João Gomes

Was born in Veiros, 1570 and died in Vila Viçosa, 3 November 1643. According to Barbosa Machado he was a pupil of António Ferro at Portalegre and died in 1653 at Vila Viçosa, where he was treasurer of the ducal chapel. However, the parish register from Vila Viçosa,Livro dos óbitos da Matriz, xi) documents the death on 3 November 1643 of ‘P. João Gomes tizoreyro da capella, está enterrado em São Paulo’. In the Mercês de D. Teodósio II Gomes is described as ‘chaplain and singer’ at the ducal court, receiving payments between 28 August 1594 and 5 February 1616. One of these, for 3000 reis in 1609, was for chançonetas for the previous Christmas, and an entry dated 8 October 1618 refers to his annual salary of 66,000 reis. He may have acted as mestre de capela after the departure of Pinheiro (before 1608) and before Roberto Tornar took up the post in 1616. He is unlikely to have been the ‘cantor contralto’ who served at the royal chapel in Lisbon from 1595 to 1609, though he may possibly have been the ‘portugués contrabajo’ who deputized for the absent ‘bajón’ at the nearby Spanish city of Badajoz at Christmas 1598. A setting of Lumen ad revelationem (dated 1610) shows him to have been at least a competent contrapuntist. Gomes moved to Évora Cathedral, where he rose to the position of treasurer. On the title-page of a manuscript volume of chants edited by him, he is described as having been at Vila Viçosa, where the chants had been sung. A Libera me and several villancicos also survive in Évora, though it is uncertain whether these are by him or by another João Gomes listed as second organist at Évora Cathedral in 1651. A six-part motet ascribed to João Gomes, Subvenite sancti Dei (now lost), was in the library of João IV.

Michael Ryan

Machaut - La Messe de Nostre Dame

Soon on Atrium Musicologicum... #6

Hello to all!
First of all I have to thank the 18.000 visitors so far. That means a lot to me: means that this new endeanvor that I took some years ago is getting usefull to a lot of people all over the world.

I haven't posted much material here since last June. The fact is that I've been with a lot of work in my hands. It doesn't look so good in the near future.

I hope to finish the posting of the articles related to the franco-flemish school (which is almost done) and to pass to Italian composers of the Renaissance (rather than the gigantic Palestrina). I'm also planning to expand the section of Portuguese composers, especially in the Manneirism period.

There is also the Cantigas project, which is more and more away from being realized. Meanwhile , I'm posting a few YouTube videos of works which I consider interesting, mostly from the Middle Ages.

Hope you enjoy
See you soon...

Pérotin - Viderunt Omnes

by the Hilliard Ensemble...

Andreas Pevernage

Was born in Harelbeke, near Kortrijk, 1542/3 and died in Antwerp, 30 July 1591. On 21 January 1563 he was appointed choirmaster of St Salvator, Bruges, and on 22 September of the same year he was named to a similar post at Onze Lieve Vrouwkerk, Kortrijk. He remained in Kortrijk until 1577 although he held a prebend at St Willibrordus in Hulst in 1564. In 1578 Kortrijk fell briefly to Calvinist rule. By the following year Pevernage had secured the position of choirmaster at St Jacob, Bruges. This city too fell to the Calvinists and Catholic services were suppressed there from May 1581 until 1584. On 1 October 1584 he was reappointed to his former position at Kortrijk and less than a year later became choirmaster at Antwerp Cathedral where he remained until his death. [not available online] He was buried by the cathedral’s altar of St Anne. Antwerp archives confirm that Pevernage rebuilt the music library destroyed by the Calvinist rebellion and that he was active in humanist circles surrounding the Plantin press.

Pevernage’s sacred output includes Laudes vespertinae (Antwerp, 1604), a posthumous collection of 14 Marian antiphons and sacrament hymns intended for Antwerp confraternity services, and six masses, also published posthumously. The Cantiones sacrae (1578), a collection of sacred and secular motets, includes 25 occasional works written in honour of such notable contemporaries as Margaret of Parma, Louis de Berlaimont (Archbishop of Cambrai), and seven princes of Kortrijk’s St Cecilia guild. A seven-voice hymn to the patroness of music, O virgo generosa, was reportedly sung at concerts held at the composer’s home.

Pevernage’s four books of chansons include over 100 works that appear to be planned according to the type of text set (whether spiritual or profane), voicing and mode. They are mostly for five voices and set texts by poets such as Clément Marot and Philippe Desportes. The first book (1589) includes an epitaph for Plantin, Pleurez muses, attristez vos chansons, while book 3 includes more madrigalistic chansons characterized by picturesque and dramatic text expression. Pevernage was awarded a stipend of £50 by the city of Antwerp for the publication of book 4 and the volume opens with a musical tribute to the city, Clio, chantons. In addition to his work as a composer, Pevernage also edited the popular and influential anthology Harmonia celeste (1583). The volume includes seven of his own madrigals. Four additional madrigals appear in other Italian music anthologies issued in Antwerp by Phalèse and Bellère.

Wilfried Brennecke