Clemens Non Papa
(ca. 1510-1556/58?)
- led obscure life as church
musician in Netherlands
- nickname distinguishes him
from obscure poet Jacobus Papa who worked in the same city
- extremely prolific composer:
- 15 parody Masses
- Requiem based on Gregorian
melodies
- 15 Magnificats
- over 230 motets (most 4-5
voices)
- 159 Souterliedekens
- about 90 chansons
- exponent of style of pervading
imitation
- extended motets on short
Biblical texts by repeating thematic material, or by writing long ostinati,
chains of melodic sequences
- wide range of styles
- Souterliedekens:
simple; presents folk, popular tunes in middle of 3-voice texture
- motets:
- extremely chromatic;
- departs from diatonic harmonic
style in a handful of these works;
- reveal hidden sympathies
with religious reformers of his time: expressed their unorthodox beliefs
by means of a "secret chromatic art"
- obscure enigmatic practice
accords well with arcane Netherlandish art tendencies
- "world offers two faces:
- one esoteric, full of
significance and profound truth, accessible only to the initiate
- the other exoteric, moving
on a level of common understand, open to the many, the vulgar"-Lowinsky