Dunstable, John

DUNSTABLE, JOHN. - Composer and astronomer, b. perhaps at Dunstable in Bedfordshire around 1370 and d. at Walbrooke on 24 Dec. 1453. He was buried in the church of St. Stephen in London. Little is known of his life: it is known that he was in the service of Duke John of Bedford, and it is supposed that he followed him to Paris when the duke went there as representative of Henry V and regent of France.

The hypothesis of a stay in Italy is worthy of credit, confirmed by his having lived almost always outside his country and by the presence of the majority of his works in Italian codices (Bologna, Modena, Trent), while a single English codex, the Old Hall ms., gives us one composition of his, Veni Sancte Spiritus for 4 voices; such an Italian stay, according to Van Den Boren, could be placed between 1425 and 1440, the era in which Dufay was a singer in the pontifical Chapel. Speaking of him, his contemporary Martin Franc says that Dufay and Binchois were his followers. He fused melody and harmony in a marvelous synthesis, giving, especially to the former, a rare expressive plasticity, whose immediate source is in the Ars nova italiana del sec. XIV.

Of his 54 compositions known so far, those printed are a minimal part. The Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österreich contain works of his in vols. VII, XXVII, XXXI and L (Leipzig 1913 ff.). The complete list of his works known so far with their respective sources is found in C. Steiner, D. and various settings of O Rosa Bella (Sammelbände der Internat. Musikgesellschaft, 2 [1900], p. 1 ff.; this list is completed by M. Bukofzer, Über Leben u. Werke von D. in Acta musicologica, 8 [1936], p. 111 ff.

Luisa Cervelli