Nicolas Grenon (c. 1375 –
October 17 1456), was a
French composer of the early
Renaissance. He wrote in all the prevailing musical forms of the time, and was a rare case of a long-lived composer who learned his craft in the late 14th century but primarily practiced during the era during which the Renaissance styles were forming.
Life
The earliest records of Grenon are from
Paris, where he worked first in the
Notre Dame Cathedral, and on the death of his brother moved to a job at the
St Sépulchre as a
canon. He rose in the ecclesiastical hierarchy at St Sépulchre, and then left Paris, moving first to
Laon in 1403, and then
Cambrai in 1408. In 1409 he took a post for the Duke of Berry as the "master of the boys", the music teacher and caretaker of the choirboys, at
Bourges; and in 1412 he began his career with the
Burgundian court of
John the Fearless (Duke of Burgundy). In 1419 he returned to Cambrai, and from 1425 to 1427 worked in
Rome as the master of the choirboys in the papal chapel under
Pope Martin V.
He retired to Cambrai, where in the 1440s he worked with
Guillaume Dufay on a complete revision of the
polyphonic liturgical music of the cathedral. He died in Cambrai in 1456 after an unusually long life.
Music and influence
Grenon's music shows aspects of both
medieval and early Renaissance practice. His secular music is the most up-to-date, and includes examples of each of the prevailing
formes fixes, the
ballade, the
virelai, and the
rondeau. The melody is always in the topmost voice, and all are for three voices.
The
motets by Grenon are unusual in their use of strict
isorhythmic technique, usually in all voices. In some aspects they are similar to motets of Dufay, except for the strictness of the isorhythmic principle. One is datable to 1414, since it praises the
antipope John XXIII, and probably corresponds to the opening of the
Council of Konstanz. Grenon also wrote
masses, but none survive complete; only a fragment of a
Gloria remains, not enough to establish his stylistic technique for this type of composition.
References and further reading
- Gustave Reese, Music in the Renaissance. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1954. ISBN 0-393-09530-4
- Richard H. Hoppin, Medieval Music. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1978. ISBN 0-393-09090-6
Category:Medieval composersCategory:Renaissance composersCategory:1375 birthsCategory:1456 deathsCategory:Burgundian school composersde:Nicholas Grenoneo:Nicholas Grenonfr:Nicolas Grenonit:Nicolas Grenonhe:ניקולא גרנוnl:Nicolas Grenonja:ニコラ・グルノンfi:Nicolas Grenon
