Background
Jacobus Clemens non Papa was born in Ypres, Flanders. Nothing is known of his early life, and even the details of the years of his artistic maturity are sketchy.
(Jacobus Clemens (15? 1555) is one of the greatest polypho...)
Jacobus Clemens (15? 1555) is one of the greatest polyphonists of 16th century Flanders. But this CD is more than a CD devoted to Clemens' works. The recording is an integral part of the more broadly-conceived festival Townscape - Scoundscape / Sounds of the city of Louvain from the 16th century, in which attention is primarily focused on Petrus Phalesius, the Louvain music publisher and on musical life in the oldest university town of the Netherlands. Clemens was the composer whose name appeared the most in Phalesius' publications, next to Thomas Crecquillon who was also strongly represented in music published in Louvain. Works by Clemens non Papa are therefore combined with songs by Crecquillon and a selection of the highly varied array of instrumental music that came off Phalesius' presses. This CD offers an image of the colourful supply of polyphonic music that was to be heard both inside and out in Louvain and elsewhere in the Low Countries halfway through the 16th century. The artistic excellence of the Capilla Flamenca in the field of Early Music is undisputed. The four male singers enlarge their quartet according to the needs of the programme with singers, windinstruments, string instruments or an organ. The ensemble integrates music, dance and theatre. The personality of the musicians and the interaction between them creates a polyphonic soundimage in a dynamic way and an authentic interpretation. Capilla Flamenca won the prestigious international award Il Filarmonico for both the high artistic value of their performances and the cultural value of their musicological research. After various activities as accompanist, arranger and producer Joris Verdin now focuses on the organ and the harmonium and has become internationally reputed as a specialist, spanning many musical eras and styles. Jan Van Outryve studied with Toyohiko Satoh and collaborated with a.o. Les Arts Florissants, Il Fondamento and Capilla Flamenca. Van Outryve recorded several cd's with them. La Caccia was founded with the intention to perform music from the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Often their programmes have a special theme. La Caccia works mostly with an alta-capella strength (reed- and brassinstruments) to which sometimes strings and singers are added.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BNDCOC/?tag=2022091-20
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002YLDM8/?tag=2022091-20
Jacobus Clemens non Papa was born in Ypres, Flanders. Nothing is known of his early life, and even the details of the years of his artistic maturity are sketchy.
Nothing is known of his education except that he was trained as a priest, and little is known about his career.
He seems to have spent his early creative years in Paris, where his first works were published, but he returned to the Low Countries in 1540. It is known that he was in Bruges until 1545, where he served as priest and choirmaster of the children at St. Donatien. In subsequent years Clemens was active as a singer and composer at the cathedrals in Antwerp and's Hertogenbosch, at Ypres, and finally at Dixmuide, where he died and was buried.
Clemens published under the name Jacques Clément or Jacobus Clemens until 1546, after which he added the appellation "non Papa" to the Latin form of his name. Why he did this is not known, though scholars have suggested it may have been done so that Clemens might distinguish himself from a priest-poet active in Ypres at the time who bore the same name and called himself Jacobus Papa.
The extant works of Clemens - all works for unaccompanied voices - include 15 Masses, 231 motets, a number of songs in French and in Flemish, and 4 books of Souterliedekens, or "little psalter songs. " These last are simple three-part settings of the Psalms in Flemish that Clemens based on popular melodies of the day. These Psalm settings were intended as devotional pieces for the home, which accounts for their simplicity and easy tunefulness. By contrast, in his Masses and motets, Clemens wrote a rich and varied polyphony, with a seriousness and thoroughness typical of the Renaissance Netherlandish composers.
His motets, in which Clemens shows himself ever responsive to the moods and images of his texts, are especially remarkable for both their clarity and expressive power. Many of his motets are remarkable, as well, for their unusual use of chromaticism, much of it notated in the scores, but more of it, many scholars believe, implied and meant to be added to the music only in its performance by the initiate. His contributions to the genres of the Mass and the motet, in particular, stand as great monuments of the art of polyphony in the Renaissance.
Clemens was an outstanding composer in an epoch that produced many composers of genius. His cappella Masses, motets, and chansons represent high points in the history of Renaissance polyphonic vocal music. His polyphonic settings of the psalms in Dutch known as the Souterliedekens - the most famous.
After Clemens' death, his works were distributed to Germany, France, Spain, and even among various circles in England. The influence of Clemens was especially prominent in Germany.
(Jacobus Clemens (15? 1555) is one of the greatest polypho...)
It is known that he was in Bruges until 1545, where he served as priest and choirmaster of the children at St. Donatien.
