Ludovicus Episcopius

Ludovicus Episcopius (Louis the Bishop) was a later on amount in the Franco-Flemish college of composers that dominated the Renaissance and was among the first to make secular music in Dutch. Blessed in Mechelen, he was informed right now there by Theo Verlest, respected to possess instructed Cipriano de Rore; Episcopius, and Philippe de Monte may possess analyzed with Verlest at exactly the same time. After earning a qualification in theology from your University or college of Leuven in 1541, Episcopius required holy purchases and in 1545 assumed the post of choirmaster in the Basilica of St. Servatius in Maastricht. Eight of Episcopius’ secular tunes made an appearance in the Maastricht Songbook released by Jacob Baethen in 1554; four even more exist in additional resources. A motet of Episcopius shows up in a quantity imprinted in 1560, even though the few manuscript resources of Episcopius aren’t reliably datable, it really is reasonable to summarize that a lot of of his making it through music times from the first many years of his lengthy extend at St. Servatius. Because of some intrigue about which there is nothing known, after offering 30 years of services Episcopius was dismissed as choirmaster at St. Servatius and changed by a particular Jean de Chaynée. This example didn’t last very long as de Chaynée got himself murdered in Oct 1577, and Episcopius was reinstated. Nevertheless, in 1584, Episcopius resigned his post at St. Servatius and remaining Flanders once and for all, becoming a member of the choir in Munich led by Orlande de Lassus, evidently a pal to Episcopius. In 1591, Episcopius retired to Straubing in Bavaria and passed away there four years later on. Episcopius’ extant corpus of function is definitely disappointingly little — the 12 Dutch chansons, an individual setting from the mass, a Salve Regina, and five motets represent all the music that’s known by him. As no duplicate from the Maastricht Songbook is definitely complete, a few of Episcopius’ chansons survive just in versions missing the top tone of voice in the structure. Nevertheless, Episcopius’ shiny, bawdy Dutch melody configurations represent a uncommon and main contribution towards the Dutch Renaissance and present us a concept of what Lassus might’ve performed had he made secular configurations in his indigenous tongue, instead of in the Love dialects spoken at courtroom.