Cornelius Canis
Encyclopedia
Cornelius Canis (between 1500 and 1510 – 16 February 1561) was a Franco-Flemish
composer, singer, and choir director of the Renaissance
, active for much of his life in the Grande Chapelle, the imperial Habsburg
music establishment during the reign of Emperor Charles V
. He brought the compositional style of the mid-16th century Franco-Flemish school, with its elaborate imitative polyphony
, together with the lightness and clarity of the Parisian chanson
, and he was one of the few composers of the time to write chansons in both the French and Franco-Flemish idioms.
No specific records have survived documenting his early life. He was most likely from Ghent
, since a surviving letter indicates that his parents lived there, and the earliest records of his career show that he was the singing-master and teacher of the choirboys at the Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-op-de-rade confraternity, part of the Church of St. John in Ghent. He may have been part of a large musical family, since other musicians named d'Hondt, de Hondt, and Canis were active in Ghent, Kortrijk
, and other places with connections to the imperial chapel during the 16th century.
In 1542, he was given the responsibility of taking four choirboys from the Low Countries to Spain, the principal seat of power of Charles V, who by then was Holy Roman Emperor. This trip is his first documented association with the imperial chapel, the Grande Chapelle. Canis's exact position in the chapel in the early 1540s has not been determined, but his reputation was good and continued to rise. During this period the musicians of the chapel rarely stayed in one place for long: they often traveled with the emperor, going to Italy, the Low Countries, or Austria as the occasion demanded. Court documents show that Canis went to places such as Utrecht
and Augsburg
, and was a frequent recipient of honors.
Eventually Canis became maistre des enfans (master of the choirboys) of the chapel, succeeding Nicolas Gombert
. Gombert had been removed from the post around 1540, convicted of molesting one of the boys in his care, and sent to hard labor in the galleys. During this period the chapel was reorganized, and the position of maître de chapelle (overall music director) was merged with that of maistre des enfans, so Canis succeeded both Gombert and Thomas Crecquillon
, the previous music director. Other musicians associated with the Spanish Habsburg chapel at that time included Nicolas Payen
and organist Jean Lestainnier. Canis's music began to appear in prominent publications, such as those by Antonio Gardano
and Pierre Attaingnant
; most of his music dates from the years 1542 to 1558, the period of his greatest activity at the imperial court. Not all was published, and some survives in manuscript copies which were made in either Germany or the Low Countries.
Honors accumulated for Canis: he received royal prebends, pensions, an apostolic favor, and he was made abbot
of two separate places: Notre Dame in Middelburg
and Floresse in Liège
. In 1555 he retired, probably because his employer and patron Charles V was about to abdicate; Canis's retirement occurred exactly one month before Charles gave over his powers in the Netherlands to Philip II
(15 October 1555). However, this was not the end of his musical career. He became a chaplain and canon in Kortrijk, at St. Maarten and Onze Lieve Vrouwkerk respectively. He died in Prague
, which at that time was also within the Habsburg domains.
A considerable body of music by Canis has survived, including two mass
es, 35 motet
s, and 31 chanson
s. The works list has grown in recent decades: three of the motets and two chansons are recent discoveries. All of his works are for from three to six voices. The two masses, Missa Pastores loquebantur and Missa super Salve celeberrima are both for six voices, while the motets and chansons all vary from three to six.
Canis's motets are written in the manner of the post-Josquin
generation of Franco-Flemish composers, using a wide variety of contrapuntal
procedures carried out with considerable skill. Imitation is often pervasive, and may be either strict or free; the time interval separating successive voices in imitation may be either very short or long. Canis also strove for contrast by varying his contrapuntal procedures in successive sections of the same composition, and by writing melodic lines which varied from short to wide-ranging.
Contrasting with the elaborate polyphonic procedures he used in his sacred music, Canis's chansons show a mix of both Netherlandish polyphony and French, particularly Parisian, simplicity. During the 1540s and 1550s there were two general types of chansons being composed: the Parisian, by composers such as Clément Janequin
and Claudin de Sermisy
, which tended to be homophonic
and written in short phrases, with only brief periods of imitation; and the Franco-Flemish, which was more polyphonic and imitative: the Franco-Flemish chansons were akin to the sacred music by the same composers. Canis used some features of the Parisian chanson, including homophony, short rhythmic units, and cadential formulae, grafting them onto an otherwise polyphonic fabric.
Some of Canis's chansons use a cantus-firmus technique, in which Canis takes a line or two of music from a pre-existing chanson, including examples by Janequin, Claudin de Sermisy, and Gombert, and reworks it in a contrapuntal texture much different from the original, but using the same words.
has been debated by musicologists for decades, since the contemporary mentions of the term are ambiguous and contradictory. Current consensus among music scholars is that the term refers to an innovative practice which began around the middle of the 16th century, both in composition and in performance, involving 'affect' in text-setting and possibly chromaticism
; that it was not a wide movement; and that it was principally a kind of music intended for connoisseurs. Cornelius Canis is one of the composers mentioned as not writing in the style of musica reservata. Shortly before Canis's departure from the imperial chapel, the Bavarian ambassador to Charles V wrote a letter to his employer, Duke Albrecht V
, in which he seems to use the term in a wide sense, meaning roughly "a musical style which is new": "musica reservata will become even more fashionable now than before, [after Nicolas Payen succeeds Cornelius Canis for the position], since Canis was not able to reconcile himself to it." He therefore considered Canis to be a composer in a conservative style. The date of this letter, 28 April 1555, is shortly before Orlande de Lassus
joined the musical establishment of Albrecht V in Munich; Lassus was then, and remains now, the most famous practitioner of musica reservata.
Franco-Flemish School
In music, the Franco-Flemish School or more precisely the Netherlandish 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...
composer, singer, and choir director of the Renaissance
Renaissance music
Renaissance music is European music written during the Renaissance. Defining the beginning of the musical era is difficult, given that its defining characteristics were adopted only gradually; musicologists have placed its beginnings from as early as 1300 to as late as the 1470s.Literally meaning...
, active for much of his life in the Grande Chapelle, the imperial Habsburg
Habsburg
The House of Habsburg , also found as Hapsburg, and also known as House of Austria is one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian Empire and...
music establishment during the reign of Emperor Charles V
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I, of the Spanish Empire from 1516 until his voluntary retirement and abdication in favor of his younger brother Ferdinand I and his son Philip II in 1556.As...
. He brought the compositional style of the mid-16th century Franco-Flemish school, with its elaborate imitative polyphony
Polyphony
In music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords ....
, together with the lightness and clarity of the Parisian chanson
Chanson
A chanson is in general any lyric-driven French song, usually polyphonic and secular. A singer specialising in chansons is known as a "chanteur" or "chanteuse" ; a collection of chansons, especially from the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, is also known as a chansonnier.-Chanson de geste:The...
, and he was one of the few composers of the time to write chansons in both the French and Franco-Flemish idioms.
Life
Ghent
Ghent is a city and a municipality located in the Flemish region of Belgium. It is the capital and biggest city of the East Flanders province. The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Lys and in the Middle Ages became one of the largest and richest cities of...
, since a surviving letter indicates that his parents lived there, and the earliest records of his career show that he was the singing-master and teacher of the choirboys at the Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-op-de-rade confraternity, part of the Church of St. John in Ghent. He may have been part of a large musical family, since other musicians named d'Hondt, de Hondt, and Canis were active in Ghent, Kortrijk
Kortrijk
Kortrijk ; , ; ) is a Belgian city and municipality located in the Flemish province West Flanders...
, and other places with connections to the imperial chapel during the 16th century.
In 1542, he was given the responsibility of taking four choirboys from the Low Countries to Spain, the principal seat of power of Charles V, who by then was Holy Roman Emperor. This trip is his first documented association with the imperial chapel, the Grande Chapelle. Canis's exact position in the chapel in the early 1540s has not been determined, but his reputation was good and continued to rise. During this period the musicians of the chapel rarely stayed in one place for long: they often traveled with the emperor, going to Italy, the Low Countries, or Austria as the occasion demanded. Court documents show that Canis went to places such as Utrecht
Utrecht
Utrecht is a city in the Netherlands.The name may also refer to:* Utrecht , of which Utrecht is the capital* Utrecht , including the city of Utrecht* Bishopric of Utrecht* Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Utrecht...
and Augsburg
Augsburg
Augsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. It is a university town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...
, and was a frequent recipient of honors.
Eventually Canis became maistre des enfans (master of the choirboys) of the chapel, succeeding Nicolas Gombert
Nicolas Gombert
Nicolas Gombert was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance. He was one of the most famous and influential composers between Josquin des Prez and Palestrina, and best represents the fully developed, complex polyphonic style of this period in music history.-Life:Details of his early life are...
. Gombert had been removed from the post around 1540, convicted of molesting one of the boys in his care, and sent to hard labor in the galleys. During this period the chapel was reorganized, and the position of maître de chapelle (overall music director) was merged with that of maistre des enfans, so Canis succeeded both Gombert and Thomas Crecquillon
Thomas Crecquillon
Thomas Crecquillon was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance. He is considered to be a member of the Netherlands school. While his place of birth is unknown, it was probably within the region loosely known at the time as the Netherlands, and he probably died at Béthune.-Biography:Very...
, the previous music director. Other musicians associated with the Spanish Habsburg chapel at that time included Nicolas Payen
Nicolas Payen
Nicolas Payen was a Franco-Flemish composer and choirmaster of the Renaissance, associated with the Grande Chapelle, the Habsburg imperial chapel, at the end of the reign of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.-Life:Payen was born in Soignies, and received his earliest musical training in that town, in...
and organist Jean Lestainnier. Canis's music began to appear in prominent publications, such as those by Antonio Gardano
Antonio Gardano
Antonio Gardano was an Italian composer and important music publisher based in Venice. He arrived in in the city as a musico francese whose musical compositions had been published in Lyons by Moderne from 1532...
and Pierre Attaingnant
Pierre Attaingnant
Pierre Attaingnant was a French music printer, active in Paris.-Life:Attaingnant is considered to be first large-scale publisher of single-impression movable type for music-printing, thus making it possible to print faster and cheaper than predecessors such as Ottaviano Petrucci...
; most of his music dates from the years 1542 to 1558, the period of his greatest activity at the imperial court. Not all was published, and some survives in manuscript copies which were made in either Germany or the Low Countries.
Honors accumulated for Canis: he received royal prebends, pensions, an apostolic favor, and he was made abbot
Abbot
The word abbot, meaning father, is a title given to the head of a monastery in various traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not actually the head of a monastery...
of two separate places: Notre Dame in Middelburg
Middelburg
Middelburg is a municipality and a city in the south-western Netherlands and the capital of the province of Zeeland. It is situated in the Midden-Zeeland region. It has a population of about 48,000.- History of Middelburg :...
and Floresse in Liège
Liège
Liège is a major city and municipality of Belgium located in the province of Liège, of which it is the economic capital, in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium....
. In 1555 he retired, probably because his employer and patron Charles V was about to abdicate; Canis's retirement occurred exactly one month before Charles gave over his powers in the Netherlands to Philip II
Philip II of Spain
Philip II was King of Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and, while married to Mary I, King of England and Ireland. He was lord of the Seventeen Provinces from 1556 until 1581, holding various titles for the individual territories such as duke or count....
(15 October 1555). However, this was not the end of his musical career. He became a chaplain and canon in Kortrijk, at St. Maarten and Onze Lieve Vrouwkerk respectively. He died in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
, which at that time was also within the Habsburg domains.
Music and influence
Canis wrote both sacred and secular vocal music. No specifically instrumental music has survived, and he may not have written any.A considerable body of music by Canis has survived, including two mass
Mass (music)
The Mass, a form of sacred musical composition, is a choral composition that sets the invariable portions of the Eucharistic liturgy to music...
es, 35 motet
Motet
In classical music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions.-Etymology: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...
s, and 31 chanson
Chanson
A chanson is in general any lyric-driven French song, usually polyphonic and secular. A singer specialising in chansons is known as a "chanteur" or "chanteuse" ; a collection of chansons, especially from the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, is also known as a chansonnier.-Chanson de geste:The...
s. The works list has grown in recent decades: three of the motets and two chansons are recent discoveries. All of his works are for from three to six voices. The two masses, Missa Pastores loquebantur and Missa super Salve celeberrima are both for six voices, while the motets and chansons all vary from three to six.
Canis's motets are written in the manner of the post-Josquin
Josquin Des Prez
Josquin des Prez [Josquin Lebloitte dit Desprez] , often referred to simply as Josquin, was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance...
generation of Franco-Flemish composers, using a wide variety of contrapuntal
Counterpoint
In 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 classical music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...
procedures carried out with considerable skill. Imitation is often pervasive, and may be either strict or free; the time interval separating successive voices in imitation may be either very short or long. Canis also strove for contrast by varying his contrapuntal procedures in successive sections of the same composition, and by writing melodic lines which varied from short to wide-ranging.
Contrasting with the elaborate polyphonic procedures he used in his sacred music, Canis's chansons show a mix of both Netherlandish polyphony and French, particularly Parisian, simplicity. During the 1540s and 1550s there were two general types of chansons being composed: the Parisian, by composers such as Clément Janequin
Clément Janequin
Clément Janequin was a French composer of the Renaissance. He was one of the most famous composers of popular chansons of the entire Renaissance, and along with Claudin de Sermisy, was hugely influential in the development of the Parisian chanson, especially the programmatic type...
and Claudin de Sermisy
Claudin de Sermisy
Claudin de Sermisy was a French composer of the Renaissance. Along with Clément Janequin he was one of the most renowned composers of French chansons in the early 16th century; in addition he was a significant composer of sacred music...
, which tended to be homophonic
Homophony
In music, homophony is a texture in which two or more parts move together in harmony, the relationship between them creating chords. This is distinct from polyphony, in which parts move with rhythmic independence, and monophony, in which all parts move in parallel rhythm and pitch. A homophonic...
and written in short phrases, with only brief periods of imitation; and the Franco-Flemish, which was more polyphonic and imitative: the Franco-Flemish chansons were akin to the sacred music by the same composers. Canis used some features of the Parisian chanson, including homophony, short rhythmic units, and cadential formulae, grafting them onto an otherwise polyphonic fabric.
Some of Canis's chansons use a cantus-firmus technique, in which Canis takes a line or two of music from a pre-existing chanson, including examples by Janequin, Claudin de Sermisy, and Gombert, and reworks it in a contrapuntal texture much different from the original, but using the same words.
Canis and musica reservata
The exact meaning of the phrase musica reservataMusica reservata
In music history, musica reservata is either a style or a performance practice in a cappella vocal music of the latter half of the 16th century, mainly in Italy and southern Germany, involving refinement, exclusivity, and intense emotional expression of sung text.The exact meaning, which appears...
has been debated by musicologists for decades, since the contemporary mentions of the term are ambiguous and contradictory. Current consensus among music scholars is that the term refers to an innovative practice which began around the middle of the 16th century, both in composition and in performance, involving 'affect' in text-setting and possibly chromaticism
Chromaticism
Chromaticism is a compositional technique interspersing the primary diatonic pitches and chords with other pitches of the chromatic scale. Chromaticism is in contrast or addition to tonality or diatonicism...
; that it was not a wide movement; and that it was principally a kind of music intended for connoisseurs. Cornelius Canis is one of the composers mentioned as not writing in the style of musica reservata. Shortly before Canis's departure from the imperial chapel, the Bavarian ambassador to Charles V wrote a letter to his employer, Duke Albrecht V
Albert V, Duke of Bavaria
Albert V was Duke of Bavaria from 1550 until his death. He was born in Munich to William IV and Marie Jacobaea of Baden.-Early life:Albert was educated at Ingolstadt under good Catholic teachers...
, in which he seems to use the term in a wide sense, meaning roughly "a musical style which is new": "musica reservata will become even more fashionable now than before, [after Nicolas Payen succeeds Cornelius Canis for the position], since Canis was not able to reconcile himself to it." He therefore considered Canis to be a composer in a conservative style. The date of this letter, 28 April 1555, is shortly before Orlande de Lassus
Orlande de Lassus
Orlande de Lassus was a Franco-Flemish composer of the late Renaissance...
joined the musical establishment of Albrecht V in Munich; Lassus was then, and remains now, the most famous practitioner of musica reservata.