Composer. Last name also spelled Busnoys. His reputation rests on his dazzling part-songs for two or three voices. Busnois was the likely author of "L'homme arme" (c. 1450), one of the most famous songs of the entire Renaissance; its melody was used in over 40 Mass settings and countless vocal and instrumental arrangements. Another of his "hits", "Fortuna desperata", exerted a similar influence. Historians believe Busnois was born near Bethune, France. He may have come from an aristocratic family and during the 1450s he was loosely associated with the Royal Court in the Loire Valley. By 1461 he was in Tours, where he was arrested for beating up a priest "to the point of bloodshed" no less than five times; somehow this did not prevent him from being appointed a subdeacon at St. Martin's Abbey. There he studied music with Johannes Ockeghem, to whom he dedicated his motet "In hydraulis". Busnois then entered a decade of service under Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, whose death at the Battle of Nancy (1477) he witnessed. He ended his days as choirmaster at the Church of St. Sauveur in Bruges. About 60 of Busnois's songs survive today, though several more have been attributed to him with varying degrees of persuasion. He also wrote some fine sacred music, including three Masses (notably the "Missa L'homme arme"), two Magnificats, and eight motets.
Composer. Last name also spelled Busnoys. His reputation rests on his dazzling part-songs for two or three voices. Busnois was the likely author of "L'homme arme" (c. 1450), one of the most famous songs of the entire Renaissance; its melody was used in over 40 Mass settings and countless vocal and instrumental arrangements. Another of his "hits", "Fortuna desperata", exerted a similar influence. Historians believe Busnois was born near Bethune, France. He may have come from an aristocratic family and during the 1450s he was loosely associated with the Royal Court in the Loire Valley. By 1461 he was in Tours, where he was arrested for beating up a priest "to the point of bloodshed" no less than five times; somehow this did not prevent him from being appointed a subdeacon at St. Martin's Abbey. There he studied music with Johannes Ockeghem, to whom he dedicated his motet "In hydraulis". Busnois then entered a decade of service under Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, whose death at the Battle of Nancy (1477) he witnessed. He ended his days as choirmaster at the Church of St. Sauveur in Bruges. About 60 of Busnois's songs survive today, though several more have been attributed to him with varying degrees of persuasion. He also wrote some fine sacred music, including three Masses (notably the "Missa L'homme arme"), two Magnificats, and eight motets.
Bio by: Bobb Edwards
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