Born for the Muses The Life and Masses of Jacob Obrecht

by Wegman, Rob C.

• ISBN13: 9780198163824
• ISBN10: 0198163827
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1994-09-08
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Son of a town trumpeter, Jacob Obrecht became one of the most prominent composers in Europe in the late fifteenth century. In Born for the Muses , Rob Wegman enlarges our picture of the social and cultural conditions that framed his world, drawing on a wealth of new archival sources and a newly discovered dated portrait that sheds light on his development as a composer. Obrecht's greatest contribution lay in the field of mass composition. In a penetrating stylistic analysis, Wegman treats each of the thirty-odd surviving masses as a historical record, tracing influences and establishing a rich context for the development of Obrecht's musical language. This new assessment of his creative achievement and historical significance entirely changes the face of Obrecht studies and of late fifteenth-century music in general.

Author Biography

Rob C. Wegman is a British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Corpus Christi College, Oxford.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. xvi
List of Figures	p. xvii
List of Tables	p. xviii
List of Music Examples	p. xix
Abbreviations	p. xxi
Note on Currencies	p. xxiii
Note on Titles and Proper Names	p. xxv
Introduction	p. 1
A Past without a Music History	p. 4
The Historicity of Musical Texts	p. 7
The Textuality of Music History	p. 12
A Music History without a Present?	p. 15
1457/8-1485
The Orphic Jacob	p. 21
Mille quingentis	p. 22
Willem Obrecht	p. 25
Lysbette Gheeraerts	p. 36
Born for the Muses	p. 45
Corporate Musicianship in Ghent	p. 47
A Different Course	p. 56
Formative Years	p. 70
Early Career: Patterns and Parallels	p. 70
Bergen op Zoom and Cambrai, 1480-1485	p. 79
Beyond Busnoys	p. 86
Missa Petrus apostolus	p. 87
Missa Beata viscera	p. 100
Missa O lumen ecclesie	p. 109
Missa Sicut spina rosam	p. 118
1485-1491
Years of Crisis	p. 133
Bruges and Ferrara, 1485-1488	p. 138
Death of a City Trumpeter: Ghent, 1488-1492	p. 147
Bruges, 1488-1491	p. 156
The Critical Phase	p. 161
Missa De Sancto Martino	p. 165
Missa De Sancto Donatiano	p. 169
Missa Salve diva parens	p. 175
Missa Adieu mes amours	p. 189
Towards a New Language	p. 200
Missa Ave regina celorum	p. 201
Missa De Sancto Johanne Baptista	p. 213
The Mature Style	p. 219
The '1491-3' Masses	p. 220
Earlier Mature Masses	p. 244
The Mature OEuvre	p. 262
1491-1505
'Jubilating Always in my Songs'	p. 287
Antwerp and Bergen op Zoom, 1491 / 2-1498	p. 292
Bruges and Antwerp, 1498-1503	p. 303
Beyond Fortuna	p. 311
Obrecht the Progressive: Late Motets	p. 313
Missa Maria zart	p. 322
Missa Si dedero	p. 330
Missa Cela sans plus	p. 334
Postscript: Missa Sub tuum presidium	p. 337
The Last Journey	p. 341
Innsbruck and ?Rome, 1503-1504	p. 341
Ferrara, 1504-1505	p. 346
Documents	p. 355
Rhythmic Density in the Masses of Jacob Obrecht	p. 375
Bibliography	p. 385
Index of Compositions by Obrecht	p. 397
General Index	p. 398
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