Alexander Agricola (1445 or 1446 – August 15, 1506) was a
Franco-FlemishIn music, the Franco-Flemish School refers, somewhat imprecisely, to the style of polyphonic vocal music composition in Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries, and to the composers who wrote it...
composerA composer is a person who creates music, usually by musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of...
of the
Renaissance Renaissance music is European music written during the Renaissance. Defining the beginning of the musical era is difficult, given the gradually adopted "Renaissance" characteristics: musicologists have placed its beginnings from as early as 1300 to as late as the 1470s.- Style and trends :The...
. A prominent member of the
Grande chapelle, the Habsburg musical establishment, he was a renowned composer in the years around 1500, and his music was widely distributed throughout Europe. He composed music in all of the important sacred and secular styles of the time.
Life
As is common with composers of the period, very little is known of his early life, not even his place of birth. He may have been born in present-day
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
, since he is referred to in some
ItalianItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
documents as
d'Allemagno or
d'Allemagna. Most of his life he spent in posts in Italy,
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
and the
Low CountriesThe Low Countries, the historical region of de Nederlanden, are the countries on low-lying land around the delta of the Rhine, Scheldt, and Meuse rivers...
, though there are gaps where his activities are not known, and he seems to have left many of his posts without permission. He was a singer for Duke
SforzaSforza was a ruling family of Renaissance Italy, based in Milan.-History:The dynasty was founded by Muzio Attendolo, called Sforza , a condottiero from Romagna serving the Angevin kings of Naples...
of Milan from 1471 to 1474, during the period when the Milanese chapel choir grew into one of the largest and most famous ensembles in Europe;
Loyset CompèreLoyset Compère was a French composer of the Renaissance. Of the same generation as Josquin des Prez, he was one of the most significant composers of motets and chansons of that era, and one of the first musicians to bring the light Italianate Renaissance style to France.-Life:His exact place of...
,
Johannes MartiniJohannes Martini was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance.-Life:He was born in Brabant around 1440, but information about his early life is scanty. He probably received his early training in Flanders, as did most of the composers of his generation...
,
Gaspar van WeerbekeGaspar van Weerbeke was a Netherlandish composer of the Renaissance. He was of the same generation as Josquin Desprez, but unique in his blending of the contemporary Italian style with the older Burgundian style of Dufay.- Life :...
, and several other composer-singers were also in Milan during those years.
In 1474 Duke Sforza wrote a letter of recommendation for him to
Lorenzo de' MediciLorenzo de' Medici was an Italian statesman and de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic during the Italian Renaissance. Known as Lorenzo the Magnificent by contemporary Florentines, he was a diplomat, politician and patron of scholars, artists, and poets...
, and Agricola accordingly went to
FlorenceFlorence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence...
. In 1476 he is known to have been in
CambraiCambrai is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department....
, in the Low Countries, where he probably was employed as a singer. For the long period from 1476 to 1491 nothing definite is known except that he spent part of the time in the French royal chapel, and he must have been building his reputation as a composer during this time, for he was much in demand in the 1490s, with France and
NaplesNaples in Italy, is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples. The city is known for its rich history, art, culture, architecture, music and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,800 years old...
competing for his services. In 1500 he took a position with
Philip the HandsomePhilip I , known as the Handsome or the Fair, was the son of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor...
, who was Duke of
BurgundyThe Duchy of Burgundy was a feudal territory in Medieval Europe. It roughly conforms to the modern Bourgogne, although it grew to have considerable possessions in the Low Countries as well...
and King of
CastileThe Crown of Castile, as a historic entity, is usually considered to have begun in 1230 with the third and almost definitive union of the monarchies of kingdoms Castile and Toledo in one hand, and the kingdoms of Leon and Galicia in other hand, and with the union of their parliaments a few decades...
. He apparently accompanied the Duke on his travels through his empire; by this time he was one of the most esteemed composers in Europe. He was in
Valladolid||-||} is a historic city and municipality in north-central Spain, upon the Pisuerga River and within the Ribera del Duero wine-making region. It is the capital of the province of Valladolid and of the autonomous community of Castile and Leon.- Etymology :...
,
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
, in August 1506, where he died during an outbreak of
the plaguePlague is a deadly infectious disease caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis . Plague is a zoonotic, primarily carried by rodents and spread to humans via fleas. Plague is notorious throughout history, due to the unrivaled scale of death and devastation it brought...
on August 15 of that year.
Musical style
Agricola's style is related to that of
Johannes OckeghemJohannes Ockeghem was the most famous composer of the Franco-Flemish School in the last half of the 15th century, and is often considered the most...
, especially early in his career, and towards the end of his life he was writing using the pervasive imitation characteristic of
Josquin des PrezJosquin des Prez , often referred to simply as Josquin, was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance. He is also known as Josquin Desprez, a French rendering of Dutch "Josken van de Velde", diminutive of "Joseph van de Velde" , and Latinized as Josquinus Pratensis, alternatively Jodocus Pratensis...
. While few of his works can be dated precisely, he does use many of the non-imitative, complex, rhythmically diverse
contrapuntalIn music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent. It has been most commonly identified in Western music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...
procedures more often associated with Ockeghem. Unlike Ockeghem, however, he was willing to employ repetition,
sequenceA sequence in music occurs when a given melodic or harmonic passage is immediately repeated at a different pitch level. It is possible for melody or harmony to form a sequence without the other participating....
, and increasingly imitation in the manner of the other composers who were working around 1500 when the technique became widespread.
Agricola wrote
massesThe Mass, a form of sacred musical composition, is a choral composition that sets the fixed portions of the Eucharistic liturgy to music...
,
motetIn Western music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions.The name comes either from the Latin movere, or a Latinized version of Old French mot, "word" or "verbal utterance." The Medieval Latin for "motet" is "motectum", and the Italian mottetto was...
s,
motet-chansonThe motet-chanson was a specialized musical form of the Renaissance, developed in Milan during the 1470s and 1480s, which combined aspects of the contemporary motet and chanson....
s, secular songs in the prevailing
formes fixesFormes fixes are French poetic forms of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries which were translated into musical forms, particularly the forms of songs. Specifically, these forms were the ballade, rondeau, and virelai. These forms all consist of a complex pattern of repetition of verses and a...
such as (
rondeauThe rondeau was a Medieval and early Renaissance musical form, based on the contemporary popular poetic rondeau form. It is distinct from the 18th century rondo, though the terms are likely related...
x and bergerettes, other
chansonA chanson is in general any lyric-driven French song, usually polyphonic and secular. A singer specializing in chansons is known as a "chanteur"; a collection of chansons, especially from the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, is also known as a chansonnier.-Chanson de geste:The earliest chansons...
s), and instrumental music. Much of his instrumental music was based on secular music by
Gilles BinchoisGilles de Binche , also known as Gilles de Bins , was a Franco-Flemish composer, one of the earliest members of the Burgundian School, and one of the three most famous composers of the early 15th century...
or Ockeghem. Many of these pieces had become quite popular in the late 15th century.
Agricola is one of the few transitional figures between the
BurgundianThe Burgundian School is a term used to denote a group of composers active in the 15th century in what is now northern and eastern France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, centered on the court of the Dukes of Burgundy. The main names associated with this school are Guillaume Dufay, Gilles Binchois,...
style and the style of the Josquin generation of Netherlanders who actually wrote music in both styles.
Above all the variants in his general musical style over his working life, Agricola himself wrote in a highly distinctive style, taking the mysteriously sinuous lines of Ockeghem as his point of departure. His music is often very busy and extraordinarily detailed, with repeated sequence, repetition of terse rhythmic and motivic units, and a desire to usurp the underlying pulse, sometimes seeming to border on the perverse, either by prolonging cadential figures to
cadenceIn Western musical theory, a harmonic cadence is a progression of two chords that concludes a phrase, section, or piece of music. A rhythmic cadence is a characteristic rhythmic pattern indicating the end of a phrase...
on the "wrong" beat, or by shifting the metrical beat of some parts against others (e.g. the closing
Agnus DeiAgnus Dei is a Latin term meaning Lamb of God, and was originally used to refer to Jesus Christ in his role of the perfect sacrificial offering that atones for the sins of humanity in Christian theology, harkening back to ancient Jewish Temple sacrifices...
of his extraordinarily extended Missa 'In myne zin features the
cantus firmusIn music, a cantus firmus is a pre-existing melody forming the basis of a polyphonic composition.The plural of this Latin term is , though one occasionally sees the corrupt form canti firmi...
stated in equal notes of eleven quavers' duration each in first statement, followed by a statement of five quavers' duration each, or in the second
Salve Regina:For the university, see Salve Regina University.The "Salve Regina" is one of four Marian antiphons sung at different seasons within the Christian liturgical calendar of the Roman Catholic Church. The Salve Regina is sung in the time from Trinity Sunday until the Saturday...
setting, offsetting part of the statement of the cantus firmus by a quaver for its entire duration, in both cases with the other voices proceeding in a more strict quadruple meter above.) Other "games" played in the music include posing puzzles of
modeMode is a term from Western music theory having three definitions :# the rhythmic relationship between long and short values in the late medieval period;...
and
musica fictaMusica ficta was a term used in European music theory from the late twelfth century to about 1600 to describe any pitches, whether notated or to be added by performers in accordance with their training, that lie outside the system of musica recta or musica vera , defined by the hexachord system...
for the performers (e.g. the KyrieKýrie is from the Greek word κύριε , the vocative case of κύριος , meaning O Lord. It is the common name of an important prayer of Christian liturgy, also called Kýrie, eléison which is Greek for Lord, have mercy....
of the Missa Le serviteur plays with the expectations of the very well-known plainchant cantus firmus by setting up some knotty issues of the implied possibility of modal inflection with consistent extra flats.) The music is characteristically athletic in all voice parts, with the lower parts in particular featuring much that requires very fine singers, and not representing the normal simply harmonic function of the tenor-bass combinations used by most of his contemporaries. Often a highly elaborate set of quick motifs will spring unexpected from a previous slow-moving texture (e.g. the eruption of detailed duos beginning at Glorificamus te
and climaxing at Adoramus te
in the Gloria"Gloria in excelsis Deo" is the title and beginning of a hymn known also as the Greater Doxology and the Angelic Hymn....
of the Missa In myne zin). His music was very highly regarded in its day, the very distinctive style leading to one contemporary commentator referring to it as "crazy", and another as "sublime".
Other Agricolas
There are other composers named Agricola who sometimes are confused with Alexander:
- Georg Ludwig Agricola (1643 - 1676) (also an important writer)
- Johannes Agricola
Johannes Agricola was a German Protestant reformer and humanist. He was a follower and friend of Martin Luther, who became his antagonist in the matter of the binding obligation of the law on Christians.-Early life:Agricola was born at Eisleben, whence he is sometimes called Magister Islebius...
(1560 - 1601)
- Johann Friedrich Agricola
Johann Friedrich Agricola was a German composer, organist, singer, pedagogue, and writer on music. He sometimes wrote under the pseudonym Flavio Anicio Olibrio.-Biography:...
(1720 - 1774) (also a musicographer, organist and singing master)
- Johann Paul Agricola (1638 or 1639 - 1697)
- Martin Agricola
Martin Agricola was a German composer of Renaissance music and a music theorist.He was born in Schwiebus in Lower Silesia. His German name was Sohr or Sore....
(1486 - 1556) (More important as a theorist and teacher)
- Wolfgang Christoph Agricola (c1600 - c1659)
Recording
- Désir D'aymer. Love Lyrics Around 1500: From Flanders To Italy, Capilla Flamenca
Capilla Flamenca is a prominent vocal and instrumental early music consort based in Leuven, Belgium. The group specialises in 14th to 16th Century music from Flanders and takes its name from the choir of the court chapel of Emperor Charles V...
, 2007 (Eufoda 1369). Contains recordings of several secular songs by Alexander Agricola.
Example