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Johannes Ockeghem

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Johannes Ockeghem was a Franco-Flemish composer and singer of the early Renaissance. He was born around 1410, possibly in Saint-Ghislain in Hainaut, but the year is uncertain and estimates run as late as 1430. Like many composers of his time he began as a choirboy. For most of his career he served the French royal chapel, under Charles VII, Louis XI and Charles VIII.

Music and breakthrough

In the period between Guillaume Du Fay and Josquin des Prez he was the leading European composer. Together with Antoine Busnois he was one of the great names of the second half of the fifteenth century. Probably only part of his work has survived: about fourteen Masses, twenty chansons and fewer than ten motets. The well-known pieces include the Missa prolationum, which is built on canons, and the Missa cuiusvis toni, as well as his Requiem.

Influence

Ockeghem died in 1497. Many poets and musicians mourned his death, among them Erasmus, Guillaume Crétin, Jean Molinet and Josquin, who wrote the famous lament Nymphes des bois for him. To a modern ear his music is full of long, almost endless lines, with voices moving fluidly through one another. He shows how the sung polyphonic music of the late Middle Ages developed into the polyphony of the Renaissance.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to the Missa prolationum and notice how the voices sing the same melody at different speeds at the same time, creating a rich, swaying polyphony.

Discography

Studio albums

Mentioned in other articles

See also

Categories: ArtistsFranco-Flemish polyphony