Guillaume Bouzignac Explained

Guillaume Bouzignac
Birth Date:c. 1587
Birth Place:Saint-Nazaire-d'Aude
Death Date:c. 1643
Occupation:Composer

Guillaume Bouzignac (c. 1587  - c. 1643) was a French composer.

Bouzignac was probably born in 1587 in Saint-Nazaire-d'Aude. He studied at the Cathedral of Narbonne until 1604, and was choirmaster at the Cathedrals of Angoulême, Bourges, Tours, and Clermont-Ferrand.[1]

His motets are preserved in two manuscripts.[2] His motets are highly distinctive: "Simply stated, there is no other music of the time that looks the same on the page or sounds the same as the motets of Bouzignac."[3] "One name in this period rises above those of his contemporaries for all sacred music, including Masses: that of Guillaume Bouzignac."[4] His dialogue motets, such as Unus ex vobis and Dum silentium, are small scale oratorios which anticipate Giacomo Carissimi, and then Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643–1704) two generations later.

Discography

Notes and References

  1. Sadie S. The New Grove dictionary of music and musicians, Volume 3 1980 p121
  2. Tours Ms. 168: the music of Guillaume Bouzignac, George Roberts Kolb 1984
  3. Anthony J.R. French baroque music from Beaujoyeulx to Rameau 1978 p167
  4. Lewis A. Fortune N. Opera and church music, 1630-1750 1975 p422