Life
Ciconia was born in Liège, the son of a priest also named Johannes Ciconia and a woman of high standing. The composer had the same name as at least three other men around Liège, and this has created confusion about his biography. A Johannes Ciconia, probably the composer's father, worked in Avignon in 1350 as a clerk for the wife of the nephew of Pope Clement VI. Another Johannes Ciconia is recorded in Liège in 1385 as a duodenus, generally a person of young age; scholars agree that this is the composer himself.
Papal records suggest that Ciconia was in the service of Pope Boniface IX in Rome in 1391. His whereabouts between the early 1390s and 1401 are unknown. From this time until his death in 1412, he remained connected with the cathedral of Padua. It is unclear whether he arrived in Padua earlier than 1401. His lament, Con lagrime bagnadome, is described in one source as written for the death of Francesco of Carrara. If this refers to Francesco il Nuovo, then it would date from after 1406. If, however, it was written for the death of Francesco il Vecchio, as scholars have assumed, then it would place him in Padua by 1393. The possibility of an intermediate stay in Pavia has also been suggested by Nádas and Ziino, on the grounds that this is where he would have formed his connection with the House of Visconti and acquired knowledge of the ars subtilior style and the compositions of Philipoctus de Caserta quoted in his Sus un fontayne (see below).
Read more about this topic: Johannes Ciconia
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.”
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”
—Bible: New Testament, Matthew 6:25.26.
Jesus.
“These people in high life have too much presence of mind, I believe, to seem disconcerted, or out of humour, however they may feel: for had I been the person of the most consequence in the room, I could not have met with more attention and respect.”
—Frances Burney (1752–1840)