Baude Cordier

Baude Cordier (born c. 1380 in Rheims, died before 1440) was a French composer from Rheims; it has been suggested that Cordier was the nom de plume of Baude Fresnel.[1] Cordier's works are considered among the prime examples of ars subtilior. In line with that cultural trend, he was fond of using red note notation, also known as coloration, a technique stemming from the general practice of mensural notation. The change in color adjusts the rhythm of a particular note from its usual form. (This musical style and type of notation has also been termed "mannerism" and "mannered notation.")[2]

Cordier's rondeau about love, Belle, Bonne, Sage, is in a heart shape, with red notes indicating rhythmic alterations.

Ten of Cordier's secular pieces survive, most of which are rondeaux:

  • some are in the rhythmically complex late fourteenth-century French style of ars subtilior, such as "Amans amés secretement" (Lovers, love discreetly).[3]
  • others are simpler, with greater emphasis on lyrical melody, such as "Belle, Bonne, Sage", also transcribed in HAM, and characterized with "Amans" as a rondeau.

Two of the composer's chansons are in the Chantilly Manuscript and are well-known examples of eye music:

  • the love song "Belle, Bonne, Sage" ("Beautiful, Good, Wise"). The manuscript is in the shape of a heart.[4][5]
Cordier's Tout par compas suy composés.
  • a circular canon "Tout par compas suy composés" ("With a compass was I composed")—more eye music, in which the manuscript is written in a circle.[6][7]

His mass movement in the Apt MS is in the later, simpler fifteenth-century style.

References
  1. Wright, Craig, "Tapissier and Cordier: New Documents and Conjectures", Quarterly, The Musical 59, no. 2 (April 1973): 177–89. References on 179–80, 186–89; Reaney, Gilbert, "Cordier, Baude" The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. London, Macmillan, 1980. (20 vol.) ISBN 1-56159-174-2
  2. See Parrish, Carl. The Notation of Medieval Music. W. W. Norton, 1957.)
  3. Transcribed with commentary in Archibald T. Davison and Willi Apel: Historical Anthology of Music (HAM): Oriental, Medieval and Renaissance Music (Harvard University Press)
  4. A modern transcription and music media file of "Belle, Bonne, Sage."
  5. The text and English translation of the song
  6. More details on text and performance and links to recorded performances of "Tout par compas
  7. Bergsagel, John. "Cordier's Circular Canon," The Musical Times, 113, No. 1558 (Dec., 1972), pp. 1175-1177
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