Loyset Comp2ere

Loyset Compère was an ecclesiastic, cantor and type-setter, born in the diocese of Arras or the Comté of Hainaut towards 1445. Same generation as Josquin of the Meadows, Jacob Obrecht, Antoine Brumel or Pierre of the Street pupils like him of Johannes Ockeghem, it is one of the most important type-setters of Motet S and Chanson S of the Renaissance known as free-Flemish .

After having belonged to the ducal vault of the Sforza then to that pontifical of Sixth IV under the name of Aluyseto , of impregnated return in France of the style refined of the Italian arts, he was canon and chancellor of the Basilique of Saint-Quentin where he died the August 16th 1518.

Its life

1440/45 - 1474

According to Jean Molinet (1435-1507), which knew Compère well, the type-setter came from a family of Saint-Omer. A Milanese document gone back to 1476 presents it like an ecclesiastic coming from Arras. However, an ordinance of Charles VIII of April 1494 confers on Compère French nationality and specifies expressly that it is originating in Hainaut. One could not clear up these contradictions.

Nothing of his formation is known. It is possible that it attends the royal court of France during the years 1460. Indeed, its oldest composition Then that if biene (former to 1465) is in a manuscript containing the repertory of the vault of king de France. A collection with Cambrai makes suppose that the motet Omnium bonorum plena , perhaps composed at the time of the dedication of the Ancienne cathedral of Cambric the July 5th 1472 or to that of a meeting of the courses of France and Burgundy the 16 and October 17th 1468, was composed in Cambrai in 1468. The motet, which is already the work of an achieved Master, is quoted in the song Of all goods plain of Hayne van Ghizeghem.

Milan, 1474 - 1477

The first stay of Comp2ere in Milan is attested by documents. The dukes of Milan maintained the close connections with the court of France, as is not it surprising as the duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza addresses in a letter dated from the November 23rd 1472 to Johannes Ockeghem by asking him for his assistance for the recruitment of singers intended to collaborate in his ducal vault which it was constituting. Loyset Compère was among the had a presentiment of singers. It engaged the July 15th 1474 like member of the principal manecantery of the ducal vault. Its name also appears in lists dated from the March 30th and December 4th 1475. The most notorious colleague of Comp2ere was Gaspar van Weerbeke.

In September 1476 the duke tried to make allot to Compère a benefit of the abbey San Georgio of Padoue, but this one had already been allotted. The career of Comp2ere in Milan ended with the assassination of duke the September 26th 1476: the court decided the January 7th 1477 to reduce the ducal vault and a document dated from the February 6th 1477 quotes Compère like one of the returned collaborators.

France 1477 - 1494

Comp2ere turned over to France accompanied by Jean Fresneau. Perhaps he remained some time at the court and the service of the duke Jean II of Bourbon: Comp2ere indeed put in music three poems of this last. However this assumption is supported by no documentary source.

What is sure, it that one finds it in 1486 with the royal vault of France, then is directed by Johannes Ockeghem. A bubble of the pope of the July 28th 1486 names it with the chapter diocese of Arras like ordinary chaplain and cantor of king de France.

A royal decree of April 1494 concedes French nationality with “nostre expensive and well heart ordinary chaplain and cantor of nostre vault maistre Loys Compère, native of the country of Haynault, in satisfaction of its humble request” - what proves that it did not have it before, and ensures him the final pleasure of the benefit which had been allotted to him in France, as a member of the royal vault.

From June 1492 in May 1493, Compère belonged to the chapter of the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, where the members of the royal vault were often named. He was ordered priest with the cathedral the March 2nd 1493 and exchanged some time after two benefit which he had in Notre-Dame and the Trinity of Montlhéry against a Commende with Voyenne in the diocese of Laon.

Italy 1494/95

Loyset Compère accompanied, with the autumn 1494, the king Charles VIII in his countryside of Italy - one does not know besides with which title. In a letter of the October 7th 1494, Shoeing of Este writes with his/her father, the duke of Ferrare Hercules Ier d' Este (which was large music lover) that it met Compère with Casale Montferrato and that this last was excused on several occasions to be able to provide to its Highness some good compositions because those which it had with him were already old. It continued by saying that it had left its partitions in France, which contained good recent works, of which it would be made an honor send them to its Highness as soon as it could do it.

According to any probability, it spent the month of January 1495 to Rome, because Charles VIII and his army occupied the city at that time. It is probably of this period (or little time afterwards) that date the composition of some representative words: the Crux triumphans , Propter gravamen , Quis numerare queat , Sile fragor : either these works were written in Italy, or it acts of the “older works” mentioned by Shoeing of Este.

In July 1495 it attended the battle of Fornovo and composed the song Vive noble the roy to celebrate the victory of French.

France 1495 - 1518

Between the April 30th 1498 and the May 5th 1500, Compère was the senior of collegial of Saint-Gery de Cambrai, in position of precedence in front of the 48 other canons. He was graduate in Civil law and canonical Droit since at least 1500.

From 1500 to 1503 or 1504, he was vice-chancellor of collegial the Saint-Pierre with Douai. According to any appearance, it was not a sinecure, because in 1503, the authorities of the city raised the immunity of the monastery and forced the opening of the house of Comp2ere.

He resigned of this function in favor of Pierre Duwez, former musician of the ducal vault of Burgundy, former vice-chancellor with Condé which Josquin Desprez in May 1504 had succeeded.

He spent the last years of his life to collegial of Saint-Quentin from which he was canon since 1491, there also enjoying the incomes of a benefit in the diocese of Coutances.

In spite of its other loads, there remained attached to the royal Vault even after 1498. Thus it composed the motet Gaude prole regia for the arrival of Philippe the Beautiful in Paris the November 25th 1501. The text is a prayer with Catherine of Alexandria and symbolizes for it the joint praise of holy by France and Flandres. The motet Sola reel monstris composed in 1507 is a criticism against the pope Jules II in favor of the king Louis XII. Loyset Compère died on August 16th, 1518 in Saint-Quentin. It had solemn funeral in the collegial one.

Its art

With the difference of his contemporaries, Compère seems to have written masses little - or at least, little reached us. Of temperament, it rather seems a miniaturist, his compositions most popular and most raise of the shortest forms of its time: primarily songs and motets. Two artistic influences appear in its music: the Burgundian style, which are obvious that of its initial training before the voyages in Italy, and that, lighter of the contemporary Italian musicians which composed then of the frotolle, the light and popular form which preceded the madrigal.

Comp2ere was an endowed melodist, and many its songs became popular: later type-setters re-used several of them like “cantus firmus” their masses in music. On several occasions, it seems to be itself imposed of difficult technical research, such as the composition of Quodlibet S ( With work am does not combine less than six topics various writings on the same text by various type-setters).

He wrote several compositions of a single form sometimes called “motet free”, combining the subtle elegance of the Italian popular songs and the contrapuntic technique of the Flemish musicians. Some associate texts of various origins, for example a paradoxical Sile fragor which combines to a supplication in Très Marie Blessed Virgin with a drinking song in the honor of Bacchus. Its choice of profane texts is often disrespectful and suggestive.

We are about Saint Babouyn
Chanson has cappella with four votes (babouyn = stupid) Its songs are its most characteristic compositions and several specialists in the music of the Rebirth regard them as the best share of its work. They are for three or four votes, and can be classified in three groups:

light parts with four votes has cappella, of italianizing style, very close to the frottole, with a syllabic and homophonic text and frequent rates;
works with three votes of Burgundian style evoking the music of Guillaume Dufay;
“songs-motets” resembling more the medieval motet that with any other form.

In these works, the lowest voice in general sings a slow Latin cantus-firmus whereas the higher voices sing parts more animated in French.

Many its works were printed in Venice by Ottaviano Petrucci and largely diffused. Obviously, their publication contributed to their popularity. Comp2ere was one of the first musicians to be profited from the technical projection major which the impression represented, which supported in an extraordinary way the diffusion of works of the free-Flemish School in all Europe of the Rebirth.

Comp2ere wrote several musics for the Magnificat (the anthem of praise sung by the Virgin Mary it is question in the Gospel of Saint-Luc) just as many small motets.

To listen

List works

Masses and fragments

Cycles of motets

1. Ave Dominates Jesu Christe (Missa of D.N.J.C) (includes/understands: Ave Dominates Jesu Christe, in loco Introitus; Ave Dominates Jesu Christe, in loco Gloria; Ave Dominates Jesu Christe, in loco Credo; Ave Dominates Jesu Christe, in loco Offertorii; Salvo, salvator mundi, in loco Sanctus; Adoramus you, Christe, in loco Elevationem; Parce, Dominates, in loco Agnus; Da pacem, Dominates, in loco Deo Gratias).

2. Hodie nobis of virgine (Missa in Nativitate Deus Noster Jesu Christe) (includes/understands: Hodie nobis of Virgine, in loco Introitus; Beata Dei Genetrix Maria, in loco Gloria; Hodie nobis Christus natus is, in loco Credo; Genuit will puerpera Regem, in loco Offertorii; Sanctum - Verbum caro factum is; Memorandum, salutis auctor, post Elevationem; Quem vidistis, pastores? In loco Agnus; O admirabile commercium, in loco Deo gratias).

3. Missa Galeazescha (Missa de Beata Maria Virgine) (includes/understands: Ave virgo gloriosa, in loco Introitus; Ave, salus infirmorum, in loco Gloria; Ave, disappointed Virginal, in loco Creed; Ave, sponsa verbi summi, in loco Offertorii; O Maria, in loco Sanctus; Adoramus you, Christe, in loco Elevationem; Salvo, MATER salvatoris, in loco Agnus; Virginis Mariae laudes, in loco Deo Gratias).

Magnificats

Loyset Compère wrote several Magnificat:

Motets

Motets-songs

Songs with three votes

Songs

Frottole

One knows of Loyset Compère only two frottoles:

Works of doubtful attribution

Random links: