Gilles de Bins dit Binchois (also Binchoys; c. 1400 – 20 September 1460) was a Franco-Flemish composer and singer of early Renaissance music.

A central figure of the Burgundian School, Binchois is renowned a melodist and miniaturist; he generally avoided large scale works, and is most admired for his shorter secular chansons.

[3] Reflecting on his style, the Encyclopædia Britannica comments that "Binchois cultivated the gently subtle rhythm, the suavely graceful melody, and the smooth treatment of dissonance of his English contemporaries".

[8] His parents were of the upper class in Mons and probably from the town of Binche; his father was a councillor to Duke William IV of Hainault and later Jacqueline, Countess of Hainaut.

[8] It is possible that Gilles Binchois received an early musical education near the court of Mons, and like other composers of his time, he probably trained as a chorister in his youth, perhaps at St Germain.

[15] The musicologist Reinhard Strohm commented that Philip's court of "eclectic and flamboyant culture typified the feudal aspirations of the age".

[16] Among the residents of the court was the painter Jan van Eyck, who, according to the art historian Erwin Panofsky, may have portrayed Binchois in the Léal Souvenir portrait, though there is no widespread agreement for this.

[18] He eventually retired in Soignies by February 1453, receiving a substantial pension until his death, presumably for his long years of exemplary service to the Burgundian court.

[7] Upon his death Ockeghem wrote a deploration, Mort, tu as navré de ton dart; its opening appears to quote an otherwise unknown chanson by Binchois.

[11] Fallows has suggested that Du Fay composed the rondeau En triumphant in 1460 for his colleague's death,[19] since it seemingly references two songs by Binchois.

[28] Binchois' composed exclusively vocal music; his compositions include 28 mass movements, 32 psalms, 28 smaller sacred works, 54 chansons, and a variety of motets,.

[30] The musicologist Reinhard Strohm concludes that although he "earned his enormous reputation in the one genre in which he excelled as a composer [...] this master of melody and courtly performer apparently does not explore the depths of the art".

[31] Binchois utilized a limited range of techniques, favoring older melodic styles that echoed the 12th-century amour courtois (lit.

[29][n 6] Binchois' treatment of cadences was more forward-looking; he occasionally approached the dominant scale-degree and leading-tone with a tonal sensibilities of the later common practice period.

[35] Like Du Fay, Binchois was deeply influenced by the contenance angloise style of John Dunstaple and Lionel Power, which uniquely emphasized the third and sixth intervals and often highlighted duets within larger textures.

[7] Fallows highlights these sentiments in numerous works: the "unforgettable grace" of "De plus en plus"; "restrained elegance" of "Mon cuer chante"; and "carefully balanced phrases" of "Adieu jusques je vous revoye".

[42] The lyrics Binchois set were often by prominent French poet contemporaries, such as Charles, Duke of Orléans, Alain Chartier and Christine de Pizan.

[48] Fallows suggests that this approach is an attempt to counter the strict structural rules of the formes fixes,[49] while Slavin describes this attitude as more medieval than Humanistic-Renaissance.

[47] The musicologist Wolfgang Rehm was the first to note that numerous Binchois songs, particularly early works, are symmetrically constructed in their length and the location of their middle cadence.

[54] It is generally assumed that considerably more of Binchois' total sacred music survives than secular, creating a "paradoxical image" of a composer best known for the latter.

[29] Oftentimes the work's chant source is harmonized in a basic, "note-against-note" manner, with such harmony in the top voice, akin to the continental standard then.

[29] Homophony is his sacred texture of choice, typically in the fauxbourdon style, melodies based on the Parisian rite—a then-fashionable approach in Burgundy.

Modern musicologists generally hold Binchois, along with Du Fay and John Dunstable as the three major European composers of the early 15th-century.

"[60] Reflecting on this, Fallows contends that regardless, "the extent to which [Binchois'] works were borrowed, cited, parodied and intabulated in the later 15th century implies that he had more direct influence than either [Du Fay or Dunstaple]".