Johannes Brassart

Johannes Brassart (also known as Jehan Brassart or Jean Brassart) (c. 1400 – before 22 October 1455) was a Flemish composer of the early-Renaissance Burgundian school. Of his output, only sacred vocal music has survived, and it typifies early-15th-century practice. Life He was most likely born in the village of Lauw near Tongeren in the prince-bishopric of Liège (now in the province of Limburg, Belgium), though the date is only known approximately. From 1422 to 1431 he worked at the collegiate church of St John the Evangelist in Liège, where he was a succentor. In the mid-1420s he visited Rome, moving there in 1431, where he was employed in the papal chapel as a singer and probably as a composer as well; he was in the choir at the same time as composers Arnold de Lantins and Guillaume Dufay. During this period Brassart most likely composed the motet O flos fragrans, which was popular enough to appear in several manuscripts of the time, as well as Te dignitas presularis. In 1432 Brassart went to Basel, where he was a singer at the council chapel, and two years later Emperor Sigismund employed him as rector of the chapel, a post which he retained until 1443. In 1445 he moved to Liège