Nicolas Gombert

Born in circa 1495 in Belgium, Nicolas Gombert, of whom there seems to be no verifiable portrait, was another composer of the Dutch or, Franco-Flemish School, which had had its beginnings in Burgundy, France, a generation or so earlier as an expansion of the Burgundian School. Such were not institutions, but geographical areas of prominent musical development and influence. Gombert is supposed to have studied under Renaissance composer, Josquin des Prez. Though he is usually referred to as a Renaissance composer, he began his career only slightly before the sack of Rome in 1527 by Habsburg King of Spain, Germany and Italy, Charles I. This dispute between Charles and the Papacy, into which we'll not delve here, was a fault-line event of major shift in Europe's tectonic plates of power, which is used by scholars to mark the close of Renaissance period at least in Italy, for Charles was insitu to become the better-known Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, whose rise meant the humbling of Papal supremacy in Europe for the last 1500 years. The whole point of Holy Roman Emperors ever since the first, Charlemagne of France as of 800 who likely didn't want the implications of such the title, was alliance with the Papacy south of the Alps toward keeping northern Europe in line with the Pope. Charlemagne's death had seen his territories divided between three sons, leading to both the installment of German kings as Holy Roman Emperors by electors in agreement with the Pope, and a France that would tack its own Catholic path apart from Italy, deepening their national enmity. Charles' sack of Rome was a major shake in the bedrock of Papal power because Holy Roman Emperors were intended to reinforce the wishes of the Papacy, not attack its domains. The long alliance between Holy Roman Emperors and the Papacy would continue. But it was now nigh as if Holy Roman Emperors, who once existed for the sake of the Pope, had traded places such that Popes now existed for the sake of Holy Roman Emperors.

The only real threat that a Habsburg had in Europe was France, for Venice was tied to the Pope. There was, however, one other major antagonism which Holy Roman Emperors had to maneuver. Charles' show in Rome came at the cost of unintentionally assisting in the clearing of the pipes for the oncoming gush of Protestantism originating with the 'Ninety-Five Theses' of Martin Luther in 1517 when Gombert was a young man in his early twenties. Such wasn't love at first sight for a Charles whose Spain was where the Spanish Inquisition had begun in 1478 in league with the Papacy, and would continue throughout Europe including Russia for another three and a half centuries to 1834. The Holy Roman Empire would nevertheless weather Protestant troubles and continue for nigh another three centuries until its defeat by Napoleon at the Battle of Austerlitz in 1806.

Holy Roman Emperor Charles V

Painting by Titian & Sustris   1548

Source: Wikipedia

Gombert was among the more complex of post-Renaissance composers. He was probably writing music by 1525 but little is known of his life as a young man until his hiring by Charles I of Spain as a chapel singer in 1526. In 1529 Gombert became "master of the boys" at Charles' royal chapel. Like many musicians in the employ of aristocrats and royals, Gombert likely accompanied Charles about his territories. His only known visit to Italy is thought to have been per the coronation of Charles as Holy Roman Emperor in 1530. During the thirties Gombert became a cleric and priest, eventually receiving benefices at several cathedrals in Belgium and France. Meanwhile serving Charles in the capacity of a musical director, multiple compositions by Gombert concerned historical moments in Emperor Charles' reign.

Most of Gombert's works were composed in the thirties, though exactly when or where is less known. Stacking below is pseudo-chronological insofar as if a date of composition can't be estimated in my considerable dearth of acquaintance with Gombert, then the earliest-known publishing date is used. With Gombert not only manuscript but publishing dates quite often closely follow the completion of works. Gombert takes a back seat in modern times when it comes to Renaissance composers, some such as Josquin receiving far greater attention. This is perhaps partially due to a melancholy atmosphere in Gombert's works in general, not so invested in the lively as in sophisticated ways to achieve a tumble, such as here and there dividing a choir into oppositional forces a little like the double choirs (split choir) of Willaert separated by space at St. Mark's in Venice, but in only isolated passages within a single choir. Howsoever, the ability to print books of polyphonic scores was three decades along and gaining a more express pace by the time Gombert began composing. His works were intended to be published in a timely manner, more in terms of "hot off the press" than a generation prior when handwritten manuscripts (MSS) were yet the more immediate method of documenting scores.

The medieval world in which everybody took their time napping under trees with empty wine bottles had already disappeared beyond the horizon in Gombert's rearview mirror, for the Renaissance to which Gombert was a late arrival had brought the rush of commerce with it via the hustle and bustle after coin by specialist craftsmen and their guilds, merchants and bankers. This golden Italian period, particularly for Papal powers and such allied, was nevertheless the ignition of commercial pursuits which would eventually come to rival the wealth of both landed aristocrats and the Roman Church not only in Europe, but across the Atlantic. Royal expeditions announcing a New World in the Americas were concurrent with the high Renaissance. The Italian, Christopher Columbus, had beached in the Bahamas for Spain in 1492 perhaps just prior to Gombert's birth. Gombert was likely a young child when in April 1500 Pedro Álvares Cabral claimed Brazil for Portugal, the high Renaissance now in full swing. Portugal and Spain weren't the only to sail full speed ahead after mysteries and spoils across the water. Among explorations for France were those of Italian, Giovanni da Verrazzano, who journeyed the coastline of North America from Newfoundland to Florida on voyages between 1508 to 1528. Gombert might have been in his early twenties when Portuguese sailor, Ferdinand Magellan, left Spain on 20 September 1519 to sail around the world with a crew of 270 men. Heading first for the horn of South America, he left there in November 1520 to arrive in Guam across the Pacific on 6 March 1521. Though Magellan lost his life at the Battle of Mactan in the Philippines on 27 April 1521, the surviving crew of 18 or 19 returned to Spain via India and South Africa on 6 September 1522, Gombert yet an obscure young man.

The discovery of the Americas meant many a drifting day for sailors in no hurry, maybe an entire wasted trip if one more adventurously sank and drowned. But with whole new worlds of endless fruit now for the picking, once exploration showed the way to more targeted bounties, time wasn't to toss in building ships to fill the coffers of Europe's monarchies, being largely in the Habsburg sphere of influence but for ever cantankerous France. Mercantile firms would begin their entry into the sea trade via royal charters in the latter part of Gombert's century. He was probably yet living when Mary I of England, recently married to Philip II of Spain (son of Charles V), granted the joint-stock company, Muskovy Merchants, the right to do business with Russia in 1555. Queen Elizabeth I would join private interests in forming the Eastland Company in 1579 to conduct trade in the Baltic. Whatever partnerships with commercial interests flush with money or ways to get it might arise, bounty via the high seas would remain bounty for royal parties, not the merely rich thus not the foremost, for centuries to come.

Of Gombert's Masses, the earlier are known by their employment of ostinati and sequences largely absent from later works. Ostinati are motifs or phrases that repeat in the same musical voice often in the same pitch. Sequences are motifs or melodic passages that repeat in the same musical voice at a higher or lower pitch. Instances of such are found in 'Quam pulchra es' and 'Tempore paschali'. Gombert's 'Missa Qualm pulchra es' is a parody Mass imitating Noel Bauldeweyn’s four-voice motet to the same text published in 1519. 'Missa Qualm pulchra es' saw print in 1532 in Volume 6 of Pierre Attaingnant's 'Viginti missarum musicalium' (volume 6 of 7 being 'Sextus liber duas missas habet / RISM 15326). Gombert was in his prime of life several years in the service of Charles by then.

Kyrie to 'Missa Quam pulchra es'   Imitative Mass   Nicolas Gombert   Pub in Paris 1532

Stile Antico at St. Martin's Cathedral in Utrecht, Netherlands 2013

'Regina Coeli' ('Queen of Heaven') was one of Gombert's Marian motets, this for twelve voices set to an anonymous antiphon of circa 1200 and used in the Roman liturgy during Easter season. 'Regina Coeli' has been set to music by scores of composers through the centuries. Gombert's version saw print in Paris in Book 12 of Attaingnant's 'Motettorum'.

'Regina Coeli'   Marian motet   Nicolas Gombert   Pub in Paris 1535

Huelgas Ensemble directed by Paul Van Nevel

'Je prens congie de mes amours' ('I take leave of my loves') is a chanson for eight voices to an anonymous text in which Gombert creates opposing forces of dialogue within the choir. Though such something resembles Willaert's Venetian polychorality of separated choirs, Gombert might well have never heard of Willaert whose Venice as an ally of the Papacy wasn't precisely friendly to Charles V. Gombert's styling was probably of Franco-Flemish influence rather than Willaert's. Compositions by Gombert were nevertheless published by multiple Venetian printers. Musicologist, Norbert Böker-Heil, has 'Je prens congie' transcribed into the VerA 218 of the Filarmonica in Venice in 1536, a group which would found the Academia Filharmonica in 1543. 'Je prens congie' would supply the melody to several eight-voice motet contrafacta (altered lyrics applied to the same music such as "row your boat" to "flow your note") including 'Ecce quam bonum', 'Tulerunt Dominum', 'Sustinuimus Pacem', 'Lugebat David Absalon' and three other titles without text. Another of Gombert's eight-voice contrafacta is 'O Jesu Christe' from the canonic 'Qui ne l’amyeroit'. Protestant hymns could use music from Marian motets by method of contrafacta, for example, substituting "Maria" with "O Jesu'.

'Je prens congie de mes amours'   Chanson intended a 8   Nicolas Gombert   Pub in Venice 1536

Huelgas Ensemble directed by Paul Van Nevel

'Levavi oculos meos' is a motet for 4 voices using text from 'Psalm 121' ('Psalm 120' Latin Vulgate). This saw inclusion in the D-Bga MS XX. HA StUB Königsberg Nr. 7 partbook compiled from 1537 to 1540 for the court of Duke Albert of Prussia in Königsberg. Partbooks differ from choirbooks in manuscripts or print in that they notate only such as one voice of a choir rather than all. 'Levavi oculos meos' was also published in Venice in 1539 in the first edition of a collection of Gombert's motets called 'Musica quatuor vocum' printed by Girolamo Scotto.

'Levavi oculos meos'   Motet intended a 4   Nicolas Gombert   Pub in Venice 1539

MS: 'D-Bga MS XX. HA StUB Königsberg Nr. 7' partbook compiled 1537 to 1540

The Laudantes Consort

Gombert's motet, 'Media vita in morte sumus' ('In the midst of life we be in death') for 6 voices is a setting for text written by Benedictine, Notker of St. Gall, who died in 912 [CPDL / Wikipedia]. It was also published in Venice in 1539 per Antonio Gardano's 'Motetti del frutto a sei voci'. This was also transcribed at an unknown time into Volume 4 of the 'I-Fn MS Magl. XIX.125bis' partbook originally compiled in Florence from 1530 to 1534. 'Media vita in morte sumus' was parodied in Gombert's five-voice 'Missa Media vita' published in Scotto's 'Sex missae cum quinque vocibus' of 1542. Scotto and Gardano were the main music publishers in Venice during Gombert's period.

'Media vita in morte sumus'   Motet intended a 6   Nicolas Gombert   Pub in Venice 1539

MS: Added on unidentified date to Vol 4 of 'I-Fn MS Magl. XIX.125bis' originally compiled 1530-34

Imitated in 'Missa Media vita' a 5 pub by Scotto in 1542

Oxford Camerata directed by Jeremy Summerly

Gombert's 'Quam pulchra es et quam decora carissima' ('How beautiful you are and how lovely') is a Marian motet a 5 setting for 'Song of Solomon 7:6–8'. This was copied into the D-Mbs Mus. MS 1516 [Discantus] in Augsburg, Germany, circa 1540 [CMME / DIAMM].

'Quam pulchra es et quam decora carissima'   Marian motet intended a 5   Nicolas Gombert

MS: Included in the 'D-Mbs Mus. MS 1516 [Discantus]' partbook circa 1540

Capella Mariana

Another title published in 1540 was Gombert's chanson, 'Mille regretz de vous abandonner' ('A thousand regrets of abandoning you'), an arrangement a 6 of Josquin's eponymous motet a 4 composed in 1520 and published posthumously in Paris in Pierre Attaingnant's 'Chansons musicales a quatre parties' in 1533. 'Mille regretz' is said to have been one of Charles' favorite songs, Gombert's version composed perhaps in Spain and published in Augsburg in Sigmund Salminger's 'Selectissimae necnon familiarissimae cantiones'. The text of 'Mille regretz' is attributed by various to possibly Jean Lemaire de Belges (c 1473-c 1525).

'Mille regretz de vous abandonner'   Madrigal intended a 6   Nicolas Gombert

Text poss by Jean Lemaire de Belges   Published in Paris 1540  

Stile Antico

'Musea Jovis ter maximi' is a lament a 6 addressing Josquin who died on 27 August 1521. Style, however, has this tribute composed sometime in the thirties [Hyperion] and it wasn't published until 1545 in Antwerp, Belgium, in Tielman Susato's 'Septiesme livre contenant vingt-quatre chansons a cinq et six parties'. Text for 'Musea Jovis' was likely authored by Gerard Avidius.

'Musea Jovis ter maximi'   Lament for Josquin des Prez intended a 6   Nicolas Gombert

Text prob by Gerard Avidius   Published in Antwerp 1545

The Laudantes Consort

It is thought that in 1540 Gombert was sentenced to the galleys (aboard ship) for queer behavior with a youth. He was in some manner able to continue composing while serving his term on sea or land until pardoned by Charles in 1547 at latest. It has been suggested that Gombert may have completed at least a couple Magnificats during this period which earned him early release. Howsoever, 'In te Domine speravi' ('In You, Lord, I Put My Trust') is a responsory motet possibly composed at least in part during incarceration if not smuggled out for publishing in Tomus 4 of Johann vom Berg's 1546 'Psalmorum selectorum'. The text for 'In te Domine speravi' is from 'Psalm 30:1-6' of the Latin Vulgate. There is no history of Gombert following his release from hard labor or prison, though he likely lived at least another decade, perhaps as a canon in Tournai, Belgium [George Nugent/ Eric Jas / Grove Music Online].

'In te Domine speravi'   Responsory motet intended a 6   Nicolas Gombert   Pub 1546

Huelgas Ensemble directed by Paul Van Nevel

As mentioned above, Gombert's 'Tulerunt Dominum meum' ('They have taken away my Lord') is a contrafactum of 'Je prens congie de mes amours' published in 1536. Text for this version of the melody is from 'John 20:13' ('Mark 16') and given a date of 1552 by authors at Wikipedia. It is found in MS in various partbooks perhaps all posthumously.

'Tulerunt Dominum meum'   Responsory motet intended a 8   Nicolas Gombert   1552?

Contrafactum of 'Je prens congie' (pub 1536)

Stile Antico at the Rheinvokal Festival in Germany 23 Aug 2014

Gombert composed eight Magnificats in eight modes. The Magnificat is a Vespers canticle (evening canticle) w text from the gospel of 'Luke'. Gombert wrote his for 4 to 6 voices at an unknown time toward publishing in Cambrai, France, in Robert Quercentius' 'Canticum beatae Mariae virginis deiparae' of 1552 consisting of all eight tones. Gombert's Magnificats are among his most esteemed compositions and are very likely latter works, indeed, considered his "swan songs" by general consent if not because they actually were, but as a crowning achievement collected all together.

'Magnificat Primi toni'   Evening canticle intended a 4-6   Nicolas Gombert   Pub 1552

Stile Antico at St. Martin's Cathedral in Utrecht, Netherlands 2013

Gombert is thought to have died between 1556 and 1561, among his legacy being some instrumentals, 8 settings of the Magnificat, 10 Masses, 159 motets, 41 chansons, an Italian madrigal and a Spanish canción.