Matthias Hermann Werrecore

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Matthias Hermann Werrecore (* around 1500 in Warcoing ( county of Hainaut ), † after 1574 probably in Milan ) was a Franco-Flemish composer , singer , bandmaster and presbyter of the Renaissance .

Live and act

Nothing is known about the early days of Matthias Hermann Werrecore or about his apprenticeship. The first evidence about him is from July 3, 1522, when he was appointed by the cathedral chapter of the cathedral in Milan to succeed the late musician and music theorist Franchino Gaffurio . He held this office for nearly 30 years. In addition to leading the chapel, his tasks also included teaching singing and counterpoint for the boys in the choir school . In the first ten years of his tenure there were several problems because the management of the cathedral was not satisfied with the behavior of the choir members and the performance of the choir, so that the composer was called to account and for advice in 1525 and 1532. After the choir statutes were reformed in 1534 and the grades were reorganized, the problems were apparently resolved. Werrecore received a canonical from Duke Francesco II Sforza on March 22, 1524 at the church of San Michele di Busto Arsizio in the city of Gallarate, northwest of Milan. This event was the beginning of a long-term sponsorship of the composer by the ducal court, which lasted until 1548. On July 6, 1542, he received a raise from the cathedral chapter as a reward for his good service.

According to documents from 1532 and 1561, Werrecore owned local property and had at least three children from two marriages; one of them was a member of the cathedral choir from 1546 to 1548. He also had consulting contracts with the Milanese printer Giovanni Antonio Castiglione and with two of his business partners. In this way, the Milanese paper dealer Bernadino Calusco, who also supplied the cathedral, apparently came into possession of the collective work "Mutetarum divinitatis liber primus", which largely contains previously unpublished French compositions as well as three works by Werrecore himself. For reasons of age, the composer gave the In 1550 he took up his position at the cathedral, but remained connected to this institution; from August to December 1559 he worked with the cathedral choir as a tenor singer , but then felt no longer up to the task. The last record about him is from December 9th, 1574, in which it was about the donation of three cases of wine by the cathedral chapter. His name is not listed in the Milan death books from 1574 to 1587, but parts of these books for the years 1576, 1577 and 1579 have been lost, so that music researchers today assume that Matthias Hermann Werrecore fell victim to the plague epidemic at that time in 1576 has fallen.

meaning

Werrecore owes its particular fame to its composition “La bataglia taliana”, a Villotta , in which the military victories of the Milanese over the French at Bicocca and Pavia in 1522 and 1525 are celebrated with playful liveliness, harmonious but rather immobile , first published in Nuremberg in 1544 under the title "The Battle of Pavia". The popularity of this composition was reflected in numerous reprints and transcriptions for lute . His motet collection “Cantuum quinque vocum liber primus”, published in 1555 (second edition 1559), is more significant from a musical history point of view. Here Werrecore succeeded in a remarkable synthesis of the masterful declamatory homophony , the rhetoric of phrase repetition and other compositional tricks of the Milanese choir books on the one hand and the dense, imitation -influenced vocal fabric on the other hand, which was characteristic of the generation of composers after Josquin Desprez (Christine Getz in the source MGG).

Works

  • Spiritual works
    • "Cantuum quinque vocum quos motetta vocant [...] liber primus", Milan 1559 (dedication dated 1555)
    • 6 more motets, 1540
    • 4 further motets with attribution to "Mathias", 1534 (attribution to "Matthias Hermann" in the new edition 1569)
    • 1 further motet with attribution to "Hermann", 1538
  • Secular works
    • “The Battle of Pavia”, Nuremberg 1544; Italian "La bataglia taliana [...] con alcune villotte" for four voices, Venice 1549
    • 2 madrigals with attribution to "Matthias", 1541
    • “Mein herz und gmüt” to five voices with attribution to “Mathias Hermanus”, 1556, 2 different movements

Literature (selection)

  • FX Haberl: Matthias Hermann Werrecorensis. a bibliographical-critical study , in: Monatshefte für Musikgeschichte No. 3, 1871, pages 197-212
  • Robert Eitner:  Matthias, Hermann Werrecorensis . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 20, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1884, p. 671 f.
  • F. Mompello: La cappella del Duomo da Matthias Hermann di Vercore a Vincenzo Roffo , in: Storia di Milano, Milan 1957 (second edition 1961), volume 9, pages 749-785
  • Christine Getz: The Milanese Cathedral Choir under Hermann Matthias Werrecore, maestro di cappella 1522–1550 , in: Musica disciplina No. 46, 1992, pages 169–222
  • M. Brusa: Hermann Matthias Werrecoren "maestro di cappella del Duomo del Milano" 1522–1550. Biografia e Bibliografia. Elenco delle Opere , in: Rivista internazionale di musica sacra No. 15, 1994, issue 3-4, pages 173-229
  • Christine Getz: Hermann Matthias Werrecore and the North Italian Circle of Liberal Humanists in Counter-Reformation Italy , in: Arte Lombarda No. 118, 1996, issue 3. Pages 15-25
  • A. Ganda: Giovanni antonio Castiglione e la stampa musicale a Milano , in: La Bibliofilía No. 100, 1998, Issue 2-3, pages 301-324
  • Christine Getz: Music in the Collective Experience in Sixteenth-century Milan , Aldershot 2006

Web links

swell

  1. ^ Christine Getz:  Werrecore, Matthias Hermann. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, personal section, volume 17 (Vina - Zykan). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 2007, ISBN 978-3-7618-1137-5  ( online edition , subscription required for full access)
  2. ^ Pier Paolo Scattolin:  Werrecore, Matthias Hermann. In: Grove Music Online (English; subscription required).
personal data
SURNAME Werrecore, Matthias Hermann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Werrecore, Mathias Hermann; Verekoren, Hermann Matthias
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Franco-Flemish composer, singer and bandmaster of the Renaissance
DATE OF BIRTH around 1500
PLACE OF BIRTH Warcoing , Belgium
DATE OF DEATH after 1574
Place of death unsure: Milan