(fl mid-14th century). Theorist. He was the author of the short treatise De motettis componendis (CoussemakerS, iii, pp.124–8; partial critical edn in Leech-Wilkinson, i, 18–20). In most sources this is combined with the Tractatus de diversis figuris, usually attributed to Philippus de Caserta but considered as the work of Egidius in three out of four manuscripts in this integrated form. Hoppin and Clercx discovered an Egidius Morini who was a bachelor in civil law and student at the University of Orléans. He received a canonicate with expectation of a prebend at Le Mans in 1337. This date would fit quite well with the style of the music discussed in the treatise on motets, though another man of the same name received a canonicate at Nivelles in the Liège diocese in 1378; he came from Amiens. The place name Morino or Murino refers to the diocese of La Thérouanne in northern France.
Egidius is praised, together with such famous theorists as Jehan des Murs and Philippe de Vitry, in two motets listing names of musicians: Musicalis scientia/Scientie laudabili and Apollinis eclipsatur/Zodiacum signis/In omnem terram. No compositions can be specifically attributed to him, though he may be identical with one or other of the composers called Egidius, in particular Magister Egidius Augustinus, the author of several rhythmically complex ballades, or Magister Frater Egidius who collaborated with Guilielmus de Francia in the composition of five ballades in I-Fl 87.
The treatise on motets is refreshingly practical and primarily concerned with the rhythmic organization of the tenor, also of the contratenor in four-voice works. The upper voices, triplum and motetus, are only mentioned in conjunction with the rhythmic plan of the tenor and contratenor. The discussion of textual underlay is particularly interesting, since it draws attention to the fundamental distinction between melismatic and syllabic text-setting. If the tenor was divided rhythmically into four identical sections, the text would be placed in the motetus so that it was divided into those four sections. Depending on the length of the text and the number of notes, there might be lengthy melismatic phrases or syllabic, parlando passages. Egidius gives examples of various types of rhythmic pattern used in tenors, starting with notes of the same value and continuing with combinations of black and coloured notes, dotted notes and rests. The term colorare is used for dividing the work into isorhythmic sections, and the word ordinatus where only one type of note value is involved. The short section at the end of the treatise on the forms of ballades, rondeaux and virelais was probably originally separate, as in the Seville manuscript.
H. Besseler: ‘Studien zur Musik des Mittelalters’, AMw, viii (1926), 137–258, esp. 200
R.H. Hoppin and S. Clercx: ‘Notes biographiques sur quelques musiciens français du XIVe siècle’, L’Ars Nova: Wégimont II 1955, 63–92
F.A. Gallo: ‘Alcune fonti poco note di musica teorica e pratica’, L’Ars Nova italiana del Trecento [ii]: convegni di studio 1961–1967, ed. F.A. Gallo (Certaldo, 1968), 49–76
W. Frobenius: ‘Petrus de Cruces Motette “Aucun ont trouvé chant par usage/Lonc tans me sui tenu de chanter/ANNUNTIANTES”: französische Motettenkomposition um 1300’, Analysen: Beiträge zu einer Problemgeschichte des Komponierens: Festschrift für Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht, ed. W. Breig, R. Brinkmann and E. Budde (Wiesbaden, 1984), 29–39
D. Leech-Wilkinson: Compositional Techniques in the Four-Part Isorhythmic Motets of Philippe de Vitry and his Contemporaries (New York, 1989)
For further bibliography see Motet.
GILBERT REANEY