was born in Normandy, and studied in Paris. He entered clerical orders, becoming an prothonotary, apostolic prothonotary, and later bec ...
in his ''Le Champion des Dames.'' Le Franc added that the style influenced
Dufay and
Binchois—high praise indeed.
Writing a few decades later in about 1476, the Flemish composer and music theorist
Tinctoris reaffirmed the powerful influence Dunstaple had, stressing the "new art" that Dunstaple had inspired. Tinctoris hailed Dunstaple as the ''fons et origo'' of the style, its "wellspring and origin."
The ''contenance angloise,'' while not defined by Martin le Franc, was probably a reference to Dunstaple's stylistic trait of using full
triadic harmony, along with a liking for the
interval of the third. Assuming that he had been on the continent with the Duke of Bedford, Dunstaple would have been introduced to French ''
fauxbourdon
Fauxbourdon (also fauxbordon, and also commonly two words: faux bourdon or faulx bourdon, and in Italian falso bordone) – Music of France, French for ''false drone'' – is a technique of musical harmony, harmonisation used in the late Medieval ...
''; borrowing some of the sonorities, he created elegant harmonies in his own music using thirds and sixths. Taken together, these are seen as defining characteristics of early
Renaissance music
Renaissance music is traditionally understood to cover European music of the 15th and 16th centuries, later than the Renaissance era as it is understood in other disciplines. Rather than starting from the early 14th-century ''ars nova'', the mus ...
, and both Le Franc's and Tinctoris's comments suggest that many of these traits may have originated in England, taking root in the Burgundian School around the middle of the century.
Editions
*
**
Recordings
* 1982 – ''John Dunstable – Motets'',
Hilliard Ensemble, dir.
Paul Hillier EMI Reflexe 1467031, reissued with music of Leonel Power, on Veritas x2 50999 6 02493 2 6.
* 1996 – ''Dunstaple: Sacred Works'',
Orlando Consort The Orlando Consort was a British vocal consort which is best known for performing Renaissance choral music one voice to a part. The Consort was founded in 1988 as part of the activities of the Early Music Network of Great Britain, a forerunner of t ...
. Metronome METCD1009.
* 2003 – ''Canticum Canticorum. In Praise of Love: The
Song of Songs
The Song of Songs (), also called the Canticle of Canticles or the Song of Solomon, is a Biblical poetry, biblical poem, one of the five ("scrolls") in the ('writings'), the last section of the Tanakh. Unlike other books in the Hebrew Bible, i ...
in the Renaissance.''
Capilla Flamenca. Eufoda 1359. Contains a recording of ''Quam pulchra es'' by John Dunstable
* 2005 – ''John Dunstable – Sweet Harmony – Masses and Motets'', recorded by
Tonus Peregrinus
Tonus Peregrinus is a British vocal ensemble specialising in early music and contemporary sacred music, especially that of founder and director, Antony Pitts. Established in 1990, the ensemble have recorded numerous CDs for Naxos, their first wi ...
for the
Naxos
Naxos (; , ) is a Greek island belonging to the Cyclades island group. It is the largest island in the group. It was an important centre during the Bronze Age Cycladic Culture and in the Ancient Greek Archaic Period. The island is famous as ...
label.
* 2012 – ''O rosa bella'' ''Ave maris stella'' and ''Quam pulchra es'' by John Dunstaple have been recorded by the Lumina Vocal Ensemble
References
Notes
Citations
Sources
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Further reading
''See for an extensive bibliography''
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External links
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Biography and discographyfrom The Medieval Music & Arts Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dunstaple, John
People from Dunstable
English Renaissance composers
15th-century English composers
1390s births
1453 deaths
Burials at St Stephen Walbrook
English male classical composers