Johannes de Lymburgia

Johannes served at the collegiate church of St Jean l'Evangeliste in Liege as chaplain and succentor and he also served the church of St Paul. He went to Vicenza in 1431 as an instructor for young servants of the church and received an appointment at Notre Dame in Huy as the canon in 1436. While in Vicenza he composed "Martires Dei incliti." The majority of his compositions were arranged for three voices with a dominant treble voice as well as dominant triple meters. His fauxbordon style is characterized by discant and tenor parts in parallel octaves with the contra-tenor a fourth below the discant. Johannes composed a number of mass pairs including Gloria-Credo and Sanctus-Agnus Dei pairings. The masses set by Johannes were apparently combinations of the various pairs adding independent Kyries. The hymns which he composed employed diverse polyphonic settings. Latin texts prevail as well as the use of Ionian, Dorian, Mixolydian and Dorian modes; the former modes were often composed using F and G. ~ Keith Johnson