Jakob Buus

Jakob Buus (* early 16th century probably in Ghent ; † late August 1565 in Vienna ) was a Franco-Flemish composer and organist of the Renaissance .

Live and act

No information has been passed on about Jakob Buus' early years or his apprenticeship. His studies and the beginnings of his career may have been in France and he has maintained connections there later in life. When the publisher Jacques Moderne published two chansons by Jakob Buus in the third volume of his collection “Parangon des chansons” in Lyon in 1538, the composer's first step was taken. In the following five years several more chansons and a five-part motet followed by the same publisher . In 1543 the first own volume with six-part chansons was published by the publisher Antonio Gardano in Venice . Before that, after the death of Baldassare da Imola , the governing body of St. Mark's Basilica in Venice had called for the vacant position of organist of the 2nd organ on January 9, 1541 for a public competition in organ playing. Buus won this audition by a large margin among many applicants; he then moved to Venice to take up the position on July 15. There he was a colleague of the then first organist Giovanni Armonio.

Various documents from his Venetian time suggest that the composer did not live here without worries, especially because of the relatively low salary of 80 ducats a year . To support his family, he received a one-off donation of 20 ducats in April 1543. In the late autumn of 1550 he was given four months' leave to settle personal matters, during which he turned to Vienna. After the leave had expired, at the end of March 1551 there was an exchange of letters between Venice and the Venetian ambassador in Vienna regarding the whereabouts of Jakob Buus, and on May 5th the ambassador reported that Buus would return if he received an annual salary of 200 ducats would offer. Thereupon the management committee of San Marco decided differently and awarded the position to Girolamo Parabosco , a student of Adrian Willaert . Jakob Buus stayed in Vienna as a member of the imperial court orchestra and organist; From 1553 he received there, according to entries in the lists of the court orchestra, 20 guilders per month , from 1554 25 guilders. At this time, Pieter Maessins was the conductor here , and Christoph Kräll was the other organist. The composer was given a hereditary title of nobility in 1561. During his time in Vienna only three motets were created, which were published between 1553 and 1556 by the Nuremberg publishers Montanus and Neuber.

meaning

Jakob Buus' sacred vocal music consists of motets and chansons spirituelles , whereby the motets have a stylistic similarity to those of Nicolas Gombert : dense vocal fabric, omnipresent imitation and free treatment of the source material. The traditional instrumental works of the composer are of greater importance. His Ricercari are not only intended for organ, but can also be played with any instrumental ensemble, similar to Adrian Willaert and Giuliano Tiburtino , and are accordingly printed in part books. At the request of a musician friend, the composer published a selection of four pieces from it in 1549 in the usual Italian tablature ; a comparison with the originals suggests that the execution of details was in some cases left to the improvisational talent of the player. The Ricercari are stylistically based on the corresponding works by Girolamo Cavazzoni , in which several musical themes come into play, and show a strong inclination towards monothematic, a trait that already points to Andrea Gabrieli .

Works

• Motets
  • “Primo libro de moteti a quatro voci”, individual print with 19 motets, Venice 1549
  • 1 motet for four voices in the collective print “Tertius tomus Evangeliorum”, Nuremberg 1555
  • 1 motet for four voices in the collective print “Sextus tomus Evangeliorum”, Nuremberg 1556
  • 1 motet for five voices in the collective print “Quartus liber motettorum ad quinque ed sex voces”, Lyon 1539
  • 1 motet with six parts in the collective print “Cantilenae aliquot elegantes ac piae”, Lyon 1546
  • 1 motet for six parts in the collective print “Thesauri musici tomus tertius”, Nuremberg 1564
• French chansons
  • 2 chansons with four voices in the collective print “Le Parangon des chansons. Tiers livre ”, Lyon 1538
  • 1 chanson for four voices in the collective print “Le Parangon des chansons. Sixiesme livre ”, Lyon 1540
  • 3 chansons with four voices in the collective print “Le Parangon des chansons. Neufviesme livre ”, Lyon 1541
  • 1 chanson for four voices in the collective print “Le Parangon des chansons. Dixiesme livre ”, Lyon 1543
  • “Libro primo delle canzoni francese a cinque voci”, individual print with 21 chansons of five voices, Venice 1550
  • “Il primo libro di canzoni francese a sei voci”, individual print with 29 chansons of six voices, Venice 1543
• Madrigals
  • “Questi soavi fiori” with four voices in the collective print “Il primo libro d'i madrigali de diversi excellentissimi autori a misura di breve”, Venice 1542 and numerous other editions
• Instrumental music (Recercari, individual prints)
  • "Recercari [...] da cantare, et sonare d'organo & altri stromenti [...] libro primo a quatro voci", containing 10 Ricercari, Venice 1547
  • "Il secondo libro di recercari [...] da cantare, & sonare d'organo & altri stromenti", containing 8 Ricercari, Venice 1549
  • "Intabolatura d'organo di recercari di M. Giaques Buus, organista dell'illustrissima Signoria di Venetia in San Marco. Novamente stampata con carateri di Stagno, libro primo ”, in Italian organ tablature, Venice 1549, containing 4 Ricercari, one of which is a transcription of the Ricercar primo from“ Il secondo libro di recercari ”from 1549

Literature (selection)

• O. Kinkeldey: Organ and piano in the music of the 16th century , Leipzig 1910
• H. Kraus: Jakob Buus , dissertation at the University of Vienna 1919; see also: Tijdschrift van de Vereniging voor nederlands muziekgeschiedenis No. 12, 1926–1928, pages 35–39, 81–96, 221–235
• G. Sutherland: The Ricercari of Jacques Buus. In: Musical Quarterly No. 31, 1945, pp. 448-463
• Willy Apel: The Early Development of the Organ Ricercar. In: Musica disciplina No. 3, 1949, pp. 139-150
• W. Breitner: Jacob Buus as a motet composer , Tutzing 1977 (= Viennese publication on musicology No. 6)

Web links

• Works by and about Jakob Buus in the catalog of the German National Library
• Scores and audio files by Jakob Buus in the International Music Score Library Project
• Sheet music in the public domain by Jakob Buus in the Choral Public Domain Library - ChoralWiki (English)

swell

1. ↑ The Music in Past and Present (MGG), Person Part Volume 3, Bärenreiter and Metzler, Kassel and Basel 2000, ISBN 3-7618-1112-8
2. ↑ Marc Honegger, Günther Massenkeil (ed.): The great lexicon of music. Volume 1: A - Byzantine chant. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau a. a. 1978, ISBN 3-451-18051-0 .