Johannes Symonis Hasprois

Johannes Symonis Hasprois, also known as Jehan Simon, was a French composer active between 1378 and 1428. A native of Arras, his career unfolded around the courts and ecclesiastical chapters of northern France and the papal milieu of Avignon, at a time when secular court music of the courtly tradition coexisted with the religious life of clerics who were also musicians.

His career began at the Portuguese royal court in 1378 and he then entered the service of Charles V of France in 1380. In 1384 he is recorded as a «petit vicaire» at Cambrai Cathedral. He obtained a rectorship in the parish of Liessies, probably in 1388, although between 1390 and 1393 he gave up that benefice. From before 1393 until 1403 he was a member of the papal chapel at Avignon, under Clement VII and Benedict XIII; it seems that his admission as a chaplain may have been earlier than this date. He later served in the curia as an apostolic notary until his death in 1428, and he held benefices at Rozoy, Arras and Cambrai Cathedral. There is a possible identification with a «magister Johannes Symonis» who, in 1417, during the Council of Constance, wrote an astrological treatise, but the link is only probable.

Four works by him survive in four manuscripts. The two-voice ballade Puisque je sui fumeux, with its abundant syncopation and a highly elaborate final climax, is a notable example of the extremely complex style of the Ars Subtilior. An anonymous attribution entitled Balade de maistre fumeux, associated with an eccentric courtly circle, complicates the question of authorship. The other ballades, Ma doulce amour and Se mes deux yeux, respond to amorous lyric poetry around 1400, while the incomplete rondeau points to a simpler style from the early fifteenth century.

His importance lies in the fact that his surviving output clearly shows the coexistence of the refined writing of the Ars Subtilior with simpler lines, such as the drinking song Ho, ho, ho, and in the fact that scholars cautiously attribute some anonymous pieces to him.