Johannes Ciconia ( – between 10 June and 13 July 1412) was an important

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Def ...

and

music theorist Music theory is the study of the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory". The first is the " rudiments", that are needed to understand music notation ( ...

of trecento music during the late

Medieval era In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

. He was born in

Liège Liège ( , , ; wa, Lîdje ; nl, Luik ; german: Lüttich ) is a major city and municipality of Wallonia and the capital of the Belgian province of Liège. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east of Belgium, not far fro ...

, but worked most of his adult life in Italy, particularly in the service of the papal chapels in Rome and later and most importantly at Padua Cathedral.

Life

He was the son of a priest (also named Johannes Ciconia) and a woman of high social standing. Since at least three other men around Liège had that name as well, this has created biographical confusion, first solved by

David Fallows David Fallows (born 20 December 1945) is an English musicologist specializing in music of the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance, as well as the performance practice of music. He is a leader in fifteenth-century music studies, particularly s ...

in 1975. A Johannes Ciconia, probably the composer's father, worked in

Avignon Avignon (, ; ; oc, Avinhon, label= Provençal or , ; la, Avenio) is the prefecture of the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of Southeastern France. Located on the left bank of the river Rhône, the commune had ...

in 1350 as a clerk for the wife of

Pope Clement VI Pope Clement VI ( la, Clemens VI; 1291 – 6 December 1352), born Pierre Roger, was head of the Catholic Church from 7 May 1342 to his death in December 1352. He was the fourth Avignon pope. Clement reigned during the first visitation of the Bl ...

's nephew. Another Johannes Ciconia is recorded in Liège in 1385 as a , generally identifying a person of young age; scholars agree that this is the composer himself. Papal records suggest that Ciconia was in the service of

Pope Boniface IX Pope Boniface IX ( la, Bonifatius IX; it, Bonifacio IX; c. 1350 – 1 October 1404, born Pietro Tomacelli) was head of the Catholic Church from 2 November 1389 to his death in October 1404. He was the second Roman pope of the Western Schism.Rich ...

in Rome in 1391. His whereabouts between the early 1390s and 1401 are unknown. From 1401 until his death in 1412, he was connected to the cathedral of Padua in some capacity. However, it is unclear whether Ciconia arrived in Padua even earlier than 1401. His lament ''Con lagrime bagnadome'' is described in one source as written for the death of Francesco of Carrara - if this refers to Francesco il Nuovo ("the New"), it would date from after 1406; if, however, it was written for the death of Francesco il Vecchio ("the Old"), as scholars have assumed, this would place him in Padua as early as 1393. There is also the possibility of an intermediate stay in

Pavia Pavia (, , , ; la, Ticinum; Medieval Latin: ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy in northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It has a population of c. 73,086. The city was the ...

(as suggested by the scholars John Nádas and Agostino Ziino), on the grounds that this is where he would have connected with the

House of Visconti Visconti is a surname which may refer to: Italian noble families * Visconti of Milan, ruled Milan from 1277 to 1447 ** Visconti di Modrone, collateral branch of the Visconti of Milan * Visconti of Pisa and Sardinia, ruled Gallura in Sardinia fro ...

and acquired knowledge of the ''

ars subtilior ''Ars subtilior'' (Latin for 'subtler art') is a musical style characterized by rhythmic and notational complexity, centered on Paris, Avignon in southern France, and also in northern Spain at the end of the fourteenth century.Hoppin 1978, 472 ...

'' style and the compositions of

Philippus de Caserta Philippus de Caserta, (; also Philipoctus, Filipotto, or Filipoctus) was a medieval music theorist and composer associated with the style known as ''ars subtilior''. Life and career Philippus' name indicates that he came from Caserta near Naple ...

quoted in his ''Sus un fontayne'' ("Under a fountain") (see below).John Nádas and Agostino Ziino, ''The Lucca Codex (Codice Mancini): Introductory Study and Facsimile Edition'' (Lucca: Libreria Musicale Italiana, 1990), p. 43.

Music

Ciconia's music is an eclectic blend of styles. Pieces typical of northern Italy, such as his madrigal ''Una panthera'', appear with pieces steeped in the French '' ars nova''. The more complex ''

'' style surfaces in ''Sus un fontayne''. While it remains late

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

in style, his writing increasingly points toward the melodic patterning of the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ide ...

, for instance in his setting of '' O rosa bella''. He wrote music both secular (French

virelai A ''virelai'' is a form of medieval French verse used often in poetry and music. It is one of the three ''formes fixes'' (the others were the ballade and the rondeau) and was one of the most common verse forms set to music in Europe from th ...

s, Italian ballate and

madrigals A madrigal is a form of secular vocal music most typical of the Renaissance (15th–16th c.) and early Baroque (1600–1750) periods, although revisited by some later European composers. The polyphonic madrigal is unaccompanied, and the number ...

) and sacred (

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 pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to Ma ...

s and

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different ele ...

movements, some of them

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 ...

ic) in form. He is also the author of two treatises on music, ''Nova Musica'' and ''De Proportionibus'' (which expands on some ideas in ''Nova Musica''). His theoretical ideas stem from the more conservative Marchettian tradition in contrast to those of his Paduan contemporary Prosdocimus de Beldemandis. Although contrafacts and later manuscript sources of his compositions suggest that he was well known in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...

, his music is scarcely represented in major Florentine sources of the period; for instance, the Squarcialupi Codex contains nothing by Ciconia. But on the other hand, many of his motets and Mass movements are included in the manuscript known as “

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different na ...

MS Museo Internazionale e Biblioteca della Musica Q15”.

Recordings

* ''Johannes Ciconia: Oeuvre intégrale'',

Huelgas Ensemble The Huelgas Ensemble is a Belgian early music group formed by the Flemish conductor Paul Van Nevel in 1971. The group's performance and extensive discography focuses on Renaissance polyphony. The name of the ensemble refers to a manuscript of pol ...

(Pavane, 1982). * ''Johannes Ciconia: Opera omnia'', La Morra and Diabolus in Musica (ensemble) (

Ricercar A ricercar ( , ) or ricercare ( , ) is a type of late Renaissance and mostly early Baroque instrumental composition. The term ''ricercar'' derives from the Italian verb which means 'to search out; to seek'; many ricercars serve a preludial funct ...

, 2011).

References

External links

* *
Johannes Ciconia Discography at ''A Viola da Gamba Weblog''.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ciconia, Johannes 1370 births 1412 deaths Ars subtilior composers Belgian male classical composers Italian music theorists Trecento composers Walloon people Medieval male composers Medieval music theorists

Life

Music

Recordings

References

Further reading

External links