Jean Richafort

Jean Richafort (* around 1480 in Flanders (uncertain), † around 1550 in Bruges (unsafe)) was a Franco-Flemish composer and singer of the Renaissance .

Live and act

According to the Dutch translation (1612) of the work "Descrittione de tutti i Paesi Bassi" (1567) by the Italian writer Lodovico Guicciardini (1521–1589), Jean Richafort is one of a number of Dutch composers from Brabant and Flanders who, until the publication of his book died. Statements by another author suggest that the composer studied with Josquin Desprez , but this has not been proven. Richafort was appointed maître du chant (choirmaster) at the Church of St. Romboud in Mechelen in 1507 . In the archives of the chapter of this church there is also a note that during his tenure as Magister two brothers of his, Guillaume and François Richafort, were admitted to the choir. After about two years, on August 31, 1509, Noel Bauldeweyn succeeded him. There is no direct evidence, but it is almost certain that Jean Richafort became a member of the chapel of the French Queen Anne de Bretagne from this time , because he received a benefice in November 1512 , which was in Brittany.

From the registers of the Papal Curia between 1500 and 1520 it is known that several emerging Franco-Flemish composers were in the service of Anne de Bretagne, including Jean Mouton and Antonius Divitis ; some of these musicians also served at the court of the French King Louis XII. (Term of office 1498–1515). That Richafort belonged to these is assumed on the basis of the text of his motet "Consolator captivorum" (comforter of the prisoners), because the first part of this motet is a prayer to King Louis XI, who was canonized in 1297 . (Term of office 1226–1270) and in the 2nd part it is asked for a long life of the addressee as well as that he may win over his enemies. After the death of Louis XII. belonged Richafort as a singer to the chapel of his successor Francis I (1515-1547 tenure) and accompanied the King and his court in January 1516 to Bologna to sign the Concordat of Bologna on 30 January 1516. Richafort got there by Pope Leo X. more Benefices and other awards.

Music historical research has found that several compositions by Jean Richafort are included in important manuscripts of the repertoire of the French royal court. It is not known when the composer finished his service in the French court orchestra, and there is no information about the places of his work in the 1520s and 1530s. There is a reference to a certain Jean de Rycefort , who was a servant to Maria of Hungary in Brussels in the 1530s , but today it is certain that this is Joachim de Rycefort, who was there as a singer from 1532 to 1543 and worked as a priest . The assumption of office of Jean Richafort in May 1543 at the Church of St. Gilles in Bruges as singing master and kapelaan van den ontfanc as successor to Adriaen Landsheere is clearly documented . Almost a year later, in April 1544, he was replaced by Jan Bart , but after his death Richafort took over this office again in June 1548. In 1550 this position was given to Jacob Trehout because Richafort had died shortly before.

meaning

Even if the author Pierre de Ronsard claims a pupil of Richafort from Josquin Desprez in 1560, for which there is no evidence, his musical style as well as the compositional techniques of some works show a clear relationship to the older master. In his Requiem , Jean Richafort uses the same chorale “Circumdederunt me” as Josquin in his chanson “Nimphes, nappés” as a structure-determining means. Richafort used individual passages of the same chanson in the Introit and Kyrie des Requiem in the form of a paraphrase . Furthermore, Richafort has taken over the text and the musical sentence of the section “c'est douleur non pareille” from Josquin's piece “Faulte d'argent” in the gradual and offertory in canonical form. These are all clear indications that Richafort's Requiem was written in homage to Josquin or in memory of his death in 1521. In contrast, his two mass compositions, most likely written before 1520, show a style and technique that were common at the French court in the first decades of the 16th century ( Antoine de Févin , Jean Mouton and Antonius Divitis).

In his publication Dodekachordon , the Swiss author Heinrich Glarean Richafort counts among the most important masters of his time; the popularity of his motets in particular is expressed in the remarkable spread of these compositions. In 1556 , the publishing house Le Roy & Ballard published the Joannis Richafort collection , Modulorum quatuor, quinque & sex vocum. Liber primus with 19 motets by the composer, that is more than half of the pieces of this type that have survived. In addition, Richafort's works were preserved in around 90 printed collections and 120 manuscripts up to the 1580s. His motets and chansons have served as models for parody masses for at least 20 composers after his time . Particularly noteworthy is his motet “Quem dicunt homines”, which has been handed down in 30 sources from the 16th century. It served as a template for nine different masses by Antonius Divitis, Jean Mouton, Lupus Hellinck / Pierkin de Raedt, Francisco Cellavenia , Charles d'Argentilly , Cristóbal de Morales , Vincenzo Ruffo , Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and another anonymous composer. Apart from the more than 30 masses on the Burgundian chanson "L'homme armé", this is the largest mass body known today on the same template.

Works

Complete edition: Johannes Richafort, Collected Works , 3 volumes, edited by Harry Elzinga 1979–1999 (= Corpus mensurabilis musicae No. 81)

• Fairs and Magnificats
  • Messa "O Genitrix" for four voices (based on a motet by Loyset Compère )
  • Messa "Veni Sponsa Christi" for four voices (based on a separate motet)
  • Requiem for six parts
  • Magnificat octavi toni with two to six voices
  • Magnificat sexti toni with three to five voices
• Fragments of sacred music
  • “Fecit potentiam” to two votes
  • “Sicut locutus est” to two votes
• Motets
  • “Ave Maria” to five voices
  • “Christe, totius dominator” to four votes
  • "Christ resurgens" to four votes
  • “Cognoscimus, Domine” to four votes
  • “Ergo sum qui sum” to five votes
  • “Emendemus in melius” to four voices
  • “Exaudiat te Dominus” to four votes
  • “Gloria, laus et honor” to four votes
  • “Gloriosi principes” to four votes
  • “Hac clara die” to four votes
  • "Homo quidam" to five votes
  • “Jam non dicam” with five voices
  • “Laetamini in Domino” with five votes
  • “Misereatur mei” to four voices
  • “Non turbetur cor vestrum” to five voices
  • “O beata infantia” with six voices
  • “O praesul egregie” to four votes
  • “O quam dulcis” to four voices
  • “Pater noster” to five votes
  • “Peccata mea, Domine” for four voices
  • “Philomena praevia” to four voices
  • “Quem dicunt homines” to four voices
  • “Salve regina” to five voices
  • “Sufficiebat” to four votes
  • “Veni, electa mea” to six voices
  • “Veni, Sponsa Christi” to five votes
• Fragments of motets
  • “Ave, virgo gloriosa” to four voices
  • “Consolator captivorum” with four votes
  • “Hoc signum Crucis” with five voices
  • “Salve regina” to three voices
  • “Sancta Maria, succurre nobis” to one voice
  • “Saulus adhuc spirans” with five voices
• Chansons
  • “Cuidez vous que Dieu nous faille” with five votes
  • “D'amours je suis desheritée” with five votes
  • “De mon triste desplaisir” to four votes
  • “En révenant du bois l'autrier” with three votes
  • “Gentilz gallans, compagnons du raisin” to three votes
  • “Hors de plaisir et ce duict en lieu saulvaige” with four voices
  • “Il n'est sy doulce vie” to four voices
  • “J'ay veu que souloye” to three voices
  • “Je fus l'autrier où la belle surprins” to three votes
  • “L'amour de moy si est enclose” to three voices
  • “Le temps qui court requiert que l'on se taise” to four voices
  • “N'avez point veu mal assenée” to three voices
  • “Qui est celuy qui a dit mal du con?” To three votes
  • “Sur tous regretz les miens plus piteulx pleure” with four voices
  • “Sy je m'y plain j'ay bien raison” with five votes
  • “Tru tru trut avant, il fault boire” to three votes
• Secular Latin compositions
  • “Laus tua, non tua fraus” to three votes
  • “Vinum bonum et suave” to five votes
• Works of uncertain attribution and spurious works (wrongly attributed to Richafort)
  • Attributed to Magnificat quinti toni, Richafort and Divitis, from Divitis
  • “Ad te levavi oculos meos” to four voices, attributed to Richafort and Nicolas Gombert , by Gombert
  • “Congratulamini mihi” to four voices, attributed to Richafort, Josquin and Brun
  • “Gaudent in caelis” with eight voices, attributed to Richafort, Dominique Phinot and Philippe Verdelot , by Verdelot
  • “In illo tempore: Dixit Jesus discipulis” with five voices, ascribed to Richafort and Brumen, by Brumen
  • "Jerusalem luge" with five votes, repeatedly attributed to Richafort, but also Lupus and Arnoldus Caen as well as anonymously
  • “Levavi oculos meos” with four voices, partly ascribed to Richafort, by Nicolas Gombert
  • “Miseremini mei” with four voices, partly Richafort, partly Josquin, partly Jean Mouton
  • “O genitrix gloriosa” to four voices, ascribed to Richafort and Loyset Compère, by Compère
  • “Si bona suscepimus” with five voices, ascribed to Richafort and Philippe Verdelot, by Verdelot
  • “La rousé du moys de may” to three voices, ascribed to Richafort and Adrian Willaert , by Willaert
  • "Or, vray Dieu, qu'il est enuye" with three voices, attributed to Richafort and Thomas Crécquillon , partly anonymous
  • “N'a tu point veu” with four voices, partly attributed to Richafort, partly anonymous
  • “N'as tu point veu la viscontine” with three voices, partly attributed to Richafort, by Adrian Willaert
  • “Ne vous chaille, mon cueur” with five voices, partly Richafort, partly attributed to Hermann Verrecorensis Matthias, partly anonymous

Recordings

• Christ resurgens , motet, CD Naxos 8.553211
• Requiem [in memoriam Josquin Desprez] , played by the Huelgas Ensemble, CD HMC 901874
• Missa pro defunctis (Requiem), Cinquecento, Hyperion

Literature (selection)

• Y. Rokseth: Un fragment de Richafort. In: Revue de musicologie No. 10, 1926, pp. 28-29
• G. van Doorslaer: Jean Richafort, maître de chapelle-compositeur, 1480? –C1548. In: Bulletin de l'Académie royale d'archéologie de Belgique 1930, pp. 103–161
• ME Kabis: The Works of Jean Richafort, Renaissance Composer (1480? –C1548) , dissertation at New York University 1957
• R. Sherr: The Membership of the Chapels of Louis XII and Anne de Bretagne in the Years Preceding their Deaths. In: Journal of Musicology No. 6, 1988, pp. 60-82
• JT Brobeck: The Motet at the Court of Francis I , dissertation at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 1991
• Harry Elzinga: Josquin's Missa Quem Dicunt Homines: A Reexamination. In: Tijdschrift van de Vereniging voor nederlandse muziekgeschiedenis No. 43, 1993, pp. 87-104
• P. Andriessen: The van Muziken gheerne listen. Muziek in Brugge 1200–1800 , Bruges 2002
• J. Milsom: Sense and Sound in Richafort's Requiem. In: Early Music No. 30, 2002, No. 3, pp. 447-463
• Harry Elzinga: Three Masses super Jean Richafort's ›Quem dicunt homines‹ , Madison / Wisconsin 2005 (= Corpus mensurabilis musicae No. 81,4)

Web links

Commons : Jean Richafort  - collection of images, videos and audio files

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

swell

1. ↑ Harry Elzinga:  Richafort, Jean. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, personal section, volume 14 (Riccati - Schönstein). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 2005, ISBN 3-7618-1134-9  ( online edition , subscription required for full access)
2. ↑ Marc Honegger, Günther Massenkeil (ed.): The great lexicon of music. Volume 7: Randhartinger - Stewart. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau a. a. 1982, ISBN 3-451-18057-X .