adruplum, etc. One of the masters of this school,
Hans Zeelandia, who died about 1370, is to be noticed on account of
his part writing being more euphonious than that of his predecessors.
He uses the third more freely, and he gives the principal melody in
his chansons to the treble, and not to the tenor, as do the others.
This also is in line with the British influence. Dufay was regarded by
his contemporaries as the greatest composer of his time. The open note
notation succeeded the black notes about 1400, or, according to
Ambros, as early as 1370. Coussemaker dates Dufay 1355 to 1435. The
introduction of popular tunes as a _cantus fermus_ in masses and other
such compositions is due to him; there are a large number of such
works still in the library of the Vatican. He was the first, so far as
we know, who introduced "_L'Omme Arme_," and the same subject was
treated by several other composers after him. Naumann thinks that the
most noticeable peculiarity of the work of Dufay is the interrupted
part writing, the imitation not running through the whole composition,
but appearing here and there, according to the fancy of the composer.
Dufay is also credited with having written pure canonic imitations
without descending to the level of the rota, with its endless phrases.
Quite a number of his compositions are preserved at the Vatican and
the Royal Library at Brussels. The other great name of the first
period of this school was that of Binchois, born in Hennegau, died
about 1465. A few of his compositions are preserved, but they hardly
present important differences from those of Dufay. There were several
masters intervening between those just mentioned and Busnois, who
closed the school, but at this lapse of time their work hardly retains
sufficient individuality to warrant burdening the memory with them.
Antoine de Busnois was born in Flanders in 1440, and died in 1482.
During a great part of his active life he was _chapelain-chanteur_ in
the household of Charles the Bold, and that of his successor, Maria of
Burgundy. His salary in this position was extremely meager, ranging
between twelve and eighteen sous a day, or, in our currency, between
about twenty-five cents and forty-eight cents a day, but as the
position carried provision for all the real needs of a man in the
matter of food and clothing, perhaps the salary was not so
insufficient, considering the greater purchasing power of money, which
must have been at least th