Loyset Compère Motets (Orlando Consort) :: Composer Music Musical Musician Essays

Loyset Compà ¨re Motets (Orlando Consort) Loyset Compere, an accomplished yet not very well-known composer of the 15th century, has been neglected as a figure in musical history. Historians through the ages have somehow left him out of most of their writings. Therefore, as modern researchers and discoverers, we have very little resources from which to gather information about Compere. In fact, even his date and place of birth are argued upon by historians. Thus, our study is limited to what we see on the pages of his music and what we glean from the music we hear (MCD 1490, Carapetyan). It is believed that Compere wrote some motets for the French Royal court during his years there. Among these motets was the canon Asperges me Domine, a beautiful four-part canon in 4ths. It was written sometime between 1500-1505, although the exact date is not known for sure. This was towards the end of Compere's life when his experience as a composer was at its peak (Carapetyan and Finscher 255). The canon was a popular musical form of this period; however, a canon in 4ths was not. There are many aspects of this piece that make listening to it fascinating. The following pages will explore the intrigues of Aperges me Domine including its structure and its ties between music and text. Asperges me Domine is broken up into three sections, each section starting with a solo chant from the superius voice. After the chant, each section then continues with a canon starting in one of the four voice parts. The first section, which we will call section I, starts with the opening chant and ends with a strong cadence on measure 18. It uses six overlapping phrases to express the first sentence of text. The first canon starts with the bassus voice, but the starting voice changes throughout the piece. However, each canon, throughout, is sung at the fourth. There are four strong cadences, m. 2, m. 5, m.10, and m. 18, each marking the end of a thought in the text. There are also many other places that exhibit a kind of pseudo-cadence where the modern ear expects to hear a resolution, and the resolution is reached; however, movement among the middle parts nullifies the effect of the cadence. For example, in m. 12, the superius and the bassus parts seem to reach a cadence point, but the tenor and alto parts continue to move catching the listeners attention away from the cadence point.