Rome after Josquin

The “Roman period” of Josquin des Prez resulted in a small but impressive body of work, and the Missa La sol fa re mi has been received as one of the most substantial and finest members of this corpus. Closer inspection of the transmission of this mass, however, suggests that despite its copying at the Sistine Chapel before 1500, there is reason to situate it instead among the problematic and derivative copies of Josquin’s music made at the papal chapel after his departure. I argue that rather than originating from the composer’s tenure in Rome, the Missa La sol fa re mi entered the papal chapel repertoire as part of an influx of music by composers associated with the French royal court surrounding the Italian campaign of King Charles VIII in 1494–95. Decoupling the Missa La sol fa re mi from Josquin’s tenure at the papal chapel raises new possibilities surrounding his works-chronology, biography, and milieu.

Richafort’s Requiem: beyond Josquin

All polyphonic Requiem settings have a commemorative purpose, but none is more multi-layered in its memorializing aims and strategies than that by Jean Richafort (c.1480–c.1550). This piece is unique among Renaissance Requiems in drawing its materials and procedures from an earlier composer’s oeuvre: Richafort mined no fewer than three works by Josquin des Prez. Indeed, Richafort’s Requiem is so deeply indebted to Josquin that Gustave Reese suggested it was ‘written on the death of Josquin’ in 1521. This article revisits this exquisite piece of music in order to look more deeply into its commemorative nature and purpose. First, essential musical and textual details germane to its function as tribute are identified, building on John Milsom’s essay ‘Sense and sound in Richafort’s Requiem’ in Early Music, xxx (2002). The association of this Requiem with Josquin’s death is assessed, and other possibilities for the work’s genesis suggested. Finally, ways in which this setting serves a purpose beyond the memorialization of any one individual is explored by situating it within the ritual context of the Funeral Mass, and evidence offered to suggest that certain compositional decisions made by Richafort were designed to commemorate Christ’s redeeming death and resurrection as the key to every Christian’s salvation.

Fugue in the Sixteenth Century

This book explores the roots of the classic fugue and the early history of non-canonic fugal writing through the three principal fugal genres of the sixteenth century: motet, ricercar, and canzona. The book begins with the pivot in Western composition from an emphasis on variety to one on repetition, first developed by such Franco-Flemish composers as Loyset Compère and Josquin des Prez toward the end of the fifteenth century. By around 1520 Jean Mouton and his contemporaries had established the classic Franco-Flemish motet with its well-known point-of-imitation structure. Nicolas Gombert proved to be the real pioneer in the further development of this idea in the 1530s when he explored the return of thematic material after its initial presentation, an approach that proved central not only to the motet writing of Thomas Crecquillon and Jacobus Clemens non Papa, but also to the earliest experiments in serious abstract instrumental composition (the ricercar) undertaken by a series of organists active in Venice, most notably Claudio Merulo and Andrea Gabrieli. The most important innovation of the last decades of the century was the creation at the hands of Brescian organists of the fugal canzona alla francese, an instrumental genre inspired not by the sophisticated compositional style of the motet, but by the contrapuntally looser approach of such imitative chansons as Passereau’s Il est bel et bon. By century’s end, composers such as Giovanni de Macque had given the canzona a contrapuntal integrity commensurate with that of the ricercar.

Musicians and their monuments in the Burgundian Netherlands: some art historical perspectives

Douglas Brine Musicians and their monuments in the Burgundian Netherlands: some art historical perspectives This article examines the monuments with which some of the most celebrated musicians and composers of the Burgundian Netherlands were commemorated. Perhaps best known is Guillaume Du Fay’s wall-mounted memorial; thanks to musicologists’ research, his sculpted tablet is also one of the best documented of its kind and thus can be situated within the context of the composer’s various provisions—musical and otherwise—to secure his posthumous commemoration. Du Fay’s memorial is considered in relation to selected artworks commemorating his contemporaries and successors, including Gilles Binchois, Jacob Obrecht, Josquin des Prez and Marbrianus de Orto. These include not only tombs and memorial tablets but also panel paintings—like Hans Memling’s portrait of Gilles Joye—and, in one case, a brass reliquary coffer. Of particular concern are the ways in which these monuments reflect their patrons’ wealth, status, personal relationships and devotional priorities, as well as their identities as musicians and clerics.

Dwie msze ad imitationem z rękopisu Kk I.1. Josquin des Prez/Krzysztof Borek(?): „Missa mater matris”. Pierre Certon: „Missa le temps qui court”, wyd. Elżbieta Zwolińska, Kraków 2016; Tomasz z Szadka: dwie msze z rękopisu Kk I.1. i motet, wyd. Piotr Poźni

Recenzja dwóch edycji: "Dwie msze ad imitationem z rękopisu Kk I.1. Josquin des Prez/Krzysztof Borek(?): Missa mater matris. Pierre Certon: Missa le temps qui court", wyd. Elżbieta Zwolińska, Kraków 2016; "Tomasz z Szadka: dwie msze z rękopisu Kk I.1. i motet", wyd. Piotr Poźniak, Kraków 2016.

Martin Luther and the Arts: Music, Poetry, and Hymns

From the beginning of the Reformation, Martin Luther had a significant impact on church and society through his contributions to sacred music. His intention to spread the gospel among the people through song achieved its manifold purpose. This remains true not only for his own time but for the following centuries up to the present day, all over the world. Other poets, contemporaries and descendants alike, were inspired by Luther’s songs and composed their own hymns. Among these the most significant ones in German literature, poetically and theologically, are Paul Gerhardt (1607–1676) and Jochen Klepper (1903–1942). Luther’s lifelong love of music was accompanied by an in-depth musical education. He knew secular and sacred songs from an early age, played the lute well, and sang in the convent when he was a monk, as a husband and father with his family, and as a professor with his students. Music was an indispensable part of his life. He first began writing sacred songs in 1523, sometimes composing the melody as well. He also crafted a four-part motet. Luther was able to assess the composers of his time well. He considered Josquin des Prez (d. 1521) the greatest master, and among his living contemporaries he appreciated in particular Ludwig Senfl (c. 1490–1543). He was also acquainted with other composers and their works. The incorporation and promotion of music in the schoolroom resulted in a close relationship between church and school, as well as between classrooms and religious services. Pupils took part through chanting at services, and the evangelical hymns in the chantry were spread through the choir’s chanting books. Numerous musical prints originated in Georg Rhau’s printing shop in Wittenberg that carried the Protestant repertoire into the world. From central Germany, starting in Saxony and Thuringia, the Protestant musical culture covered all of evangelical Germany and later shaped Protestant musical culture. In addition to choir-related music, it cultivated the musical rendering of biblical texts. Heinrich Schütz and Johann Sebastian Bach are the finest representatives of this specific Protestant musical culture. In addition, the culture of the organ, first cultivated in northern Germany, became widespread. One of several masters of the organ was Dieterich Buxtehude (c. 1637–1707), who established evening concerts in Lübeck, which in turn served as precursors to the bourgeois musical culture. Luther’s approach to music is formed through the conviction that music is a particularly beautiful and unique offering of the divine creation. Music moves human hearts and allows them to anticipate the heavens. To bring people joy and to praise the Lord is music’s true task and, indeed, its service.