If one were to ask a knowledgable musician of early 1400s who was the best composer, they surely would answer with the name of Johanes Ciconia. Ciconia was born in Liege in Belgium and soon made his way to Rome and Milan where he is placed in the late 1390s, by way of Avignon. In this regard Ciconia began the great migration of Flemish composers and musicians to Italy that would lead to Dufay, Josquin and the famous composers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries to take up residence in Italy.
From his time in Avignon, Ciconia was able to develop and write in the prevailing complex styles of France. This complex style of music in France was a direct result of the move of the Holy See to Avignon after troubles in Rome. When a second pope was elected in Rome, the Great Schism of the church set in and two popes claimed legitamacy. It was this time, 1378 - 1417, and at the court of the Avignon Papacy that the most experimentation in music was seen; it was known as the Ars nova or Ars Subtilitor. From Italy, Ciconia picked up the stereotypical Italian trait of lyricism which was seen most clearly in the virtuosic Italian songs of the time.
Ciconia was one of the first composers to bring these all together, both in his writings and his music: mixing the bold experimental world of the French with the virtuosic world of the Italians. Indeed he could be said to represent the transition point between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
This mixing of Flemish constructivism with Italian humanism would repeat itself throughout the following two centuries.