Baude Cordier was a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 from Rheims; it has been suggested that Cordier was the nom de plume of Baude Fresnel. Cordier's works are considered among the prime examples of ars subtilior

Ars subtilior

Ars subtilior is a musical style characterized by rhythmic and notational complexity, centered around Paris, Avignon in southern France, also in northern Spain at the end of the fourteenth century. The style also is found in the French Cypriot repertory...

. In line with that cultural trend, he was fond of using red note notation, also known as coloration, a technique stemming from the general practice of mensural notation

Mensural notation

Mensural notation is the musical notation system which was used in European music from the later part of the 13th century until about 1600."Mensural" refers to the ability of this system to notate complex rhythms with great exactness and flexibility...

. The change in color adjusts the rhythm of a particular note from its usual form. (This musical style and type of notation has also been termed "mannerism" and "mannered notation.")

Ten of Cordier's secular

Secular music

Secular music is non-religious music. "Secular" means being separate from religion.In the West, secular music developed in the Medieval period and was used in the Renaissance. Swaying authority from the Church that focused more on Common Law influenced all aspects of Medieval life, including music...

 pieces survive, most of which are rondeaux:

• some are in the rhythmically complex late fourteenth-century French style of ars subtilior
  Ars subtilior
  Ars subtilior is a musical style characterized by rhythmic and notational complexity, centered around Paris, Avignon in southern France, also in northern Spain at the end of the fourteenth century. The style also is found in the French Cypriot repertory...
  
  , such as "Amans amés secretement" (Lovers, love discretely).
• others are simpler, with greater emphasis on lyrical melody, such as "Belle, Bonne, Sage", also transcribed in HAM, and characterized with "Amans" as a rondeau.

Two of the composer's chanson

Chanson

A chanson is in general any lyric-driven French song, usually polyphonic and secular. A singer specialising in chansons is known as a "chanteur" or "chanteuse" ; a collection of chansons, especially from the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, is also known as a chansonnier.-Chanson de geste:The...

s are in the Chantilly Manuscript

Chantilly Codex

The Chantilly Codex is a manuscript of medieval music containing pieces from the style known as the Ars subtilior. It is held in the museum at the Château de Chantilly in Chantilly, Oise....

 and are well-known examples of eye music

Eye music

Eye music describes graphical features of scores that when performed are unnoticeable by the listener.-Difficulties in defining eye music:...

:

• the love song "Belle, Bonne, Sage" ("Beautiful, Good, Wise"). The manuscript
  Manuscript
  A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...
  
   is in the shape of a heart
  Heart (symbol)
  The heart has long been used as a symbol to refer to the spiritual, emotional, moral, and in the past, also intellectual core of a human being...
  
  . For an additional fillip of eye music
  Eye music
  Eye music describes graphical features of scores that when performed are unnoticeable by the listener.-Difficulties in defining eye music:...
  
  , hanging like a locket in the upper left are notes all in red also in the shape of a heart.

• a circular canon
  Canon (music)
  In music, a canon is a contrapuntal composition that employs a melody with one or more imitations of the melody played after a given duration . The initial melody is called the leader , while the imitative melody, which is played in a different voice, is called the follower...
  
   "Tout par compas suy composés" ("With a compass was I composed")—more eye music, in which the manuscript is written in a circle.

His mass movement in the Apt

Apt, Vaucluse

Apt is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.It lies on the left bank of the Calavon, east of Avignon...

MS is in the later, simpler fifteenth-century style.

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