Loyset Compère

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Loyset Compère (* around 1440/1445 in the diocese of Arras or in Hainaut , † August 16, 1518 in Saint-Quentin ) was a Franco-Flemish composer , singer and cleric of the Renaissance .

Live and act

Compared to the earlier assumption of Compère's year of birth (around 1450), a time several years earlier is now assumed because he is mentioned together with his friend Jean Molinet (1435–1507) in an anonymous Quodlibet from the early 1460s. Of the various regions of its origin discussed, that of Artois (diocese of Arras) is the more likely. There is no information about the spiritual or musical training of Loyset Compère. Assumptions about studying in Paris with Molinet and a student body at Barbingant are so far pure speculation. A connection to the French royal court could indicate that his oldest surviving work, “Puis que si bien” (around 1465), is one of the courtly chansons from the Loire Valley . His motet “Omnium bonorum plena”, which may have been written on the occasion of the consecration of this cathedral on July 5, 1472 or on the occasion of a meeting of the French and Burgundian courts in Cambrai on October 16 and 17, 1468, refers to a closer relationship to the cathedral of Cambrai . Like his mass “De tous biens plaine”, this motet quotes the chanson of the same name by Hayne van Ghizeghem .

After the dukes of Milan cultivated close relations with the French royal court, it is assumed that Compère came into contact with Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza (reign 1466–1476), who was looking for singers to build up his court orchestra. On July 15, 1474, Compère was accepted as a new member of the chapel's main choir; his most important colleague was Gaspar van Weerbeke . Compère's name is also noted in the lists of March 30 and December 4, 1475. A whole series of works were created in this position (three motet cycles , the Missa Galeazescha , a group of other sacred works and several chansons). After Duke Gian Galeazzo Sforza was murdered on December 26, 1476, his widow Bona of Savoy decided to downsize the chapel; Loyset Compère, who went back to France with Jehan Fresneau, was one of the singers released on February 26, 1477 .

For the period up to 1486 his track is lost. The hypothesis of the music researcher Winn Marvin from 1974 that Compère served in the court orchestra of Duke Jean II of Bourbon († 1488) in Moulins has a lot to offer , but has not yet been proven. From 1486 he can be traced back to the French court orchestra, which was directed by Johannes Ockeghem . A papal bull names him a cleric from the diocese of Arras and a chappelain ordinaire et chantre of King Charles VIII of France. In 1492 a certain Loyset was commissioned by the chapter of the Saint-Chapelle in Bourges to get a magister puerorum (singing master of the choirboys) and singer for the chapel; however, it is unclear whether this applied to Compère. From June 1492 to May 1493 he was a member of the clergy at Notre-Dame in Paris, where he was ordained a priest on March 2, 1493 ; shortly afterwards he exchanged two benefits to Notre-Dame and Sainte-Trinité in Montlhéry for a benefice in Voyenne (Diocese of Laon). In a decree of the king of April 1494 he was granted French citizenship. In autumn 1494 he accompanied King Charles VIII on his campaign to Italy as a member of the court orchestra.

There Ferrante d'Este, son of Duke Ercole I in Ferrara, was to get new compositions from Compère on behalf of his father. On October 7, 1494, he wrote to his father from Casale Monferrato that the composer only had older pieces ( cosse vechie ) with him, but that he would send some good new compositions ( alcuni bone cosse nove ) as soon as possible to be written in France got. It is very likely that Compère was there when Rome was captured in January 1495. In the choir book of the papal court orchestra from the period from 1495 to 1500 there are some particularly weighty motets by Compère ("Crux triumphans", "Propter gravamen et tormentum", "Quis numerare queat" / "Da pacem" and "Sile fragor"). The representative tenor motet "Quis numerare" is a plea for peace from the war-torn people and fits in well with the alliance between Charles VIII and Pope Alexander VI. (Reign 1492–1503). Compère also witnessed the battle of Fornovo in July 1495 and wrote the chanson "Vive le noble Roy de France" on the victory of the French.

After his stay in Italy, Compère seems to have returned to France with the court orchestra, but later no longer belonged to it. Nevertheless, he remained connected to the French court orchestra. He composed the motet "Gaude prole regia" for the reception of Philip the Beautiful on November 25, 1501 in Paris. In the conflict between King Ludwig XII. (Reign 1498–1515) and Pope Julius II (reign 1503–1515) because of an uprising in Genoa against the pope, he probably wrote in 1507 the motet “Sola caret monstris” with polemical content in favor of the French king. At the collegiate church of Saint-Géry in Cambrai, he held the office of doyen (dean or elder) from April 30, 1498 to May 5, 1500 , thus presiding over 48 canons . He was then prévôt (provost) at the collegiate church of Saint-Pierre in Douai until 1503 or 1504. A document from those years shows that he was meanwhile baccalaureus utrisque juris (an academic degree of both rights). In Douai, however, he had troubled times; After the city lords had lifted the immunity of the monastery, they forced their way to the Compères house. He left this position in favor of Pierre Duwez, a former musician of the Burgundian court orchestra. Compère hardly seems to have composed in his later years. He probably spent the last years of his life at the collegiate church of Saint-Quentin, where he had been canonical since November 1491 at the latest, and died there on August 16, 1518. He was buried in the church and honored with an unusually elaborate poem and epitaph .

meaning

A look at his oeuvre reveals that Compère was probably the most experimental composer of Josquin's time. He has never developed a personal style, but rather reacted to various suggestions from his respective environment and developed them creatively; twice he was at the forefront of development. The very unequal level of his works makes it particularly difficult to classify them comprehensively over time. Often there are quite modern and almost archaic compositions in the immediate vicinity, or extremely progressive, experimental pieces are next to those in a more conservative style (such as the Milan motet cycles on the one hand and the Magnificat from the same period sexti toni II on the other).

His first major achievement was the development of a new style (together with Gaspar van Weerbeke) for the Milanese motet cycles "loco Missae" from the period between 1474 and 1477. The clear treatment of the text in this style and the techniques used probably form the basis for the profound one Change from the style of Ockeghem and Busnoys to the style of the Josquin period. The second area in which Compère played an essential role is the change from the three-part “Burgundian” chanson via courtly texts to four-part chanson via popular, anecdotal or epigrammatic texts (often with erotic to obscene content) in simple stanzas. None of Compère's contemporaries developed a similarly consistent, modern style on such a high level in such a large number of works.

Works

Manuscript of the motet "Omnium bonorum plena"
  • Masses and mass sentences (all with four voices)
    • Missa "Allez regretz"
    • Missa "De tous bien plaine"
    • Missa "L'homme armé"
    • Kyrie and Gloria sine nomine
    • Credo "Mon père"
    • Credo sine nomine
  • Mass motets (motet cycles)
    • "Ave Domine Jesu Christe" (Missa de DNJC) for four to five voices (includes: "Ave Domine Jesu Christe" in loco Introitus; "Ave Domine Jesu Christe" in loco Gloria; "Ave Domine Jesu Christe" in loco Credo; " Ave Domine Jesu Christe "in loco Offertorii;" Salve, salvator mundi "in loco Sanctus;" Adoramus te, Christe "in loco Elevationem;" Parce, Domine "in loco Agnus;" Da pacem, Domine "in loco Deo Gratias)
    • Hodie nobis de virgine (Missa in Nativitate Deus Noster Jesu Christe) to four voices (includes: "Hodie nobis de Virgine" in loco Introitus; "Beata Dei Genetrix Maria" in loco Gloria; "Hodie nobis Christ natus est" in loco Credo; "Genuit puerpera Regem" in loco Offertorii; "Sanctum –Verbum caro factum est"; "Memento, salutis auctor" post Elevationem; "Quem vidistis, pastores?" In loco Agnus; "O admirabile commercium" in loco Deo gratias)
    • Missa Galeazescha (Missa de Beata Maria Virgine) to five voices (includes: "Ave virgo gloriosa" in loco Introitus; "Ave, salus infirmorum" in loco Gloria; "Ave, decus Virginale" in loco Credo; "Ave, sponsa verbi summi "In loco Offertorii;" O Maria "in loco Sanctus;" Adoramus te, Christe "in loco Elevationem;" Salve, mater salvatoris "in loco Agnus;" Virginis Mariae laudes "in loco Deo Gratias)
  • Magnificat settings
    • Magnificat primi toni to four votes
    • Magnificat quarti toni for two voices (only "Esurientes")
    • Magnificat sexti toni (I) to four voices
    • Magnificat sexti toni (II) to four voices
    • Magnificat septimi toni to four votes
    • Magnificat octavi toni for two voices (only "Esurientes")
  • Motets
    • “Ad honorum tuum Christe” with four votes
    • “Asperges me Domine” to four voices
    • “Ave Maria, gratia plena” to four votes
    • “Crux triumphans” to four votes
    • "Gaude prole regia" / "Sancta Catharina" with five voices (tenor motets, 1501)
    • “O admirabile commercium” to four voices
    • Officium de cruce (“In nomine Jesu”) to four votes
    • “O genetrix gloriosa” to four votes
    • "Omnium bonorum plena" (singers' prayer) for four voices (before 1474)
    • “Paranymphus salutat virginem” to four voices
    • “Profitentes unitatem” to four votes
    • “Propter gravamen et tormentum” to four votes
    • "Quis numerare queat" / "Da pacem" to five voices (tenor motets, probably on the occasion of the Peace of Ètaples (November 3, 1492) or the alliance between Pope Alexander VI and Charles VIII on January 15, 1495)
    • “Sile fragor ac rerum tumultus” to four votes
    • "Sola caret monstris" / "Fera pessima" with five voices (tenor motets, 1507)
    • "Virgo caelesti" for five voices (tenor motets)
  • Motet chansons (all with three voices)
    • "Le corps" / "Corpusque meum"
    • "Male bouche" / "Circumdederunt me viri mendaces" (also as a motet with apocryphal text "O Domine libera me")
    • "Plaine d'ennuy" / "Anima mea liquefacta est" (also as a chanson without Latin text)
    • "Tant ay d'ennuy" / "O vos omnes" (also with upper voice text "O devotz cueurs" / "O vos omnes")
  • Three-part chansons
    • "A qui dirai je ma pensée"
    • "Au travail suis"
    • "Beaulté d'amours"
    • "Bergeronette savoysienne"
    • "Chanter ne puis"
    • "Des trois la plus"
    • "Dictes moy toutes vos pensées"
    • "Disant adieu a ma dame"
    • "En attendant de vous secours"
    • "Faisons boutons" (Text: Jean II, Duke of Bourbon)
    • "Guerissés moy"
    • "La Saison en est"
    • "Le grant desir d'aymer"
    • "Le renvoy"
    • "Mes pensées" (partly attributed to Josquin, certainly from Compère)
    • “Ne doibt on prendre” (text: Jean II of Bourbon; published as a counterfacture with the text “Venite amanti” by Angelo Poliziano as Costanzo Festa's work )
    • "Ne vous hastez pas" (= "Adieu a madame" (II))
    • "Pensant au bien"
    • "Pleut or a Dieu"
    • "Pour estre ou nombre"
    • "Puis que si bien m'est advenu"
    • "Reveille toy franc cueur"
    • “Se mieulx ne vient d'amours peu me contente” (using a chanson by P. Convert );
    • "Se pis ne vient d'amours je me contente" (perhaps a response to the previous text)
    • “Seray je vostre mieulx amée” (not in the complete edition; published by Fallows as Compères);
    • "Si j'ay parlé aucunement" (Text: Henry Baude )
    • "Sourdes regrets"
    • "Tant ha bon oeul"
    • "Tout me vient"
    • "Va-t-en regret" (Text: Jean II of Bourbon)
    • "Venés regretz"
    • "Vive le noble roy de France"
    • "Vous me faittes morir d'envie" (text: Jean II of Bourbon; also with the text "Or suis je bien transy d'esmay")
  • Four-part chansons
    • "Alons fere nos barbes" (perhaps apocryphal)
    • "De les mon getes" (= "Voles oïr une chanson")
    • "Et dont revenes-vous"
    • "Gentil patron"
    • "J'ay ung syon sur la porte [robe]" (double canon of four from two voices)
    • "Je suis amie d'un forier"
    • "L'aultre jour me chevauchoye"
    • "Mon pére m'a donné mari" (compare "Alons fere nos barbes")
    • "Nous sommes de l'ordre de Saint Babouin"
    • "Royne du ciel" (Altus "si placet")
    • "Une plaisante fillette"
    • "Un franc archier"
    • "Voles oïr une chanson" (compare "De les mon getes")
    • "Vostre bargeronette"
  • Frottole (all to four voices)
    • "Che fa la ramacina"
    • "Scaramella fa la galla"
  • Works of doubtful authenticity
    • Motet "Ave regina, celorum" (anonymous, attributed to Compère)
    • Motet "O post partum munda" (anonymous, attributed to Compère)
    • Sanctus - "O sapientia" to four voices (Compère's authorship very dubious for stylistic reasons)
    • "Cayphas" to three voices (by Johannes Martini rather than Compère)
    • “Ha traitre amours” for three voices (only soprano has been handed down, identical to the soprano of the chanson by Johannes de Stokem ; incorrect attribution?)
    • "Helas le bon temps" to three voices (certainly by Johannes Tinctoris )
    • "J'ay beau huer" to three voices (certainly by Alexander Agricola )
    • "Je ne puis plus" to three votes (certainly from Alexander Agricola)
    • "Je ne fay plus je ne dis" to three voices ( ascribed to Antoine Busnoys and Gilles Mureau , certainly not from Compère)
    • "Lourdault" to four voices (by Compère rather than Ninot le Petit )
    • "Mais que ce fust secretement" to three voices (more from Compère than from Pietrequin Bonnel )
    • "Mes pensées" to three voices (partly attributed to Josquin, certainly by Compère)
    • "O bone Jesu" to four voices (certainly by Francisco de Peñalosa )
    • "Penses vivant" to three voices (certainly by Alexander Agricola)
    • "Royne de ciel" / "Regina celi" with three voices (confusion with motet chanson by Johannes Prioris , probably by Compère)
    • "Se non dormi dona" to four votes (anonymous, "LC" overwritten)
    • "Se (Si) vous voulez que je vous face" with three votes (anonymous, Compère possible for stylistic reasons)
    • "Veci la dancha barberits" to four votes (certainly by B. Vaqueras)
    • "Vray Dieu quel payne m'esse" (also attributed to Gaspar van Weerbeke , Jean Japart and Matthaeus Pipelare )

literature

  • Ludwig Finscher: Loyset Compère (c. 1450–1518). Life and Works , without location information 1964 (= Musical Studies and Documents No. 12), in need of revision
  • Th. L. Noblitt: The Ambrosian "Motetti Missales" Repertory. In: Musica disciplina No. 22, 1968, pages 77-103
  • L. Lockwood: Music at Ferrara in the Period of Ercole I d'Este. In: Studi musicali No. 1, 1972, pages 101-132
  • M. Staehelin: Possibilities and practical application of the author's determination on anonymously transmitted compositions from the Josquin period. In: Tijdschrift van de Vereniging voor nederlandse muziekgeschiedenis No. 23, 1973, pages 79-91
  • MB Winn Marvin: The Texts of the Chansons of Loyset Compère , PhD thesis at Yale University New Haven / Connecticut 1974
  • MB Winn: Some Texts for Chanson by Loyset Compère. In: Musica disciplina No. 33, 1979, pages 43-54
  • LL Perkins: Musical Patronage at the Royal Court of France under Charles VII and Louis XI (1422–83). In: Journal of the American Musicological Society No. 37, 1984, pp. 507-566
  • J. Dean: The Occasion of Compère's Sola caret monstris: a Case Study in Historical Interpretation , in Musica disciplina No. 40, 1986, pp. 99-133
  • Ms. Labatut: Les Messes Se la face ay pale de Dufay et Alles regrets de Compère: recherche d'une unité de forme et d'écriture. In: Analyze musicale No. 8, 1987, pages 59-63
  • G. Montagna: Caron, Hayne, Compère: a Transmission Reassessment. In: Early Music History No. 7, 1987, pages 107-157
  • A. Zuckerman Wesner: The Chansons of Loyset Compère: Authenticity and Stylistic Development , dissertation at Harvard University Cambridge / Massachusetts 1992 (typewritten)
  • M. Steib: Loyset Compère and His Recently Rediscovered Missa De tous biens plaine. In: The Journal of Musicology No. 11, 1993, pp. 437-454
  • Cl. Goldberg: What is Compère quoting? Topos, quotation and paraphrase in the Regrets chansons by Hayne van Ghizeghem and Loyset Compère. In: Festschrift for Ludwig Finscher, edited by A. Laubenthal, Kassel and others 1995, pages 88–99
  • A. Zuckerman Wesner: The Chansons of Loyset Compère: A Model for a Changing Aesthetic. In: Festschrift for L. Lockwood, edited by JA Owens / AM Cummings, Warren / Michigan 1997, pages 483-501
  • EF Houghton: A Close Reading of Compère's Motet Sile fragor. In: Festschrift for H. Kellman, edited by B. Haggh, Tours 2000

Web links

Commons : Loyset Compère  - collection of images, videos and audio files

swell

  1. ^ Ludwig Finscher:  Compère, Loyset. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, personal section, volume 4 (Camarella - Couture). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 2000, ISBN 3-7618-1114-4  ( online edition , subscription required for full access)
  2. ↑ Marc Honegger, Günther Massenkeil (ed.): The great lexicon of music. Volume 2: C - Elmendorff. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau a. a. 1979, ISBN 3-451-18052-9 .
personal data
SURNAME Compère, Loyset
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Compère, Aluyseto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Franco-Flemish composer, singer and cleric of the Renaissance
DATE OF BIRTH between 1440 and 1445
DATE OF DEATH August 16, 1518
Place of death Saint-Quentin