DUNSTABLE, JOHN

(c. 1390, England – 24 December 1453)

   Composer who is most frequently cited in continental music theory as the one responsible for bringing the "English sound" to European polyphony, that is, a texture governed by a strict syntax of consonance and dissonance treatment and greatly simplified rhythmic patterns as compared to the French polyphony of the late 14th century. He is also credited, along with Leonel Power, with the earliest cantus firmus mass, the Missa Rex Seculorum (c. 1420s–1430s), although the attribution is not certain. Besides one other cyclic mass, there are 22 single mass ordinary movements, 15 isorhythmic motets, and 27 other settings of Latin texts.

(ca. 1385-1453)

   The outstanding English composer of the first half of the 15th century, famous not only in England but in Italy and elsewhere. He was a married layman but was closely linked to the great monastery at St. Albans and through it, to Duke Humphrey of Gloucester, younger brother of King Henry V and an important early English patron of humanists, both English and Italian. Most of his surviving music (more than 70 pieces) is liturgical and was originally intended solely for vocal performance. The sweetness of the music composed by Dunstable and his English contemporaries was greatly admired by contemporaries.