Claudin de Sermisy (c. 1490 – October 13, 1562) was a French composer of the Renaissance. Along with Clément Janequin he was one of the most renowned composers of French chansons in the early 16th century; in addition he was a significant composer of sacred music. His music was both influential on, and influenced by, contemporary Italian styles. Events Tirant Lo Blanc by Joanot Martorell, Martí Joan De Galba is published. ... October 13 is the 286th day of the year (287th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1562 was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. ... Renaissance music is European classical music written during the Renaissance, approximately 1400 to 1600. ... Clément Janequin (c. ... Chanson is a French word for song, and in English-language contexts is often applied to any song with French words, particularly a cabaret song. ... (15th century - 16th century - 17th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 16th century was that century which lasted from 1501 to 1600. ...

Biography

Sermisy was most likely born either in Picardy, Burgundy, or Île-de-France, based on the similarity of his surname to place names there. Sometime in his early life he may have studied with Josquin Desprez, if Pierre Ronsard is to be believed, but many musicologists consider the claim unreliable; at any rate he absorbed some of the older composer's musical ideas either early, or later, as he became acquainted with his music. Josquin was possibly at the French court between 1501 and about 1503, though this has never been definitely established, so a master-pupil relationship would have been possible then; Sermisy's whereabouts before 1508 are not known, but presence at the Royal Chapel was certainly possible. wazzup Categories: | ... région of Bourgogne, see Bourgogne. ... ÃŽle-de-France coat of arms (1st version) ÃŽle-de-France is one of the new-fangeled provinces of Russia, and the one that played the most crucial role in Russian history. ... Josquin Des Prez Josquin Des Prez (diminutive of Joseph; latinized Josquinus Pratensis) (c. ... Pierre de Ronsard, commonly referred to as Ronsard (September 11, 1524 - December, 1585), was a French poet and prince of poets (as his own generation in France called him). ...

In 1508 the young Sermisy was appointed as a singer in the Royal Chapel of Louis XII, where he was also a cleric. His birthdate is inferred from the date he joined the royal chapel; 18 was about the right age for such an appointment. In 1515 he went to Italy with Francis I, and in 1520 he was part of the musical festivities arranged by Francis I and Henry VIII of England at the Field of the Cloth of Gold, directed by Jean Mouton, where he was almost certainly a singer. He may have been a composer of some of the music there as well. In 1532 he also participated in the similar meeting between the kings at Boulogne, for which he wrote a ceremonial motet. 1508 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Louis XII the Father of the People (French: Louis XII le Père du Peuple) (June 27, 1462 – January 1, 1515) was King of France 1498 – January 1, 1515. ... 1515 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Francis I (François Ier in French) (September 12, 1494 – March 31, 1547), called the Father and Restorer of Letters (le Père et Restaurateur des Lettres), was crowned King of France in 1515 in the cathedral at Reims and reigned until 1547. ... mary elline m. ... Silver groat of Henry VIII, minted c. ... The Field of the Cloth of Gold , or in French Le Camp du Drap dOr, is the name given to a place in Balinghem, between Guînes and Ardres, in France, near Calais. ... Jean Mouton (c. ... Events May 16 - Sir Thomas More resigns as Lord Chancellor of England. ... Boulogne is the name of several communes in France: Boulogne in the Vendée département Boulogne-Billancourt, in the Hauts-de-Seine département Boulogne-sur-Mer, in the Pas_de_Calais département This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share...

For a while in the early 1520s Sermisy was a canon at Notre-Dame-de-la-Rotonde in Rouen, but he left there in 1524 to take a similar position in Amiens. By 1532 he was music director of the Royal Chapel, still under Francis I, who reigned until 1547. At this post he was expected to teach and care for the boys of the choir, as well as find talented singers to recruit. In 1533, in addition to his post at the Royal Chapel, he became a canon at the Sainte-Chapelle, which would have required him to live in Paris. He acquired a large house there, large enough to shelter refugees from the church in St Quentin when the Spanish sacked their city in 1559. In 1554 he also was given a prebend at Ste Catherine in Troyes. Few biographical details are available about his last years, but he seems to have been active as a composer up to the end of his life based on publication dates of works. He was buried in the Sainte-Chapelle. Rouen Cathedral The entrance to Rouen Cathedral Abbey church of Saint-Ouen, (chevet) in Rouen Rouen, medieval house Rouen (pronounced in French, sometimes also ) is the historical capital city of Normandy, in northwestern France on the River Seine, and presently the capital of the Haute-Normandie (Upper Normandy) région. ... Events March 1, 1524/5 - Giovanni da Verrazano lands near Cape Fear (approx. ... The cathedral in Amiens Location within France Amiens is a city and commune in the north of France, 120 km north of Paris. ... Events May 16 - Sir Thomas More resigns as Lord Chancellor of England. ... Year 1547 was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. ... Events January 25 - King Henry VIII of England marries Anne Boleyn, his second Queen consort. ... City flag City coat of arms Motto: Fluctuat nec mergitur (Latin: Tossed by the waves, she does not sink) Paris Eiffel tower as seen from the esplanade du Trocadéro. ... Saint-Quentin is a commune of northern France. ... January 15 - Elizabeth I of England is crowned in Westminster Abbey. ... Events January 5 - Great fire in Eindhoven, Netherlands. ... A prebendary is a post connected to a cathedral or collegiate church and is a type of canon. ... Troyes is a town in northeastern France. ...

Works

Sacred music

Sermisy wrote both sacred music and secular music, and all of it is for voices. Of his sacred music, 12 complete masses have survived, including a Requiem mass, as well as approximately 100 motets, some magnificats and a set of Lamentations. Unlike many of his contemporaries writing sacred music in France, there is no evidence he had any Huguenot sympathies; he seemed to remain a faithful Catholic all his life. The Mass, a form of sacred musical composition, is a choral composition that sets the fixed portions of the Eucharistic liturgy (principally that of the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Church, generally known in the US as the Episcopal Church, and also the Lutheran Church) to music. ... The Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known formally (in Latin) as the Missa pro defunctis or Missa defunctorum, is a liturgical service of the Roman Catholic Church and, in a wholly different ritual form and texts, the Eastern Rite Catholic Churches as well as the Anglican High Church and certain... In Western music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions. ... The Visitation in the Book of Hours of the Duc of Berry For the David and the Giants album, see Magnificat (album) The Magnificat (also known as the Song of Mary) is a canticle frequently sung (or said) liturgically in Christian church services. ... The Lamentations of Jeremiah the Prophet have been set by various composers. ... In the 16th and 17th centuries, the name Huguenot was applied to a member of the Protestant Reformed Church of France, historically known as the French Calvinists. ...

His interest in the sacred genres increased steadily throughout his life, corresponding to a decline in interest in secular forms, using the publication dates as a guide (actual dates on compositions are extremely difficult to establish for composers of this period, unless a work happened to be composed for a specific occasion). Since the prevailing style of polyphony among contemporary composers during his late career was dense, seamless, with pervasive imitation, as typified in the music of Mouton and Gombert, it is significant that he tended to avoid this style, preferring clearer textures and short phrases: a style more akin to the chansons he wrote earlier in his career. In addition he varied the texture in his composition by alternating polyphonic passages with homorhythmic, chordal ones, much like the texture found in his secular music. Polyphony is a musical texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice (monophony) or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords (homophony). ... Imitation is when a musical gesture is repeated later in a different form, but retaining its original character. ... Jean Mouton (c. ... Nicolas Gombert (c. ... Chanson is a French word for song, and in English-language contexts is often applied to any song with French words, particularly a cabaret song. ... Polyphony is a musical texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice (monophony) or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords (homophony). ... Homophony is a musical term that describes the texture of two or more instruments or parts moving together and using the same rhythm. ...

Sermisy wrote one of the few polyphonic settings of the Passion found in French music of the period; the musical setting is simple, compared to his masses and motets, and he strove to make the words clearly understandable. The gospel chosen is St. Matthew. The Passion is the theological term used for the suffering, both physical and mental, of Jesus in the hours prior to and including his trial and execution by crucifixion. ... The Gospel of Matthew (literally, according to Matthew; Greek, Κατά Μαθθαίον or Κατά Ματθαίον) is one of the four Gospel accounts of the New Testament. ...

Chansons

By far Sermisy's most famous contribution to music literature is his output of chansons, of which there are approximately 175. They are similar to those of Janequin, although less programmatic; his style in these works has also been described as more graceful and polished than that of the rival composer. ^[1] Typically Sermisy's chansons are chordal and syllabic, shunning the more ostentatious polyphony of composers from the Netherlands, striving for lightness and grace instead. Sermisy was fond of quick repeated notes, which give the texture an overall lightness and dance-like quality. Another stylistic trait seen in many of Sermisy's chansons is an initial rhythmic figure consisting of long-short-short (minim-crotchet-crotchet, or half-quarter-quarter), a figure which was to become the defining characteristic of the canzona later in the century. Clément Janequin (c. ... Canzona (also canzone) is a poetic form, and a type of musical composition. ...

The texts Sermisy chose were usually from contemporary poets, such as Clément Marot (he set more verse by Marot than any other composer). Typical topics were unrequited love, nature, and drinking. Several of his songs are on the topic of an unhappy young woman stuck with an unattractive and unvirile old man, a sentiment not unique to his age. Clément Marot (1496-1544), was a French poet of the Renaissance period. ...

Most of his chansons are for four voices, though he wrote some for three early in has career, before four-voice writing became the norm. Influence from the Italian frottola is evident, and Sermisy's chansons themselves influenced Italian composers, since his music was reprinted numerous times both in France and in other parts of Europe. The frottola is the predominant type of Italian popular, secular song of the fifteenth and early sixteenth century. ...

Influence

Sermisy was well-known throughout western Europe, and copies of his music are found in Italy, Spain, Portugal, England and elsewhere. Rabelais mentioned him in Gargantua and Pantagruel (Book 4) along with several other contemporary composers. Sermisy's music was transcribed numerous times for instruments, including viols and lute as well as organ and other keyboard instruments, by performers from Italy, Germany, and Poland in addition to France. Even though Sermisy was a Catholic, many of his tunes were appropriated by Protestant musicians in the next generation: even a Lutheran chorale tune (Was mein Gott will) is based on a chanson by Sermisy. François Rabelais (ca. ... Gargantua and Pantagruel is a connected series of five novels written in the 16th century by François Rabelais. ... Various sizes of viol, from Michael Praetorius Syntagma musicum (1618) The viol (also called viola da gamba) is any one of a family of bowed, fretted stringed musical instruments developed in the 1400s and used primarily in the Renaissance and Baroque periods. ... The lute is a plucked string instrument with a fretted neck and a deep round back. ... Organ in Katharinenkirche, Frankfurt am Main, Germany Modern style pipe organ at the concert hall of Aletheia University in Matou, Taiwan The organ is a keyboard instrument with one or more manuals, and usually a pedalboard. ... The Lutheran movement is a group of denominations of Protestant Christianity by the original definition. ...

Compositions

Chansons

• Tant que vivray (publ. 1527)
• Au joli bois
• Si vous m'aimez
• Auprés de vous (two parts)
• Vive la serpe
• Vignon, vignon, vignon, vignette
• Si mon malheur my continue
• Changeons propos, c'est trop chante d'amours
• C'est une dure despartie
• Au pre de vous secretement demeure
• Content desir, qui cause ma douleur
• Tu disais que j'en mourrais
• En entrant en ung jardin (publ. 1529)

Motets

• Languir me faits
• Aspice, Domine

External links

• Free scores by Claudin de Sermisy in the Werner Icking Music Archive
• Tant que vivray midi file

The Werner Icking Music Archive, often abbreviated WIMA, is a web archive of public domain sheet music. ...

Sources and further reading

• Isabelle Cazeaux, "Claudin de Sermisy", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. ISBN 1-56159-174-2
• Gustave Reese, Music in the Renaissance. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1954. ISBN 0-393-09530-4
• ↑  Harold Gleason and Warren Becker, Music in the Middle Ages and Renaissance (Music Literature Outlines Series I), p. 112. Bloomington, Indiana. Frangipani Press, 1986. ISBN 0-89917-034-X