French poet, Martin le Franc (probably before 1440), who cites him as the model of Dufay and Binchois. By this time, too, works of his had been copied as far away as the Tyrol. Later writers call him the first contrapuntist. He was buried in London, and two epitaphs extol his skill in music, mathematics and astrology. His existing works are all motets or secular songs, mostly in Continental libraries. Davey (Hist. Eng. Mus., 1895) pleads strenuously for Dunstable as the inventor of counterpoint and for England as the birthplace of the new style in general. Yet from 1350 to 1450 the relations between England and northern France were extremely close, so that neither was independent. Davey conjectures that Dunstable was in the English Chapel Royal, supposed to have been organized under Henry V., and that he took part in the musical services incident to Henry's victories in France in 1418-9.
With Dunstable are associated several other English names, with similar works, such as Lionel Power, John Benet, Richard Markham, etc.
Gilles Binchois (d. 1460) was born near Mons in Hainaut. In youth he was a soldier, but about 1425 he is named as a singer in the Ducal Chapel of Burgundy and about 1437 choirmaster. He died at Lille. Tinctor (c. 1475) said that his name would "endure for ever." Extant works of his, however, are rather few—fragments of masses and chansons.
Guillaume Dufay (d. 1474) was born somewhere in Hainaut and was trained as a choirboy at Cambrai, where the church music was famous. He seems to have written polyphonic songs for weddings in Italy in 1416 and 1419. In 1428 he entered the Papal Chapel at Rome, remaining till 1437. After this, besides spending seven years in Savoy, he held office in the cathedrals of Cambrai, Mons and Bruges, residing finally at Cambrai, where he died, highly honored throughout Europe. His extant works are numerous, including many masses, motets, chansons, etc. In range and amount of production he far outstrips his contemporaries. Adam von Fulda (c. 1500) asserts that he decidedly improved notation. [Through a serious error of Baini (1828) the dates of his life are often given as 1380-1432.]
To the middle of the 15th century also belong many other names, including Petrus de Domart, whom Tinctor apparently cites and from whom some masses remain; Philippe Caron, perhaps a pupil of Dufay, represented by some masses and many four-voice chansons; Vincent Faugues, from whom come several masses, copied at Rome about 1450; Anthoine Busnois (d. 1492), perhaps a pupil of Binchois, from 1467 a singer in the Burgundian Chapel, noted as one of the best of the early school, from whom are preserved a number of works, sacred and secular; Eloy, whose career is entirely unknown, unless, perhaps, he was a singer at Milan about 1475, but of whose able style some samples exist; and Hayne van Ghizeghem, in the Burgundian Chapel in 1468, known by several chansons of merit.
46. Second Group of Masters.—Late in the 15th century it is clear that a decided advance took place in skill and in breadth of influence. While distinguishing between two groups of composers, the authorities do not agree as to the assignment of
