Tomas Luis de Victoria (c 1548-1611)

The greatest Spanish composer of the High Renaissance, Victoria spent many years in Rome where he served as organist and choirmaster in the Jesuit Collegio Germanico before joining the Order of Oratorians. He returned to Spain and served in the private chapel of the Dowager Empress Maria, sister of King Philip II. Victora wrote a large quantity of choral church music. Victoria left some twenty settings of the Mass, in addition to a number of Magnificats, Lamentations, responsories, anthems, psalms, motets and hymns. - Malaspina Biography

Sheet music: Tomas Luis de Victoria

John Taverner (c 1490-1545)

Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?
Gave thee life, and bid thee feed / By the stream and o'er the mead;

Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing, woolly, bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice?

Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?
Little Lamb, I'll tell thee
Little Lamb, I'll tell thee;

He is called by thy name,
For he calls himself a Lamb.
He is meek, and he is mild.
He became a little child.

I, a child, and thou a lamb,
We are called by his name.
Little lamb, God bless thee!
Little lamb, God bless thee!

Sheet music: John Taverner

Thomas Tallis (1505-1585)

1. Come, Migh-ty Spir-it, pe-ne-trate / this heart and soul of mine, / and my whole be-ing with thy grace / per-vade, O Life Di-vine!

2. As this clear air sur-rounds the earth / thy grace a-round me roll / as the fresh light per-vades the air, / so pierce and fill my soul.

3. As from these clouds drops down in love / the pre-cious sum-mer rain, / so from thy-self pour down the flood / that fresh-ens all a-gain.

4. Thus life with-in our life-less hearts / shall make its glad a-bode, / and we shall shine in beau-teous light, / filled with the light of God. A-men. - lyrics to Tallis' hymn Ordinal

Sheet music: Thomas Tallis

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562-1621)

Sweelinck was a Dutch organist, teacher, and composer: he is widely considered to be the greatest of Dutch composers. Sweelinck was born in Deventer, and later succeeded his father as organist at the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam, where his family were organists continuously for almost one hundred years. His compositions include both keyboard and sacred and secular choral music, though it is for his keyboard music that he is best known today. Sweelinck was extremely influential as a teacher, especially of German students (including Scheidemann, Scheidt, Praetorius and Hasse) who would propagate his compositional techniques far into eastern Europe. Sweelinck is one of the major figures in the transition from Renaissance to Baroque compositional styles: was one of the great transitional figures in Western music, known for his formal rigor and theoretical knowledge of the most influential compositional schools of the time. His keyboard compositions continued to be widely and directly influential in Germany until the time of Buxtehude. - Malaspina Biography

Sheet music: Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck

Josquin des Prez (1440-1521)

Josquin Desprez (c.1440/55-1521) is widely regarded as one of the finest and most influential composers in the history of Western music. The stylistic traits of his music, both in contrapuntal technique and in text-setting, gave the defining direction to the High Renaissance and with it the course of music history as a whole. Not only was Josquin admired by Martin Luther as the greatest of composers, but his music was distributed throughout Europe and especially in Germany for decades after his death. The clear textures and text declamation which Josquin employed set the stage not only for the next developments of technical harmony, but for the clarity and conciseness demanded by the Counter-Reformation of Palestrina et al. as well. Josquin's output displays a rare combination of innovation and accomplished technical mastery, and has retained for him a position as the most prominent composer of the early sixteenth century, perhaps the high point of Western music as a whole.

The circumstances of Josquin's early life are mostly unclear. No documentary evidence exists prior to engagements in his early adulthood, and later contemporary suggestions that he was born in Hainaut are disputed effectively by documentary evidence that he was a legal alien there during the last years of his life at Condé. What can be stated with some certainty is that legally and culturally, Josquin was French, from somewhere in the region of Picardy. His career was first discernible in Milan, but this fact is now disputed, and indeed under some proposed scenarios the year of his birth may be closer to 1455 than the traditional 1440. He certainly received relatively early appointments at the French Court and at the Papal Chapel in Rome. Perhaps the decisive appointment is that to Ferrara in 1503, not only for the extravagance of both the setting and his salary, but for the degree of precision with which it is documented. In any event, Josquin did not remain there long, and fleeing the plague, went to Condé for his retirement by 1504. His appointment in Ferrara also coincides nicely with Petrucci's first publication of a volume of Josquin's masses in 1502. The establishment of movable-type printing for polyphony by Petrucci in Venice is one of the most significant events in Western music history, and the choice of Josquin for the first dedicated volume is perhaps the single most instrumental event defining Josquin's subsequent reputation. Aside from this event, some of his contemporaries have resumes of similar quality.

Although he spent a substantial portion of his career in Italy, Josquin evidently received his training in the Northern Franco-Flemish style before then, perhaps at the feet of Ockeghem. Josquin's international career certainly marks him as a special talent of the period, and consequently a composer of wide influence and cosmopolitan taste. However, there is a clear precedent in the career of Dufay, which follows a similar outline (as do those of Josquin's contemporaries such as Isaac or Obrecht). Josquin's Northern foundation is clearly seen in his mastery of contrapuntal textures in four, five and six voices, and especially in his canonic technique. His Italian influence is frequently sought in the increasingly lucid textures he employed, together with his new emphasis on homophony. The lightness and short phrases of Italianate settings were to be balanced against the more melismatic and contrapuntal Northern style, and consequently Josquin perfected the technique of "pervasive imitation" to achieve a contrapuntally-based structure around short motives and interlocking phrases. Pervasive imitation describes a situation in which shared material between voices determines the contrapuntal texture of a piece, and in Josquin's case, this usually meant interlocking canonic duets.

Josquin's stylistic progression can be perceived first in a reduction of melismatic phrases and ornately spun lines to a more succinct and syllabic style built around canonic technique, and second in a more sophisticated deployment of this technique such that its structural implications are not particularly evident to the listener. In some cases, this increased subtlety can cause some confusion as to whether a work dates to before or after Josquin's perfection of the pervasive imitation technique (which is frequently exemplified by the eloquent motet Ave Maria, gratia plena in four parts). As a leader in the most fundamental stylistic shift of the High Renaissance, Josquin continued to place music more and more at the service of text. This was accomplished not only by cleaner textures and declamations, but also by early word-painting techniques which would become a staple of the later madrigal schools. Priority was also given to text in larger and more sophisticated ways, letting details of the structure of the poetry dictate elements of the musical progression, a practice which at his best Josquin could perform in particularly unselfconscious and compelling ways. Josquin's subsequent reputation rests both on his response to text and his development of pervasive imitation as a technique for straightforward settings able to support larger structures, leading to the sixteenth century codifications of harmony by Zarlino et al.

Josquin's musical output consists of some eighteen mass cycles, plus independent sections and doubtful attributions, more than a hundred motets, and about eighty secular works primarily in French. His is a relatively large surviving output for the period and accordingly varied. Although modern taste for the mass cycle as a sort of proto-symphony has brought an emphasis on Josquin's music in this genre, his motets are clearly his most individual, expressive and masterful contributions. The variety of expression they contain, together with their formal ingenuity make them sufficient by themselves to establish Josquin's posthumous reputation. Among these, such works as Miserere mei, Deus, Stabat Mater dolorosa, and Praeter rerum serium (in five, five, and six parts, respectively) have become especially popular and important today. Josquin's masses are certainly not to be neglected, especially considering the restraint and serenity he was able to convey in this form. Of these, the Missa de beata virgine was by far the most popular in contemporary sources, even if it apparently did not originate as a cycle and is the only Josquin mass cycle with entire movements not in four parts. Also based quite austerely on direct plainsong quotation, the Missa Pange lingua is the one securely attributed Josquin mass not to be published by Petrucci, possibly because of its late date. The circumstances surrounding Josquin's secular music are frequently even less clear, although his position as a transitional figure in this genre, between the Burgundian court chansons of Busnoys and others to the fully sixteenth century madrigal style, is easy to observe. His secular music is accordingly broad in its stylistic range, and it has even been suggested that much of it was intended for instrumental performance.

Josquin's lofty posthumous reputation was reflected both in the widespread survival of his substantial and varied output as well as in many misattributions, intentional and otherwise. For instance, frottole such as El grillo are no longer regarded as of certain authenticity, casting a different light on some of his secular activity. In addition, various transcriptions exist, as well as authentic works with parts added by other composers. Although these facts mean that Josquin's catalog remains in a state of flux, understanding of his music and historical position has never been better. Even many casual listeners today regard him as the greatest composer in Western music, and of course his position with respect to the origin of music printing guarantees that his influence will remain tangible. - from Todd McComb

Sheet music: Josquin des Prez

Michael Praetorius (1571-1621)

German musical historian, theorist and composer, was born at Kreuzberg, in Thuringia, on the 15th of February 1571. While he was still quite young he visited the university of Frankfort on the Oder for three years. Here he studied philosophy, and on the death of his brother, on whose support he relied, he was given a post as organist in the town. He acted as kapeilmeister at Lllneburg early in life, was engaged first as organist and later as kapellmeister and secretary to the duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, and was eventually rewarded for his long services with the priory of Ringelheim, near Goslar. He died at Wolfenbuttel on the 15th of February 1621. Of his very numerous compositions copies are now very scarce. The most important are : Polyhymnia (15 vols.), Musae Sioniae (16 vols.), and Musa Aonia (9 vols.), all written partly to Latin and partly to German words. But more precious than all these is the Syntagma musicum (3 vols.). In the original prospectus of the work four volumes were promised, but it is certain that no more than three were ever published. The fourth volume mentioned in Forkel's catalogue is clearly nothing but the cahier of plates attached to vol. ii.

The chief value of this very remarkable work lies in the information it gives concerning the condition of instrumental music in the early years of the 17th century. The plates include excellent representations of all the musical instruments in use at the time they were published, together with many forms even then treated on.ly as antique curiosities. The work thus throws a light upon the earlier forms of instrumental music which to the historian is invaluable. In fact, without the information bequeathed to us by Praetorius it would be impossible to reconstruct in theory the orchestra of the earlier half of the 17th century, during which the opera and the oratorio both sprang into existence, or even to understand the descriptions left us by other less careful writers. - Malaspina Biography

Sheet music: Michael Praetorius

Francisco de Penalosa (c 1470-1528)

Penalosa was the most highly regarded composer among the first generation to bring the Franco-Flemish polyphonic style to Spain and the Iberian peninsula. He was associated with the royal court in Aragon, as well as the Cathedral of Seville; he also had an extended stay in Rome as one of the Pope's most desired musicians. Many of his works survive in Spanish sources. Penalosa's style is based primarily on that of Josquin Des Prez, however one finds much tighter formal structures and highly polished gestures leading to an increased emotional expressivity. In this last sense, he represents an important beginning to the Spanish choral style to be exemplified a century later by Tomas de la Victoria. His compositions are entirely sacred in designation, though the wide range of emotionality lends many a character which would later be considered more properly secular in nature. - Malaspina Biography

Sheet music: Renaissance Music

Giovanni da Palestrina (c 1525-1594)

The greatest composer of liturgical music of all time, born at Palestrina (ancient Praeneste) in 1514 or 1515, according to Baini, Riemann, and others, according to Haberl, in 1526; died at Rome, 2 February, 1594. His early history is practically unknown. Giuseppe Ottavia Pittoni (1657-1743), in "notizie dei maestri di cappella si di Rome che ultramontani", 1600-1700", a manuscript in the Vatican, relates that young Pierluigi sang in the streets of Rome while offering for sale the products of his parents farm and that he was heard on such an occasion by the choirmaster of Santa Maria Maggiore, who, impressed by the boy's beautiful voice and pronounced musical talent, educated him musically. As to the identity of the choirmaster, tradition gives no clue. Some hold that Palestrina was taught by Jacques Arcadelt (1514-60), choirmaster and composer in Rome from 1539 to 1549. The opinion, so long held, that Claude Goudimel (1505-72) was his principal teacher has now been definitively abandoned. As far as is known, he began his active musical life as organist and choirmaster in his native city in 1544; his reputation increasing, in 1551 he was called to Rome, entrusted with the direction and musical formation of the choirboys at St. Peter's, and within the same year was advanced to the post of choirmaster. In 1554, he dedicated to Julius III (1549-55) his first compositions, a volume of masses for four voices, and was rewarded with the appointment as a member of the papal chapel in contravention of the rules governing that body. The pope had set aside the rule requiring those who held membership in the papal choir to be in Holy Orders, and also used his authority to exempt him from the usually severe entrance examination. These circumstances and the further fact that his voice was much inferior to those of the other singers, aroused the opposition, and antagonism of his fellow-members. The papal singers did not appreciate the object of the pope, which was to secure for the gifted young man the necessary leisure to compose.

In the course of the same year, Palestrina published a volume of madrigals. The texts of some of these the composer himself in later years considered too free. In the dedication of his setting of the Canticle of Canticles to Gregory XIII, he expresses not only regret but repentance, for having caused scandal by this publication. Marcellus II, as cardinal, had protected and admired Palestrina, but died after a reign of only twenty-one days. Paul IV, shortly after his accession, re-inforced the former rules for the government of the papal choir. Besides Palestrina, there were two other lay married members in the choir. All were dismissed with a small pension, in spite of the understanding that these singers were engaged for life.

The worry and hardship caused by the dismissal brought on a severe illness; restored, the composer took charge, 1 October, 1555, of the choir at St. John Lateran, where he remained until February, 1561. During this period he wrote, beside Lamentations and Magnificats, the famous "Improperia". Their performance by the papal choir on Good Friday was ordered by Paul IV, and they have remained in its repertoire for Holy Week ever since. This production greatly increased Palestrina's fame. In 1561 he asked the chapter of St. John Lateran for an increase in salary, in view of his growing needs and the expense of publishing his works. Refused, he accepted a similar post at Santa Maria Maggiore, which he held until 1571. It is not know at what period of his career Palestrina came under the influence of St. Philip Neri, but there is every reason to believe it was in early youth. As the saint's penitent and spiritual disciple, he gained that insight into the spirit of the liturgy, which enabled his to set it forth in polyphonic music as it had never before been done. It was his spiritual formation even more than his artistic maturity, which fitted him for the providential part he played in the reform of church music.

The task of hastening the reforms decreed by the Council of Trent was entrusted by Pius IV to a commission of eight cardinals. A committee of two of these, St. Charles Borromeo and Vitellozzo Vitelli, was appointed to consider certain improvement in the discipline and administration of the papal choir, and to this end they associated to themselves eight of the choir members. Cardinal Vitelli caused the singers to perform certain compositions in his presence, in order to determine what measures could be taken for the preservation of the integrity and distinct declamation of the text in compositions in which the voices were interwoven. St. Charles, as chancellor of his uncle, Pius IV, was the patron of Palestrina, increasing his pension in 1565. He celebrated a solemn Mass in presence of the pontiff on 19 June, 1565, at which Palestrina's great "Missa Papae Marcelli" was sung. These historical data are the only discoverable basis for the legends, so long repeated by historians, concerning the trial before the cardinals and pope of the cause of polyphonic music, and its vindication by Palestrina, in the composition and performance of three masses, the "Missa Papae Marcelli" among them. Haberl's studies of the archives conclusively demolished these fictions, but their continued repetition for nearly two hundred years emphasizes the fact of Palestrina's activity, inspired by St. Philip and encouraged by St. Charles, in the reform of church music, an activity which embraced his entire career and antedated by some years the disciplinary measures of the Church authorities.

The foundation of his reform is the two principles legitimately deduced from the only references to church music in the Tridentine decrees:

* the elimination of all themes of reminiscent of, or resembling, secular music;
* the rejection of musical forms and elaborations tending to mutilate or obscure the liturgical text.

Pius IV created for Palestrina the office of "Composer of the Papal Chapel" with an increased salary. In this office he had only one successor, Felice Anerio. When in 1571 Giovanni Animuccia, choirmaster at St. Peter's, died, Palestrina became his successor, thus being connected with the papal choir and St. Peter's at the same time. An attempt of his jealous and intriguing colleagues in the papal chapel to have him dismissed by Pius V was unsuccessful. During this year he wrote a number of motets and laudi spirituali for the Oratory of St. Philip Neri. Besides the duties of choirmaster at St. Peter's, composer to the papal chapel, director of music at St. Philip's Oratory, he also taught at the school of music of Giovanni Maria Nanini. In addition, Gregory XIII commissioned him to prepare a new version of the Gregorian chant. His exact share in this edition, afterwards published under the name of "editio Medicaea" because printed in a press belonging to Cardinal de' Medici, and what was prepared by his pupil Giovanni Guidetti, Felice Anerio, and Francesco Suriano, has long been a matter of controversy. The undertaking was not particularly congenial to Palestrina and kept him from original production, his real field of activity. His wife's death in 1580 affected him profoundly. His sorrow found expression in two compositions, Psalm 136, "By the waters of Babylon", and a motet on the words "O Lord, when Thou shalt come to judge the world, how shall I stand before the face of Thy anger, my sins frighten me, woe to me, O Lord". With these he intended to close his creative activity, but with the appointment in 1581 as director of music to Prince Buoncompagni, nephew of Gregory XIII, he began perhaps the most brilliant period of his long life. Besides sacred madrigals, motets, psalms, hymns in honour of the Blessed Virgin, and Masses, he produced the work which brought him the title of "Prince of Music", twenty-nine motets on the words from the "Canticle of Canticles". According to his own statement, Palestrina intended to reproduce in his composition the Divine love expressed in the Canticle, so that his own heart might be touched by a spark thereof. For the enthronement of Sixtus V, he wrote a five-part motet and mass on the theme to the text "Tu es pastor ovium", followed a few months later by one of his greatest productions, the mass "Assumpta est Maria". Sixtus had intended to appoint him director of the papal choir, but the refusal of the singers to be directed by a layman, prevented the execution of his plan. During the last years of his life Palestrina wrote his great "Lamentations", settings of the liturgical hymns, a collection of motets, the well-know "Stabat Mater" for double chorus, litanies in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the offertories for the ecclesiastical year. His complete works, in thirty-three volumes, edited by Theodore deWitt, Franz Espagne, Franz Commer, and from the tenth volume on, by Haberl, are published by Breitkopf and Hartel; Msgr. Haberl presented the last volume of the completed edition to Pius X on Easter Monday, 1908. Palestrina's significance lies not so much in his unprecedented gifts of mind and heart, his creative and constructive powers, as in the fact that he made them the medium for the expression in tones of the state of his own soul, which, trained and formed by St. Philip, was attuned to and felt with the Church. His creations will for all time stand forth as the musical embodiment of the spirit of the counter-reformation, the triumphant Church.

Sheet music: Giovanni da Palestrina

Cristobal de Morales (1500-1553)

Morales is generally regarded as the leading Spanish composer during the so-called Golden Age of Spain. His birth shortly after Columbus' voyage presumably prompted the choice of name he was given, and living in Spain during that time must have been truly an exciting experience. The polyphonic style was brought to Spain by the previous generation of composers led by Penalosa, and the mystical intensity of Iberian music reached its maximum influence in the following generation with Victoria's tenure at Rome. Morales occupies the intermediate historical position between these two, along with the contemporary keyboard music of Antonio de Cabezon; his music shows some influence of earlier polyphony as well as looking forward to functional harmony. Morales' fame is also increased by the fact that his polyphony was performed in Mexico during the early days of the Spanish domination there.

Sheet music: Renaissance Music

Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)

The modern composer builds upon the foundation of truth.

Sheet music: Claudio Monteverdi

Orlandus de Lassus (c 1532-1594)

Summary

(Original name, Roland de Lattre), composer, born at Mons, Hainault, Belgium, in 1520 (according to most biographers; but his epitaph gives 1532); died at Munich, 14 June, 1594. At the age of eight and a half years he was admitted as soprano to the choir of the church of St. Nicholas in his native city. He soon attracted general attention, both on account of his unusal musical talent and his beautiful voice; so much so that he was three times abducted. Twice his parents had him returned to the parental roof, but the third time they consented to allow him to take up his abode at St-Didier, the temporary residence of Ferdinand de Gonzaga, general in command of the army of Charles V and Viceroy od Sicily. At the end of the campaign in the Netherlands, Orlandus followed his patron to Milan and from there to Sicily. After the change of his voice Orlandus spent about three years at the court of the Marquess della Terza, at Naples. He next went to Rome, where he enjoyed the favour and hospitality, for about six months, of Cardinal Archbishop of Florence, who was then living there. Through the influence of this prince of the church , Orlandus obtained the position of choirmaster at St. John Lateran, in spite of his extreme youth and the fact that there were many capable musicians available. During his residence in Rome, Lassus completed his first volume of Masses for four voices, and a collection of motets for five voices, all of which he had published in Venice. After a sojourn of probably two years in Rome, Lassus, learning of the serious illness of his parents, hastened back to Belgium only to find that they had died. His native city Mons not offering him a suitable field of activity, he spent several years in travel through France and England and then settled at Antwerp for about two years. It was while here that Orlandus received an invitation from Albert V, Duke of Bavaria, not only to become the director of his court chapel, but also to recruit capable musicians for it in the Netherlands. While in the employment and under the protection of this art-loving prince, Lassus developed that phenomenal productivity as a composer which is unsurpassed in the history of music. For thirty-four years he remained active at Munich as composer and director, first under Albert V, and then under his son and successor, William V. During all this time he enjoyed not only the continued and sympathetic favour of his patrons and employers, but was also honoured by Pope Gregory XIII, who appointed him Knight of the Golden Spur; by Charles IX of France, who bestowed upon him the cross of the Order of Malta; and by Emperor Maximilian, who on 7 December, 1570, raised Lassus and his descendants to the nobility. The imperial document conferring the honour is remarkable, not only as showing the esteem in which the master was held by rulers and nations, but particularly as evidence of the lofty conception on the part of this monarch of the function of art in the social economy. Lassus's great and long-continued activity finally told on his mind and caused a depression and break-down, from which he at first rallied but never fully recovered.

Lassus was the heir to the centuries of preparation and development of the Netherland school, and was its greatest and also its last representative. While with many of his contemporaries, even the most noted, such as Dufay, Okeghem, Obrecht, and Josquin des Pres, contrapuntal skill is often an end in itself, Lassus, being consummate master of every form of the art and possessing a powerful imagination, always aims at a lofty and truthful interpretation of the text before him. His genius is of a universal nature. His wide culture and the extensive travels of his youth had enabled him to absorb the distinguishing musical traits of every nationality. None of his contemporaries had such a well defined judgment in the choice of the means of expression which best served his purpose. The lyric, epic, and dramatic elements are alternately in evidence in his work. But he would undoubtedly have been greatest in the dramatic style, had he lived at a later period. Although Lassus lived at the time of the Reformation, when the individual and secular spirit manifested itself more and more in music, and although he interpreted secular poems such as madrigals, chansons, and German lieder, the contents of which were sometimes rather free (as was not infrequently the case in those times), his distinction lies overwhelmingly in his works for the Church. The diatonic Gregorian modes form the basis of his compositions, and most frequently his themes are taken from liturgical melodies. The number of works the master has left to posterity exceeds two thousand, in every possible form, and in combinations of from two to twelve voices. Many of them remain in manuscript, but the great majority have been printed at Venice, Munich, Nuremberg, Louvain, Antwerp, or Paris. Among his more famous works must be mentioned his setting of the seven penitential psalms, which for variety, depth, truth of expression, and elevation of conception are unsurpassed. Duke Albert showed his admiration for this work by having it written on parchment and bound in two folio volumes, which the noted painter Hans Mielich illustrated, at the command of the duke, in a most beautiful manner. These, with two other smaller volumes containing an analysis of Lassus's and Mielich's work by Samuel van Quickelberg, a contemporary, are preserved in the court library at Munich. Lassus left no fewer than fifty Masses of his composition. Some of these are built upon secular melodies, as was customary in his time, but the thematic material for most of them has been taken from the liturgical chant. In 1604, his two sons, Rudolph and Ferdinand, also musicians of note, published a collection of 516 motets, under the title of Magnum opus musicum, which was followed in 1609 by Jubilus B. Mariae Virginis, consisting of 100 settings of the Magnificat. The publication of a critical edition of Lassus's complete works in sixty volumes, prepared by Dr. Haberl and A. Sandberger, was begun 1894. [Adapted from Catholic Encyclopedia (1910)]

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Heinrich Isaac (c 1450-1517)

Summary

It would be going too far to say that Heinrich Isaac is an unjustly neglected composer: yet his reputation is still confined to the limbo which contains so many of the leading figures of the renaissance period. He is probably a little more performed than Philippe de Monte. But in the company of those few who were rated amongst the very best in their lifetimes, Isaac has much to prove to modern audiences. No one would think on current evidence to mention him in the same breath as his great contemporary and fellow-Netherlander Josquin Des Pres, yet in the early years of the sixteenth century they were held to be on the same level of achievement: the two pre-eminent composers in Europe. If it became commonplace to treat Josquin and Isaac as a complementary pair, in the way that Lassus and Palestrina or J.S. Bach and Handel are, an instructive shift in emphasis would be achieved. No longer would Josquin be alone amongst the composers active around 1500 to have his music made available in inexpensive modern editions: perhaps the first monograph on Isaac would be written, bringing him out of the exclusive preserve of German-language scholarship. [Adapted from Karadar]

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Nicolas Gombert (c. 1490-1556)

Summary

Nicolas Gombert was a Flemish (Netherlandish) composer born near Lille, now a part of France. He was in service as choir master to the (Holy roman) Emperor Charles V, with whom he travelled widely; he is thought to have been a pupil of Josquin des Prez . Wrote more than 200 chansons, also Masses, motets, etc., and is the last of the great technically advanced masters of vocal polyphony. As opposed to his Italian contemporaries, who had begun work on a more animated and harmonically-oriented idiom, Gombert kept entirely within the domain of strict counterpoint, and in fact seemed to hold the new musical developments of the time in low regard. His style continued to represent the most advanced development of imitative counterpoint, at least until the elaboration of the fugue in the Baroque era.

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Vincenzo Galilei (1520-1591)

Quotation

It appears to me that those who rely simply on the weight of authority to prove any assertion, without searching out the arguments to support it, act absurdly. I wish to question freely and to answer freely without any sort of adulation. That well becomes any who are sincere in the search for truth.

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Biographical

Vincenzo studied the lute as a young man, and his playing attracted Giovanni de' Bardi, his principal patron. in 1562 he settled in Pisa, where Galileo was born. In 1563 Vincenzo was sent to study theory with Gioseffo Zarlino, a relationship that would sour over time. Around 1570 Vincenzo began a compendium of Zarlino's Le istituioni harmonische, but he gradually developed his own new ideas about the progress of music. In early 1572 Vincenzo began correspondence with Girolamo Mei, and later that year he migrated to Florence. Here, Vincenzo became an influential member of the Florentine Camerata, an informal meeting at Bardi's palace where literature, science, and the arts were discussed.

Vincenzo's training was evidently in music, for he lacked much literary education, apparently knowing no Greek and very little Latin. The Camerata was interested in new directions in music, striving to emulate the early Greek dramatic style, the results which led to the early development of opera. These new ideas in music led to a quarrel with Zarlino, and in 1581 Vincenzo published Dialogue on Ancient and Modern Music (Dialogo della musica antica et della moderna), his most influential work in which he attacked the theories of Zarlino, including tuning systems and counterpoint in vocal music. Vincenzo experimented with single line melodies, dismissing word painting and madrigal style which obscured the text. He also disliked the rigid system of dissonances, and favored a relaxing of the rules. During his final years he drafted a number of essays concerning topics that can be found in Galileo's Dialogue Concerning two New Sciences. There is also much a great belief that Vincenzo influenced his son Galileo, directing him towards experimentation. [Adapted from Galileo Project at Rice University]

John Dowland (1563-1626)

Quotation

Go Crystal Teares

Go crystal teares, like to the morning show'rs / And sweetly weep into thy lady's breast. / And as the dews rerive the drooping flow'rs, / So let your drops of pity be address'd, / To quicken up the thoughts of my desert, / Which sleeps too sound whilst I from her depart.

Haste restless sighs, and let your burning breath / Dissolve the ice of her indurate heart, / Whose frozen rigour like forgetful Death, / Feels never any touch of my desert: / Yet sighs and tears to her I sacrifice, / Both from a spotless heart and patient eyes

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Biographical

John Dowland (1563-1626) English late - Renaissance composer and lute player. A Roman Catholic, he was not offered a post at Elizabeth I's Protestant court, so he worked for many years at that of the king of Denmark. Among his works are several books of solo lute works, lute songs (for one voice and lute), part-songs with lute accompaniment, and the Lachrymae set of viol de gamba consort music, also with a lute. His pavane, "Lachrymae antiquae" was one of the big hits of the seventeenth century. Dowland's lute music is a recurring theme in Philip K. Dick's science fiction. [This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License and uses material adapted in whole or in part from the Wikipedia article on John Dowland.]

William Byrd (c 1542-1623)

Quotation

For motets and music of piety and devotion, as well for the honour of our nation as the merit of the man, I prefer above all our Phoenix, Master William Byrd. - Henry Peacham following the death of William Byrd

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Biographical

English composer, born in London in 1542 or 1543; died 4 July, 1623. He was the son of a musician, and studied music principally under Thomas Tallis. He became organist at Lincoln Cathedral in 1563, chorister in the Chapel Royal in 1570, and in 1575 received the title of Organist of the Chapel Royal without being obliged to perform the functions of that office. Byrd was the most distinguished contrapuntist and the most prolific composer of his time in England. Fetis calls him the English Palestrina. He was the first Englishman to write madrigals, a form which originated in Italy in the thirteenth century, and received its highest development in the sixteenth century at the hands of Arcadelt and other masters. An organist and performer of the first order upon the virginals, Byrd wrote for the latter instrument an enormous number of compositions, many of which are played today. His chief significance lies, however, in his compositions for the Church, of which he produced a great many.

In 1607 he published a collection of gradualia for the whole ecclesiastical year, among which is to be found a three-part setting of the words of the multitude in the Passion according to St. John. A modern edition of this setting was published in 1899. In 1611 "Psalms, Songs and Sonnets, Some Solemn, Others Joyful, Framed to the Life of the Words, Fit for Voyces or Viols, etc." appeared. Probably in the same year was issued "Parthenia", a collection of virginal music, in which Byrd collaborated with J. Bull and Orlando Gibbons. Three masses -- for three, four, and five voices, respectively -- belong to the composer's best period. The one for five voices was reprinted by the Musical Antiquarian Society in 1841, and in 1899 the same work was issued by Breitkopf and Hartel. Two of his motets, "Domine, ne irascaris" and "Civitas sancti tui", with English texts, are in the repertoire of most Anglican cathedrals. In spite of the harrowing religious conditions under which he lived, in the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and James I, Byrd remained faithful to his principles and duties as a Catholic, as is shown in his life and by his works. In his last will and testament he prays "that he may live and dye a true and perfect member of the Holy Catholike Churche withoute which I beleeve there is noe salvacon for me". [Adapted from Catholic Encyclopedia (1908)]

Antoine Busnoys (1432-1492)

Summary

Composer at the court of Burgundy. His compositions include two masses, motets, and his well known secular chansons. His best works are often compared with those of Johannes Ockeghem, his teacher.

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Alexander Agricola (1446-1506)

Summary

A Franco-Flemish contemporary of Josquin des Prez. In his day he was considered by some as the greatest composer in Europe. Agricola is remembered for his sacred and secular vocal music.

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