Jehan Vaillant (; also spelled Johannes Vayllant) was a French composer and
music theorist
Music theory is the study of the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory". The first is the "rudiments", that are needed to understand music notation (ke ...
. He is named immediately after
Guillaume de Machaut
Guillaume de Machaut (, ; also Machau and Machault; – April 1377) was a French composer and poet who was the central figure of the style in late medieval music. His dominance of the genre is such that modern musicologists use his death to ...
by the ''
Règles de la seconde rhétorique'', which describes him as a "master … who had a school of music in Paris".
[Quoted in : ''maistre … lequel tenoit à Paris escolle de musique''.] Besides five (possibly six) pieces of music surviving to his name, he was also the author of a treatise on
tuning
Tuning can refer to:
Common uses
* Tuning, the process of tuning a tuned amplifier or other electronic component
* Musical tuning, musical systems of tuning, and the act of tuning an instrument or voice
** Guitar tunings
** Piano tuning, adjusti ...
. With
Grimace and
F. Andrieu
F. Andrieu (; possibly François or Franciscus Andrieu) was a French composer in the style of late medieval music. Nothing is known for certain about him except that he wrote ''Armes, amours/O flour des flours'' (''Weapons, loves/O flower of f ...
and
P. des Molins, Vaillant was part of the post-Machaut generation whose music shows few distinctly ''
ars subtilior
''Ars subtilior'' (Latin for 'subtler art') is a musical style characterized by rhythmic and notational complexity, centered on Paris, Avignon in southern France, and also in northern Spain at the end of the fourteenth century.Hoppin 1978, 47 ...
'' features, leading scholars to recognize Vaillant's work as closer to the ''
ars nova'' style of Machaut.
Life and career
Vaillant's works are conserved in the
Chantilly Manuscript, which is also the main source for the works of the Papal singers
Matheus de Sancto Johanne
Matheus de Sancto Johanne (died after 10 June 1391), also known as Mayshuet, was a French composer of the late Medieval era. Active both in France and England, he was one of the representatives of the complex, manneristic musical style known as ...
,
Johannes Symonis Hasprois
Johannes Symonis (Jehan Simon) Hasprois (died 1428) was a French composer originally from Arras. Four of his works of music survive in four different manuscripts, and he may also have written a treatise on astrology.
Career
Hasprois led an itiner ...
and
Johannes Haucourt. This connexion with the Papal group suggests to certain modern scholars that Vaillant may be the same person who entered the
Papal chapel at Avignon as ''capellanus'' Johannes Valentis or Valhant on 26 November 1352, during the pontificate of
Clement VI
Pope Clement VI ( la, Clemens VI; 1291 – 6 December 1352), born Pierre Roger, was head of the Catholic Church from 7 May 1342 to his death in December 1352. He was the fourth Avignon pope. Clement reigned during the first visitation of the Bla ...
. This Vaillant died, still in Papal service, in 1361, probably of
bubonic plague
Bubonic plague is one of three types of plague caused by the plague bacterium (''Yersinia pestis''). One to seven days after exposure to the bacteria, flu-like symptoms develop. These symptoms include fever, headaches, and vomiting, as well a ...
. The discovery by Israel Adler, the historian of Hebrew music theory, of an anonymous Hebrew treatise by a Parisian student of Vaillant's shows, in Adler's estimation, that the latter was lecturing the former late into the fourteenth century. A more likely identification of the composer would then be with one of several men with the same name who served
John, Duke of Berry
John of Berry or John the Magnificent ( French: ''Jean de Berry'', ; 30 November 1340 – 15 June 1416) was Duke of Berry and Auvergne and Count of Poitiers and Montpensier. He was Regent of France during the minority of his nephew 1380-1388 ...
(r. 1360–1416), during the latter decades of the century.
Léopold Delisle
Leopold may refer to:
People
* Leopold (given name)
* Leopold (surname)
Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters
* Leopold (''The Simpsons''), Superintendent Chalmers' assistant on ''The Simpsons''
* Leopold Bloom, the protagonist o ...
made yet a third suggestion: that the composer is the "Poitevin Jean Vaillant" who made an ''abrégé du roman de Brut''—an abridged version of the ''
Roman de Brut
The ''Brut'' or ''Roman de Brut'' (completed 1155) by the poet Wace is a loose and expanded translation in almost 15,000 lines of Norman-French verse of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Latin ''History of the Kings of Britain''. It was formerly known as ...
''—in 1391.
Music
Vaillant may have been "a younger contemporary of Machaut", but if, as the Chantilly Manuscript records, one of his ''
rondeaux'' was copied in Paris in 1369, then he was "rhythmically in advance of Machaut’s style". This ''rondeau'' has two texts, ''Dame doucement'' and ''Doulz amis'', while another has three, ''Tres doulz amis'', ''Ma dame'' and ''Cent mille fois''. Two of his ''rondeaux'' are monotextual: ''Pour ce que je ne say'', which is
isorhythm
Isorhythm (from the Greek for "the same rhythm") is a musical technique using a repeating rhythmic pattern, called a ''talea'', in at least one voice part throughout a composition. ''Taleae'' are typically applied to one or more melodic patterns o ...
ic and pedagogical, and ''Quiconques veut'', a
polymetric piece that is actually anonymous but sometimes ascribed to Vaillant. Of his works, only the ''
ballade
Ballad is a form of narrative poetry, often put to music, or a type of sentimental love song in modern popular music.
Ballad or Ballade may also refer to:
Music Genres and forms
* Ballade (classical music), a musical setting of a literary ballad ...
'' ''Onques Jacob'' is "fully in the style of Machaut".
Vaillant's ''Par maintes foys'', a ''
virelai
A ''virelai'' is a form of medieval French verse used often in poetry and music. It is one of the three ''formes fixes'' (the others were the ballade and the rondeau) and was one of the most common verse forms set to music in Europe from the lat ...
'' with imitation bird-calls, was probably one of the most popular works of the time, certainly one of the most copied, surviving in nine sources, including versions with two voices, an added ''
cantus
A cantus (Latin for "singing", derived from ''cantare''), is an activity organised by Belgian, Dutch, French, and Baltic fraternities. A cantus mainly involves singing traditional songs and drinking beer. It is governed by strict traditional ru ...
'', a Latin ''
contrafactum
In vocal music, contrafactum (or contrafact, pl. contrafacta) is "the substitution of one text for another without substantial change to the music". The earliest known examples of this procedure (sometimes referred to as ''adaptation''), date back ...
'' and one with a German ''contrafactum'' by
Oswald von Wolkenstein
Oswald von Wolkenstein (1376 or 1377 in Pfalzen – August 2, 1445, in Meran) was a poet, composer and diplomat. In his diplomatic capacity, he traveled through much of Europe to as far as Georgia (as recounted in "Durch Barbarei, Arabia").
He wa ...
.
Works
Editions
*
*
:*
:*
:*
References
Notes
Citations
Sources
*
*
Further reading
* Ursula Günther. "Johannes Vaillant". ''Speculum musicae artis: Festgabe für Heinrich Husmann''. H. Becker and R. Gerlach, eds. (Munich, 1970), 171–85
* Fernand Leclercq. "Questions à propos d'un fragment récemment découvert d’une chanson du XIVe siècle: une autre version de ‘Par maintes fois ai owi’ de Johannes Vaillant". ''Musik und Text in der Mehrstimmigkeit des 14. und 15. Jahrhunderts'' (Wolfenbüttel, 1980), 197–228.
* Christopher Page. "Fourteenth-century Instruments and Tunings: A Treatise by Jean Vaillant? (Berkeley, MS 744)". ''Galpin Society Journal'', 33 (1980), 17–35.
External links
*
Works by Jehan Vaillantin the Medieval Music Database from
La Trobe University
La Trobe University is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Its main campus is located in the suburb of Bundoora. The university was established in 1964, becoming the third university in the state of Victoria an ...
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vaillant, Jehan
French composers
French male composers
14th-century births
14th-century deaths
Ars nova composers
Year of birth unknown
Year of death unknown