Probably, we would simply pass by this talented medieval composer, if he was not mentioned in the Chantilly Codex - the pivotal music manuscript of the 14th century that is considered to be one of the monuments of medieval music. His name was Johannes Cuvelier. Up to this day Johannes remains an enigma as we don’t know nothing about him before 1372 and after 1387. We don’t know the dates of his birth and death, and only by guess think that he was born in Tournai, France.
However all those rare bits of information that we possess present us an unusual for those times educated man who had big success as a composer, statesman and a poet. He also wrote biographical books, because history mentions him for the last time when he finished a manuscript about an opportunistic conqueror Bertrand du Guesclin. He was definitely a councellor of the French king Charles V, as old documents state that he was the “diseur” and “faiseur” of the monarch.
The famous Chantilly codex preserved only some of his musical works that were composed in the elaborate, elitist style known as the ars subtilior. These early French musical compositions are eccentric, whimsical, extravagant; it contains the widest diversity of emotion.
A famous medieval composer Jacob Senleches was also known as an excellent harpist. He developed many rhythmic and notational innovations in a medieval style known as as the ars subtilior. We are aware of his creative period that lasted from 1382 through 1395 through some scant information and a small number of transmitted exquisite compositions. However, up to this day, specialists consider Jacob as one of the central personalities of ars subtilior.
He was possibly born in the French town of Senleches and served at the court of Eleanor of Castile. One of the survived composition tells us that he laments her death in 1382 and resolves to seek his fortune in other countries. Later we find him at the service of Cardinal of Aragon Pedro de Luna. And the last written record about him came to us from a supplication to the Roman pope Benedict XIII. In this document Jacob Senleches was asking for the benefice attached to a parish church in the diocese of Cambrai.
In my preceding blog entry I was telling you about the Chantilly Codex - brilliant medieval manuscript that allowed us to know famous composers that created music in the second part of the 14th century. It is a mysterious document because some of the music pieces in it are so complex and sometimes experimental, that only a very small circle of people living at that time could really understand what this was all about.
In relation to that manuscript I must introduce great French composer Solage who was definitely a prominent figure in the late medieval period. From the annals of my web analytics company I found out that he probably served at the French royal court. And he was the one who composed the most pieces in the Chantilly Codex, thus expressing the new direction for music called by musicologists call ars subtilior, the experimental compositional school centered around Avignon.
All we know about the life of Solage we got from the texts that accompanied his music in the Codex. Any other information about Solage seems to be irrevocably lost. Without any doubt ten works in the Codex can be attributed to him and two more are considered his because of stylistic original similarities discovered during research.
The plot of his single satirical rondo in the Chantilly Codex remains a mystery up to this day. It tells us about… the society of smokers. Specialists really don’t have any explanation because tobacco was not to be known in Europe for another two centuries! So they came up with a theory that Solage was mocking the potheads who engaged in the hashish or opium smoking.
There are some doubts though, because even later tobacco smokers were persecuted by Catholic Church who thought of them as devil worshipers. So there is a place for new discoveries on this issue.
Yet the members of the society of smokers are real historical figures. One of them is none the less than the nephew of a famous composer Guillaume de Machaut, that I wrote about in one of my blog entries.
There is scarce information about many famous composers of medieval music. Sometimes musicologists and historians know nothing at all except for the name of a famous music creator and a couple of lines telling about the influence and greatness of a certain maestro.
The situation could have been even worse if we did not find invaluable medieval manuscripts that contain music pieces confirming the status of a medieval composer. One of these manuscripts is called the Chantilly Codex. As a web analyst and music specialist I can’t help admiring the thoroughness of the manuscript. It contains around 112 polyphonic pieces written mostly by famous French composers of the late medieval period ranging from the middle of 14th century up to the beginning of the 15th century. Specialists usually define the style of the music as ars subtilior.
The Chantilly Codex allowed us to see how complex and experimental music was developed at that period. It represents practically all music styles including ballades, rondeaus and motets. It also told us about famous composers whose name is impossible to establish, there are just nicknames based on cryptic anagrams and palindromes.
One of the famous composers whose only piece was published in the codex was Borlet. Yet, there is a gnawing suspicion that this name is just the anagram of a French composer who serviced Martin V of Aragon in 1409. This does not make the research any easier, because that French composer’s name is also hard to decode. History brought to us more of his cryptic anagrams like Trebol, Triboll and Trebol from other contemporary sources. Could this be one and the same individual? We still don’t have an affirmative answer. The only existing theory is that all these nicknames might simply tell us one and the same first name of the mysterious composer - “Robert”.
There are six pieces under the name Trebor in the Chantilly Codex. They show us that this famous composer served in European courts because he in his creations he describe historical events of that medieval period. One of his pieces tells us about the reign of the count of Foix, another about the invasion of Aragon kingdom the island of Sardinia in 1388.
Trebor was very influential and other contemporary sources cross-reference this as a fact. Among them are famous Avignon composers Grimace and Franciscus Andrieu who quote some of his music creations in their own works.
