Gilles de Bins, also known as Binchois (c. 1400–September 20, 1460), was a composer and singer from the early Renaissance period. He was part of the Burgundian School, a group of composers in Burgundy, and is best known for creating beautiful melodies and small-scale musical pieces. He focused on short, secular chansons, which are songs about everyday life. While modern music experts often rank him below his contemporaries Guillaume Du Fay and John Dunstaple, all three were among the most famous composers of the early European Renaissance.

Binchois was born in Mons, modern-day Belgium, to a wealthy family from Binche. Little is known about his early life, but he likely received training as a choir singer. By 1419, he held a position as an organist in his hometown. By 1423, he was in Lille and may have served as a soldier under William de la Pole, an Englishman. Later, he moved to Paris and Hainaut. In the 1420s, he settled in the court of Burgundy under Philip the Good, where he became a subdeacon and received several positions that provided him with income and status. He retired to Soignies in 1453 with a generous pension and died in 1460.

More of Binchois’s sacred music, which is religious music, has survived than his secular works, which creates an unusual view of him. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, his style included gentle rhythms, graceful melodies, and smooth handling of musical dissonance, similar to his English contemporaries.

Life

The composer’s full name was Gilles de Bins, also known as Binchois. His name included the byname "Gilles de Binche" (also spelled "Gilles de Bins") and the dit name "Binchois" (also spelled "Binchoys"). Church records from St. Vincent in Soignies list his parents as Johannes and Johanna de Binche, who are often linked to Jean de Binch (died around 1425) and his wife, Jeanne, born Paulouche (died around 1426). His family belonged to the upper class in Mons and likely came from the nearby town of Binche. His father worked as a councillor for Duke William IV of Hainaut and later for Jacqueline, Countess of Hainaut. The elder Binchois also served as a councillor for the Ste Waudru church in Mons and helped build a chapel for the St. Germain church. Their son, Gilles Binchois, was probably born in Mons, a city in the County of Hainaut, where the composer Orlande de Lassus would be born a century later. There is no proof that Binchois was born in the nearby town of Binche, as some people believe.

No certain information about Binchois exists until December 8, 1419, when he was recorded as the organist at Ste Waudru in Mons. It is possible that Gilles Binchois received early musical training near the court of Mons, and like many composers of his time, he may have been a chorister in his youth, perhaps at St. Germain. A 1880 account by Jules Houdoy, which mentions a chorister named Jean de Binche at Cambrai Cathedral, has sometimes been mistakenly linked to Binchois. However, there is no evidence that Binchois was a chorister at Cambrai. He never earned an academic degree.

Records from July 28, 1423, show that Binchois moved to Lille around this time. He may have served as a soldier, as suggested by a line in the funeral motet Deploration for Binchois, written by composer Johannes Ockeghem. Binchois might have fought under the Englishman William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk, who was in France during the Hundred Years’ War. Binchois may have been in Paris with composer Estienne Grossin. A 1426 document mentions the Duke of Suffolk commissioning a rondel titled Ainsi que a la foiz m’y souvient from someone named "Binchoiz." At some point, Binchois joined William in Hainaut.

In the late 1420s, Binchois joined the court chapel choir of Burgundy. The exact date is unknown because records from 1419 to 1436 were lost. A 1427 document from Guillaume Benoit, which includes Binchois’ name, suggests he was in the choir by then, though this is uncertain. He was definitely part of the choir when he composed the motet Nove cantum melodie on January 18, 1431, for the baptism of Anthony, a bastard of Burgundy. The text of the motet names Binchois alongside composer Pierre Fontaine. Musicologist David Fallows notes that Binchois must have been in the choir years earlier, as a 1436 list places him as the fifth chaplain in seniority. The Burgundian court under Philip the Good was known for its lively and prominent culture, often compared to the court of Alexander the Great. Musicologist Reinhard Strohm described Philip’s court as a place of "eclectic and flamboyant culture" that reflected the feudal aspirations of the time. This cultural golden age was not due to Philip’s own innovations but because he continued to support the arts after a long history of royal patronage.

Among the court’s residents was the painter Jan van Eyck, who, according to art historian Erwin Panofsky, may have included Binchois in a painting called the Léal Souvenir, though this is not widely agreed upon. Binchois was associated with the leading composer of his time, Guillaume Du Fay. They likely met with poet Martin le Franc during a meeting of the Burgundian and Savoy courts in Chambéry in February 1434. Le Franc’s famous poem Le champion des dames describes the two composers and blind Burgundian vielle players. The only confirmed meeting between the two composers was in March 1449, when Du Fay stayed with Binchois in Mons for a gathering of canons. Other important composers of the time in the region included Hugo de Lantins and Arnold de Lantins.

The Burgundian chapel choir allowed its members to become clergy without being ordained as priests. In 1437, Binchois became a subdeacon. Due to Philip the Good’s favor, Binchois held prebends (a type of church position) for four churches until his death: St. Donatian in Bruges (from January 7, 1430), Ste Waudru in Mons (from May 17, 1437), St. Vincent in Soignies (from 1452), and St. Pierre in Cassel (from May 21, 1459). He was also made an honorary court secretary in 1437. Philip the Good paid for a now-lost work by Binchois titled Passions en nouvelle maniere on May 29, 1438. Binchois may have had some medical experience, as he treated a duchess’s toothache in July 1437 and received 30 sous for the service. Records show that Binchois did not travel much on his own.

Eventually, Binchois retired to

Music

The Encyclopædia Britannica says that Binchois' music focuses on "gently subtle rhythm, the suavely graceful melody, and the smooth treatment of dissonance [found in the music] of his English contemporaries." As a composer of melodies, he is often considered one of the best from the 15th century. Fallows argues that no one else at the time matched his skill in this area. Binchois wrote only vocal music. His works include 28 mass movements, 32 psalms, 28 smaller sacred pieces, 54 chansons, and many motets. Most of these are written for three voices, though some use four.

Most scholars agree that Binchois was not a progressive composer. Reinhard Strohm says that although Binchois became famous for his skill in melody and performance, he did not explore the deeper aspects of musical art. Binchois used a limited range of techniques, favoring older styles of music that reminded people of the 12th-century tradition of courtly love from troubadours and trouvères. He preferred small-scale works instead of more popular types like cyclic masses or masses based on secular tunes. This led Anthony Pryer to call him a "supreme miniaturist." Only one large-scale work of his survives, the incomplete isorhythmic motet Nove cantum melodie (1481).

Binchois' use of cadences was more modern; he sometimes used notes that hinted at the dominant scale-degree and leading-tone in a way that reflected later musical practices. His use of dissonance also caused discussion—he often used clashing notes in his music, even when it was easy to avoid. Joan A. Boucher noted that Binchois used the bass voice more than most composers of his time.

Like Du Fay, Binchois was influenced by the English musical style known as contenance angloise, which emphasized the third and sixth intervals and often included duets in larger compositions. Although Binchois likely never visited England, the Burgundian court had strong ties with the English, allowing him to absorb their styles. Gordon Campbell says Binchois was "ideally placed to absorb and reflect styles from across the channel." English influence was so strong that some works by Power and Dunstable were once mistakenly credited to Binchois. Strohm says this influence was not enough to make Binchois' music seem English in style; instead, he followed his own version of contenance angloise.

Binchois is best known for his secular French songs, called chansons, which were widely copied by other composers. During his lifetime, the rondeau was the most popular type of chanson among the three fixed forms. Most of his 54 chansons (47) are rondeaux, and seven are ballades. His songs are mostly in triple time, except for the rondeau Seule esgaree, which uses duple meter. Other features include the use of under-third cadences (Landini cadences), short phrases, and repeated musical material. Pryer says these repetitions show Binchois' creativity because few phrases are exactly the same in rhythm or melody, and consecutive phrases rarely end on the same note. His melodies are simple, use limited material, and have little rhythmic activity except in the final sections. Hans-Otto Korth noticed that Binchois' music shares a similar simplicity with folk music, though not necessarily because of influence. Fallows highlights the "unforgettable grace" of De plus en plus, the "restrained elegance" of Mon cuer chante, and the "carefully balanced phrases" of Adieu jusques je vous revoye.

The lyrics Binchois set were often written by famous French poets like Charles, Duke of Orléans, Alain Chartier, and Christine de Pizan. He focused on serious courtly themes, unlike some contemporaries who wrote humorous or celebratory songs. The chanson Filles a marier/Se tu t’en marias, which warns against marriage, is an exception. Binchois' way of setting text was different from his peers; his melodies usually did not match the poem's rhyme scheme. Scholars say this made the combination of music and poetry unpredictable in his works, unlike the balanced approach of Guillaume Du Fay. Fallows says this was an attempt to avoid strict rules of the fixed forms, while Slavin calls it more medieval than Renaissance.

In addition to not focusing on poetic structure, Binchois emphasized musical symmetry. Wolfgang Rehm noted that many of Binchois' early songs are symmetrically built in length and structure. In five-line rondeaux, Binchois added a sixth line without text to keep the music balanced. In the rondeau Amours et souvenir, abba poems are paired with abab musical passages. This makes it hard to determine the poetic form of a song just by looking at the music.

Most of Binchois' sacred works are individual mass movements, along with settings of psalms and canticles (especially magnificats) and smaller sacred pieces. No complete cyclic mass survives, and attempts to combine movements into a full mass by scholars like Laurence Feininger and Arthur Parris are not as cohesive as other Renaissance masses. Some movements are grouped based on similar styles, not specific musical parts. These mass movements are based on chant, but unlike his contemporaries, Binchois used chant as a starting point rather than a strict foundation, allowing more creativity. The structure of the mass movements is relatively traditional.

It is generally believed that more of Binchois' sacred music has survived than his secular works, creating a "paradoxical image" of a composer best known for the latter. However, his secular works are easier to analyze both stylistically and chronologically, which is not the case for his sacred music. The different church forms are treated separately, often without clear stylistic connections. There are also differences from his secular style: fewer Burgundian cadences, less major prolation, more selective use of tempus perfectum diminutum, and less regular symmetry.

Counterpoint was not a focus for Binchois, who instead emphasized clear speech-like delivery of text and musical

Legacy

He taught Dea and Gwynplaine to sing using the methods of Orpheus and Egide Binchois. During their lessons, he often stopped to shout with excitement, saying things like, "Orpheus, musician of Greece! Binchois, musician of Picardy!"

Today, music experts generally consider Binchois, along with Du Fay and John Dunstable, to be the most important European composers of the early 15th century. However, Binchois is usually ranked lower than the other two. Although Du Fay and Binchois were often grouped together during their lifetimes, the musicologist Reinhard Strohm believes this is misleading. He explains that Binchois gained his great reputation by excelling in one area of music, while Du Fay showed creativity in many different musical styles. Du Fay’s career was longer and more productive than Binchois’s. Meanwhile, John Dunstable was described by musicologist Margaret Bent as "probably the most influential English composer of all time." Fallows notes that, despite this, the number of times Binchois’s music was copied, used, and adapted by later composers shows he had a greater direct influence than either Du Fay or Dunstable.

Many of Binchois’s songs were copied and used by later composers for Mass compositions, even decades after his death. About half of his surviving secular music is found in the manuscript Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Canon. misc. 213.

Editions

• Riemann, Hugo (editor), 1892. Six previously unpublished three-voice chansons… by Gilles Binchois (c. 1425) from Codex Mus. Ms. 3192 of the Munich Court and State Library, transcribed into modern notation with a new (German) text [Sechs bisher nicht gedruckte dreistimmige Chansons… von Gilles Binchois (ca. 1425) aus dem Codex Mus. Ms. 3192 der Münchener Hof- und Staatsbibl. in moderne Notierung übertragen, mit neuem (deutschem) Text] (in German). Wiesbaden. OCLC 17704139.
• Stainer, John Frederick Randall and Cecie (editors), 1898. Dufay and his Contemporaries: Fifty Compositions (Ranging from about A.D. 1400 to 1440). Introduction by Edward Nicholson; musical analysis by John Stainer (1st edition). London: Novello & Co. OCLC 1120811734. Archive.org. Stainer, John Frederick Randall and Cecie (editors), 1963. Dufay and his Contemporaries: Fifty Compositions (Ranging from about A.D. 1400 to 1440). Introduction by Edward Nicholson; musical analysis by John Stainer (2nd edition). Amsterdam: Frits A.M. Knuf. OCLC 21452928.
• von Ficker, Rudolf (editor), 1924. Seven Trent Codices [Sieben Trienter Codices]. Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österreich, Vol. XXXI. Vienna: Universal Edition. OCLC 20376641.
• Droz, Eugénie and Geneviève Thibault (editors), 1924. Poets and Musicians of the 15th Century [Poètes et musiciens du XVe siècle] (in French). Paris. OCLC 3865780.
• Van den Borren, Charles (editor) [in French], 1932. Polyphonia Sacra. Nashdom: Plainsong and Medieval Music Society. OCLC 663506936. 2nd edition, 1962.
• Marix, Jeanne (editor), 1937. Musicians of the Burgundy court in the 15th century [Les musiciens de la cour de Bourgogne au XVe siècle]. New York: AMS Press. OCLC 1312495580.
• Rehm, Wolfgang (editor), 1957. The Chansons of Gilles Binchois (1400–1460) [Die Chansons von Gilles Binchois (1400–1460)]. Musikalische Denkmäler [de] 2. Mainz: Schott Music. OCLC 20617065.
• Kaye, Philip R. (editor), 1991. The Sacred Music of Gilles Binchois. Oxford: Oxford University Press. OCLC 23975354.