Antoine Busnois (also Busnoys) (c.1430 – November 6, 1492) was a French composer and poet of the early Renaissance Burgundian School. While also noted as a composer of sacred music, such as motets, he was one of the most renowned 15th century composers of secular chansons.

Biography

While nothing is known about his early life, he was probably from the vicinity of Béthune in the Pas de Calais. By 1467 he was in the employ of Charles the Bold of Burgundy, where he sang at the chapel in Dijon. In addition to his duties as a singer and a composer, he accompanied the Duke on his military campaigns, as did Hayne van Ghizeghem. Busnois was at the seige of Neuss in Germany in 1475, and fortunately survived (or did not attend) the disastrous Battle of Nancy in 1477 at which Charles was killed and the expansion of Burgundy was forever stilled. Later, Busnois served at the church of St. Sauveur in Bruges; he held this position at the time of his death. He died in Bruges.

Works and Style

The contemporary reputation of Busnois was immense; he was the probably the best-known musician in Europe between the time of Guillaume Dufay and Johannes Ockeghem.

Busnois wrote sacred and secular music. Of his sacred music, two cantus firmus masses and eight motets survive (most likely many others are lost). He wrote several settings of the Marian antiphon Regina coeli. Stylistically, his music can be heard as a mid-point between the simplicity and homophonic textures of Dufay and Binchois, and the pervading imitation of Josquin and Gombert. He uses imitation skillfully but occasionally, writes smooth and singable melodic lines, and has a strong feeling for triadic sonorities, anticipating 16th century practice.

Busnois also wrote chansons, French secular songs, and these are the work on which his reputation mainly rests. Most are rondeaux, but they include some bergerettes as well; many of these compositions became popular songs, and some were perhaps based on popular songs, now lost. He probably wrote his own texts for almost every one. Some of his tunes were used as source material for cantus firmus mass composition more than a generation after he died, for instance Fortuna desperata (which was used both by Obrecht and Josquin). An unusual chanson is Terrible dame, which not only is an antiphonal dialogue, unique in the chanson literature, but has an Old French title which requires no specialized skill to translate.

According to Pietro Aron, Busnois may have been the composer of the famous tune L'homme armé, one of the most widely distributed melodies of the Renaissance, and the one more often used than any other as a cantus firmus for mass composition.

References and further reading

• Articles "Antoine Busnois", "Burgundian School" in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. ISBN 1561591742
• Gustave Reese, Music in the Renaissance. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1954. ISBN 0393095304