Surname
Villers (de)
Given Name
François
Variant Name
Villa (de)
Place of birth
Villers
Active period
1543 - 1544
Workplace
Amiens
Institution
Cathédrale d'Amiens
Biography
Villers [Vilers, Villa], Antoine de
(fl 1547–56). French composer. 18 chansons are attributed to him in anthologies printed by Le Roy & Ballard between 1553 and 1556. Another chanson (Au feu d’amour), published by Attaingnant in 1547 with attribution to ‘De Villa’ may also be by him. One further piece, the sacred contrafactum Le pelican de la forest, appeared in Haultin’s anthology of sacred chansons (RISM 15784). The four-voice chansons in Le Roy & Ballard’s fifth book (155614) all set folklike poems (one is designated ‘chanson poitevine’) in a predominantly syllabic manner; they abound in short note values, including groups of semifusae which were still rare in the contemporary chanson. The 13 two-voice chansons published with attribution to ‘Villers’ are arrangements of four-voice models, mostly published during the 1540s by composers of the previous generation – Certon, Crecquillon, Gentian, Jacotin, Janequin, Maillard, Maille and Sandrin – but they include reductions of Villers’ own chansons Au feu d’amour and Que gaignez-vous. Ten of these songs (excluding the arrangements of Villers’ own works) were reprinted in 1578.
Le Roy & Ballard and Haultin distinguished Antoine de Villers from P. de Villiers, but it is not known whether Antoine was related to a François de Villers, maître des enfants at Amiens and chantre ordinaire to the brotherhood of Notre Dame du Puy in 1543–4.
WORKS
6 chansons, 4vv, 15479 (attrib. De Villa), 155323 (attrib. De Vilers), 155614 (attrib. Ant. de Villers)
13 chansons, 2vv, c155524; 9 ed. B. Thomas, Adrian Le Roy & Robert Ballard: Premier livre de chansons à deux parties, 1578 (London, 1977), with incorrect attribution to [Pierre] de Villiers
Chanson spirituelle, 4vv, 15784 (contrafactum)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
MGG1 (F. Lesure)
F. Lesure and G. Thibault: Bibliographie des éditions d’Adrian le Roy & Robert Ballard (1551–1598) (Paris, 1955); suppl., RdM, xl (1957), 166–72
FRANK DOBBINS
(fl 1547–56). French composer. 18 chansons are attributed to him in anthologies printed by Le Roy & Ballard between 1553 and 1556. Another chanson (Au feu d’amour), published by Attaingnant in 1547 with attribution to ‘De Villa’ may also be by him. One further piece, the sacred contrafactum Le pelican de la forest, appeared in Haultin’s anthology of sacred chansons (RISM 15784). The four-voice chansons in Le Roy & Ballard’s fifth book (155614) all set folklike poems (one is designated ‘chanson poitevine’) in a predominantly syllabic manner; they abound in short note values, including groups of semifusae which were still rare in the contemporary chanson. The 13 two-voice chansons published with attribution to ‘Villers’ are arrangements of four-voice models, mostly published during the 1540s by composers of the previous generation – Certon, Crecquillon, Gentian, Jacotin, Janequin, Maillard, Maille and Sandrin – but they include reductions of Villers’ own chansons Au feu d’amour and Que gaignez-vous. Ten of these songs (excluding the arrangements of Villers’ own works) were reprinted in 1578.
Le Roy & Ballard and Haultin distinguished Antoine de Villers from P. de Villiers, but it is not known whether Antoine was related to a François de Villers, maître des enfants at Amiens and chantre ordinaire to the brotherhood of Notre Dame du Puy in 1543–4.
WORKS
6 chansons, 4vv, 15479 (attrib. De Villa), 155323 (attrib. De Vilers), 155614 (attrib. Ant. de Villers)
13 chansons, 2vv, c155524; 9 ed. B. Thomas, Adrian Le Roy & Robert Ballard: Premier livre de chansons à deux parties, 1578 (London, 1977), with incorrect attribution to [Pierre] de Villiers
Chanson spirituelle, 4vv, 15784 (contrafactum)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
MGG1 (F. Lesure)
F. Lesure and G. Thibault: Bibliographie des éditions d’Adrian le Roy & Robert Ballard (1551–1598) (Paris, 1955); suppl., RdM, xl (1957), 166–72
FRANK DOBBINS