Adrian Willaert

Adrian Willaert (with various alternative spellings, * around 1490 in Roeselare (French: Roulers ), † December 7, 1562 in Venice ) was a Franco-Flemish composer and conductor of the Renaissance .

Live and act

Adrian Willaert, painting from 1527

Since the place and year of Adrian Willaert's birth have not been documented anywhere, recent genealogical investigations (Aerbeydt 1978) have suggested the area around the West Flemish city ​​of Roeselare, about 40 kilometers south of Bruges , as the most likely place of birth of the composer, which was already Willaert's contemporary Jacobus de Meyers had stated in 1531. In contrast, the possible birthplace of Bruges itself, named by Franciscus Sweertius ( Antwerp 1628) and adopted by many music historians of the 19th century, is now considered to be rather improbable. The year of birth is now generally assumed to be around 1490; Nothing is known about Willaert's family of origin and his youth. His student Gioseffo Zarlino reported in retrospect in 1571 that the master spent several years in Paris from around 1510 to 1515 , where Willaert first studied law , then gave it up in favor of music and became a student of Jean Mouton , a member of the royal chapel of Louis XII. Even if this statement comes only from Zarlino, it is stylistic similarities, the choice of templates for Willaert's parody masses as well as joint manuscripts and prints that indicate a close relationship between Willaert and Mouton and his environment.

The Milanese Cardinal Ippolito I. d'Este , a brother of Alfonso I. d'Este (Duke of Ferrara ), who had also been Bishop of Erlau in Hungary since 1496 and stayed in Rome in 1515 , appointed Willaert ("Adriano cantore") on July 8, 1515 in his service as Kapellmeister; he traveled with him and his other entourage to Hungary in October 1517 and returned to Ferrara in August 1519. During this time, the anecdote reported by Zarlino that Willaert's six-part motet “Verbum bonum et suave” was initially highly valued by the singers of the papal chapel as a supposed composition by Josquin Desprez , but was then rejected after Willaert turned out to be the actual author would have. Ippolito I died unexpectedly in September 1520, after which Willaert was accepted into his chapel by his brother Alfonso. Alfonso's son Ippolito II. D'Este (1509–1572), who had been appointed Archbishop of Milan at the age of ten, but resided in Ferrara, took Willaert into his service in 1525. The composer remained closely associated with the d'Este family , who were known for their patronage .

In 1527 Adrian Willaert was offered the position of Kapellmeister by San Marco in Venice. Getting this post was already a high honor at the time. The composer took office on December 12th of that year and held it for 35 years until his death; It was only through his work that this position acquired its outstanding importance throughout Europe. Willaert was the successor of Petrus de Fossis († before July 7, 1526) and initially received his salary of 70 ducats . This was followed by gradual increases up to 200 ducats, which he reached in 1556. A wife named Susanna is mentioned in the various wills left as well as his sister, her husband and their son Alvise; Willaert does not seem to have had any children of his own. The main task of the composer was to lead the cathedral choir, which initially consisted of 20 male voices and later became a little larger. He also taught boys' voices, a job he was relieved of in 1542 after a singing teacher had been hired. The new singers as well as the two cathedral organists were accepted through an examination with the assessment of the Kapellmeister, the superior of the band and longtime band singers.

In the years 1542 and 1556 the composer traveled to his Flemish homeland because of family matters; these may also have been caused by problems resulting from the French invasions in the Netherlands. Shortly after the first trip, the publisher Tielman Susato published prints of Chansons Willaerts (1544). From the second voyage he was expected back in November 1556; during his absence he was represented by the experienced band member Marco Antonio Cavazzoni . Willaert apparently exceeded this vacation considerably. In the last few years in Venice Adrian Willaert was marked by illness; He dictated his last will of November 12, 1562 as a bedridden man. The composer died a good three weeks later. Even during his illness, the duties of the conductor were performed by Francesco Violante , who had worked as a singing teacher at San Marco since 1542; he continued the representation until Cipriano de Rore took office in 1563.

meaning

Adrian Willaert's musical oeuvre encompasses almost all genres that were cultivated during the Renaissance. Most of his oeuvre consists of sacred music, but also contains important secular compositions; His pioneering work from 1540 onwards included contributions to the still young genre of the polyphonic ricercare and the first print of a Compline (1555). Ten masses from him have come down to us that go back to a relatively early period of the composer, eight of which are definitely authentic, and almost all of the parody type . Five of the related templates refer to his early days: three are based on motets by Jean Mouton and one each on motets by Jean Richafort and Mathieu Gascogne . Probably the earliest mass composition (written before 1520) is the six-part mass “Mente tota”, which is worked with complicated canons and is based on the template of the quinta pars of the motet “Vultum tuum” by Josquin Desprez. His last mass composition is probably the "Mittit ad virginem", which was dedicated to his patron Alfons II d'Este in the last years of his life; it contains a canon of homage woven into the Agnus Dei and shows features of his later writing with their inclination for variation and detailed work, as it is also shown to advantage in his later motets.

His over 150 motets, which accompanied all stages of his compositional development and, apart from the handwritten tradition, were published in a number of collections (individual prints), are of outstanding importance in Willaert's work. The stylistic diversity is particularly striking here. The “ Musica Nova ” collection from 1559 deserves special attention; it contains 27 motets, of which 4 compositions are four-part, 6 five-part, 12 six-part and 5 seven-part. Her texts are based on sequences and quotations from the Bible. Typical of the Musica Nova is its principally syllabic declamation , which coordinates word and beat emphasis and avoids melismatics ; the latter then appears in appropriate exceptions to increase expression. This is especially true for the freely composed six-part motets. His seven-part motets stand out due to their complicated canon techniques. In his earlier collections of motets (1539 and 1545), chorale melodies are sometimes paraphrased , or the end of the first part is taken up again at the end of the second part (recap motet). Variety is very important; on homophonic sections follow duos and fully-voiced imitation , and other pieces are continuously imitated or composed broken in a way that is hard to generalize. “With the often close succession of intermediate closures, a balance is achieved between closing and propelling effects, which creates the paradoxical impression of a structured flow” (Wolfgang Horn in the source MGG).

The composer's hymns come mainly from the hymn print of the publisher Ottaviano Scotto from 1542 and are usually based on the end of the church year. A core part of it was also used in the Roman rite; Most of the hymns are set up for chorale and polyphonic alternation . The doxological final stanza is always polyphonic and the polyphonic stanzas are composed like small motets. Only a few hymns have survived in handwritten form. The Vesper psalms by Adrian Willaert come from the print of 1550, which also contains pieces by Jachet de Mantua and a few compositions by other authors. The works serve to reproduce the liturgical practice of alternatim singing with three types of compositions: alternation between monophonic and polyphonic verses, alternation between different polyphonic verses and the “salmi speczadi” with their strongly separated lectures of each half of the choir; only in the final doxology do both unite to form eight voices. The first printing of Vesperstück and Kompline from 1555 by the publisher Antonio Gardano is aimed at small proportions because of its four parts and was probably therefore so successful. It contains the two psalm sequences of the Christmas vespers and Marian vespers, two magnificats and antiphons for the Christmas vespers, as well as two other alternative hymns. The subsequent Compline of Willaert is the first of its kind to appear in print and can in a special way be regarded as a "liturgy set to music".

Willaert's elaborately worked madrigals were intended for an aristocratic society that was receptive to such subtleties in word and music; What is striking is that, with one exception ( Panfilo Sasso ), they only go back to texts by Francesco Petrarca . Structurally, his early four-part madrigals are largely based on Jacobus Arcadelt and Philippe Verdelot with regard to the observance of verse boundaries and a certain dominance of the top voice. After 1540 madrigals were created which, like motets, are divided into two parts and show a subtly broken movement in a melody shaped by the text. Some of these madrigals have an identifiable reference to people or contemporary events. In the later madrigals, which are in the volume of the Musica Nova, the alternation of vocal groups superimposes the sonnet structure of the texts in one group , while in the other group a division into two parts becomes visible and this external approach to the motet intended one Finishing of the madrigal takes place.

Willaert's pieces in a less strict style are also seriously elaborated in the composition; this includes his 15 four-part pieces in the style of the canzone villanesca alla napolitana and a Greghesca "Dulce padrun, mi ho cognosuo", one of the master's latest compositions. In his chansons of the earlier type a slight note is struck, they often appear as an adaptation of an already existing melody; on the other hand, the later type is carefully worked in contrapuntal terms and shows a stronger relationship between linguistic and musical accents. The five- and six-part chansons increasingly have canonical constructions based on Josquin's example. The 13 three-part and 9 four-part Ricercari are purely instrumental pieces for which the execution is not specified (instrumental ensemble or, secondarily, the organ ). Here a section-by-section imitation comes into play, and because of the missing text, the motivic relationships between the sections become more prominent.

Adrian Willaert already enjoyed a high reputation during his lifetime through his position as Kapellmeister at the Venetian St. Mark's Basilica, which was also reflected in the creation of a “Willaert Circle”. This circle can be regarded as the nucleus of the Venetian School. The composer's environment included A. Barges, Leonardus Barré , Jacquet de Berchem , Girolamo Parabosco , Baldissera Donato , Antonio Francesco Doni , H. Naich, Jean Nasco , Claudio Merulo , Perissone (P. Cambio), Costanzo Porta , Silvestro Ganassi , Gioseffo Zarlino , Cipriano de Rore and many other famous people from Venice; several of these were pupils of Willaert and have also made a name for themselves as composers. His relatively early piece "Quid non ebrietas" provided extensive discussion material for the music theorists Giovanni Spataro , Pietro Aaron , Ercole Bottrigari , Giovanni Maria Artusi and Angelo Berardi . In a special way, Willaert's pupil Gioseffo Zarlino (since 1541) increased and preserved the composer's fame through his writings, such as Le istitutioni harmoniche . With regard to his eight-part Salmi Spezzati , Willaert can also be regarded as a forerunner and pioneer of polychoralism, but not as its inventor. The great European publishers and music printers in Willaert's time in Venice, Rome, Antwerp , Liège , Paris , Lyon , Nuremberg and Augsburg had a lively interest in his sacred and secular music and contributed significantly to the distribution of his works. The teacher-pupil generations founded by Willaert in the Venetian School extend into the Baroque period . Willaert's music, on the other hand, had no significant afterlife, since his persistent striving for perfection did not lead to compositions that could be imprinted on the memory at superficial encounters, so that, following the fashion of the time, they were hardly performed and lost their popularity. Giulio Cesare Monteverdi , brother of Claudio Monteverdi , speaks in the Scherzi musicali (1607) by Willaert as the compositional finisher of the so-called Prima prattica , while the beginnings of the promising Seconda prattica go back to the Willaert pupil and successor Cipriano de Rore. “Overall, Adrian Willaert, through the versatility of his talent and the power of his personality, gave his office splendor and dignity and, moreover, merged the traditional and the new on a high artistic level by playing the three leading musical styles of the time, the Dutch, the French and the Italian Style, has led to a synthesis of great historical importance ”(Walter Gerstenberg in the source Honegger-Massenkeil).

Works (summary)

• Measure and measuring parts
  • Missa "Christ resurgens" with four voices
  • Missa “Gaude, Barbara” with four voices
  • Missa “Laudate Deum” with four voices
  • Missa “Osculetur me” with four voices
  • Missa “Queramus cum pastoribus” for four voices, 1st composition
  • Missa “Queramus cum pastoribus” to four voices, 2nd composition, attribution questionable
  • Missa “Benedicta es” with five voices, attribution questionable
  • Missa (mi-ut-mi-sol) to five voices
  • Missa “Mente tota” with six voices
  • Missa “Mittit ad virginem” with six voices
  • Kyrie ("Cunctipotens genitor") to four voices
• Motets from “Musica quatuor vocum […] liber primus, liber secundus”, Venice 1539
  • 55 compositions
• Motets from “Musica quinque vocum […] liber primus”, Venice 1539, all with five voices
  • 23 compositions
• Motets from “Musicorum sex vocum […] liber primus”, Venice 1542, all with six parts
  • 15 compositions
• Motets from “Musica Nova” for four to seven voices, Venice 1559
  • 27 compositions
• Madrigals from “Musica Nova” for four to seven voices, Venice 1559
  • 25 compositions
• Motets that have come down to us in collective prints
  • 39 compositions
• Motets that have been handed down by hand
  • 28 compositions
• Motets with doubtful or erroneous attribution
  • 8 compositions
• Motets that have been lost
  • 8 compositions
• Hymns from “Hymnorum musica secundum ordinem romanae ecclesiae”, Venice 1542
  • 25 compositions
• Hymns that have been handed down by hand
  • 9 compositions
• Psalms from “I salmi appertinenti alli vesperi per tutte le fest dell'anno”, Venice 1550
  • 14 compositions
• Questionable attributions of Psalms, Magnificat and a Versikels
  • 11 compositions
• Psalms and other sacred chants from “I sacri e santi salmi che si cantano a Vespro e Compienta”, Venice 1555
  • 35 compositions
• Lamentations and St. John Passion
  • 2 compositions
• Madrigals from "Musica Nova"
  • 31 compositions
• Canzoni villanesche and Greghesca
  • 14 compositions
• Doubtful and incorrectly attributed works with Italian text
  • 15 compositions
• French chansons from the collection “La Couronne et fleur des chansons à troys”, Venice 1536
  • 20 compositions
• French chansons from the collection “Mellange de chansons tant des vieux autheurs que des modern”, Paris 1572
  • 24 compositions
• French chansons outside the large collections
  • 19 compositions
• Doubtful or erroneous attributions of chansons, including songs with German lyrics
  • 9 compositions
• 1 missing chanson of six voices, mentioned by Zarlino in 1558
• Instrumental music
  • 13 Ricercari to three votes
  • 9 Ricercari to four voices (2 of them with questionable attribution)

literature

• Franz Xaver Haberl: Measure Adrian Willaerts. In: Monthly Issues for Music History. No. 3, 1871, pp. 81-89.
• H. Zenck: Studies on Adrian Willaert. Investigations into music and perception of music in the age of the Renaissance. Habilitation thesis . Leipzig 1929.
• Erich Hertzmann: Adrian Willaert in the secular vocal music of his time. A contribution to the history of the development of Dutch-French and Italian song forms in the first half of the 16th century. Leipzig 1931. (Reprint (paperback) Sendet 1973, ISBN 3-253-02668-X )
• RB Lenaerts: For the biography of Adrian Willaert. In: Festschrift Charles van den Borren. Antwerp 1945, pp. 205-215.
• M. Antonowytsch: The motet ›Benedicta es‹ by Josquin des Prez and the masses super Benedicta by Willaert, de la Hêle and de Monte. Utrecht 1951.
• EE Lowinsky: Adrian Willaert's Chromatic ›Duo‹ Re-examined. In: Tijdschrift van de Vereniging voor nederlandse muziekgeschiedenis. No. 18, 1956, pp. 1-36. (also in: Same, 1989, Volume 2, pp. 681–698)
• H. Zenck: About Willaert's motets. On the concept of motets in the 16th century. In: Music and Letters. No. 40, 1959, Numerus and Affectus. Studies on the history of music, edited by W. Gerstenberg, Kassel and others 1959, pp. 55–66.
• H. Beck: Adrian Willaert's five-part Missa sine nomine from Hertogenbosch. In: Church Music Yearbook. No. 47, 1963, pp. 53-73.
• EE Lowinsky: Echoes of Adrian Willaert's Chromatic ›Duo‹ in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Compositions. In: H. Powers (Ed.): Festschrift O. Strunk. Princeton / New York 1968, pp. 183-238.
• H. Beck: Basics of the Venetian style with Adrian Willaert and Cyprian de Rore. In: J. Robijns (Ed.): Festschrift RB Lenaerts. Löwen 1969, pp. 39-50.
• JA Long: The Motets, Psalms and Hymns of Adrian Willaert - A Liturgico-musical Study. Dissertation . Columbia University, 1971.
• AF Carver: The Psalms of Willaert and His North Italian Contemporaries. In: Acta musicologica. No. 47, 1975, pp. 270-283.
• JB Weidensaul: The Poyphonic Hymns of Adrian Willaert. Dissertation. Rutgers University, 1978.
• N. Pirrotta: Willaert e la canzone villanesca. In: Studi Musicali. No. 9, 1980, pp. 191-217.
• M. Just: On the canon technique in Adrian Willaert's motets. In: H. Dechant, W. Sieber (Hrsg.): Gedenkschrift H. Beck. Laaber 1982, pp. 19-31.
• I. Bossuyt: Adriaan Willaert (approx. 1490–1562). Leven en werk. Styles in genres. Lions 1985.
• GM Ongaro: The Chapel of St. Mark's at the Time of Adrian Willaert (1527–1562): A Documentary Study. Dissertation. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 1986.
• W. Elders: Music, Power, and Patronage in the Renaissance. In: N. Dubowy, S. Meyer-Eller (Ed.): Festschrift R. Bockholdt. Pfaffenhofen 1990, pp. 129-140.
• A. Smith: Willaert Motets and Mode. In: Basler Jahrbuch für historical Musikpraxis. No. 16, 1992, pp. 117-165.
• BJ Rivera: Finding the ›Soggetto‹ in Willaert's Free Imitative Counterpoint: A Step in Modal Analysis. In: Chr. Hatch, DW Bernstein (Ed.): Music Theory and Exploration of the Past. Chicago / London 1993, pp. 73-102.
• Ludwig Finscher: From Josquin to Willaert - a paradigm shift? In: H.-W. Heister (Ed.): Festschrift G. Knepler. Volume 1, Hamburg 1997, pp. 145-173.
• B. Bujic: Palestrina, Willaert, Arcadelt and the Art of Imitation. In: Recercare. No. 10, 1998, pp. 105-131.
• David M. Kidger: The Masses of Adrian Willaert: A Critical Study of Sources, Style and Context. Dissertation. Harvard University, 1998.
• H. Schick: Musical unity in the madrigal from Rore to Monteverdi. Phenomena, forms and lines of development. Tutzing 1998.
• Wolfgang Horn: Adrian Willaert's ›different Vesper print‹. Notes on the psalm settings in ›I sacri e santi salmi che si cantano a Vespro e Compieta‹ (Venice 1555 and more). In: U. Konrad et al.: Festschrift M. Staehelin. Göttingen 2002, pp. 141–157.
• K. Schiltz: Motets in Their Place: Some ›Crucial‹ Findings on Willaert's Book of Five-Part Motets (Venice, 1539). In: Tijdschrift van de Vereniging voor nederlandse muziekgeschiedenis. No. 54, 2004, pp. 99-118.
• David M. Kidger: Adrian Willaert: A Guide to Research (Routledge Music Biographies). Routledge, 2004, ISBN 0-8153-3962-3 .
• M. Zywietz: ›Perfectio igitur delectationis musicae consistit in eius perfecta cognitione‹. Adrian Willaert's motet ›Victimae paschali laudes‹ and the Aristotle reception in Venice. In: Th. Leinkauf, K. Hartbecke (Ed.): The concept of nature in the early modern times. Semantic perspectives between 1500 and 1700. Tübingen 2005, pp. 69–86.
• Armin Raab :  Willaert, Adrian. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 13, Bautz, Herzberg 1998, ISBN 3-88309-072-7 , Sp. 1307-1310.

Web links

Commons : Adrian Willaert  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Works by and about Adrian Willaert in the catalog of the German National Library
• Sheet music and audio files by Adrian Willaert in the International Music Score Library Project
• Sheet music in the public domain by Adrian Willaert in the Choral Public Domain Library - ChoralWiki (English)
• Adrian Willaert in HOASM (English)
• Homepage of the Adriaen-Willaert-Foundation
• Le major travail ^{? / i}

swell

1. ↑ Zijn Naam. Adriaen Willaert Foundation, accessed May 7, 2019 (Dutch). 
2. ^ Wolfgang Horn :  Willaert, Adrian. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, personal section, volume 17 (Vina - Zykan). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 2007, ISBN 978-3-7618-1137-5  ( online edition , subscription required for full access)
3. ↑ Marc Honegger, Günther Massenkeil (ed.): The great lexicon of music. Volume 8: Štich - Zylis-Gara. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau a. a. 1982, ISBN 3-451-18058-8 .