Nicolas Gombert facts for kids

Nicolas Gombert (born around 1495 – died around 1560) was a famous Franco-Flemish composer from the Renaissance period. He was one of the most important musicians between Josquin des Prez and Palestrina. Gombert's music shows the fully developed and complex style of polyphony (music with many independent voice parts) that was popular at that time.

His Life Story

Details about Gombert's early life are not very clear. He was likely born around 1495 in southern Flanders, possibly near the towns of Lille or Saint-Omer. A German writer and music expert named Hermann Finck said that Gombert studied with the famous composer Josquin des Prez. This would have been when Josquin was retired, between 1515 and 1521.

Working for the Emperor

In 1526, Gombert started working for Emperor Charles V as a singer in his royal chapel. He might have also been a composer for the emperor. Charles V traveled a lot, and he took his musicians with him, often picking up new members along the way. In 1529, a document mentioned Gombert as the magister puerorum, which means "master of the boys" for the royal chapel.

Gombert and the singers traveled with the emperor across his lands. Their visits were very important for music, partly because Gombert was such a respected musician. These travels helped spread the Franco-Flemish polyphonic music style to places like Spain.

Later Years and Challenges

Sometime in the 1530s, Gombert became a cleric, likely a priest. He received special church positions in several cathedrals. He stayed as the "master of the children" in the Imperial chapel until about 1537 or 1540. Even though he held this important role, he never officially became the main music director, a title given to others like Adrien Thibaut and Thomas Crecquillon. However, he unofficially worked as the court composer, writing many pieces for important events in Charles V's life.

Around 1540, at the peak of his career, Gombert disappeared from the chapel records. He faced a serious personal problem and had to leave his position. He was able to keep composing music during this difficult time. It is believed he was pardoned around 1547. He even sent a letter and a musical piece (a motet) to Charles V's general, Ferrante I Gonzaga.

A Possible Pardon

Some stories say that Gombert's beautiful Magnificat musical settings helped him get pardoned early. The story goes that Charles V was so moved by these pieces that he let Gombert go free. However, it's not clear how Gombert managed to compose while facing such difficulties.

We don't know how long Gombert lived after his pardon or what jobs he held. His career became less known after he was freed. He might have retired to Tournai and spent his last years there. He likely died between 1556 and 1561.

His Music and Style

Adrian Willaert and Nicolas Gombert are seen as the best examples of the late Franco-Flemish music style. This was before the main center for Renaissance music moved to Italy. Gombert, like Willaert, perfected the polyphonic style. If using imitation (where one voice copies another) was common for Josquin, it was a key part of Gombert's music.

Key Features of His Music

Gombert's style is known for its thick and complex polyphony. He rarely used simple, homophonic (all voices moving together) parts in his religious music. He especially liked to use imitation where voices copied each other very quickly, which is technically difficult.

He often preferred lower voice ranges and used more than the common four voices (soprano, alto, tenor, bass), sometimes using five or six parts, mostly for male voices. Unlike his teacher Josquin, Gombert used different numbers of voices entering at various times. This made his music sound very smooth and continuous, without clear breaks. His music also had many syncopations and cross-accents, which gave it a lively rhythm.

Harmony and Dissonance

In terms of harmony, Gombert's music followed traditional church modes. However, in his thick textures with six or more voices, he sometimes created sections where different groups of voices would sing slightly different versions of the same notes. This created interesting sounds, sometimes even sounding like a major and minor chord at the same time. He often used musica ficta, which means singers would slightly change notes to make the music sound better or more connected.

Gombert also used false relations, which are slight clashes between notes (like an F and an F-sharp). He used these dissonances to create emotional effects while still following the rules of counterpoint. A good example is his six-voice motet Musae Jovis, written for Josquin's death, which has clashing notes.

Masses and Motets

Gombert composed ten masses, and nine of them still exist today. We don't know the exact order in which he wrote them, but experts can guess based on their style. His earlier masses, like Quam pulchra es and Tempore paschali, used musical ideas like repetition and ostinato (a repeated musical phrase) that were rare in his later works.

The motet was Gombert's favorite type of music. His motets were very influential and showed a wide range of compositional techniques. Unlike earlier motet composers, Gombert rarely used things like repeated melodies or double texts. He often found inspiration for his motet texts from the Psalms in the Bible, rather than from church services. He focused more on the overall sound and expression than on making every word perfectly clear.

Magnificats and Large Ensembles

Gombert's eight settings of the Magnificat are among his most famous works. These are the pieces that might have helped him get pardoned. Each Magnificat is written in one of the church modes and is a series of short motets, with each one based on a different verse of the Magnificat text.

Some of Gombert's pieces were written for unusually large groups of singers, with 8, 10, or even 12 voices. These works were not like the Venetian School where voices were separated in space. Instead, Gombert constantly changed the combinations of voice groups within the pieces. These large works include an eight-voice Credo and 10- and 12-voice settings of the Regina caeli.

Secular Music

His secular (non-religious) compositions, mostly chansons (French songs), were less complex than his motets and masses. However, they were still more complex than most other secular pieces of his time. Many of these chansons were mistakenly credited to other composers named Nicolas. Gombert often used older, folk-like poems for his chansons, which were usually about sad love, goodbyes, or separations. These chansons were very popular and were even arranged for instruments like the lute and vihuela.

What Survives

Today, we have about 10 masses, 140 motets, 70 chansons, one canción (a Spanish song), one madrigal, and a few instrumental pieces by Nicolas Gombert.

His Influence

Gombert was one of the most respected composers in Europe after Josquin des Prez died. His music was widely spread, and other composers, like Roland de Lassus and Claudio Monteverdi, used his music as inspiration. Music printers paid special attention to him, even publishing entire books of only his works, which was unusual at the time.

Even though his contemporaries admired him, the next generation of Franco-Flemish composers often wrote in a simpler style. This was partly a natural change in music, as the complex counterpoint style had reached its peak. It was also partly due to new rules from the Council of Trent, which wanted the words in sacred music to be easier to understand. This was very hard to do with Gombert's dense, imitative style.

While later composers didn't continue Gombert's style for vocal music, they did use his complex counterpoint in instrumental works. Forms like the canzona and ricercar came directly from Gombert's vocal style. Later Baroque forms, like the fugue, also have roots in his music. Gombert's music represents some of the most complex vocal music ever created.

Recordings

• Nicolas Gombert, Music from the Court of Charles V, Huelgas Ensemble, Sony Vivarte SK 48249
• Nicolas Gombert, Missa media vita, etc., Hilliard Ensemble, ECM New Series 1884 [1]
• Nicolas Gombert, Gombert: Motets, Beauty Farm, Fra Bernardo FB 1504211 [2]
• Nicolas Gombert, Gombert: Motets II, Beauty Farm, Fra Bernardo FB 1612457
• Nicolas Gombert, Gombert: Masses, a la Coronatione, Media Vita, Philomena Previa, Beati Omnes. Motets, Media Vita, Beati omnes. Beauty Farm, Fra Bernado FB 2005329
• Nicolas Gombert, Magnificat 1, etc., Oxford Camerata, Naxos 8.557732
• Nicolas Gombert, Magnificats 1–4, Tallis Scholars, CD Gimell CDGIM 037 [3]
• Nicolas Gombert, Magnificats 5–8, Tallis Scholars, CD Gimell CDGIM 038
• Nicolas Gombert, Eight-part Credo, etc., Henry's Eight: Hyperion CDA 66828
• Nicolas Gombert, Missa Tempore paschali, etc., Henry's Eight, Hyperion CDA 66943
• Heavenly Spheres, CBC Records, MVCD 1121, sung by Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal. Contains two motets by Gombert, including his elegy for Josquin, Musae Jovis.
• Flemish Masters, Virginia Arts Recordings, VA-04413, performed by Zephyrus. Includes Gombert's motet, Lugebat David Absalon, the Obrecht Missa Sub tuum presidium, as well as motets by Willaert, Clemens non Papa, Ockeghem, Des Prez, and Mouton.
• Christmas to Candlemas, Ensemble Gombert, Tall Poppies TP192. Includes Gombert's motet "Hodie nobis caelorum" and seasonal works by Mouton, Josquin, de Silva, Clemens non Papa, Tallis, Victoria, Lassus, Sheppard and Palestrina.
• Josquin to Martin, Ensemble Gombert, Move Records MCD 277. Includes Gombert's motet "Regina caeli laaetare" and works by Josquin, de Monte, Byrd, Brahms ("Drei Motetten," op. 110) and Frank Martin (Mass for Double Choir).
• Nicolas Gombert, Nicolas Gombert 1, The Sound and the Fury, ORF CD 463. Includes Missa Quam Pulchra Es, Ave Maria, Salve Maria, Sancta Maria, Da Pacem, Inviolata.
• Nicolas Gombert, Nicolas Gombert 2, The Sound and the Fury, ORF SACD 3006. Includes Missa Sur Tous Regrets, Si Ignoras Te, Homo Erat in Jerusalem, Sancta Mundi, Ave Salus Mundi, Emendemus, Ne Reminiscaris Domine, Salvator Mundi.
• Nicolas Gombert, Nicolas Gombert 3, The Sound and the Fury, ORF CD 3077. Includes twelve motets.
• Nicolas Gombert, Tribulatio et angustia, Brabant Ensemble, Stephen Rice, Hyperion CDA67614
• Nicolas Gombert, Motets, Chansons, and a Magnificat, Capella Alamire, Urquhart, Naxos 8.570180
• Listen to free recordings of songs from Umeå Akademiska Kör.

See also

In Spanish: Nicolas Gombert para niños