Phinot, Finot, Finotto, Dominique, Dominico, *ca. 1510, †ca. 1556, Franco-Flemish composer. The dedications in Phinot’s chansons suggest that he was well acquainted with the Lyon milieu. However, surviving documents link him to Urbino, where in May 1544 Prince Guidubaldo II recommended him for the position of cantor at the cathedral and where he was probably a member of the princely chapel between 1545 and 1555. According to H. Cardan (Theonoston, 1663), he was beheaded for some indecent act.
Phinot’s work, highly regarded by 16th- and 17th-century commentators (including P. Pontio, Hermann Finck, and P. Cerone), owes its renown to his polychoral motets. Although they are among the earliest examples of this genre, they are characterised by maturity and ingenuity in the use of the musical and dramatic possibilities of cori spezzati. It is possible that Phinot’s motets influenced the compositions of Orlando di Lasso and the composers of the Roman school. Some chansons and one of the madrigals (Simili a questi smisurati monti), an early example of Italian dialogo, are also in the polychoral style. The masses, which belong to the ad imitationem type, and the five-voice motets demonstrate an excellent mastery of Dutch imitative polyphony. The chansons, varied in texture, include both declamatory and motet-style works. In some of them, Phinot introduces canons and elements of musical symbolism.
Literature: P. Hansen The Double-Chorus Motets of Dominique Phinot, “Renaissance News” III, 1950; V.L. Saulnier Dominique Phinot et D. Lupi, musiciens de C. Marot et des marotiques, “Revue de Musicologie” XLIII, 1959; J. Höfler Dominique Phinot i počeci renesansnog višehorskog pevanja, “Zvuk” C, 1969; C.A. Miller J. Cardan on Gombert, Phinot, and Carpentras, “The Musical Quarterly” LVIII, 1972; R. Jacob Dominique Phinot, in: Cultural Aspects of the Italian Renaissance, Festschrift for P.O. Kristeller, ed. C.H. Clough, Manchester 1976; F. Piperno L’immagine del Duca. Musica e spettacolo alia corte di Guidubaldo II duca d’Urbino, Florence 2001.
Compositions:
sacred:
two masses for 4 voices in collective prints from 1544
Pleni sunt coeli, for 3 voices in a collective print from 1543
Liber primus mutetarum, 29 works for 5 voices, published in Lyon 1547; Book 2, 25 works for 5 voices, published in Pesaro 1554
Liber secundus mutetarum sex, septem et octo vocum, 15 works, published in Lyon 1548
sixteen 5-voice motets, eight 4-voice motets and one 3-voice motet in collective prints from 1538–53
I sacri et santi salmi de David profeta, 13 psalms and one magnificat for 4 voices, published in Venice 1554, titled Il primo libro di salmi..., expanded to include two 4-voice magnificats, 2nd edition 1555
two psalms for 4 voices in a collective print from 1550
secular:
Premier livre contenant (…) chansons, 57 works for 4 voices, four works for 8 voices, two for 5 and one for 12 voices, Book 1, published in Lyon 1548, Book 2, published in Lyon 1548
2 madrigals, for 6 and 8 voices in collective prints from 1541 and 1561
Editions:
Dominici Phinot. opera omnia, vol. 1: motets from Book 1, vol. 2: 5-voice motets from Book 2, ed. J. Höfler, vol. 3 (2 parts): chansons and madrigals, vol. 4: 6–8-voice motets from Book 2, ed. R. Jacob, «Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae» LIX, Neuhausen 1972–82
5 motets in The Gardane Motet Anthologies and 2 motets in The Buglhat Motet Anthologies, ed. M.S. Lewis, 2 motets in The Susato Motet Anthologies, ed. R. Sherr, «Sixteenth-Century Motet» XIII and XIV, XVIII, New York 1993 and 1995, 1997
