Leonel Power

Leonel Power (1370 to 1385 – June 5 1445 ) was an English composer of the late Medieval and early Renaissance eras. Along with John Dunstaple, he was one of the major figures in English music in the early 15th century.

Life

He was probably from Kent, and probably born between 1370 and 1385, based on the stylistic evidence of his music as well as his probable age during his known appointments. A suggestion that he was of Irish origin in W.H.G. Flood's 1905 "A History of Irish Music" is usually discounted by modern scholars, since Flood is not known to have had any other sources on Power's life than are currently available. [Bent, Grove]

Prior to 1421 he was employed by Thomas, Duke of Clarence, as a clerk and as the instructor to the choristers. In 1423 he joined Christ Church, Canterbury, as a lay member; he probably served as choirmaster there, and later served in the chapel of the Duke of Bedford. [Bent, Grove]

He died at Canterbury on 5 June 1445 and was buried the next day; several notices of his death survive.

Music and influence

While Power's output was slightly less than Dunstaple's (only 40 extant pieces can be definitely attributed to him), his influence was similar. He is the composer best-represented in the "Old Hall Manuscript," one of the only undamaged sources of English music from the early 15th century (most manuscripts were destroyed by Henry VIII during the Dissolution of the Monasteries).

Power was the one of the first composers to set separate movements of the Ordinary of the Mass which were thematically unified and intended for contiguous performance. The Old Hall Manuscript contains his mass based on the Marian antiphon, Alma Redemptoris mater, in which the antiphon is stated literally in the tenor in each movement, unornamented. This is the only cyclic setting of the mass Ordinary which can be attributed to him. [Bent, Margaret: Grove onine]

Notes

References and further reading

* Margaret Bent: "Leonel Power", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed October 25, 2006), [http://www.grovemusic.com (subscription access)]
* Gustave Reese, "Music in the Renaissance". New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1954. ISBN 0-393-09530-4

Works

*Mass Alma Redemptoris mater

Notes

External links

* [http://www.hoasm.org/IIIC/PowerDiscography.html|partial discography on HOASM]