Loyset Compère (c.1445–August 16, 1518) was a French composer of the Renaissance. Of the same generation as Josquin des Prez, he was one of the most significant composers of motets and chansons, and one of the first musicians to bring the light Italianate Renaissance style to France. Events Discovery of Senegal and Cape Verde by Dinas Diaz Births March 1 - Sandro Botticelli, Italian painter of the Florentine school during the Early Renaissance (d. ... August 16 is the 228th day of the year (229th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Events A plague of tropical fire ants devastates crops on Hispaniola (Nature 433, 32 (06 January 2005); doi:10. ... The French Republic or France (French: République française or France) is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in western Europe, and which is further made up of a collection of overseas islands and territories located in other continents. ... A composer is a person who writes music. ... Renaissance music is classical music written during the Renaissance period, approximately 1400 to 1600 CE. Defining the end of the period is easier than defining the beginning, since there were no revolutionary shifts in musical thinking at the beginning of the 15th century corresponding to the sudden development of the... Josquin Des Prez Josquin Des Prez (diminutive of Joseph; latinized Josquinus Pratensis) (c. ... In Western music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions. ... 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. ...

Life

His exact place of birth is not known, but documents of the time assign him to a family from the province of Artois (in modern France), and suggest he may have been born in Hainaut (in modern Belgium). At least one source from Milan indicates he described himself as coming from Arras, also in Artois. Both the date and probable place of birth are extremely close to those of Josquin des Prez; indeed the area around the current French-Belgian border produced an astonishing number of excellent composers in the 15th and 16th centuries, composers whose fame spread throughout Europe. Often these composers are known as the Franco-Flemish, or as the Dutch School. Artois is a former province of northern France. ... Hainaut (Dutch: Henegouwen) is the westernmost province of Wallonia. ... The Kingdom of Belgium (Dutch: Koninkrijk België, French: Royaume de Belgique, German: Königreich Belgien) is a country in Western Europe, bordered by the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, France, and the North Sea. ... Location within Italy Piazza della Scala Milan (Italian: Milano; Milanese dialect: Milán) is the main city in northern Italy, and is located in the plains of Lombardy, the most populated and developed of Italian regions. ... Arras ( Dutch: Atrecht) is a city and commune in northern France, préfecture (capital) of the Pas-de-Calais département. ... (14th century - 15th century - 16th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 15th century was that century which lasted from 1401 to 1500. ... (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. ... In music, the Dutch School refers, somewhat imprecisely, to the style of polyphonic vocal music composition in Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries. ...

In the 1470s Compère worked as a singer in Milan at the chapel of Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza, during the time that composers such as Josquin Des Prez and Gaspar van Weerbeke were also singing there. The chapel choir in the early 1470s grew into one of the largest and most famous singing ensembles in Europe. After the murder of the duke in 1476, Compère appears to have been "laid off" from the chapel, and he may have returned to France at this time. Sometime during the next ten years he began to work at the French court, and he accompanied Charles VIII on his invasion of Italy in 1494 (in what capacity is not known). He was in Rome in early 1495 during the occupation of the city by Charles and his army. Centuries: 14th century - 15th century - 16th century Decades: 1420s 1430s 1440s 1450s 1460s - 1470s - 1480s 1490s 1500s 1510s 1520s Years: 1470 1471 1472 1473 1474 1475 1476 1477 1478 1479 Events and Trends battle of Avenches 1476 Prominent Persons Nicolaus Copernicus, Polish astronomer Categories: 1470s ... Location within Italy Piazza della Scala Milan (Italian: Milano; Milanese dialect: Milán) is the main city in northern Italy, and is located in the plains of Lombardy, the most populated and developed of Italian regions. ... Galeazzo Maria Sforza (January 24, 1444 – December 26, 1476) was Duke of Milan. ... Josquin Des Prez Josquin Des Prez (diminutive of Joseph; latinized Josquinus Pratensis) (c. ... Gaspar van Weerbeke (c. ... Events March 2 - Battle of Grandson. ... Charles VIII of France (June 30, 1470–April 7, 1498; French: Charles VIII de France), nicknamed the Affable (lAffable), was King of France from 1483 to his death. ... Events January 25 - Alfonso II becomes King of Naples. ... Location within Italy The Roman Colosseum Rome (Italian and Latin: Roma) is the capital city of Italy and of its Latium region. ... Events February 22 - King Charles VIII of France enters Naples to claim the citys throne. ...

Next he had a series of church positions. By 1498 Compère was at Cambrai, and from 1500 to around 1504 he was at Douai; his final appointment was at a church in St Quentin. Throughout this time he seems to have been in part-time service to the French court, as evidenced by his many compositions for official and ceremonial occasions. He died at St Quentin. Events Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama visits Quelimane and Moçambique in southeastern Africa. ... Cambrai (Dutch: Kamerijk) is a French city and commune, in the Nord département, of which it is a sous_préfecture. ... Events Europes population was ~60 million. ... Events January 1 - French troops surrender Gaeta to the Spanish under Cordoba. ... Douai is a city and commune in the north of France in the département of Nord, of which it is a sous-préfecture. ... Saint-Quentin is a commune of northern France. ...

Works

Unlike his contemporaries, Compère seems to have written few masses (at least very few survive). By temperament he seems to have been a miniaturist, and his most popular and numerous works were in the shorter forms of the day—primarily chansons and motets. Two stylistic trends are evident in his music: the style of the Burgundian School, which he obviously had learned in his early career before coming to Italy, and the current style of the lighter Italian composers, who were were writing frottolas (the light and popular predecessor to the madrigal). Compère had a gift for melody, and many of his chansons became popular; later composers used several as canti firmi for masses. Occasionally he seems to have given himself a formidable technical challenge and set out to solve it, such as writing quodlibets (an example is Au travail suis, which combines no less than six different tunes written to the same text by different composers). This article discusses the Mass as a standard form of classical music composition. ... 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. ... In Western music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions. ... The Burgundian School is a term used to denote a group of composers active in the 15th century in what is now eastern France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, centered on the court of the Dukes of Burgundy. ... The frottola is the predominant type of Italian popular, secular song of the fifteenth and early sixteenth century. ... A madrigal is a setting for 4–6 voices of a secular text, often in Italian. ... In music, cantus firmus is the basic material to be set using polyphony. ... A quodlibet is a piece of music which combines several different melodies in counterpoint, usually popular tunes, and often in a light-hearted manner. ...

Compère wrote several works in a unique form, sometimes called a free motet, which combines some of the light elegance of the Italian popular song of the time with the contrapuntal technique of the Netherlanders. Some mix texts from different sources, for instance a rather paradoxical Sile fragor which combines a supplication to the Virgin Mary with a drinking song dedicated to Bacchus. His choice of secular texts tended towards the irreverent and suggestive. Counterpoint is a very general feature of music (especially prominent in much Western music) whereby two or more melodic strands occur simultaneously - in separate voices, either literally or metaphorically (if the music is instrumental). ... Blessed Virgin Mary A traditional Catholic picture displayed sometimes in homes. ... Bacchus by Caravaggio The god Dionysus is occasionally confused with one of several historical figures named Dionysius, a theophoric name that simply means [servant] of Dionysus. ...

His chansons are his most characteristic compositions, and many scholars of Renaissance music consider them to be his best work. They are for three or four voices, and are in three general categories: Italianate, light works for four a cappella voices, very much like frottolas, with text set syllabically and often homophonically, and having frequent cadences; three-voice works in the Burgundian style, rather like the music of Dufay; and three-voice "motet-chansons," which resemble the medieval motet more than anything else. In these works the lowest voice usually sings a slow-moving cantus firmus with a Latin text, while the upper voices sing more animated parts, in French. A cappella music is vocal music or singing without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. ... Homophony is music in which the top line has a dominant melody, and all the voices accompany it with chords in the same rhythm. ... Dufay (left), with Gilles Binchois Guillaume Dufay (c. ... Medieval music is music of Europe in the Middle Ages. ... Latin - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ...

Many of Compère's compositions were printed by Ottaviano Petrucci in Venice, and disseminated widely; obviously their availability contributed to their popularity. Compère was one of the first composers to benefit from the new technology of printing, which had a profound impact on the spread of the Franco-Flemish musical style throughout Europe. Venice is known for its waterways and gondolas Gondola. ... Printing is an industrial process for reproducing copies of texts and images, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. ...

Compère also wrote several settings of the Magnificat (the hymn of praise to the Virgin Mary, from the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke), as well as numerous short motets. Magnificat is the Latin name of the canticle of Mary, the mother of Jesus, which she speaks to Elisabeth, the wife of Zechariah. ... The Gospel of Luke is the third of the four canonical Gospels of the New Testament, which tell the story of Jesus life, death, and resurrection. ...

Media

File links The following pages link to this file: Apollo 8 Accordion Antonio Vivaldi Aramaic language Symphony No. ...

Sources

• Gustave Reese, Music in the Renaissance. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1954. ISBN 0393095304
• Article "Loyset Compère," in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. ISBN 1561591742