Batty

Batty is a composer about whom very little is known. His activity can be placed approximately between c. 1450 and 1480, which allows us to situate him in the second half of the fifteenth century, but no records survive concerning his life, his training or his surroundings.

Two securely attributed compositions are credited to him, both preserved in a codex from Prague: a compline antiphon, Regina celi, in settings for three and for four voices. In both, the upper voice elaborately paraphrases the plainchant, and occasional imitative devices appear. A third work, a three-voice Sanctus preserved in Brno, could be by the same author if it is identified with Batten; in it the upper voice either paraphrases an unidentified chant or simply quotes fragments of liturgical melodies. All three pieces show a clear debt to the English style.

The identification of the names is doubtful. Batty and Batten may be transcription errors, or even Central European variants of other names, such as Ludovico Patier, documented at the Savoyard court in 1454-1455, or Luisot Patin, mentioned in Naples in 1480. However, both may simply be namesakes, and a connection with H. Battre seems unlikely on stylistic grounds.

His importance lies above all in what his works reveal about the circulation of the English style on the Continent during the fifteenth century.