BINCHOIS, GILLES

(1400-1460)

One of the major composers associated with the flowering of music at the court of the dukes ofBurgundyin the 15th-century Netherlands. Although he produced much liturgical music, he is best known for his secularchansons(songs) accompanying poems of courtly love. Probably born near Mons, he became organist in a church there and later for a long period served as chaplain to Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy (reigned 1419-1467).