John Plummer

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John Plummer (* around 1410; † November 5, 1486 in Windsor ) was an English composer of the Renaissance .

Live and act

Nothing is known about John Plummer's family of origin and his early days. Under the English kings Henry VI. (Reign 1422–1461) and Edward IV (reign 1461–1483) he was from 1438 (or shortly before) to 1467 gentleman of the Royal Household Chapel . After being the first member to be appointed Master of the Children of the Royal Chapel , he held this position from at least 1444 to 1455. In 1449 he became a member of the London Order of the Fraternity of St. Nicholas , the London part of the Fraternity Guild of Parish Clerks . There are also records of him in Windsor from 1442; in 1454, perhaps a year earlier, he was appointed sexton at St George's Chapel there . After retiring from the Royal Chapel, Plummer permanently moved to Windsor and performed his duties at St George's Chapel in full until 1484.

meaning

John Plummer was one of the leading composers in England in the middle decades of the 15th century. Besides England, manuscripts with his compositions can also be found on the continent up to the present-day Czech Republic, where individual pieces were copied into the Codex Speciálník (from around 1500). His musical style was probably completed around 1440; the compositions that can be attributed to him are almost all three-part and develop a harmonious, static contrapuntal network, which is consistently based on triads. In his mass for four voices, the tenor melody has a different rhythm in each movement, while one of his three-part masses is striking because of the use of extreme chromatic alterations and strong rhythmic elaboration. The complex interplay of the voices is typical of Plummer's style, with frequent imitations and the exchange of melodic phrases . This reaches a climax in his composition “Alma mater matris Anna” for three equal voices in tenor register with a treble that condenses the movement.

Works

  • Mass sentences with secured authorship
    • Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and Agnus Dei to three votes; Sanctus and Agnus fragmentary, Kyrie with trope "Omnipotens pater"
    • Kyrie and Gloria to four votes; fragmentary cycle on the Marian antiphon "Nesciens mater" in tenor, Kyrie with trope "Deus creator omnium"
  • Mass sentences with dubious authorship
    • Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and Agnus Dei to three votes (anonymous); Kyrie with trope "Deus creator omnium"
  • further sacred works based on Latin texts with secured authorship
    • “Anna mater matris Christi” to four votes
    • “Descendi in hortum meum” with three voices
    • “Tota pulchra es” (I) to three voices
    • “Tota pulchra es” (II) to three voices
  • further sacred works based on Latin texts with dubious authorship
    • "Ibo michi ad montem mirre" to three votes (anonymous)
    • "O pulcherrima mulierum" to three votes (anonymous)
    • “Qualis est delictus tuus” to three voices, attributed to J. Forest and Plummer, probably by Forest

Literature (selection)

  • Br. Trowell: Music under the Later Plantagenets , dissertation at the University of Cambridge 1960
  • M. and I. Bent: Dufay, Dunstable, Plummer, A New Source. In: Journal of the American Musicological Society No. 22, 1969
  • AB Scott: "Ibo michi at montem mirre". A New Motet by Plummer ?. In: The Musical Quarterly No. 58, 1972
  • G. Curtis / A. Wathey: Fifteenth-Century English Liturgical Music: a List of the Surviving Reportery. In: Research Chronicle No. 27, 1994, pp. 1-69
  • R. Bowers: The Music and Musical Establishment of St George's Chapel in the 15th Century. In: St George's Chapel, Windsor, in the Late Middle Ages, edited by C. Richmond, and E. Scarff, Windsor 2001
  • H. Jeffries: Musical Culture and Continuity in the Court of Edward IV , dissertation at the University of London 2003

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Music in Past and Present (MGG), Person Part Volume 13, Bärenreiter Verlag Kassel and Basel 2005, ISBN 3-7618-1133-0
  2. ↑ Marc Honegger, Günther Massenkeil (ed.): The great lexicon of music. Volume 6: Nabakov - Rampal. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau a. a. 1981, ISBN 3-451-18056-1 .
personal data
SURNAME Plummer, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Plomer, John; Plumere, John; Polumier, John; Polmier, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English Renaissance composer
DATE OF BIRTH around 1410
DATE OF DEATH November 5, 1486
Place of death Windsor