Editing Loyset Compère

{{Short description|Franco-Flemish Renaissance composer}}
{{Other uses|Compere (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}
[[Image:Manuscript of Omnium bonorum plena.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Manuscript of ''Omnium bonorum plena'', a motet by Compère, and possibly his earliest surviving work; the exact date is uncertain, but it was possibly written for the dedication of Cambrai Cathedral on 2 July 1472.]]

'''Loyset Compère''' ({{circa|1445}} – 16 August 1518) was a [[Franco-Flemish School|Franco-Flemish]] [[composer]] of the [[Renaissance music|Renaissance]]. Of the same generation as [[Josquin des Prez]], he was one of the most significant composers of [[motet]]s and [[chanson]]s of that era, and one of the first musicians to bring the light Italianate Renaissance style to France.

==Life==

His exact place of birth is not known, but documents of the time assign him to a family from the province of [[Artois]] (in modern France), and suggest he may have been born in [[County of Hainaut|Hainaut]] (in modern [[Belgium]]). At least one source from [[Milan]] indicates he described himself as coming from [[Arras]], also in Artois. Both the date and probable place of birth are extremely close to those of Josquin des Prez; indeed the area around the current French-Belgian border produced an astonishing number of excellent composers in the 15th and 16th centuries, composers whose fame spread throughout Europe. Often these composers are known as the Franco-Flemish or [[Netherlandish School]]).

In the 1470s Compère worked as a singer in [[Milan]] at the chapel of Duke [[Galeazzo Maria Sforza]], during the time that composers such as [[Johannes Martini]] and [[Gaspar van Weerbeke]] were also singing there. The chapel choir in the early 1470s grew into one of the largest and most famous singing ensembles in Europe. After the murder of the duke in 1476, Compère appears to have been "laid off" from the chapel, and he may have returned to France at this time.  Sometime during the next ten years he began to work at the French court, and he accompanied [[Charles VIII of France|Charles VIII]] on his invasion of Italy in 1494 (in what capacity is not known). He was in [[Rome]] in early 1495 during the occupation of the city by Charles and his army.

Next he had a series of church positions. By 1498 Compère was at [[Cambrai]], and from 1500 to around 1504 he was at [[Douai]]; his final appointment was at the [[collegiate church of Saint-Quentin]].  Throughout this time he seems to have been in part-time service to the French court, as evidenced by his many compositions for official and ceremonial occasions. He died at Saint-Quentin.

==Works==

Unlike his contemporaries, Compère seems to have written few [[mass (music)|masses]] (at least very few survive). By temperament he seems to have been a miniaturist, and his most popular and numerous works were in the shorter forms of the day—primarily [[chanson]]s and [[motet]]s. Two stylistic trends are evident in his music:  the style of the [[Burgundian School]], which he seems to have learned in his early career before coming to Italy, and the lighter style of the Italian composers current at the time, who were writing [[frottola]]s (the light and popular predecessor to the [[madrigal (music)|madrigal]]). Compère had a gift for melody, and many of his chansons became popular; later composers used several as [[cantus firmus|cantus firmi]] for masses. Occasionally he seems to have given himself a formidable technical challenge and set out to solve it, such as writing [[quodlibet]]s (an example is ''Au travail suis'', which combines no less than six different tunes written to the same text by different composers).

Compère wrote several works in a unique form, sometimes called a free motet, which combines some of the light elegance of the Italian popular song of the time with the [[counterpoint|contrapuntal]] technique of the Netherlanders. Some mix texts from different sources, for instance a rather paradoxical ''Sile fragor'' which combines a supplication to the [[Blessed Virgin Mary|Virgin Mary]] with a drinking song dedicated to [[Dionysus|Bacchus]]. His choice of secular texts tended towards the irreverent and suggestive.

His chansons are his most characteristic compositions, and many scholars of Renaissance music consider them to be his best work.  They are for three or four voices, and are in three general categories: Italianate, light works for four [[a cappella]] voices, very much like frottolas, with text set syllabically and often [[homophony|homophonically]], and having frequent cadences; three-voice works in the Burgundian style, rather like the music of [[Guillaume Dufay|Dufay]]; and three-voice [[motet-chanson]]s, which resemble the [[Medieval music|medieval]] motet more than anything else. In these works the lowest voice usually sings a slow-moving cantus firmus with a [[Latin]] text, usually from chant, while the upper voices sing more animated parts, in French, on a secular text.

Many of Compère's compositions were printed by [[Ottaviano Petrucci]] in [[Venice]], and disseminated widely; obviously their availability contributed to their popularity. Compère was one of the first composers to benefit from the new technology of [[printing]], which had a profound impact on the spread of the Franco-Flemish musical style throughout Europe.

Compère also wrote several settings of the [[Magnificat]] (the hymn of praise to the Virgin Mary, from the first chapter of the [[Gospel of Luke]]), as well as numerous short motets.

==Works list==

===Masses and mass fragments===

# Missa alles regretz;
# Missa de tous bien plaine; based on the [[chanson]] by [[Hayne van Ghizeghem]]. The partial manuscript was lost in Berlin during WWII and rediscovered in the early 1990s in Kraków. This allowed identification of sources of the complete mass in medieval copies found in choirbooks in [[Cividale del Friuli|Cividale]] and [[Dresden]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Steib |first=Murray |date=1993 |title=Loyset Compère and His Recently Rediscovered Missa De tous biens plaine |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/764021 |journal=The Journal of Musicology |volume=11 |issue=4 |pages=437–454 |doi=10.2307/764021 |jstor=764021 |issn=0277-9269|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
# Missa l'homme armé;
# Kyrie et Gloria sine nomine;
# Credo 'Mon pére';
# Credo sine nomine.

===Motet cycles (substitution masses)===

These are cycles of motets, in which each motet is to be sung in place of a section of the mass ordinary or one of the Proper chants. In the list, the motet is given along with the name of the Proper chant or mass ordinary section:

1. ''Ave Domine Jesu Christe'' (Missa de D.N.J.C). Ave Domine Jesu Christe (Introit); Ave Domine Jesu Christe (Gloria); Ave Domine Jesu Christe, (Credo); Ave Domine Jesu Christe (Offertory); Salve, salvator mundi (Sanctus); Adoramus te, Christe (Elevation); Parce, Domine (Agnus dei); Da pacem, Domine (Deo Gratias). <!--finish formatting and translating after this point-->

2. ''Hodie nobis de virgine''(Missa in Nativitate Deus Noster Jesu Christe). Hodie nobis de Virgine (Introit); Beata Dei Genitrix Maria (Gloria); Hodie nobis Christus natus est (Credo); Genuit puerpera Regem (Offertory); Verbum caro factum est (Sanctus); Memento, salutis auctor (Elevation); Quem vidistis, pastores (Agnus dei); O admirabile commercium (Deo Gratias).

3. ''Missa Galeazescha'' (Missa de Beata Maria Virgine); Ave virgo gloriosa (Introit); Ave, salus infirmorum (Gloria); Ave, decus Virginale (Credo); Ave, sponsa verbi summi (Offertorii); O Maria (Sanctus); Adoramus te, Christe (Elevation); Salve, mater salvatoris (Agnus dei); Virginis Mariae laudes (Deo Gratias).

===Magnificats===

# Magnificat I toni;
# Magnificat IV toni (''Esurientes'' only);
# Magnificat VI toni (I);
# Magnificat VI toni (II);
# Magnificat VII toni;
# Magnificat VIII toni (''Esurientes'' only).

===Motets===

# Ad honorum tuum Christe;
# Asperges me Domine;
# Ave Maria, gratia plena;
# Crux triumphans;
# Gaude prole regia / Sancta Catharina (1501);
# O admirabile commercium;
# Officium de cruce (In nomine Jesu);
# O genitrix gloriosa;
# Omnium bonorum plena (before 1474, possibly for the dedication of [[Cambrai Cathedral]] on 5 July 1472);
# Paranymphus salutat virginem;
# Profitentes unitatem;
# Propter gravamen;
# Quis numerare queat / Da pacem (probably composed either on the occasion of the Peace of Etaples, 3 November 1492, or for the treaty between Pope Alexander VI and Charles VIII on 15 January 1495)
# Sile fragor;
# Sola caret monstris / Fera pessima (1507);
# Virgo caelesti.

===Motets-Chansons===

# Le corps / Corpusque meum;
# Male bouche / Circumdederunt me;
# Plaine d'ennuy / Anima mea;
# Tant ay d'ennuy / O vos omnes (=O devotz cueurs /O vos omnes).

===Chansons à trois voix===
# A qui diraige ma pensée;
# Au travail suis;
# Beaulté d' amours;
# Bergeronette savoysienne;
# Chanter ne puis;
# Des trois la plus;
# Dictes moy toutes;
# Discant adieu a madame (I);
# En attendant;
# Faisons boutons (Text: Jean II);
# Guerisses moy;
# La saison en est;
# Le grant dèsir d'aymer;
# Le renvoy;
# Mes pensées;
# Ne doibt on prendre (poem by [[John II, Duke of Bourbon]] ([[contrafactum]] on the piece by [[Costanzo Festa]] on the poem ''Venite amanti'' by [[Poliziano]]));
# Ne vous hastez pas (=Adieu a madame (II).);
# Pensant au bien;
# Pleut or a Dieu;
# Pour estre ou nombre;
# Puis que si bien;
# Reveille toy franc cueur;
# Se j'ay parlé (texte: [[Henry Baude]]);
# Se mieulx ne vient (adaptation d'une chanson de [[P. Convert]]);
# Se pis ne vient;
# Seray je vostre mieulx amée (not present in the complete works of Compère in Fallow's edition)
# Sourdes regrets;
# Tant ha bon oeul;
# Tout mal me vient;
# Va-t-en regret (poem by John II, Duke of Bourbon);
# Venes regrets;
# Vive le noble roy de France;
# Vous me faittes morir d'envie (poem by John II, Duke of Bourbon).

===Chansons===

# ''Alons fere nos barbes'' (possibly apocryphal);
# ''De les mon getes'' = Voles oir une chanson);
# ''Et dont revenes-vous'';
# ''Gentil patron'';
# ''J'ay un syon sur la porte'';
# ''Je suis amie d'un fourrier'';
# ''L'aultre jour me chevauchoye'';
# ''Mon pére m'a donné mari'';
# ''Nous sommes de l'ordre de St Babouin'';
# ''Royne du ciel'';
# ''Une plaisante fillette'';
# ''Un franc archier'';
# ''Vostre bargeronette''.

===Frottole===

# ''Che fa la ramacina'';
# ''Scaramella fa la galla''.

===Attributed or doubtful works===

# ''Ave regina, cælorum'' (anonymous, but attributed to Compère);
# ''Cayphas'' (attributed to both [[Johannes Martini]] and Compère);
# ''Lourdault lourdault garde que tu feras'' (attributed to both Compère and [[Ninot le Petit]]; scholarly consensus currently favoring Compère);
# ''Mais que ce fust'' (attributed to both Compère and [[Pietrequin Bonnel]]);
# ''O post partum munda'' (anonymous, attributed to Compère);
# ''Sanctus - O sapientia'' (doubtful due to stylistic reasons);
# ''Se non dormi dona'' (anonymous, attributed to Compère);
# ''Se (Si) vous voulez que je vous face'' (anonymous but in Compère's style);
# ''Vray dieu quel payne'' (multiple attributions, including [[Gaspar van Weerbeke]], [[Jean Japart]], and [[Matthaeus Pipelare]]).

==Recording==
*1993 - The Orlando Consort, "Loyset Compère", Metronome.
*1997 - Virelai. "Renaissance Love Songs". BBC Music Magazine, Volume 5 No. 6, February 1997 (free audio CD). Contains a recording of ''Le grant desir'' performed by Virelai and [[Catherine Bott]].
*2002 - [[Johannes Prioris|Prioris]]: Requiem. Eufoda 1349. Contains a recording of ''O vos omnes''.
*2017 - Odhecaton, "Missa Galeazescha. Music for the duke of Milan", Out There Music.

== References ==
{{reflist}}
* [[Gustave Reese]], ''Music in the Renaissance''. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1954. {{ISBN|0-393-09530-4}}
* Article "Loyset Compère," in ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. {{ISBN|1-56159-174-2}}
* [[Ludwig Finscher]], "Loyset Compère, c. 1450-1518: life and works".  Rome: [[American Institute of Musicology]]: Musicological studies and documents 12. 1964
* [[Ludwig Finscher]] (edit.), "Loyset Compère: Opera Omnia".  [[American Institute of Musicology]]. 1958

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* {{IMSLP|Compère, Loyset|Loyset Compère}}
* ''O bone Jesu'': [http://classicaland.com/fma.asp sheet music] transcription by Alessandro Simonetto
* {{ChoralWiki}}

{{Franco-Flemish School}}
{{Renaissance music}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Compere, Loyset}}
[[Category:1440s births]]
[[Category:1518 deaths]]
[[Category:15th-century Franco-Flemish composers]]
[[Category:Classical composers]]
[[Category:Male classical composers]]

[[Category:Renaissance composers]]
[[Category:16th-century Franco-Flemish composers]]
[[Category:Year of birth uncertain]]