imported>Tom.Reding: WP:STUBSPACING followup

2024-09-20T12:11:49Z

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{{Short description|English or French Medieval and Renaissance transitional composer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
'''Pycard''', also spelt '''Picard''' and '''Picart''' (late 14th century – early 15th century) was an English or French [[Medieval music|Medieval]] and [[Renaissance music|Renaissance]] transitional [[composer]].

He may have served in [[John of Gaunt]]'s household in the 1390s as 'Jehan Pycard alias Vaux'. The name "[[Picard (name)|Picard]]" suggests a French origin, but his music is regarded as being in an English tradition. He is one of the most prolific composers represented in the ''[[Old Hall Manuscript]]'' ([[British Library]]: ''Additional 57950''), with nine works from it attributed to him. His music is in the ''[[ars nova]]'' style, and is unusual in its virtuosity.

A [[Gloria_in_excelsis_Deo|Gloria]] by Pycard in the ''Old Hall Manuscript'' illustrates the sophistication of his [[isorhythm]]ic techniques. Each [[quarter note]] in the lower part equals 4½ quarter notes in the upper parts, creating an uneven ratio of 4:9 that causes the parts to lose synchronization. The lower part then steadily contracts in a series of Pythagorean proportions (12:9:8:6) until the parts come back into alignment.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Taruskin|first1=Richard|author-link=Richard Taruskin|title=The Oxford History of Western Music|volume=1|pages=409–410|date=2010|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford and New York|isbn=978-0195384819}}</ref> Indeed, Taruskin writes:{{sfn|Taruskin|2010|p=410}}

: So sophisticated is this music, so given was Pycard to mathematical and canonic wizardry in the other eight pieces preserved under his name in Old Hall, and so suspiciously Gallic is his name (cf. the ancient northern-French province of Picardie), that it has been suggested that he was actually a French composer whose works are preserved for some reason in an English manuscript (and in only one other, a fragment, also English).

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://hoasm.org/IIIC/Pycard.html "Pycard"], HOASM.org ("Here of a Sunday Morning") [[WBAI]]
*[https://www.lib.latrobe.edu.au/MMDB/composer/COM137.htm "The Works of Picard"], [[La Trobe University]] Medieval Music Database

{{Old Hall Manuscript}}
{{Portal bar|Biography|Classical music}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pycard}}
[[Category:French composers]]
[[Category:French male composers]]
[[Category:English composers]]
[[Category:14th-century births]]
[[Category:15th-century deaths]]

{{UK-composer-stub}}
{{France-composer-stub}}

Pycard - Revision history

imported>Tom.Reding: WP:STUBSPACING followup