Life
He may have come from Amiens, based on the commonness of the name "Firmin" there, as well as the presence of a Firminus Caron in the Amiens cathedral choir in 1422 (conjectured to be the composer's father, unless he was extraordinarly long-lived for the time). Some writers of the time, including Johannes Tinctoris, praised Caron. Most of Caron's music survives in Italian manuscripts, leading to the hypothesis that he may have spent some time in Italy, a common destination for composers from northern Europe: however many compositions by French composers made their way to Italian manuscripts without being carried there by their composers, so this is not certain.
In 1472 and 1473, Caron is mentioned by Loyset Compère alongside Guillaume Dufay, and stylistic similarities between the two composers suggests a relation. In addition, one of Caron's masses appears in a Cambrai manuscript dated to 1472 or 1473, the year before Dufay's death there. Caron may have been in Cambrai in the early 1470s and known Dufay, but even that is not certain. References to Caron in writings by music theorists appear as late as 1556, in the writings of German Hermann Finck, indicating the spread and duration of his reputation. Johannes Tinctoris, whose writings are a rich source on 15th century composers and music theory, extravagantly praises Caron's music, but also mentions that he was poorly educated.
Read more about this topic: Firminus Caron
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