HISTORY OF WESTERN MUSIC

YEAR 1 DIPLOMA OF MUSIC2022

NAME: OTTAH CHUKWUEMEKE ELISHA.

TOPIC: A RENAISSANCE COMPOSER ; JEAN DE OCKEGHEM, HIS

LIFE, WORKS, MUSICAL STLYE AND INFLUENCE

PRESENTED TO: DR MRS GRACE TALABI

Jean de Ockeghem (Johannes Ockeghem) ( ca 1420-1497)
Johannes Ockeghem was born in saint Ghislaine, Burgundian, Netherlands on ca. 1420.He is regarded as
one of the most prominent composer of the Franco Flemish school in Europe and a great composer in
central Europe. He was one of the masters of Franco Flemish style that dominated European music of
the Renaissance. He was not only a composer but he was also known for his fine bass voice and he
served along side with singers like Jean Cousin at the court of Charles I, Duke of Bourbon in moulins ,
now know as central France.

He was well known among leading composers of the time and served in Royal court under Charles VII,
LOUIS XI and Charles VIII.

He was perhaps a mentor of many composers of the next generation as numerous poets and musicians
lamented over Okeghem's death like Erasmus, Guillaume Cretin , Jean Molinet and Josquin , who wrote
a well known heart felt lament on his death titled **Nymphes des bois.

LIFE; Early life and background.

Though details of Ockeghem's early life are missing, he was born in Wallow city saint Ghislain,
Netherlands (now Belgium). His birthdate is unknown but research shows its between 1410- 1430. Like
many other composers he started music as a chorister. The first actual record of Ockeghem is from
Onze- Lieve- Vrouwe cathedral in Antwerp where is was employed in June 1443 as a "Left hand singer"
probably under the direction of Johannes Pullois. It is likely from this church that Ockeghem music
continues in the style of previous generation. Perhaps his long service in encouraged the development
of of an individual idiom.

As treasurer of the wealthy Abbey of Saint-Martin at Tours, he received a handsome salary. Like many of
his Flemish contemporaries he traveled widely and used his visits to distant cities to extend his musical
knowledge. As a teacher he had great influence on the following generation of composers. His death
was mourned in writing by Desiderius Erasmus, whose text was set to music by Johannes Lupi;
a Déploration by Molinet was set by Josquin des Prez.

Major Works:
Masses and Requiem Mass

Missa sine nomine a 3 (doubtful attribution)

Missa sine nomine a 5 (incomplete: only Kyrie, Gloria and Credo exist)
Missa Au travail suis a 4

Missa Caput

Missa cuiusvis tonl

Missa De plus en plus

Missa Ecce ancilla Domini

Missa Fors seulement a 5 (has not survived complete: only Kyrie, Gloria and Credo remain)

Missa L'homme armé a 4

Missa Ma maistresse (only Kyrie and Gloria extant)

Missa Mi-mi a 4 (also known as the Missa quarti toni)

Missa prolationum a 4 (circa 1470)

Missa quinti toni a 3

Missa pro defunctis (Requiem) a 4 (incomplete, probably composed for the funeral of Charles VII in
1461)

Credo sine nomine (Mass section, also known as Credo "De village")

Motets;
Marian antiphons

Alma Redemptoris Mater

Ave Maria

Salve Regina

Others

Intemerata Dei mater a 5 (possibly written 1487)

Ut heremita solus (possibly intended for instrumental perform

Chansons;
Motet-chanson

Mort tu as navré/Miserere (lamentation on the death of Gilles Binchois, probably written in 1460)

ChansonsTwo voices

O rosa bella (ballata) (Ai lasso mi – John Bedyngham/John Dunstaple?)

Three voices

Aultre Venus estes

Au travail suis (attrib: possibly by Barbingant)

Baisiés moy dont fort

D'ung aultre amer

Fors seulement contre

Fors seulement l'attente

Il ne m'en chault plus

La despourveue et la bannie

L'autre d'antan

Les desléaux ont la saison

Ma bouche rit

Ma maistresse

Prenez sur moi

Presque transi

Quant de vous seul

Qu'es mi vida preguntays

Se vostre cuer eslongne

Tant fuz gentement resjouy

Ung aultre l'a

Three or four voices

J'en ay dueil

Four voices

S'elle m'amera/Petite camusette

HIS MUSICAL STYLE IN COMPOSITION:
MASSES;
Ockeghem's masses, Due Fay's Missa LA face ay pale, are tenor masses, which are based on a single
cantus firmus that is used as the basis for every movement. Example, the Missa De plus end plus takes
as its cantus firmus the tenor part of the the chanson by Binchois with whom Ockeghem may have
studied.

He uses the cantus firmus technique in about half of his masses. Few of his composition are Chanson he
wrote himself which gave birth to the parody mass technique of the 16th century while the remaining
masses seem to have no borrowed Material.

Ockeghem used imitation sparingly though he did exploit a device known as canon, in which new parts
derived from the original one. For example the cannon might tell the second voice to join in with the
same melody starting at certain beats or measure after the original one at the same or different pitch.
The second voice might be inverted in terms of interval but in opposite direction or in a retrograde style.

The Requiem
The Requiem Mass is a Mass sung at a Catholic worship service honoring one who has died. It is often
called the Mass for the Dead. Ockeghem's Missa pro Defunctis is the earliest surviving example of a
polyphonic Requiem Mass. Prior to this Mass, individual sections of the Requiem had been set
polyphonically. For example, if your loved one had died and you wanted a Requiem sung, you could
choose the Kyrie from composer A, the Credo from composer B, the sequence from composer C. With
Ockeghem's Requiem, the entire Mass came from one pen. The composer Guillaume Dufay may have
written an earlier Requiem, but if he did, it has not survived.

Secular songs , Chanson.

Chanson within 1460-1480 shows the use of more imitative counterpoint technique at first between the
superior and the tenor but later among other three parts also.

Most Ockeghem's Chanson made use of traditional formes fixes on courtly poetry.

Some other characteristics of Ockeghem's compositional technique include variation in voices' rhythmic
character so as to maintain their independence.
REFERENCE
Concise history of music.

History of western music. By Hugh .M .Miller and Dale cockrell

Wikipedia

Britannia