Firminus Caron

Firminus Caron (fl. 1460–1475) was a French composer, and likely a singer, of the Renaissance. He was highly successful as a composer and influential, especially on the development of imitative counterpoint, and numerous compositions of his survive. Most of what is known about his life and career is inferred. Life Most musical manuscripts give his name only as “Caron.” But his contemporary, the music theorist Johannes Tinctoris names him in three different treatises as “Firminus Caron” and the Vatican choirbook San Pietro B80 has “F. Caron” written above its copy of his Missa L’homme armé. Attempts in the past to identify him with people named Philippe Caron and Jean Caron are therefore to be discarded. Furthermore, a reference to “Firminus Caron” as primus musicus at Amiens cathedral in 1422 has now been shown to be misdated: his activity in Amiens is attested by numerous documents dating from 1459 to 1475 (when his father died). A document of 1473 names him “maistre Fremin le Caron,” implying that he had a university master’s degree, and that of 1475 names him “sire Fremin le Caron,” meaning that he had been ordained a priest. Some writers of the time, including Tinctoris, praise