No better way to start the New Year and our 2018 anniversaries than with a Medieval love song from France.
Estienne Grossin (Grosin, Grossim de Parisiis) (fl. 1418 - 1421) was a late Medieval, early Renaissance composer active in Paris. He came from the Diocese of Senlis in Burgundy. All our information comes from two sources:
- Masses:
Most significant musicologically are four extant movements of an Ordinary of the Mass (Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, and Sanctus--it is not sure whether it originally included an Agnus Dei). The movements are unified by a motto or head-motif marked Trumpetta, a technique which would lead a decade later to the cyclic mass which used cantus firmus technique. Grossin's mass is one of the first examples of the trend for musical unity. The movements are written for vocal duets with alternated support from the trumpetta and full chorus.
There are also some single movement masses, mostly for three voices--one is à 4.
- Motets:
Imera dat hodierno appears in at least six surviving sources.
- French chansons:
Tres douchement et soutiement in three stanzas of twelve lines each, was found at the Bodleian Library in Oxford.
The rondeau Vas T'ent Souspir (Go, sigh), the only example of Grossin's music on YouTube, is included on an album of medieval chansons from the court of the Duke of Burgundy Philip the Good (1396-1467), Le Souvenir de Vous me Tue (The memory of You is Killing Me) (2004) by the vocal duo Asteria Medievale. During the late middle ages court music was mostly performed by one or two people or by small ensembles. Trying to fend off daily horrors such as plagues and other deadly diseases, poets turned to exalted verses:
____________________________________________________________________
(1) Asteria, "Le Souvenir de Vous me Tue." Album description, Asteria website. (http://asteriamusica.org/recordings.html (01/04/2017))
Estienne Grossin (Grosin, Grossim de Parisiis) (fl. 1418 - 1421) was a late Medieval, early Renaissance composer active in Paris. He came from the Diocese of Senlis in Burgundy. All our information comes from two sources:
- A 1418 source mentions that he was a cleric at the Saint-Merri Church in Paris,
- In 1421 he is mentioned as a 'clerk' or singer at the Notre Dame de Paris who was a priest and came from Senlis.
Grossin wrote mostly sacred and some secular music:
- Masses:
Most significant musicologically are four extant movements of an Ordinary of the Mass (Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, and Sanctus--it is not sure whether it originally included an Agnus Dei). The movements are unified by a motto or head-motif marked Trumpetta, a technique which would lead a decade later to the cyclic mass which used cantus firmus technique. Grossin's mass is one of the first examples of the trend for musical unity. The movements are written for vocal duets with alternated support from the trumpetta and full chorus.
There are also some single movement masses, mostly for three voices--one is à 4.
- Motets:
Imera dat hodierno appears in at least six surviving sources.
- French chansons:
Tres douchement et soutiement in three stanzas of twelve lines each, was found at the Bodleian Library in Oxford.
The rondeau Vas T'ent Souspir (Go, sigh), the only example of Grossin's music on YouTube, is included on an album of medieval chansons from the court of the Duke of Burgundy Philip the Good (1396-1467), Le Souvenir de Vous me Tue (The memory of You is Killing Me) (2004) by the vocal duo Asteria Medievale. During the late middle ages court music was mostly performed by one or two people or by small ensembles. Trying to fend off daily horrors such as plagues and other deadly diseases, poets turned to exalted verses:
Lords, courtiers, pages — everyone rejoiced, wept and despaired with great frequency and passion.(1)In Vas T'ent Souspir the poet asks someone to go tell his Lady how much he longs for her and her alone. Only a night with her, totally alone, will cure him from all his troubles. The flowing rhythm of the music conveys the sense of urgency.
(1) Asteria, "Le Souvenir de Vous me Tue." Album description, Asteria website. (http://asteriamusica.org/recordings.html (01/04/2017))