Johannes Tinctoris

Who was Johannes Tinctoris?

Johannes Tinctoris was a Renaissance composer and music theorist from the Low Countries. He is known to have studied in Orléans, and to have been master of the choir there; he also may have been director of choirboys at Chartres. Because he was paid through the office of petites vicars at Cambrai Cathedral for four months in 1460, it has been speculated that he studied with Dufay, who spent the last part of his life there; certainly Tinctoris must at least have known the elder Burgundian there. Tinctoris went to Naples about 1472 and spent most of the rest of his life in Italy.

Tinctoris published many volumes of writings on music. While they are not particularly original, borrowing heavily from ancient writers they give an impressively detailed record of the technical practices and procedures used by composers of the day. He wrote the first dictionary of musical terms; a book on the characteristics of the musical modes; a treatise on proportions; and three books on counterpoint, which is particularly useful in charting the development of voice-leading and harmony in the transitional period between Dufay and Josquin.