Fashioning an enduring musical identity in image, sound and stone

Abstract

Abstract Death and commemoration were central to the devotions that filled the side chapels and adorned the votive altars of 15th-century churches with exquisite sounds, forms and colours. Musicians participated in this outpouring of innovative memorials as both contributors to the ceremonies, providing the sacred harmonies that permeated these spaces on behalf of the deceased, and also as donors who funded their own visual and aural commemorations. How can this dual role help us understand the importance of musical identity for 15th-century professional singers and composers? Du Fay’s complex of commemorations—his will, personalized compositions and wall-mounted memorial—provides the most comprehensive specimen of this fascinating overlap between commemorator and commemorated, but there also remain many fragments from other musicians. Using Du Fay’s example, we can find connections between the visual and musical artefacts created or funded by other musicians, and infer that being remembered after death was an important impetus for the recognition of a distinct musical identity and the development of the professional composer.