Homer Herpol

Homer Herpol (* around 1510 in Saint-Omer (Pas-de-Calais) , † October 1573 in Constance ) was a Franco-Flemish composer , conductor , cantor and cleric of the Renaissance .

Live and act

No information has been passed on about Homer Herpol's early years and his first training period. In Freiburg im Breisgau he was a pupil of Heinrich Glarean , who on April 17, 1550 informed the future provost in Freiburg im Üchtland (Switzerland), Simon Schibenhart, in a letter that a young man named Homerus was coming to him with his work; He added an afterword to this work. In the same year Herpol got the position of a cantor at the Church of St. Nicholas in Friborg (Switzerland). The local city council allowed him in 1555 a vacation for further studies at Glarean. There are several letters from the council to him and Glarean seeking Herpol's return. The composer received presents on his arrival on June 2, 1557, and a benefice had been reserved for him beforehand . In addition to his cantor activities, Herpol also worked at the Dean's Court , and later also at the newly created Choir Court . Before that, he made a trip to his home town of St. Omer in the spring of 1560. His brother Laurenz Herpol succeeded Claude Sebastiani as organist at his church St. Nikolaus in 1565 , but died of the plague on August 30th of this year . In the same year Homer Herpol had his gospel motets “Novum et insigne opus musicum” printed in Nuremberg , with a dedication to Otto von Waldburg , Prince-Bishop of Augsburg . Bishop Otto recommended Herpol as vicar to the Augsburg cathedral chapter on the grounds that he could become cathedral music director. In 1567 the composer received the offer of a vicarage, but in the absence of further assurances, he did not move to Augsburg.

In the course of 1567 Herpol left his previous position and the city of Friborg (Switzerland); the reasons for this have not been fully clarified. Although he lived in cohabitation and also had children, the provost Duvillard also complained about defamation on the part of the priests . Perhaps Herpol was one of the provost's opponents and therefore had to go. In early 1568 he wrote to ask for forgiveness and, among other things, for four books containing some unfinished compositions; He wanted to leave the rest of the music to the city. Five years later, on October 20, 1572, he received a certificate issued in Freiburg that did not contain anything about his offenses. Herpol got a new position at the Liebfrauenmünster in Konstanz after the cathedral chapter there announced this occupation to the bishop, Cardinal Mark Sittich von Hohenems , on December 7, 1568. The composer was repeatedly encouraged by the cathedral chapter to finish his works and to hand them over for a good fee. He was temporarily given two benefices, which he returned in exchange for receiving the more productive “Praebenda S. Barbarae”. The latter was intended for the maintenance of the choirboys; In addition, he received around 200 guilders annually for their supplies, in addition to natural produce . In the autumn of 1573 the composer apparently fell ill with the plague and died of it before October 19th of that year. The Augsburg school principal Valentin Rotmar, also a student of Glarean, wrote a poem on his death and received a fee from the Konstanz cathedral chapter for a “Carmen in laudem defuncti Homeri”. Two years later this chapter still had compositions by Herpol copied by a Kreuzlingen schoolmaster for a reward.

meaning

Homer Herpol's rank is evident from the numerous mentions in music-theoretical works of his time and from comparisons with other composers, such as Orlando di Lasso . He can be regarded as the most important representative of a generation of composers influenced by the late Josquin in the southern German-Swiss region. From his first complete collection comes from Motets to all texts of the Sunday Gospels, namely "Novum et insigne opus musicum", the selection of the pericopes in the Missal of Lausanne is based 1522nd Several similar collections were later created based on this model, mostly in German Protestant church music. With two exceptions, the five-part motets always consist of a first and a second part; if it contains an alleluia, it is repeated in the second part. According to the “Dodecachordon” of Glarean, the collection is divided into four dodecades (groups of twelve pieces each) and a group of five individual pieces in the more frequently used keys in the middle; the last (4th) dodecade contains an additional motet in the 7th mode . The melodies clearly go back to the Gregorian psalm tones , especially in the Magnificats . The text interpretations occur through deviations from the modal rules, through tonal painting and through musical-rhetorical figures.

Works

• Motets
  • 54 motets to the texts of the Sunday Gospels in the collection "Novum et insigne opus musicum, in quo textus evangeliorum totius anni, vero ritui ecclesiae correspondens, quinque vocum modulamine, singulari industria, ac gravitate exprimitur", from Ulrich Neuber and Johannes Montanus Erben, Nuremberg 1565, in five part books
• Magnificat movement of three voices for the St. Clara Monastery in Freiburg
• Canon “Trium ex unisono post tempus perfectum” with three voices, Nuremberg 1589
• Seven Magnificats with four voices in the choir book of the Benedictine monastery Reichenau
• "Salve regina"
• "Regina caeli laetare"
• “Officium in the Sancto Pentecostes”, manuscript from the St. Ulrich and Afra monastery in Augsburg
• 28 other compositions that can be safely assigned to Herpol, including proprium settings for Easter, Pentecost, All Saints' Day, Ascension Day and Marian Feasts; from the Augsburg choir book Introit and sequence at Pentecost, further ordinarium movements , a "Missa in summis festis" and a "Missa in festivitatibus Beatae Virginis"
• Bass part to an "Ave verum" by Josquin
• Collection of motets owned by Glareans
• Lost works
  • Composition with an afterword by Glareans from 1550
  • Hymn books for which Herpol received a reward in 1555
  • Motets “De Sanctis” from 1567
  • Works requested by the cathedral chapter of Konstanz
  • In the minutes of the Konstanz cathedral chapter mentioned “inventory of hymn books and musicalia” of the conductor Marcus Bader from 1618

Literature (selection)

• Robert Eitner: Herpol, Homer. In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB), Volume 12, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1880, page 203.
• A. Geering: Homer Herpol and Manfred Barbarini Lupus. In: Festschrift K. Nef, Zurich / Leipzig 1933, pages 48–71.
• Manfred Schuler: On the biography of Homer Herpol. In: Musikforschung No. 18, 1965, pages 400–403.
• Manfred Schuler: Herpol (l), Homer (us). In: Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB), Volume 8, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1969, ISBN 3-428-00189-3 , page 678 and following (digitized version)
• E. Farrant: Novum et insigne opus musicum (1565) of Homer Herpol. A Transcription and Style Analysis , dissertation at Case Western University 1974 (University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor / Michigan, No. 740 2511)
• Manfred Schuler: Officium in the Sancto Pentecostes; Regina caeli laetare; Salve Regina , Wolfenbüttel 1978 (= The Choral Work No. 128)
• P. Zinsmeier: The Kapellmeister at the Konstanz Minster. In: FDA No. 101, 1981, pages 66-139.
• Franz-Dieter Sauerborn: On the biography of Homer Herpol. In: ZSKG No. 78, 1984, pages 111-128.
• Franz-Dieter Sauerborn: The relationships of the humanist Heinrich Loriti Glarean (1488–1563) to Freiburg in the Üchtland. In: Journal of the Breisgau History Association "Schau-ins-Land" No. 107, 1988, pages 69–85.
• Franz-Dieter Sauerborn: Homer Herpol (approx. 1510-1573) , 3 volumes, Centaurus 1998, ISBN 3890855660 (Volume 1: Life and Work, Volume 2: Novum et insigne opus musicum, Volume 3: Responsories and Magnificat settings)
• V. Rotmar: Musica Lugens. In Orbitum Reverendi et Doctissimi Viri ac Domini Homeri Herpoldi, Sacelli apud Constantinenses Magistri, ac Musices Praefecti, Musicorum suae aetate facile principis […] Augsburg (1573) , Württembergische Landesbibliothek Stuttgart, long-playing record Homer Herpol

Web links

• Works by and about Homer Herpol in the catalog of the German National Library
• Nicole Kurmann: Homer Herpol. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .

swell

1. ↑ The Music in Past and Present (MGG), Person Part Volume 8, Bärenreiter and Metzler, Kassel and Basel 2002, ISBN 3-7618-1118-7
2. ↑ Marc Honegger, Günther Massenkeil (ed.): The great lexicon of music. Volume 4: Half a note - Kostelanetz. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau a. a. 1981, ISBN 3-451-18054-5 .