The Contenance Angloise

English influencers in 15^th-century Europe!

15th-century English composers, including Leonel Power, Walter Frye and especially John Dunstable, had a profound effect upon the work of French composers such as Guillaume Dufay, introducing, in particular, the sweetness of full chords including thirds. A programme also to mark the 650th anniversary of the deaths of both Frye and Dufay and to explore the ingenious and beautiful music of this late medieval period.

Deborah Roberts, director of BREMF Consort of Voices writes:
“This programme is wonderful new territory for BREMF Consort of Voices as we generally perform 16th-century polyphony, but the choir is really relishing getting stuck in to the challenging but wonderful music from the previous century. As many will know, France and England had been tightly enmeshed in political rivalry over crowns and lands for centuries, but they also shared a rich cultural exchange, and this concert will highlight the special influence the English style had over the next generation of European composers. In fact, had their music not been preserved abroad little of it would have survived the destructions of the English Reformation!

England’s most influential composer was John Dunstable (c.1390-1453), more often originally referred to as ‘Dunstaple’. We know little about his life, but his fame was  far reaching. The music can be challenging to perform as full of quite complex  rhythm (which will keep the singers on their toes!) but it also has a tender and lyrical  quality, with full and resonant chords over the often quite mathematical structure. He was, in fact, also a keen mathematician and astronomer. A completely new composer for us is Walter Frye, who probably died the same year as the more familiar French composer Guillaume Dufay, in 1474, thus sharing his 650th anniversary. I’m very happy to say we will be performing more of both Frye’s and Dufay’s music in our festival concert, on October 18, shared with the Dutch ensemble Cappella Pratensis, when we explore the music preserved in a manuscript celebrating the marriage of Charles the Bold of Burgundy to Margaret of York in 1468.

Dufay is, of course, much better known, and we have taken on the challenge of performing part of his extraordinary L’homme armé mass. It’s quite a white knuckle ride but I know the singers will ace it!”

If you want to prepare with some listening to recordings of most of the music we will be performing, we have created a Spotify playlist here