Philippe Basiron
Phillipe Basiron’s life seems to have revolved around the cathedral city of Bourges. Around 1450 he was born there and around 1490 he died there. In 1458 he was chorister at Sainte-Chapelle de Bourges, in 1466 became a vicar-choral, and in 1469 Basiron became the 19 year-old magister puerorum there. For the 15 years 1475 to 1490 we, as yet, have no information. He was vicar of a Bourges church when he died.
Basiron’s surviving works include 4 masses, 3 motets and 6 chansons. His talent was recognized after his death–Cretin’s 1497 ‘Deploration’ on the death of Ockeghem mentions Basiron as one of the angels welcoming Ockeghem into heaven, and a 1508 publication includes him as one of “20 great composers of the 15th century”
D’ung aultre amer I
Attributed to Philippon this 4-part instrumental variant is found in a ms. in Bologna . . . Ockeghem’s chanson tune is in the recorder. Both of these variants are transcribed in Richard Taruskin’s ‘D’ung aultre amer’, Ogni Sorte Editions, which contains 18 different treatments of Ockeghem’s chanson. In the tradition of Franco-Flemish contrapuntal virtuosity the two middle voices of this variant are in canon at a 4th separated by half a beat . . . played by plucked strings.
Basiron: D'ung aultre amer I
D’ung aultre amer II
Basiron wrote a complete mass setting based on the folk-song “L’homme armé’. Here the two borrowed themes are cleverly intertwined in this 4-voice instrumental variant of Ockeghem’s chanson, which takes precedence, while the folk-song is treated rather freely. More contrapuntal virtuosity! Taruskin’s source is a late 15th century manuscript in Bologna.