Gilles Binchois (or Gilles de Bins) was a Burgundian composer who was born in Mons, circa1400 and died in Soignies, 20 September 1460. He is first heard of as an organist at the church of Ste Waudru, Mons, in 1419. In 1423 he moved to Lille, and shortly after this entered the service of William de la Pole, First Duke of Suffolk (the English occupied northern France at this time
); they returned to the vicinity of Mons (Hainaut) in 1425. There is no evidence that Binchois ever visited England, but some of his works are settings of the Sarum Use, at least one song is found in an English manuscript, and his ballade Dueil angoisseus was used as the basis of a mass setting by the English composer Bedyngham.
); they returned to the vicinity of Mons (Hainaut) in 1425. There is no evidence that Binchois ever visited England, but some of his works are settings of the Sarum Use, at least one song is found in an English manuscript, and his ballade Dueil angoisseus was used as the basis of a mass setting by the English composer Bedyngham. In about 1426 Binchois joined the Burgundian court of Philip the Good, and one of his few datable works is the motet Nove cantum melodie for the baptism of the Burgundian Prince Anthoine in January 1431. There was some contact between Binchois and Dufay—their first meeting seems to have been in 1434, when the Burgundian and Savoy courts were at Chambéry, and in 1449 Dufay stayed with Binchois in Mons. Binchois retired to Soignies in 1452 and there became provost of the collegiate church of St Vincent. It is possible that he had some connection with the famous Feast of the Pheasant in Lille (1454), where the chanson Je ne vis oncques la pareille, ascribed to Binchois in one source and to Dufay in another, was performed.
Binchois was one of the most able and yet thoroughly traditional composers of the 15th century. His surviving works include 28 mass movements, 32 psalms, motets, and small sacred works, and 54 chansons, 47 in rondeau form and seven in ballade form. Some of his sacred output is severely practical, with simple note-against-note harmonizations of the chant, which appears in the top voice as was usually the case in continental music of that period. Although he wrote pairs of mass movements, they are linked rather loosely (by overall range, the sequence of time signatures, etc.), and no pair shares the same tenor. He avoided large-scale works, writing no cyclic masses and only one isorhythmic motet (Nove cantum melodie).
Binchois's songs are his most attractive compositions: typical features include the use of under-3rd cadences, rather short-breathed phrases, triple rhythm (the only song in duple time is Seule esgaree), and the apparent repetition of material. In fact these superficial repetitions serve to demonstrate Binchois's flexibility, since it is rare for two phrases to have exactly the same rhythmic or melodic contour, and consecutive phrases rarely end on the same pitch or note-value. The song Je me recommande is a fine example of his style and illustrates many of the features that make Binchois a supreme miniaturist.
Binchois's death was lamented in Ockeghem's Mort, tu as navré de ton dart, which tells us that Binchois was a soldier in his youth (perhaps with the Duke of Suffolk), and which opens with what seems to be a quotation from an otherwise unknown Binchois chanson.
Anthony Pryer
