Franco-Flemish school

The designation Franco-Flemish School or Netherlandish School refers, somewhat imprecisely, to the style of polyphonic vocal music composition originating from the Burgundian Netherlands in the 15th and 16th centuries, and to the composers who wrote it. The diffusion of their technique, especially after the revolutionary development of printing, produced the first true international style since the unification of Gregorian chant in the 9th century. Franco-Flemish composers mainly wrote sacred music, primarily masses, motets and hymns.

Several generations of Renaissance composers from the region loosely known as the "Low Countries"—i.e. present-day Northern France, Belgium and the Southern Netherlands—are grouped under "Franco-Flemish School", though a teacher-student-relationship between them rarely existed. Most of these musicians were born in the thriving Burgundian provinces of Flanders, Brabant, Hainaut, or Limburg. During periods of political and economic stability, the courts of the Burgundian dukes were a centre of cultural activity in Europe.

Franco-Flemish composers had their origins in ecclesiastical choir schools such as at the cathedrals and collegiate churches of Liège, Tournai, Cambrai, Mons, Antwerp, Bruges, and Gent, although they were famous for working elsewhere. Numerous musicians moved to the European courts in Italy where they were called "I fiamminghi" or Oltremontani ("those from over the Alps") and Spain—notably in the Flemish chapel (capilla flamenca) of the Habsburgs, or to towns in Germany and France, and other parts of Europe—Poland, the Czech lands, Austria, Hungary, England, Sweden, Denmark, Saxony—carrying their styles with them. The exact centres shifted during this time, and by the end of the sixteenth century the focal point of the Western musical world had moved from the Low Countries to Italy.

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