Marbriano de Orto

Marbriano de Orto (born Marbrianus Dujardin ; * around 1460 in Tournai ; † January or February 1529 in Nivelles , Belgian province of Brabant ) was a Franco-Flemish composer and singer of the Renaissance .

Live and act

Marbriano de Orto was the illegitimate child of a priest and most likely received his education at one of the churches in his home diocese of Tournai. In a request from Tournaier Cardinal Bishop Ferry de Cluny from September 1482 to Pope Sixtus IV (term of office 1471–1484), the composer is named "Marbrianus de Orto Tornacensis civitatis"; this is considered proof of its origin. The name "de Orto" is a Latinization of "Dujardin". According to the document mentioned, de Orto was a confidante of the cardinal at that time and stayed with him in Rome since June 1482 . After the unexpected death of his employer in October 1483, de Orto secured a position in the papal chapel in December of this year and was a member of it until 1499.

The papal chapel consisted of 18 to 20 musicians, mostly Flemings , Walloons and French, and sang Gregorian chants during the liturgy ; polyphonic music was rarely performed. It was sung not only in the Sistine Chapel , but also in other churches when the Pope celebrated there, sometimes in his private apartments. At this time the composers Gaspar van Weerbeke (1481–1489 and again from around 1499), Bertrandus Vaqueras (lifetime around 1450–1507), Johannes de Stokem and Josquin Desprez (September 1486 to around 1494) were Marbrian's colleagues de Orto.

The composer was in high favor with the popes, especially with Innocent VIII (tenure from 1484–1492), who provided him with a number of benefits , legitimized his birth, granted him an annual pension in 1486 and after 1489 made him dean of the abbey Sainte-Gertrude in Nivelles. This appointment happened according to a papal communication from Alexander VI. (Term of office 1492-1503) of July 30, 1496 on resistance, which caused de Orto in 1497 to go to Nivelles to claim the office for himself and to take office. In 1487 he also became a canon in the city of Comines . However, he only moved from Rome to Nivelles after 1499. De Orto was in close and very well documented contact with this abbey until the end of his life, even after his later departure; this went hand in hand with a special personal devotion to St. Gertrude . Numerous foundations attest to this; the most precious of these is a bronze chest for storing relics , which can still be seen in the transept of the church.

The composer reached the climax of his artistic career in 1505. In that year the Venetian music publisher Ottaviano dei Petrucci brought out a collection of masses just by him, a so-called individual print entitled “Misse de Orto”, which is considered a special honor can. In addition, de Orto was accepted on May 24, 1505 in the court chapel of Duke Philip the Fair of Castile (reign 1504–1506). Here de Orto was a colleague of other composers at the court, e. B. Pierre de la Rue , Alexander Agricola , Nicolas Champion and Antonius Divitis , but was soon named premier chapelain by the Duke , which was also associated with a significantly higher remuneration. Perhaps because of this high office, de Orto seems to have practically stopped his composing activity in the following period.

Philip the Handsome began his second journey to Spain with his court on January 10, 1506, this time by sea, with the singers and instrumentalists having their own ship. However, on January 13, a storm drove part of the fleet, including the musicians' ship, to Falmouth on the English south-west coast. It is very likely that at this dangerous time Marbriano de Orto took the vow to translate the biography of Saint Gertrude from Latin into French. After the fleet finally arrived in the north-western Spanish port city of A Coruña on April 27 , the Duke moved to Burgos via Valladolid to set up his summer residence. Here, however, he fell seriously ill with a fever and finally died on September 26, 1506, whereupon his court orchestra dissolved, some of the musicians returned to Burgundy , and others were taken over by his widow and successor Johanna, including de Orto. Johanna, nicknamed “the mad one”, was however deprived of power by her father two years later and imprisoned, with the result that this court orchestra also dissolved in August 1508 and the composer left Spain.

At the court in Brussels , Margaret of Austria reigned for Archduke Karl, who was still a minor, and later Emperor Charles V. Here de Orto initially helped with the reorganization of the court orchestra; According to the document from 1509, he was then appointed premier chapelain from 1510 and alternated in this office with a certain Anthoine de Berghes until 1517. This change was connected with residency duties at other churches, after he was active as a canon at the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Antwerp (Church of Our Lady) from 1510 and in the same function at Saint-Gudule in Brussels from 1513. During Emperor Charles V's trip to Spain in 1517, de Orto evidently came from a certain Cr. van Stappen represented. Although his name is crossed out in the payment list of June 21, he still acted as "Chancellor and first chaplain of Charles" according to another document. It is not certain whether he still took part in his employer's trip to England in 1522; in principle he was exempted from it for reasons of age. Marbriano de Orto spent his old age in Nivelles; he died there in January or February 1529 and was buried near the church of Sainte-Gertrude. His gravestone could be seen here until 1940, when the church was partially destroyed in the course of war.

meaning

Petrucci's individual print from 1505, which contains five of the composer's six traditional masses, is of central importance for the transmission of de Orto's compositions; other important groups of manuscripts are closely connected with his papal and imperial Habsburg masters. His masses show his time and genre-typical compositional art at a high level and are all of the cantus firmus type (cf. One of the earliest masses is the canonical mass “Ad fugam”, which was written shortly before 1490 and is not in Petrucci's collection. In terms of style, it is also based on the style of the Ockeghem generation with its tendency towards small structures and sweeping melodies . Closest to it is the mass “L'homme armé”, which quotes the well-known folk song in the shortened version, with the cf mostly in the tenor , in various time measures, diminutions and transpositions , as was typical of the Josquin generation. In contrast, in his “La belle se sied” mass, cf is treated more freely. Here the melody from the 13th century is occasionally ornamented , but mainly imitated ; this mass is also noticeable for its colorful and often chordal structure. In the “J'ay pris amours” mass, de Orto is the only one to use this anonymous chanson for a mass, which was very popular in the 15th century . The tenor and the top voice of the original are mostly linear, sometimes even as cf, but leave the polyphonic Structure of the melody entirely aside, so that the composition cannot be called a parody mass in the true sense of the word . The “Petita camusette” fair owes its name to the coincidental resemblance of the “Mi-mi motif” to the chanson Petita camusette by Petrucci . Because there are no further references to this melody, the naming is considered to be erroneous. Rather, in this longest Mass de Ortos, the double jump of the fifth is processed and chorale quotations are in the foreground, which is why this mass can be classified in the series of Wed-Wed Masses by Johannes Ockeghem or Matthaeus Pipelare , for example. Finally, in the “Missa dominicalis”, different chorale melodies are paraphrased and in the Credo two different Credo melodies are combined with one another.

Most of de Orto's remaining sacred works date back to his time in the papal chapel. The typical performance traditions of this band with their special text version, their chorale treatment and the targeted use of chordal writing can be found in these compositions; this also includes the general stylistic orientation towards Johannes Ockeghem and Johannes Regis . In contrast, the rather compact “Ave Maria”, which Petrucci's collection “Odhecaton A” opens, is less strictly aligned. The motets de Ortos again show the Cantus firmus technique. The piece “Salve regis mater” has been handed down anonymously and celebrates the coronation of Pope Alexander VI. in 1492 and is counted among the works with dubious authorship. Another manuscript (CS 15) contains a cycle of hymns , parts of which are attributed to Guillaume Dufay , Josquin and de Orto.

Among the secular works, his setting of Dido ’s lament in Virgil’s Aeneid , “Dulces exuviae”, deserves special attention. It is the only piece by the composer that is in the chanson collection of Margaret of Austria and can therefore be assigned to his time at this Habsburg court. The text setting is one of the earliest in a series of others by Josquin, Johannes Ghiselin , Jean Mouton , Adrian Willaert , Jacobus Arcadelt and Orlando di Lasso and is characterized by special moments of expression, such as the plaintive Phrygian church key and the dissonance-rich use of chromatic effects. The other secular pieces are mostly free chansons, or rondeaux as in the case of "Venus tu m'a pris", "D'ung aultre amer" and "Fors seulement", the latter two taking over the top voice of the Ockeghem model and "Venus" is in the Burgundian style. In the piece “Et il ya trois dames a Paris”, the use of homophonic passages on the Parisian chansons and thus stylistically foreshadows the 16th century. Apart from the last-mentioned special case, Marbriano de Orto's chanson style can be described as extremely progressive because of its contrapuntal sophistication, its occasional use of canons and its penchant for word interpretation.

Works

Complete edition: Marbriano de Orto. Opera omnia , edited by N. Davison, Moretonhampstead 2005

• Masses and parts of masses (unless otherwise stated, four parts)
  • Missa dominicalis
  • Missa "J'ay pris amours" (handed down with 2 credos)
  • Missa "La belle se sied"
  • Missa "L'homme armé"
  • Missa "Petita camusetta" (Wed Wed)
  • Missa ("ad fugam")
  • Kyrie "in honorem beatissime virginis"
  • Credo "Le serviteur"
  • Credo to five votes
• Motets
  • “Ave Maria gratia plena” with four votes
  • “Ave Maria mater gracie” to five voices
  • “Da pacem Domine” to five votes
  • "Descendi in ortum meum" for four voices (fragment, superius lost)
  • "Domine non secundum" with four votes
• Other liturgical works (all for four voices)
  • "Lamentation Jeremie prophete"
  • "Lucis creator optime"
  • "Ut queant laxis" (verse 2, "Nuncius celso": set to music by Guillaume Dufay )
• Chansons
  • “D'ung aultre amer” to four voices
  • “Et il ya trois dames a Paris” (“Les troys filles de Paris”) to four voices
  • “Fors seulement” to four voices
  • "Je ne suis poinct" to four voices (Bassus lost, but probably with a tenor in the canon)
  • “Mon mary m'a diffamée” with four voices
  • “Se je perdu mon amy” to four voices
  • “Venus tu m'a pris” to three votes
• Other worldly phrases
  • "Dulces exuviae" for four voices (Text: Virgil, Aeneis IV, 651–654)
  • "La mi la sol" to four voices (without text)
• Works in which de Orto's authorship is questioned
  • "Salve regis mater" / "Hic est sacerdos" (for the papal coronation of Alexander VI on August 26, 1492, anonymous)
  • "Fama malum" (anonymous)
  • "Impulsus eversus sum" ( Joannes de Horto noted)
  • "Je cuide se ce temps me dure" (ascribed to "De Orte", "Congiet" and "Japart" in different manuscripts)

Literature (selection)

• Orto, Mabriano . In: Wolfgang Ruf , Annette van Dyck-Hemming (Ed.): Riemann Musiklexikon . 13th, newly revised and updated edition. tape 4 : Niss – Schwa . Schott, Mainz 2012, ISBN 978-3-7957-0006-5 , p. 80 .
• R. Gerber: Roman hymn cycles of the late 15th century. In: Archives for Musicology No. 12, 1955, pages 40–73
• Martin Picker: The Chanson Albums of Marguerite of Austria , Berkeley 1965
• R. Miller: The Musical Works of Marbriano de Orto , Dissertation Indiana 1974 (University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor / Michigan No. 7501726)
• M. Duggan: Queen Joanna and Her Musicians. In: Musica disciplina No. 30, 1976, pp. 73-95
• AB Skei: "Dulces exuviae": Renaissance Settings of Dido's Last Words. In: The Music Review No. 37, 1976, pages 77-91
• R. Sherr: Illibata Dei Virgo Nutrix and Josquin's Roman Style. In: Journal of the American Musicological Society No. 40, 1988, pp. 434-464
• Martin Picker: The Career of Marbriano de Orto approx. 1450–1529. In: Collectanea II. Studies on the history of the papal chapel, edited by Bernhard Janz, Vatican City 1994, pages 529–557, ISBN 88-210-0655-7
• H. Kellman (editor): The Treasury of Petrus Alamire, Music and Art in Flemish Court Manuscripts 1500–1535 , Gent / Amsterdam 1999
• Jesse Rodin: Marbrianus de Orto in Rome. In: Early Music Band 37 (2009), issue 1, page 149, doi: 10.1093 / em / can142 .

Web links

• Sheet music and audio files by Marbrianus de Orto in the International Music Score Library Project
• Sheet music in the public domain by Marbrianus de Orto in the Choral Public Domain Library - ChoralWiki (English)
• Martin Picker:  Orto, Marbrianus de. In: Grove Music Online (English; subscription required).

swell

1. ^ Klaus Pietschmann :  Orto, Marbrianus de. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, personal section, volume 12 (Mercadante - Paix). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 2004, ISBN 3-7618-1122-5 , Sp. 1440–1443 ( online edition , subscription required for full access)
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 .