Johannes ciconia biography

Johannes Ciconia was.
Johannes Ciconia was an important Franco-Flemish composer and music theorist of trecento music during the late Medieval era.
Johannes Ciconia was a Franco-Flemish composer in the late middle Ages and pre-Renaissance era.

•

Ciconia, Johannes

Walloon musician and theorist of the Ars nova; b. Liège, Belgium, c. 1335–40; d. Padua, Italy, December 1411. In 1350 he was in Avignon, France, as favorite of Clement VI's niece, Alienor de Cominges-Turenne, and in 1358 he was in the employment of Cardinal albornoz, then papal legate for Italy, who granted him a canonry at Cesena and obtained one from Urban V at St. John the Evangelist, Liège, previously requested by Clement's niece. After Albornoz's death (1367) Ciconia returned to his native land and in 1372 took up his Liège canonry. Finally, in 1401, he returned to Padua as canon and precentor at St. John Church. Trained in the French musical tradition, in both his own country and Avignon, he became acquainted early with Italian music, and his first works, Italian madrigals and ballatas, testify to his knowledge of the art of Jacopo da Bologna and the Lombard court composers. On returning to Liège, he wrote some Masses in the Avignon style, blending French structures with the allurements of Italian melody, with which his Fren

•

Johanes Ciconia: Sus un fontayne

Sus un fontayne

Sus une fontayne en remirant
Oy chanter si douchement
Que mon cuer, corps et pensement,
Ramanent pris et attendant

D'avoir merchi de ma dolour
Qui me trepount au cour forment

Seul de veoir ce noble flour,
Qui tant cantoit suavement.

Que chois' null' say en recivant,
Pavour, tremour et angosment,
Que fere duis certaynement,
Tant sui de ly veoir desirant.

Sus une fontayne en remirant
Oy chanter si douchement
Que mon cuer, corps et pensement,
Ramanent pris et attendant

Sus un fontayne

While gazing in wonder by a fountain,
I heard such sweet singing
That my heart, body and thoughts
Were held in rapt attention,

Waiting in hopes of finding solace for the pain
Which rages so strongly in my heart

Only to see this gracious flower
Who was singing with such delicacy.

Not knowing what my chances are,
I am seized by fear, trembling and anguish
Which are only as natural
Since I desire so much to see her.

While gazing in wonder by a fountain,
I heard such sweet singing
That my heart, body

•

Johannes [Jean] Ciconia

(c. 1335 - 1411)

Franco-Flemish composer and theorist. Probably the son of another Johannes Ciconia, canon at the church of St.-Jean l'Évangéliste in Liège.

In biographical accounts father and son have generally been treated as one person. The composer was a choir boy in Liège in 1385. From at least 1401 until his death, he was associated with the cathedral of Padua. Between these dates he may have spent time in Avignon, encountering the influence of Philipoctus de Caserta, and may have been in the service of Francesco Carrara "il Novello," who was in Avignon in 1389 and in Padua from 1390.

His works are rooted in the musical traditions of northern Italy, but many also incorporate features typical of the French ars nova and, especially, the ars subtilior. None dates from before ca. 1390. The secular compositions include four Italian madrigals and nine ballate (two incomplete), two French virelays, and one Latin canon. The sacred works and occasional pieces with Latin text include ten Mass movements (Glorias and C