Nicolas Gombert
Encyclopedia
Nicolas Gombert was a Franco-Flemish
composer of the Renaissance
. He was one of the most famous and influential composers between Josquin des Prez
and Palestrina
, and best represents the fully developed, complex polyphonic
style of this period in music history.
and Saint-Omer
, possibly in the town of La Gorgue. German writer and music theorist Hermann Finck
wrote that Gombert studied with Josquin
; this would have been during the renowned composer's retirement in Condé-sur-l'Escaut
, sometime between 1515 and 1521.
Gombert was employed by the emperor Charles V
as a singer in his court chapel in 1526 and possibly as a composer as well. Most likely he was taken on while Charles was passing through Flanders, for the emperor traveled often, bringing his retinue with him, and picking up new members as he went. A document dated 1529 mentions Gombert as magister puerorum ("master of the boys") for the royal chapel. He and the singers went with the emperor on his travels throughout his holdings, leaving records of their appearances in various cities of the empire. These visits were musically influential, in part because of Gombert's stature as a musician; thus the travels of Charles and his chapel, as did those of his predecessor Philip I of Castile with composer Pierre de La Rue
, continued the transplantation of the Franco-Flemish polyphonic tradition onto the Iberian Peninsula. At some point in the 1530s Gombert became a cleric and probably a priest
; he received benefices at several cathedrals, including Kortrijk
, Lens
, Metz
, and Béthune
. He remained in the Imperial chapel as maitre des enfants ("master of the children") until some time between 1537 and 1540, being succeeded by Thomas Crecquillon
and later Cornelius Canis
. Even though he held the position of maitre des enfants at the Imperial chapel, he never officially received the title of maitre de chapelle – music director – which was a title given to both Adrien Thibaut and Thomas Crecquillon
. While serving in this position, he likewise unofficially held the position of court composer, arranging numerous works commemorating the key happenings during Charles V's
life.
In 1540 during the height of his career, he vanished from chapel records. According to contemporary physician and mathematician Jerome Cardan, writing in Theonoston (1560), in 1540 Gombert was convicted of sexual contact with a boy in his care and was sentenced to hard labor in the galleys. The exact duration of his service in the galleys is not known, but he was able to continue composing for at least part of the time. Most likely he was pardoned sometime in or before 1547, the date he sent a letter along with a motet from Tournai
to Charles' gran capitano Ferrante I Gonzaga. The Magnificat
settings preserved uniquely in manuscript in Madrid
are often held to have been the "swansongs" that according to Cardan won his pardon; according to this story, Charles was so moved by these Magnificat settings that he let Gombert go early. An alternative hypothesis (Lewis 1994) is that Cardan was referring to the highly penitential First Book of four-part motets; however, in neither case is it clear how Gombert was able to compose while rowing in the galleys as a prisoner.
It is not known how long Gombert lived after his pardon or what positions, if any, he held; his career faded into relative obscurity after he was freed. He may have retired to Tournai
, spending the final years of his life as canon there. Bracketing dates for his probable death are 1556 and 1561; in the former year Hermann Finck
mentioned that he was still living, and in 1561 Cardan wrote that he was dead, without giving details.
is a common device in Josquin, it is pervasive in Gombert. Extended homophonic passages are rare in his sacred works, and he is particularly fond of imitation at very close time intervals, a technically very difficult feat (although he only rarely wrote strict canon
). He preferred the lower voice ranges, and instead of the four voices which was usual at the time, he preferred larger groupings, such as five and six voice parts. Gombert, unlike his predecessor and mentor, Josquin des Prez
, used irregular numbers of voice entries and avoided precise divisions of phrases. Syncopations and cross-accents are characteristic of his rhythmic idiom, and harmonically, Gombert's compositions stressed the traditional modal framework. Musica ficta
, a term that refers to chromatically altering pitches, was very prominent in his musical stylings. His music is notable for its use of suspended dissonance, as well as featuring many false relation
s. Dissonance he uses for expressive effect, for example as an expression of grief in his six-voice motet on the death of Josquin, Musae Jovis, with its clashing semitone
s, and occasional root-position triad
s a tritone
apart.
Out of the ten masses that Gombert composed, nine survive complete. Chronologically, the mass sequence is not specified, but an approximate chronology can be deduced from stylistic characteristics. Two musical characteristics, sequence and ostinato, that were rare in Gombert’s later works, are present in his earlier masses Quam pulchra es and Tempore paschali.
The motet
was Gombert's preferred form, and his compositions in this genre not only were the most influential part of his output, but they show the greatest diversity of compositional technique. His motets, alongside those of Adrian Willaert
and Jacobus Clemens non Papa, stand out from the rest of the Flemish
motet
composers. Familiar characteristics of motets of the preceding generation, such as ostinato
, canon
, cantus firmus
, and double texts, are unusual in Gombert's style, excepting where he used aspects of the previous generation's style as an homage, such as in his motet on the death of Josquin, Musae Jovis. When considering texts for his motet
s, Gombert obtained his inspiration from scripture – such as the Psalms
– as opposed to the liturgy
of the Roman Catholic church
. He was less attentive to textual placement and clarity than to the overall expressive sonority.
Gombert's eight settings of the Magnificat, the ones that may have won him his pardon, are among his most famous works. Each is written in one of the church modes, and consists of a cycle of short motets, with the individual motets based on successive verses of the Magnificat text.
Some of Gombert's works are for unusually large vocal ensembles, including 8, 10, and 12 voices. These works are not polychoral in the usual sense, or in the manner of the Venetian School in which the voices were spatially separated; rather, the voice sub-groupings change during the pieces. These large ensemble compositions include an eight-voice Credo, the 12-voice Agnus from the Missa Tempore paschali, and 10- and 12- voice settings of the Regina caeli. In comparison with the northern Italian cori spezzati
style, Gombert’s multi-voice works were not antiphonal. Instead of dividing forces consistently, Gombert frequently changed the combinations of voice groups. These vocal pieces contained more direct repetition, sequence and ostinato than his other music.
His secular compositions – mostly chanson
s – are less contrapuntally complex than his motet
s and mass
es, but nonetheless more so than the majority of contemporary secular pieces, especially the 'Parisian' chanson. Gombert during the middle of the sixteenth century received credit for several of the Parisian chansons, but later studies have discovered that he was not the sole 'Nicolas' of those secular pieces but many were actually by Nicolas de la Grotte
or Guillaume Nicolas. Authors of the texts used in many chansons, a genre in which Gombert excelled, were mostly anonymous. He turned to older older verse, often of a folkish type, with typical subject matter including unhappy love, farewells, separations, infidelities and the like. Many of these chansons appeared in lute
and vihuela
arrangements, with their wide geographical distribution showing their immense popularity.
His surviving works include 10 mass
es, about 140 motet
s, about 70 chanson
s, a canción
(probably written when he was in Spain), a madrigal
, and a handful of instrumental pieces.
, as can be seen by the wide distribution of his music, the use of his music as source material for compositions by others, and the singular attention that printers paid to him (issuing, for example, editions of his works – most print editions at the time were anthologies of music by several composers). Although highly admired by his contemporaries, the next generation of Franco-Flemish composers mostly wrote in a more simplified style. Part of this was an inevitable stylistic reaction to a contrapuntal
idiom which had reached an extreme, and part of this was due to the specific dictates of the Council of Trent
, which required that text be clearly understandable in sacred, especially liturgical, music – something which is next to impossible for a composer to achieve in a dense imitative texture.
While most composers of the next generation did not continue to write vocal music using Gombert's method of pervasive imitation, they continued to use this contrapuntal texture in instrumental works. Forms such as the canzona
and ricercar
are directly descended from the vocal style of Gombert; Baroque
forms and processes such as the fugue
are later descendants. Gombert's music represents one of the extremes of contrapuntal complexity ever attained in purely vocal music.
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 of the Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
. He was one of the most famous and influential composers between Josquin des Prez
Josquin Des Prez
Josquin des Prez [Josquin Lebloitte dit Desprez] , often referred to simply as Josquin, was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance...
and Palestrina
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina was an Italian Renaissance composer of sacred music and the best-known 16th-century representative of the Roman School of musical composition...
, and best represents the fully developed, complex polyphonic
Polyphony
In music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords ....
style of this period in music history.
Life
Details of his early life are sketchy, but he was likely born around 1495 in southern Flanders, probably between LilleLille
Lille is a city in northern France . It is the principal city of the Lille Métropole, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the country behind those of Paris, Lyon and Marseille. Lille is situated on the Deûle River, near France's border with Belgium...
and Saint-Omer
Saint-Omer
Saint-Omer , a commune and sub-prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais department west-northwest of Lille on the railway to Calais. The town is named after Saint Audomar, who brought Christianity to the area....
, possibly in the town of La Gorgue. German writer and music theorist Hermann Finck
Hermann Finck
Hermann Finck was a German composer.The great-nephew of composer Heinrich Finck, Hermann was born in Pirna, and died at Wittenberg. After 1553 he lived at Wittenberg, where he was organist, and there, in 1555, was published his collection of wedding songs...
wrote that Gombert studied with Josquin
Josquin Des Prez
Josquin des Prez [Josquin Lebloitte dit Desprez] , often referred to simply as Josquin, was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance...
; this would have been during the renowned composer's retirement in Condé-sur-l'Escaut
Condé-sur-l'Escaut
-Administration:Condé-sur-l'Escaut is the eastern member of the agglomerated Valenciennes metropolitan area, which together administers 35 communes.-References:...
, sometime between 1515 and 1521.
Gombert was employed by the emperor Charles V
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I, of the Spanish Empire from 1516 until his voluntary retirement and abdication in favor of his younger brother Ferdinand I and his son Philip II in 1556.As...
as a singer in his court chapel in 1526 and possibly as a composer as well. Most likely he was taken on while Charles was passing through Flanders, for the emperor traveled often, bringing his retinue with him, and picking up new members as he went. A document dated 1529 mentions Gombert as magister puerorum ("master of the boys") for the royal chapel. He and the singers went with the emperor on his travels throughout his holdings, leaving records of their appearances in various cities of the empire. These visits were musically influential, in part because of Gombert's stature as a musician; thus the travels of Charles and his chapel, as did those of his predecessor Philip I of Castile with composer 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...
, continued the transplantation of the Franco-Flemish polyphonic tradition onto the Iberian Peninsula. At some point in the 1530s Gombert became a cleric and probably a priest
Priest
A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...
; he received benefices at several cathedrals, including Kortrijk
Kortrijk
Kortrijk ; , ; ) is a Belgian city and municipality located in the Flemish province West Flanders...
, Lens
Lens, Pas-de-Calais
Lens is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. It is one of France's large Picarde cities along with Lille, Valenciennes, Amiens, Roubaix, Tourcoing, Arras, and Douai.-Metropolitan area:...
, Metz
Metz
Metz is a city in the northeast of France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers.Metz is the capital of the Lorraine region and prefecture of the Moselle department. Located near the tripoint along the junction of France, Germany, and Luxembourg, Metz forms a central place...
, and Béthune
Béthune
Béthune is a city in northern France, sub-prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais department.-Geography:Béthune is located in the former province of Artois. It is situated South-East of Calais, West of Lille, and North of Paris.-Landmarks:...
. He remained in the Imperial chapel as maitre des enfants ("master of the children") until some time between 1537 and 1540, being succeeded by Thomas Crecquillon
Thomas Crecquillon
Thomas Crecquillon was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance. He is considered to be a member of the Netherlands school. While his place of birth is unknown, it was probably within the region loosely known at the time as the Netherlands, and he probably died at Béthune.-Biography:Very...
and later Cornelius Canis
Cornelius Canis
Cornelius Canis was a Franco-Flemish composer, singer, and choir director of the Renaissance, active for much of his life in the Grande Chapelle, the imperial Habsburg music establishment during the reign of Emperor Charles V...
. Even though he held the position of maitre des enfants at the Imperial chapel, he never officially received the title of maitre de chapelle – music director – which was a title given to both Adrien Thibaut and Thomas Crecquillon
Thomas Crecquillon
Thomas Crecquillon was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance. He is considered to be a member of the Netherlands school. While his place of birth is unknown, it was probably within the region loosely known at the time as the Netherlands, and he probably died at Béthune.-Biography:Very...
. While serving in this position, he likewise unofficially held the position of court composer, arranging numerous works commemorating the key happenings during Charles V's
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I, of the Spanish Empire from 1516 until his voluntary retirement and abdication in favor of his younger brother Ferdinand I and his son Philip II in 1556.As...
life.
In 1540 during the height of his career, he vanished from chapel records. According to contemporary physician and mathematician Jerome Cardan, writing in Theonoston (1560), in 1540 Gombert was convicted of sexual contact with a boy in his care and was sentenced to hard labor in the galleys. The exact duration of his service in the galleys is not known, but he was able to continue composing for at least part of the time. Most likely he was pardoned sometime in or before 1547, the date he sent a letter along with a motet from Tournai
Tournai
Tournai is a Walloon city and municipality of Belgium located 85 kilometres southwest of Brussels, on the river Scheldt, in the province of Hainaut....
to Charles' gran capitano Ferrante I Gonzaga. The Magnificat
Magnificat
The Magnificat — also known as the Song of Mary or the Canticle of Mary — is a canticle frequently sung liturgically in Christian church services. It is one of the eight most ancient Christian hymns and perhaps the earliest Marian hymn...
settings preserved uniquely in manuscript in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
are often held to have been the "swansongs" that according to Cardan won his pardon; according to this story, Charles was so moved by these Magnificat settings that he let Gombert go early. An alternative hypothesis (Lewis 1994) is that Cardan was referring to the highly penitential First Book of four-part motets; however, in neither case is it clear how Gombert was able to compose while rowing in the galleys as a prisoner.
It is not known how long Gombert lived after his pardon or what positions, if any, he held; his career faded into relative obscurity after he was freed. He may have retired to Tournai
Tournai
Tournai is a Walloon city and municipality of Belgium located 85 kilometres southwest of Brussels, on the river Scheldt, in the province of Hainaut....
, spending the final years of his life as canon there. Bracketing dates for his probable death are 1556 and 1561; in the former year Hermann Finck
Hermann Finck
Hermann Finck was a German composer.The great-nephew of composer Heinrich Finck, Hermann was born in Pirna, and died at Wittenberg. After 1553 he lived at Wittenberg, where he was organist, and there, in 1555, was published his collection of wedding songs...
mentioned that he was still living, and in 1561 Cardan wrote that he was dead, without giving details.
Music and style
Gombert is perhaps the most representative composer of the generation between Josquin and Palestrina, especially in the area of sacred music. He brought the polyphonic style to its highest state of perfection; if imitationImitation (music)
In music, imitation is when a melody in a polyphonic texture is repeated shortly after its first appearance in a different voice, usually at a different pitch. The melody may vary through transposition, inversion, or otherwise, but retain its original character...
is a common device in Josquin, it is pervasive in Gombert. Extended homophonic passages are rare in his sacred works, and he is particularly fond of imitation at very close time intervals, a technically very difficult feat (although he only rarely wrote strict canon
Canon (music)
In music, a canon is a contrapuntal composition that employs a melody with one or more imitations of the melody played after a given duration . The initial melody is called the leader , while the imitative melody, which is played in a different voice, is called the follower...
). He preferred the lower voice ranges, and instead of the four voices which was usual at the time, he preferred larger groupings, such as five and six voice parts. Gombert, unlike his predecessor and mentor, Josquin des Prez
Josquin Des Prez
Josquin des Prez [Josquin Lebloitte dit Desprez] , often referred to simply as Josquin, was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance...
, used irregular numbers of voice entries and avoided precise divisions of phrases. Syncopations and cross-accents are characteristic of his rhythmic idiom, and harmonically, Gombert's compositions stressed the traditional modal framework. Musica ficta
Musica ficta
Musica ficta was a term used in European music theory from the late 12th century to about 1600 to describe any pitches, whether notated or to be added by performers in accordance with their training, that lie outside the system of musica recta or musica vera as defined by the hexachord system of...
, a term that refers to chromatically altering pitches, was very prominent in his musical stylings. His music is notable for its use of suspended dissonance, as well as featuring many false relation
False relation
A false relation is the name of a type of dissonance that sometimes occurs in classical polyphonic music, most commonly in vocal music of the Renaissance....
s. Dissonance he uses for expressive effect, for example as an expression of grief in his six-voice motet on the death of Josquin, Musae Jovis, with its clashing semitone
Semitone
A semitone, also called a half step or a half tone, is the smallest musical interval commonly used in Western tonal music, and it is considered the most dissonant when sounded harmonically....
s, and occasional root-position triad
Triad (music)
In music and music theory, a triad is a three-note chord that can be stacked in thirds. Its members, when actually stacked in thirds, from lowest pitched tone to highest, are called:* the Root...
s a tritone
Tritone
In classical music from Western culture, the tritone |tone]]) is traditionally defined as a musical interval composed of three whole tones. In a chromatic scale, each whole tone can be further divided into two semitones...
apart.
Out of the ten masses that Gombert composed, nine survive complete. Chronologically, the mass sequence is not specified, but an approximate chronology can be deduced from stylistic characteristics. Two musical characteristics, sequence and ostinato, that were rare in Gombert’s later works, are present in his earlier masses Quam pulchra es and Tempore paschali.
The motet
Motet
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...
was Gombert's preferred form, and his compositions in this genre not only were the most influential part of his output, but they show the greatest diversity of compositional technique. His motets, alongside those of Adrian Willaert
Adrian Willaert
Adrian Willaert was a Flemish composer of the Renaissance and founder of the Venetian School. He was one of the most representative members of the generation of northern composers who moved to Italy and transplanted the polyphonic Franco-Flemish style there....
and Jacobus Clemens non Papa, stand out from the rest of the Flemish
Flanders
Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...
motet
Motet
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...
composers. Familiar characteristics of motets of the preceding generation, such as ostinato
Ostinato
In music, an ostinato is a motif or phrase, which is persistently repeated in the same musical voice. An ostinato is always a succession of equal sounds, wherein each note always has the same weight or stress. The repeating idea may be a rhythmic pattern, part of a tune, or a complete melody in...
, canon
Canon (music)
In music, a canon is a contrapuntal composition that employs a melody with one or more imitations of the melody played after a given duration . The initial melody is called the leader , while the imitative melody, which is played in a different voice, is called the follower...
, cantus firmus
Cantus firmus
In music, a cantus firmus is a pre-existing melody forming the basis of a polyphonic composition.The plural of this Latin term is , though the corrupt form canti firmi is also attested...
, and double texts, are unusual in Gombert's style, excepting where he used aspects of the previous generation's style as an homage, such as in his motet on the death of Josquin, Musae Jovis. When considering texts for his motet
Motet
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...
s, Gombert obtained his inspiration from scripture – such as the Psalms
Psalms
The Book of Psalms , commonly referred to simply as Psalms, is a book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible...
– as opposed to the liturgy
Liturgy
Liturgy is either the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions or a more precise term that distinguishes between those religious groups who believe their ritual requires the "people" to do the "work" of responding to the priest, and those...
of the Roman Catholic church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
. He was less attentive to textual placement and clarity than to the overall expressive sonority.
Gombert's eight settings of the Magnificat, the ones that may have won him his pardon, are among his most famous works. Each is written in one of the church modes, and consists of a cycle of short motets, with the individual motets based on successive verses of the Magnificat text.
Some of Gombert's works are for unusually large vocal ensembles, including 8, 10, and 12 voices. These works are not polychoral in the usual sense, or in the manner of the Venetian School in which the voices were spatially separated; rather, the voice sub-groupings change during the pieces. These large ensemble compositions include an eight-voice Credo, the 12-voice Agnus from the Missa Tempore paschali, and 10- and 12- voice settings of the Regina caeli. In comparison with the northern Italian cori spezzati
Venetian polychoral style
The Venetian polychoral style was a type of music of the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras which involved spatially separate choirs singing in alternation...
style, Gombert’s multi-voice works were not antiphonal. Instead of dividing forces consistently, Gombert frequently changed the combinations of voice groups. These vocal pieces contained more direct repetition, sequence and ostinato than his other music.
His secular compositions – mostly chanson
Chanson
A chanson is in general any lyric-driven French song, usually polyphonic and secular. A singer specialising in chansons is known as a "chanteur" or "chanteuse" ; a collection of chansons, especially from the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, is also known as a chansonnier.-Chanson de geste:The...
s – are less contrapuntally complex than his motet
Motet
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...
s and mass
Mass (music)
The Mass, a form of sacred musical composition, is a choral composition that sets the invariable portions of the Eucharistic liturgy to music...
es, but nonetheless more so than the majority of contemporary secular pieces, especially the 'Parisian' chanson. Gombert during the middle of the sixteenth century received credit for several of the Parisian chansons, but later studies have discovered that he was not the sole 'Nicolas' of those secular pieces but many were actually by Nicolas de la Grotte
Nicolas de la Grotte
Nicolas de La Grotte was a French composer and keyboard player of the Renaissance. He was well known as a performer on the organ and on the spinet, as well as a composer of chansons; in addition he was one of very few French composers of the 16th century with a surviving composition written...
or Guillaume Nicolas. Authors of the texts used in many chansons, a genre in which Gombert excelled, were mostly anonymous. He turned to older older verse, often of a folkish type, with typical subject matter including unhappy love, farewells, separations, infidelities and the like. Many of these chansons appeared in lute
Lute
Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....
and vihuela
Vihuela
Vihuela is a name given to two different guitar-like string instruments: one from 15th and 16th century Spain, usually with 12 paired strings, and the other, the Mexican vihuela, from 19th century Mexico with five strings and typically played in Mariachi bands.-History:The vihuela, as it was known...
arrangements, with their wide geographical distribution showing their immense popularity.
His surviving works include 10 mass
Mass (music)
The Mass, a form of sacred musical composition, is a choral composition that sets the invariable portions of the Eucharistic liturgy to music...
es, about 140 motet
Motet
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...
s, about 70 chanson
Chanson
A chanson is in general any lyric-driven French song, usually polyphonic and secular. A singer specialising in chansons is known as a "chanteur" or "chanteuse" ; a collection of chansons, especially from the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, is also known as a chansonnier.-Chanson de geste:The...
s, a canción
Canción
Canción is a popular genre of Latin American music, particularly in Cuba, where many of the compositions originate. Its roots lie in Spanish popular song forms, including tiranas, polos and boleros; also in Italian light operetta, French romanza, and the slow waltz...
(probably written when he was in Spain), a madrigal
Madrigal (music)
A madrigal is a secular vocal music composition, usually a partsong, of the Renaissance and early Baroque eras. Traditionally, polyphonic madrigals are unaccompanied; the number of voices varies from two to eight, and most frequently from three to six....
, and a handful of instrumental pieces.
Influence
Gombert was one of the most renowned composers in Europe after the death of Josquin des PrezJosquin Des Prez
Josquin des Prez [Josquin Lebloitte dit Desprez] , often referred to simply as Josquin, was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance...
, as can be seen by the wide distribution of his music, the use of his music as source material for compositions by others, and the singular attention that printers paid to him (issuing, for example, editions of his works – most print editions at the time were anthologies of music by several composers). Although highly admired by his contemporaries, the next generation of Franco-Flemish composers mostly wrote in a more simplified style. Part of this was an inevitable stylistic reaction to a contrapuntal
Counterpoint
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent . It has been most commonly identified in classical music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...
idiom which had reached an extreme, and part of this was due to the specific dictates of the Council of Trent
Council of Trent
The Council of Trent was the 16th-century Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church. It is considered to be one of the Church's most important councils. It convened in Trent between December 13, 1545, and December 4, 1563 in twenty-five sessions for three periods...
, which required that text be clearly understandable in sacred, especially liturgical, music – something which is next to impossible for a composer to achieve in a dense imitative texture.
While most composers of the next generation did not continue to write vocal music using Gombert's method of pervasive imitation, they continued to use this contrapuntal texture in instrumental works. Forms such as the canzona
Canzona
In the 16th century an instrumental chanson; later, a piece for ensemble in several sections or tempos...
and ricercar
Ricercar
A ricercar is a type of late Renaissance and mostly early Baroque instrumental composition. The term means to search out, and many ricercars serve a preludial function to "search out" the key or mode of a following piece...
are directly descended from the vocal style of Gombert; Baroque
Baroque music
Baroque music describes a style of Western Classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1760. This era follows the Renaissance and was followed in turn by the Classical era...
forms and processes such as the fugue
Fugue
In music, a fugue is a compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject that is introduced at the beginning in imitation and recurs frequently in the course of the composition....
are later descendants. Gombert's music represents one of the extremes of contrapuntal complexity ever attained in purely vocal music.
Recordings
- Nicolas Gombert, Music from the Court of Charles V, Huelgas EnsembleHuelgas EnsembleThe Huelgas Ensemble is a Belgian early music group formed by the Flemish conductor Paul Van Nevel in 1971. The group's performance and extensive discography focuses on renaissance polyphony...
, Sony Vivarte SK 48249 - Nicolas Gombert, Missa media vita, etc., Hilliard EnsembleHilliard EnsembleThe Hilliard Ensemble is a British male vocal quartet originally devoted to the performance of early music. Founded in 1974, the group is named after the Elizabethan miniaturist painter Nicholas Hilliard....
, ECM New Series 1884 http://www.classicalacarte.net/Goldberg50/Dossiers/ecm_1884_9818792.htm - Nicolas Gombert, Magnificat 1, etc., Oxford Camerata, Naxos 8.557732
- Nicolas Gombert, Magnificats 1-4, Tallis Scholars, CD Gimell CDGIM 037 http://www.classicalacarte.net/Goldberg50/Dossiers/gimell_cdgim_037.htm
- Nicolas Gombert, Magnificats 5-8, Tallis Scholars, CD Gimell CDGIM 038
- Nicolas Gombert, Eight-part Credo, etc., Henry's Eight: Hyperion CDA 66828
- Nicolas Gombert, Missa Tempore paschali, etc., Henry's Eight, Hyperion CDA 66943
- Heavenly SpheresHeavenly SpheresHeavenly Spheres is an a cappella choral album by the Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal under the direction of Christopher Jackson. Recorded in 1998, it features songs from the late 15th to early 16th century...
, CBC Records, MVCD 1121, sung by Studio de musique ancienne de MontréalStudio de musique ancienne de MontréalThe Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal is an early music vocal ensemble based in Montreal, Canada. Co-founded in 1974 by the organ and harpsichord players Christopher Jackson, Réjean Poirier, and Hélène Dugal, the group became an important part of the Early Music Revival in Montreal during the...
. Contains two motets by Gombert, including his elegy for Josquin, Musae Jovis. - Flemish Masters, Virginia Arts Recordings, VA-04413, performed by Zephyrus. Includes Gombert's motet, Lugebat David Absalon, the Obrecht Missa Sub tuum presidium, as well as motets by Willaert, Clemens non Papa, Ockeghem, Des Prez, and Mouton.
- Christmas to Candlemas, Ensemble Gombert, Tall Poppies TP192. Includes Gombert's motet "Hodie nobis caelorum" and seasonal works by Mouton, Josquin, de Silva, Clemens non Papa, Tallis, Victoria, Lassus, Sheppard and Palestrina.
- Josquin to Martin, Ensemble Gombert, Move Records MCD 277. Includes Gombert's motet "Regina caeli laaetare" and works by Josquin, de Monte, Byrd, Brahms ("Drei Motetten," op. 110) and Frank Martin (Mass for Double Choir).
- Nicolas Gombert, Nicolas Gombert 1, The Sound and the Fury, ORF CD 463. Includes Missa Quam Pulchra Es, Ave Maria, Salve Maria, Sancta Maria, Da Pacem, Inviolata.
- Nicolas Gombert, Nicolas Gombert 2, The Sound and the Fury, ORF SACD 3006. Includes Missa Sur Tous Regrets, Si Ignoras Te, Homo Erat in Jerusalem, Sancta Mundi, Ave Salus Mundi, Emendemus, Ne Reminiscaris Domine, Salvator Mundi.
- Nicolas Gombert, Nicolas Gombert 3, The Sound and the Fury, ORF CD 3077. Includes twelve motets.
- Nicolas Gombert, Tribulatio et angustia, Brabant Ensemble, Stephen Rice, Hyperion CDA67614
- Listen to free recordings of songs from Umeå Akademiska Kör.
Related sites
- Ensemble GombertEnsemble GombertEnsemble Gombert is a chamber choir based in Melbourne, Australia noted for its pure intonation and historic approach to choral sound and style. The ensemble was founded and is conducted by musicologist and organist John O'Donnell in 1990. The group is named after Nicolas Gombert Ensemble Gombert...
(external site: Ensemble Gombert)