Johannes Tapissier (also Jean Tapissier, Jean de Noyers) ( 1370 – 1408 to 1410) was a French composer and teacher of the late

Middle Ages 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 global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

, in the period transitional 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 ...

style. He was one of the first members of the Burgundian School, the group of composers associated with the Dukes of Burgundy, and from which the Franco-Flemish style developed.

Life

The first record of his life is from 1391, when he was hired as a "

valet de chambre ''Valet de chambre'' (), or ''varlet de chambre'', was a court appointment introduced in the late Middle Ages, common from the 14th century onwards. Royal households had many persons appointed at any time. While some valets simply waited on ...

" and composer for the court of Philip the Bold. He went with the duke on his travels, going to

Avignon Avignon (, , ; or , ; ) is the Prefectures in France, 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 Communes of France, commune had a ...

at least twice (1391, and again in 1395), where he doubtless encountered the composers and music of the Avignon repertory; Avignon then was the center of composition on the manneristic '' ars subtilior'' style. He was perhaps one of the contributors to the repertory, but if he left any secular music, or any music in the complex, mannered style, it has either been lost or remains anonymous. The anonymous '' Règles de la seconde rhétorique'', written around 1400, lists Tapissier as being among the most famous French poets, singers, and composers of the time. Around the time this account was written, and into the first decade of the 15th century, Tapissier ran a singing school in Paris; records from the Burgundian court indicate that they sent boys there to learn to sing. The peak of development of the Burgundian court chapel was in 1404, before the death of Philip, when it surpassed in splendor the chapels of the

antipope An antipope () is a person who claims to be Bishop of Rome and leader of the Roman Catholic Church in opposition to the officially elected pope. Between the 3rd and mid-15th centuries, antipopes were supported by factions within the Church its ...

at Avignon and the king of France, and many of Tapissier's students would have contributed to this development. Further court records show that his students "auditioned" for John the Fearless, the new Duke of Burgundy, in 1408, and they performed at services later that same year. Tapissier was dead by August 1410, but no further details on the circumstances have emerged. Tapissier is among the musicians mentioned by Martin le Franc in his long poem, ''Le Champion des dames'': :Tapissier, Carmen, Cesaris :N'a pas longtemps si bien chanterrent :Qu'ilz esbahirent tout Paris :(Tapissier, Carmen, and Cesaris :Not long ago they did sing so well, :That they astonished all of Paris) Tapissier seems to have been mostly forgotten before the 20th-century; in 1866, the musicologist

François-Joseph Fétis François-Joseph Fétis (; 25 March 1784 – 26 March 1871) was a Belgian musicologist, critic, teacher and composer. He was among the most influential music intellectuals in continental Europe. His enormous compilation of biographical data in the ...

remarked that the names Tapissier, Carmen and Cesaris were unknown to music scholars.

Music

Only three pieces by Tapissier have survived: two

mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

movements (a Credo and a Sanctus), and an isorhythmic motet which laments the

Western Schism The Western Schism, also known as the Papal Schism, the Great Occidental Schism, the Schism of 1378, or the Great Schism (), was a split within the Catholic Church lasting from 20 September 1378 to 11 November 1417, in which bishops residing ...

which divided the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

. Baude Cordier, one of the composers of the ''ars subtilior'', wrote a Gloria which forms a probable pair with Tapissier's Credo All of his compositions are for three voices. Although they are all sacred, they are stylistically more akin to the

chanson A (, ; , ) is generally any Lyrics, lyric-driven French song. The term is most commonly used in English to refer either to the secular polyphonic French songs of late medieval music, medieval and Renaissance music or to a specific style of ...

s of the time than to most other mass movements.

References

Sources

*Craig Wright: "Johannes Tapissier", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed January 7, 2006)
(subscription access)
*Craig Wright, "Burgundy", in ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. *

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tapissier, Johannes Burgundian school composers French classical composers French male classical composers 15th-century French composers 1370s births 15th-century deaths Arts in the court of Philip the Good Medieval male composers