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Medieval Composers (500 – 1430)
If you are a student of Music History or Composition, here is a more detailed list of composers you should know from this period.
Name | Birth | Death | Nationality | Representative Pieces |
Abelard, Peter | 1079 | 1142 | French | O quanta qualia (hymn) Planctus Jacob super filios suos (hymn) |
Adam de la Halle | ~1237 | 1288 | French | Le Jeu de Robin et Marion (musical play) |
Binchois, Gilles | ~1400 | 1460 | French | Tristre plaisir et douloureuse joye (rondeau) |
Bingen, Hildegard von | 1098 | 1179 | German | Ordo Virtutum (liturgical drama) Symphonia armoniae celestium revelationum (song cycle) |
de Vitry, Phillipe | 1291 | 1361 | French | Motets in Roman de Fauvel Motets in Ars Nova (music theory book) |
Dunstable, John | ~1390 | 1453 | English | Mass movements Motets |
Jacopo da Bologna | fl1340 | 1386? | Italian | Non al suo amante (madrigal) |
Landini, Francesco | ~1325 | 1397 | Italian | 147 ballate (in the Squarcialupi Codex) |
Léonin | 1135 | 1201 | French | Magnus Liber (organum) |
Machaut, Guillaume de ML410 .G966 | ~1300 | 1377 | French | Messe de Nostre Dame (mass) Motets, Ballades, and Virelai |
Pérotin | 1160 | 1225 | French | Viderunt omnes (organum) |
Piero, Maestro | ~1300 | 1350+ | Italian | Cavalcando con un giovine accorto (madrigal) |
Power, Leonel | ~1370/85 | 1445 | English | Alma redemptoris mater (mass antiphon) Mass (in the Old Hall Manuscript) |
Tuotilo | ~850 | ~915 | Irish | an Easter drama |
Vogelweide, Walther von der | ~1170 | ~1230 | German | Palästinalied (song) Unter der Linden (song) |
Yared | 505 | 571 | Ethiopian | The Book of Zimare (liturgical chants) |