master of the choirboys in
chapel of Emperor Charles V from 1526-40
Hermann Finck, a German theorist,
wrote that Gombert, a student of Josquin, showed musicians of his time how
to write in new style which avoided pauses and was filled with harmony and
imitation
10 Masses: almost all parodies
of motets or chansons
over 160 motets: majority
for 4-5 voices
around 60 chansons
pervading imitations, long
arching phrases, syncopation keeps motion forward while avoiding metrical
stress, melismas on last stressed syllable of a phrase
little regard for placement
of text accents: preference for musical design
harsh dissonances hallmark
his style: "gritty" quality
Motet
Expurgate vetus
fermentum: Responsory for Easter Sunday
opening point of imitation:
two-motive exposition, one for each half of the opening phrase of text, includes
several appoggiaturas, instances where a suspension sounds simultaneously
with its note of resolution
follows conventional form
for Responsories, ending both partes with same text and music (aBcB), a device
used in other motets, more often in ones based on Biblical texts, rather
than strictly liturgical texts;
eschew scaffolding devices
of cantus firmus and canon
formal procedures typical
for Franco-Flemish composers of post-Josquin generation
Beati omnes:
Psalm 129
no attempt to arrange music
to accommodate text: misaccents; however, form of psalm determines form of
the music
each clause of text is
set to separate phrase of music
in first phrase, point
of imitation is laid out in "classical" manner: successive voices enter with
their significant melodic material after 2-3 bars, sufficient to establish
relationship
no clear-cut cadence separates
second from first phrase: Gombert instead devises a second short motive which
serves as transition; overlaps
no full cadence brings
motion to halt at end of the second phrase
emphasises text relationship
by changing texture
in general, no clearly demarcated
points of articulation
texture changes in relationship
with text: some points need abundant time to state material, while others
are extremely compressed
some points of imitation
exact; in others, only initial characteristic interval or general shape provides
unity
order of entries nor time
interval between statements of theme is ever fixed
texture and layout arranged
in infinite number of ways
complex polyhony relieved
by homophony which give emphasis to individual words and phrases
music of 2nd-Generation seldom
dramatic
many motives of different
compositions bear general "family resemblance" to one another
lack of invention a result
of intention to maintain unity
Josquin's ideal of clarity,
elegance, balance and symmetry replaced by desire to create continuous
placid flow of sound, not well articulated formally but unified by technique
of imitation
