Jheronimus de Clibano
Encyclopedia
Franco-Flemish School
In music, the Franco-Flemish School or more precisely the Netherlandish School refers, somewhat imprecisely, to the style of polyphonic vocal music composition in Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries, and to the composers who wrote it...
composer and singer of the Renaissance
Renaissance music
Renaissance music is European music written during the Renaissance. Defining the beginning of the musical era is difficult, given that its defining characteristics were adopted only gradually; musicologists have placed its beginnings from as early as 1300 to as late as the 1470s.Literally meaning...
. He was a member of the Habsburg
Habsburg
The House of Habsburg , also found as Hapsburg, and also known as House of Austria is one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian Empire and...
Grande chapelle, the distinguished choir of Philip I of Castile
Philip I of Castile
Philip I , known as Philip the Handsome or the Fair, was the first Habsburg King of Castile...
, at the same time as Pierre de La Rue
Pierre de La Rue
Pierre de la Rue , called Piersson, was a Franco-Flemish composer and singer of the Renaissance. A member of the same generation as Josquin des Prez, and a long associate of the Habsburg-Burgundian musical chapel, he ranks with Agricola, Brumel, Compère, Isaac, Obrecht, and Weerbeke as one of the...
.
Life
Nycasius de Clibano
Nycasius de Clibano was a Franco-Flemish singer and composer of the Renaissance, probably active only in his homeland, the southern part of the Netherlands.-Life and work:...
and brother Jan de Clibano were also singers; while his father was known to be a composer, Jan was not. Jheronimus was born in 's-Hertogenbosch. His exact early training is not known, but it is reasonable to presume he learned music from his father, and he likely received the training in a local choir school common to composers and singers of the time. Between November 1484 and early 1488, he was a singer at the Confraternity of Our Lady (Illustre Lieve Vrouwe Broederschap) in 's-Hertogenbosch. He moved to Bruges
Bruges
Bruges is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located in the northwest of the country....
, where he was appointed succentor
Succentor
The Succentor in an ancient cathedral foundation sings psalms and Preces and Responses after the Precentor. In English cathedrals today the priest responsible for liturgy and music is usually the Precentor, but some cathedrals, such as St Paul's and Durham, retain a Succentor as well. Westminster...
at St. Donatian. Records there indicate he was in trouble for negligence, and he was removed from his post in 1497. In 1499 he likely worked at the Cathedral of Our Lady (Antwerp) in Antwerp, replacing another notoriously unreliable employee, the renowned composer Jacob Obrecht
Jacob Obrecht
Jacob Obrecht was a Flemish composer of the Renaissance. He was the most famous composer of masses in Europe in the late 15th century, being eclipsed by only Josquin des Prez after his death.-Life:...
.
Philip I of Castile
Philip I of Castile
Philip I , known as Philip the Handsome or the Fair, was the first Habsburg King of Castile...
hired Clibano into his Grande chapelle as a singer on August 6, 1500, on the same date as Alexander Agricola
Alexander Agricola
Alexander Agricola was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance. A prominent member of the Grande chapelle, the Habsburg musical establishment, he was a renowned composer in the years around 1500, and his music was widely distributed throughout Europe...
, a much more famous composer. Pay lists for the period indicate that Clibano rose quickly, overtaking Agricola, but never reaching the level of Pierre de La Rue
Pierre de La Rue
Pierre de la Rue , called Piersson, was a Franco-Flemish composer and singer of the Renaissance. A member of the same generation as Josquin des Prez, and a long associate of the Habsburg-Burgundian musical chapel, he ranks with Agricola, Brumel, Compère, Isaac, Obrecht, and Weerbeke as one of the...
. While in the employ of the Grande chapelle, he went to Spain, however he died during the trip back, possibly at Lyon
Lyon
Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....
, or one of the other places that they visited on their travels between March 25, 1503 (when he was known to be alive) and May 15 (when records indicate that he was deceased).
Music
Three works are attributed to Clibano. The first, and most reliable, is a four-voice motetMotet
In classical music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions.-Etymology:The name comes either from the Latin movere, or a Latinized version of Old French mot, "word" or "verbal utterance." The Medieval Latin for "motet" is motectum, and the Italian...
, Festivitatem dedicationis, which was written for the dedication of a church. The other pieces are a cantus-firmus mass
Cyclic mass
In Renaissance music, the cyclic mass was a setting of the Ordinary of the Roman Catholic Mass, in which each of the movements – Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei – shared a common musical theme, commonly a cantus firmus, thus making it a unified whole...
based on Asperges me, Missa Et super nivem dealbabor, and also a Credo de villagiis (published by Ottaviano Petrucci
Ottaviano Petrucci
Ottaviano Petrucci was an Italian printer. His Harmonice Musices Odhecaton, a collection of chansons printed in 1501, is commonly misidentified as the first book of sheet music printed from movable type. Actually that distinction belongs to the Roman printer Ulrich Han's Missale Romanum of 1476...
in 1505). Both the mass and the Credo may actually be by Clibano's father, Nycasius.