(ii) The princely chapels and the Chapelle Royale

(ii) The princely chapels and the Chapelle Royale.

From 1309 the seat of the papacy was in Avignon, where Benedict XII founded a college of twelve cantores capellae, most of them recruited from the north of France (Laon, Amiens, Thérouanne and Paris). According to Froissart, Gaston Phébus, Count of Foix (1331–91), had ‘a great abundance of good singers’ at his disposal at Orléans in 1388, and he issued invitations to foreign minstrels. At Bourges, Jean, Duke of Berry not only founded the Ste-Chapelle (1405) but also set up his own personal chapel, employing such composers as Solage. At Moulins, Charles I, Duke of Bourbon, assembled a chapel of 12 musicians (including Ockeghem from 1446 to 1448). Amédée VIII and Louis, dukes of Savoy, engaged such composers as Pietrequin Bonnel and Antoine Brumel for their chapel. At Angers and in Provence Count René of Provence maintained eight singers (including Beltrame Feragut), all of whom joined the Chapelle Royale after René’s death.

In the 15th century the two foremost institutions, the chapel of the dukes of Burgundy and the king’s Chapelle Royale, moved about the country quite frequently. The Duke of Burgundy’s musicians did not become an established ensemble until about 1430; before that date, and without any real continuity, they had comprised singers from Notre-Dame and the Ste-Chapelle, and from Cambrai, six of whose singers had been at the papal court before entering the duke’s service. Under Philippe ‘the Bold’ (1364–1404) the chapel was, according to one chronicler, ‘more numerous and better chosen’ than the king of France’s own. While Philippe’s education had been exclusively French, his successor Jean ‘the Fearless’ (1404–19) had been brought up in Flanders; when he became duke he spent most of his time in Paris, where the sixteen chaplains in his service included musicians such as Pierre Fontaine, Johannes Tapissier and Nicolas Grenon. Philippe ‘the Good’ took them into his chapel, but his most famous musicians were Gilles Binchois, Gilles Joye and Robert Morton. During his long reign (1419–67) he spent less time in Dijon than in Flanders, Arras and Lille, where the Order of the Golden Fleece was instituted in 1454, accompanied by lavish musical ceremonies. He also founded maîtrises for four choirboys at Dijon and at Lille. The last of the great dukes of Burgundy, Charles ‘the Bold’ (1467–77), who had received a very good musical education himself, took his singers with him as he moved about the country. They included Hayne van Ghizeghem and above all Antoine Busnoys, who had been in Charles’s service when he was Count of Charolais.

The Chapelle Royale of King Charles VI of France was still a relatively modest ensemble consisting of eleven singers, directed in 1399 by the premier chapelain Jehan du Moulin and then by Adam Maigret. Several of the singers were also members of the choirs of Notre-Dame or the Ste-Chapelle. In 1401 the dukes of Bourbon and Burgundy founded a short-lived cour d’amour which celebrated masses ‘à note, à son d’orgues, chant et déchant’. Under Charles VII and Louis XI the court favoured the châteaux of the Loire as residences. Charles VII chose Jean de Ockeghem to direct his chapel, appointing him to the important post of treasurer of St-Martin, Tours. Having been premier chapelain, Ockeghem was appointed maître de la chapelle de chant du roy in 1465. He served three French kings over a period of 45 years. Under Louis XI, the beginning of whose reign saw a slight reduction in the numbers of musicians in the chapel, pride of place was given to religious ceremonies and to such composers as Johannes Fedé and Jehan Fresneau; Louis’ favourite residence was the château of Plessis-lès-Tours. When Ockeghem died in 1497 he was succeeded by Evrard de la Chapelle.

Until the beginning of the 16th century musicians from the northern provinces were often attracted by offers from the courts and choir schools of northern Italy and the papal chapel, where their gifts for composition and skill in performing the polyphonic repertory were highly esteemed. However, the Council of Basle and the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges (1438) gave the king of France considerable independence from the papacy in the granting of benefices, and church musicians in particular were now able to obtain positions offering more security. These events marked the beginning of the emancipation of the French church in its move towards Gallicanism.

(iii) Musical education.

Minstrels and instrumentalists had evolved their own system of musical training within the profession. In Paris, under Charles VI, Guillebert of Metz noted the presence of ‘escoles de ménestrels’ in the rue des Jugléeurs. In the 14th and 15th centuries the northern regions of France had a custom of holding annual gatherings (‘escolles’) during Lent, for the purpose of exchanging professional information, for example about the making and playing of instruments, and new repertory. The most important gatherings seem to have been at Ypres [Ieper] (1313–1432), Beauvais (1398–1436), Cambrai (1427–40), Saint-Omer (1424–41), and in cities in the Low Countries (Bruges, Brussels, Mons). Elsewhere, we know only that the minstrels of Savoy usually met at Bourg-en-Bresse (1377–1407), and that Pedro III of Aragon used to send his minstrels ‘to the schools’ in France at the end of the 14th century. By the end of the following century, such customs had disappeared. However, there were links between certain minstrels’ guilds and the ecclesiastical chapters: one of these confraternities had its headquarters in the church of Notre Dame-la-Grande in Valenciennes from the 13th century. In 1402 the minstrels of Fécamp were granted a charter allowing them to participate in monastic chant at certain times; in 1465 the minstrel guild of Amiens received permission to use a chapel in the cathedral as its headquarters; and after 1492 the ménétriers of Toulouse had their own chapel in the church of the Carmelite convent.