GOMBERT, NICOLAS

Renaissance polyphonist of the Franco-Flemish school; b. Bruges or south Flanders?, c. 1500; d. Tournai?, 1556. This distinguished disciple of Josquin desprez became first a singer (1526), then master of the children (1530) in the chapel of Charles V, and traveled in Spain, Italy, Austria, and Germany. He obtained ecclesiastical benefices in Lens, Courtrai, Béthune, and Metz and a canonry in Tournai (1534). His works comprise ten parody Masses for four to six voices (including one for the coronation of Charles V), 169 motets for four to eight voices (mostly Marian, but occasionally political), about 60 chansons for three to six voices, one Italian piece, and one Spanish piece. Hermann Finck (1527–58) praises Gombert for his technique of imitation (fugas ) as well as for his avoidance of pausas (variously interpreted to mean rests, paired imitation, or full cadences that would interrupt the polyphonic continuity). Indeed, his voices are almost constantly active in points of pervading imitation. By amalgamating traditional Franco-Flemish characteristics with his personal style, Gombert greatly developed the art of polyphony and may be considered one of its leading exponents in the generation preceding palestrina.

Bibliography: Opera omnia, ed. j. schmidt-gÖrg, Corpus mensurabilis musicae, v. 6 (Rome 1951–). j. schmidt-gÖrg, Nicolas Gombert (Bonn 1938). r. maniates, "The Sacred Music of Nicolas Gombert," The Canadian Music Journal 6.2 (1962) 25–38. h. eppstein, Nicolas Gombert als Motettenkomponist (Würzburg 1935). d. von bartha, "Probleme der Chansongeschichte im 16. Jahrhundert: Nicolas Gombert—Benedictus Appenzeller," Zeitschrift für Musikwissenschaft 13 (1930–31) 507–530. a. einstein, The Italian Madrigal, tr. a. h. krappe et al., 3 v. (Princeton 1949). j. ravell and s. broman, Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. e. blom (London 1954) 3:705–706. Histoire de la musique, ed. roland-manuel, v. 1 (Paris 1960–63). g. reese, Music in the Renaissance, (rev. ed. New York 1959). e. jas, "Nicolas Gombert's Missa Fors Seulement : A Conflicting Attribution," Revue Belge de Muiscologie 46 (1992) 163–177. g. nugent, "Nicolas Gombert" in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, v. 7, ed. s. sadie (New York 1980) 512–516. d. m. randel, ed., The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music (Cambridge 1996) 321. n. slonimsky, ed. Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (New York 1992) 647.

[i. cazeaux]