Jacob Clemens non Papa

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This article is about the Renaissance composer. For the friar and assassin, see Jacques Clément.

Jacobus Clemens non Papa (also Jacques Clément or Jacob Clemens non Papa) (c. 1510 to 1515 – 1555 or 1556) was a Flemish composer of the Renaissance based for most of his life in Flanders.[1] He was a prolific composer in many of the current styles, and was especially famous for his polyphonic settings of the psalms in Dutch known as the Souterliedekens.[2]

Contents

[edit] Life

Nothing is known of his early life, and even the details of the years of his artistic maturity are sketchy. He may have been born in Middelburg, Zeeland, though the evidence is contradictory; certainly he was from somewhere in modern Belgium or the Netherlands. The first unambiguous reference to him is from the late 1530s, when Pierre Attaingnant published a collection of his chansons in Paris. Between March 1544 and June 1545 he worked as succentor at the Bruges cathedral, and shortly thereafter he began a business relationship with Tielman Susato, the publisher in Antwerp, which was to last for the rest of his life. From 1545 until 1549 he was probably choirmaster to Philippe de Croy, Duke of Aerschot, one of Charles V's greatest generals, where he preceded Nicolas Gombert. In 1550 he was employed as sanger ende componist (singer and composer) by the Marian Brotherhood in 's-Hertogenbosch. There is also evidence that he lived and worked in Ieper and Leiden. It is speculated that he also worked in Dordrecht, but there is little evidence supporting this speculation. [3]

There are several theories regarding the origin of the epithet "non Papa". One holds that it was jokingly added by his publisher, Susato, to distinguish him from Pope Clement VII—"Jacob Clemens—but not the Pope." Another states that it is to distinguish him from the poet Jacobus Papa also from Ieper. However, considering that Pope Clemens VII died in 1534, before any of Clemens's music was published, and that the confusion with the poet is unlikely in that the surnames were quite distinct, it is likely that the nickname was merely created in jest rather than for practical reasons. Nonetheless, the suffix has remained throughout the ages.[4]

Details about his death are not known, but he probably died in 1555 or 1556. The 1558 text in Jacobus Vaet's Continuo lacrimas, his deploration on Clemens's death, suggests that he met a violent end, though if true, the circumstances are not given. According to a 1644 source, Clemens was buried at Diksmuide near Ieper in present-day Belgium.[5]

[edit] Works and influence

Unlike many of his contemporaries, Clemens seems never to have traveled to Italy, with the result that Italian influence is absent in his music. He represents the northern European dialect of the Franco-Flemish style.[6]

Clemens was one of the chief representatives of the generation between Josquin and Palestrina and Orlandus Lassus.[7] He was primarily a composer of sacred music. In fact, his musical output was roughly 80 percent sacred music, either liturgical or for private use. Of his approximately 233 motets, only three contain secular texts (hymns of praise of music). However, he did compose somewhere just above 100 secular works that encompass the whole gamut of poetic genres that were used by composers in his generation. Considering that his career as a composer only lasted for barely two decades, Clemens was an extremely prolific composer,[8] writing:

  • 15 masses, including 14 parody masses and a requiem mass[9] (most of which were published 1555-70 by Pierre Phalèse the Elder in Leuven); two mass sections (a Kyrie and a Credo)[10]
  • 15 Magnificats[11]
  • c. 233 motets[12]
  • Just over 100 secular pieces, including: 89 chansons (only 77 of which are considered authentic and are included in the complete edition of his works),[13] 8 Dutch songs, 8 textless pieces, 2 intabulated chansons, and 1 instrumental canon (doubtful) [14]
  • 159 Souterliedekens, i.e. Dutch settings of the psalms, using popular song melodies as cantus firmus.[15]

Of all these works, the Souterliedekens were perhaps the most widely known and influential. The Souterliedekens were published in 1556-7 by Tielman Susato in his Musyck Boexken ("Music Books"), IV-VII[16] and comprised the only Protestant part-music in Dutch during the Renaissance.[17] Based on a preceding volume of Souterliedekens printed by Symon Cock that contained monophonic settings of the psalms in Dutch, Clemens's Souterliedekens became the first complete polyphonic settings of all 150 psalms in Dutch.[18] Presumably, the original verse translation of the Psalter into the Dutch language was completed by Willem van Nievelt from Wittenberg.[19] Clemens's part-settings are generally simple, and designed to be sung by people at home. They use the well-known secular tunes that were printed in the Cock edition, including drinking songs, love songs, ballads, and other popular songs of the time, as a cantus firmus. Most of them were set for 3 parts, and there are 26 different combinations of these voices.[20] Some of the Souterliedekens are based on dance-songs and are frankly homophonic and homorhythmic, while others use imitation. It is notable that these pieces of music survived the ban in 1569 when the government under the Duke of Alva censured all books that were deemed heretical. [21]

After his death, his works were distributed to Germany, France, Spain, and even among various circles in England. The influence of Clemens was especially prominent in Germany; Lassus in particular knew his music well and incorporated elements of his style.[22]

[edit] External links

[edit] Citations

  1. ^ Knighton, Tess and David Fallows, eds., pg. 385
  2. ^ Grove Music Online, "Jacobus Clemens non Papa"
  3. ^ Grove Music Online, "Jacobus Clemens non Papa"
  4. ^ Grove Music Online, "Jacobus Clemens non Papa"
  5. ^ Grove Music Online, "Jacobus Clemens non Papa"
  6. ^ Atlas, Allan W., pg. 398
  7. ^ Taruskin, Richard, pg. 593
  8. ^ Grove Music Online, "Jacobus Clemens non Papa"
  9. ^ Grove Music Online, "Jacobus Clemens non Papa"
  10. ^ Reese, Gustave, pg. 351
  11. ^ Brown, Howard M. and Louise K. Stein, pg. 182
  12. ^ Grove Music Online, "Jacobus Clemens non Papa"
  13. ^ Perkins, Leeman L., pg. 635
  14. ^ Grove Music Online, "Jacobus Clemens non Papa"
  15. ^ Grove Music Online, "Jacobus Clemens non Papa"
  16. ^ Reese, Gustave, pg. 355
  17. ^ Raeburn, Michael and Alan Kendall, eds, pg. 66
  18. ^ Reese, Gustave, pg. 355
  19. ^ Perkins, Leeman L., pg. 743
  20. ^ Reese, Gustave, pg. 357
  21. ^ Grove Music Online, "Jacobus Clemens non Papa"
  22. ^ Grove Music Online, "Jacobus Clemens non Papa"

[edit] References and further reading

  • Atlas, Allan W. Renaissance Music: Music in Western Europe, 1400-1600. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1998. ISBN 978-0393971699
  • Willem Elders/Kristine Forney/Alejandro Planchart: "Jacobus Clemens non Papa", Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed November 19, 2005), (subscription access)
  • Brown, Howard M. and Louise K. Stein. Music in the Renaissance, 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1999. ISBN 978-0134000459
  • Knighton, Tess and David Fallows, eds. Companion to Medieval and Renaissance Music. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992. ISBN 978-0520210813
  • Perkins, Leeman L. Music in the Age of the Renaissance. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1999. ISBN 978-0393046083
  • Raeburn, Michael and Alan Kendall, eds. Heritage of Music, Vol 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990. ISBN 978-0195204933
  • Reese, Gustave. Music in the Renaissance. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1954. ISBN 0-393-09530-4
  • Taruskin, Richard. The Oxford History of Western Music, Vol. 1: The Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN 978-0195169799