Pierre de La Rue - Missa de septem doloribus 1/5 Kyrie

Il brano è contenuto nel cd "Pierre de La Rue, Ars antiqua de Paris, Michel Sanvoisin", Naxos.
Jean Nirouët: counter-tenor
Frédérico Bourdin: tenor
Cristophe Olive: baritone
Cristophe Lizère: baritone
Gaël De Kerret: bass
Cristophe Poncet: tenor
----------------------------------
Pierre de La Rue (b ?Tournai, c1452; d Kortrijk, 20 Nov 1518) was a Franco-Flemish composer. He was one of the most important composers of the late 15th and early 16th centuries, with an extensive and varied output in all major genres of his time.
The son of Jehan de la Rue and Gertrud de la Haye, La Rue was almost certainly born in Tournai and educated in the city cathedral's maîtrise. He is first mentioned, as an adult professional singer, in the records of the cathedral of Ste Gudule in Brussels for 1469/70. This reference, together with the fact that his mother survived him, suggests a birthdate about 1452. He next appears at the Jacobskerk, Ghent, in the account book for 1471/2; other early employment was at Onze Lieve Vrouwkerk, Nieuwpoort (1472/3 to before 1477/8), the church of St Ode (location and date undetermined), an unidentified institution in Cologne (to 1489) and possibly Cambrai Cathedral. The 'Misser Piero delapiazza' in Siena thought by Staehelin to be La Rue refers to another musician; so far no evidence places the composer in Italy, making him one of the few major composers of his time not to visit there.

La Rue left Cologne in 1489 for employment at the Confraternity of Our Lady in 's-Hertogenbosch, where he stayed until 1492. In November of that year, after a gap of up to nine months unaccounted for, he joined the Habsburg-Burgundian chapel, where he was to spend the rest of his professional life; claims as to earlier court associations are based on misreadings of the documents. He served each successive ruler of the court beginning with Maximilian and travelled extensively in the court entourage. Under Maximilian's son Philip the Fair he made two trips to Spain, the first from 1501 to 1503 (through France to Spain, then back north by way of Habsburg lands) and the second by sea in 1506; bad weather and shipwreck forced a three-month stay in England at the court of Henry VII. Though many chapel members left Spain upon Philip's death in September 1506, La Rue and others remained there in the service of Juana, Philip's widow. After power was wrested from Juana in 1508 La Rue returned north, where in the previous year Philip's sister Marguerite of Austria had assumed the regency of the Low Countries for her young nephew, the future Charles V. In 1516, a year after Charles came of age, La Rue retired to Kortrijk, possibly to avoid another trip to Spain. He drew up his will on 16 June of the same year and died there in 1518.

Despite considerable gaps in the early years, La Rue's life is thus unusually well-documented and for the most part demonstrates a continual search for better-paid and more prestigious employment, culminating in his membership in one of the largest and most illustrious musical institutions of the time. His longevity at the court is in contrast to the peripatetic lives of his major contemporaries, but certainly the richness of the musical life (colleagues at various times included Agricola, Weerbeke, de Orto, Champion and Divitis) as well as the professional security were reasons to remain. Evidently La Rue gradually assumed a quasi-official status as court composer and probably influenced the compilation of the many musical manuscripts emanating from the court scriptorium, possibly even sometimes acting as scribe. He was rewarded by valuable prebends at St Aubain, Namur, Onze Lieve Vrouwkerk, Kortrijk (where he ultimately retired), Onze Lieve Vrouwkerk, Dendermonde, and St Faraïlde (Sente Verle), Ghent; with the added income from the prebend at St Ode, received before he joined the court, he died a wealthy man.
(The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Honey Meconi).

Category:

Music

Tags:

• pierre de la rue
• michel sanvoisin
• naxos
• missa de septem doloribus