Music As We Know It

As with many other medieval composers, sometimes it is hard to restore their lives from beginning till the end. Many biographical facts of these composers, troubadours, musicians are in fact just guesses in the dark or merely suggestions.  The same is true about composer, theorist, and scholar, Petrus de Cruce who lived in the thirteen century.  Some sources in my web analytics company list his name as Pierre de la Croix. I don’t know, maybe it was fashionable at these times to use Latin version of the name. Go, figure!
Petrus de Cruce was born in,  or somewhere nearby, the city of Amiens, which is located a hundred miles to the north from Paris.  It is highly likely, that Petrus had studied in Sorbonne, because he held the title of magistar. And some specialists claim that he was a student of one of the most influential theorists of the late Medieval era Franco of Cologne.

Petrus was very productive in the 90s of the 13th century. He was one of those talents that transformed music notation system, making it possible for composers to maintain speech rhythms.  In later years Petrus de Cruce resided at the court of the bishop of Amiens, as a member of his clerical staff, and most likely his chapel staff as well.  He probably died before 1347 in Amiens, because he left his manuscripts in his will to the city cathedral. Contemporaries called him a worthy composer who created many beautiful and good pieces of music.

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