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Born for the muses : the life and Masses of Jacob Obrecht / Rob C. Wegman.

By: Wegman, Rob C.
Material type: materialTypeLabelBookSeries: Oxford monographs on music.Publisher: Oxford : New York : Clarendon Press ; Oxford University Press, 1996Description: 406 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. + pbk.ISBN: 0198166508.Subject(s): Obrecht, Jacob, -1505 | Obrecht, Jacob, -1505. Masses | Composers -- Biography | Mass (Music) -- Fifteenth century | Mass (Music) -- Sixteenth centuryDDC classification: 780.92 OBR
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number Copy number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
General Lending MTU Cork School of Music Library Lending 780.92 OBR (Browse shelf(Opens below)) 1 Available 00101073
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Son of a town trumpeter, Jacob Obrecht became one of the most prominent composers in Europe in the late fifteenth century. In Born for the Muses, Rob Wegman enlarges our picture of the social and cultural conditions that framed his world, drawing on a wealth of new archival sources and a newly discovered dated portrait that sheds light on his development as a composer. Obrecht's greatest contribution lay in the field of mass composition. In a penetrating sylistic analysis, Wegman treats each of the thirty-odd surviving masses as a historical record, tracing influences and establishing a rich context for the development of Obrecht's musical language. This new assessment of his creative achievement and historical significance entirely changes the face of Obrecht studies and of late fifteenth-century music in general.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

  • List of Illustrations (p. xvi)
  • List of Figures (p. xvii)
  • List of Tables (p. xviii)
  • List of Music Examples (p. xix)
  • Abbreviations (p. xxi)
  • Note on Currencies (p. xxiii)
  • Note on Titles and Proper Names (p. xxv)
  • Introduction (p. 1)
  • A Past without a Music History (p. 4)
  • The Historicity of Musical Texts (p. 7)
  • The Textuality of Music History (p. 12)
  • A Music History without a Present? (p. 15)
  • Part 1 1457/8-1485
  • 1. The Orphic Jacob (p. 21)
  • Mille quingentis (p. 22)
  • Willem Obrecht (p. 25)
  • Lysbette Gheeraerts (p. 36)
  • 2. Born for the Muses (p. 45)
  • Corporate Musicianship in Ghent (p. 47)
  • A Different Course (p. 56)
  • 3. Formative Years (p. 70)
  • Early Career: Patterns and Parallels (p. 70)
  • Bergen op Zoom and Cambrai, 1480-1485 (p. 79)
  • 4. Beyond Busnoys (p. 86)
  • Missa Petrus apostolus (p. 87)
  • Missa Beata viscera (p. 100)
  • Missa O lumen ecclesie (p. 109)
  • Missa Sicut spina rosam (p. 118)
  • Part 2 1485-1491
  • 5. Years of Crisis (p. 133)
  • Bruges and Ferrara, 1485-1488 (p. 138)
  • Death of a City Trumpeter: Ghent, 1488-1492 (p. 147)
  • Bruges, 1488-1491 (p. 156)
  • 6. The Critical Phase (p. 161)
  • Missa De Sancto Martino (p. 165)
  • Missa De Sancto Donatiano (p. 169)
  • Missa Salve diva parens (p. 175)
  • Missa Adieu mes amours (p. 189)
  • 7. Towards a New Language (p. 200)
  • Missa Ave regina celorum (p. 201)
  • Missa De Sancto Johanne Baptista (p. 213)
  • 8. The Mature Style (p. 219)
  • The '1491-3' Masses (p. 220)
  • Earlier Mature Masses (p. 244)
  • The Mature OEuvre (p. 262)
  • Part 3 1491-1505
  • 9. 'Jubilating Always in my Songs' (p. 287)
  • Antwerp and Bergen op Zoom, 1491 / 2-1498 (p. 292)
  • Bruges and Antwerp, 1498-1503 (p. 303)
  • 10. Beyond Fortuna (p. 311)
  • Obrecht the Progressive: Late Motets (p. 313)
  • Missa Maria zart (p. 322)
  • Missa Si dedero (p. 330)
  • Missa Cela sans plus (p. 334)
  • Postscript: Missa Sub tuum presidium (p. 337)
  • 11. The Last Journey (p. 341)
  • Innsbruck and ?Rome, 1503-1504 (p. 341)
  • Ferrara, 1504-1505 (p. 346)
  • Appendix I Documents (p. 355)
  • Appendix II Rhythmic Density in the Masses of Jacob Obrecht (p. 375)
  • Bibliography (p. 385)
  • Index of Compositions by Obrecht (p. 397)
  • General Index (p. 398)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Wegman's study, a "somewhat expanded" version of his 1993 dissertation, is a lavish addition to Oxford's monographs on music, both visually and in its scope. It aims to restore Obrecht's reputation as "one of the most significant protagonists of his own time." Wegman argues, using new evidence, that Obrecht's most influential work had been published before any of Josquin's music was generally known, possibly even written, and that the important stylistic changes that took place between 1480 and 1500 were due to Obrecht, not Josquin. The book is laid out so that readers can focus on biography (chapters 1-3, 5, 9, 11) without having to winnow it from Wegman's exemplary analyses of the masses. These biographical chapters, which feature both Obrecht and his trumpeter father, are a rich tapestry woven out of documentary facts, circumstantial evidence, and informed speculation that make fascinating reading. (An appendix gives principal documents in their original language.) The analysis of masses, which bravely attempts to overcome the problem of plotting stylistic development when most of the evidence cannot be precisely dated, is valuable for its methodology and insights, though it carefully sidesteps the issue of numerology raised by Marcus von Crevel and others. The book is "must" reading for all students of renaissance music, upper-division undergraduate and above. P. G. Swing; emeritus, Swarthmore College

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Rob C. Wegman is Assistant Professor of Music, Princeton University.

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