Philippe de Vitry

An accomplished, innovative, and influential composer, he was widely acknowledged as a leading musician of his day; the early Renaissance scholar Petrarch wrote a glowing tribute, calling him: "... the keenest and most ardent seeker of truth, so great a philosopher of our age.

While some medieval sources claim that he was born in the Champagne region, modern researchers have found that he may have originated from Vitry-en-Artois near Arras.

Perhaps aided by these Bourbon connections, he also held several canonries, including Clermont, Beauvais and Paris, also serving for a time in the papal retinue at Avignon starting with Clement VI.

Moving in all the most important political, artistic and ecclesiastical circles, he was acquainted with many lights of the age, including the Italian scholar Petrarch and the mathematician, philosopher and music theorist Nicole Oresme.

Such innovations as are exemplified in his stylistically-attributed motets for the Roman de Fauvel were particularly important; they made possible the free and complex music of the next 100 years, which culminated in the Ars subtilior.

Contains recordings of "Vos quid admiramini virginem / Gratissima virginis / Gaude gloriosa" and "Adesto sancta trinitas / Firmissime fidem / Alleluia Benedicta" by Philippe de Vitry.