Dunstable, Contanance Angloise, Humanitatis

The English Channel separates the British Isles from
continental Europe. 

Despite his celebrity status in Western Music History, little is known about the life of the Englishman John Dunstable (c.1390-1453). What we do know is found in a handful of documents dating from the early 15th century. Perhaps the most telling of these is an epitaph found in the London church of St. Stephen, describing Dunstable as a man "who enclosed Heaven in his breast" and was "the confederate of the stars". The epitaph writer continues to describe the deceased saying, "This man was thy glory, thy light , thy chief, O Music. One who scattered thy sweet arts throughout the world". It goes without further explanation that Dunstable was VIP status in his day. For his music to be spread "throughout the world" in a time of limited transportation is quite an achievement. While many epitaphs can be misleading with embellished descriptions of the dead, we know that this writer is reliably matter-of-fact. The majority of manuscripts bearing Dunstable's music have not been found in England, but in countries throughout western continental Europe, particularly France.

It is widely accepted that Dunstable served as a secretary/musician for the Duke of Bedford, who resided in Paris during the Hundred Years War. It is believed that Dunstable accompanied Bedford on his travels across the channel. With him, he brought the English style of writing, or what the poet Le Franc dubbed as Contenance Angloise. This "English Guise" is defined by its use of thirds and sixths -harmonies that, at the time, were considered dissonant- as well as simple rhythms that followed the natural rise and fall of speech. This simplicity was attractive to the French musicians. 

Quam pulchra es is an excellent example of the appealing style of Contenance Angloise. 

Immediately, the listener hears a major third sung by the top voice in the first measure. The downbeat of the second measure establishes a first inversion major triad; a sonority that remains constant through the piece. These sweet sounds offer an obvious contrast to the more angular sound of Machaut, who sparingly used the harmonies of thirds and sixths in his works. While today's standards find thirds and sixths as basic building blocks of harmony, it is likely that fifteenth century French artists were shocked,   perhaps offended by the consistent use of these harmonies. If there were any naysayers among those first hearing Dunstable's work, they were quickly hushed by the others who were drawn to his distinct English sound. It is hard to protest such beauty. Thus, Dunstable marked his place in music history.

Dunstable uses other original techniques in addition to his harmonies. Unlike prior motets that used chant and isorhythms, Quam pulchra es simply looks to the text to define it's form. The evocative text comes from the Song of Solomon 7:4-12, which places the piece under the umbrella of the established motet genre. This shift from constructing music around ratios and chant sections to constructing it based on the text is an important bookmark in the saga of music history. Dunstable leads the parade away from the mathematical quadrivium to the demonstrative humanitatis.