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Alard du Gaucquier

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Alard du Gaucquier
Bornc. 1534
Lille
Diedc. 1582 (aged 47–48)
Other namesAlard Nuceus
Occupation(s)kappellmeister, composer, teacher

Alard du Gaucquier (c. 1534 – c. 1582) was a choirmaster at the Imperial Chapel of the Holy Roman Empire.[1] He began composing noted Magnificats and masses in 1574.[1]

According to the City Archives of Antwerp, Gaucquier was born in Lille sometime around 1534.[2][3] Approximately in the year 1558 he entered the service of the Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian II as a tenor singer.[2]

At the January 1567 death of Jacobus Vaet, Gaucquier was appointed interim Kapellmeister and was given a trial. Evidently Emperor Maximillian II did not find Gaucquier entirely suitable to the role, for he appointed his ambassador to Rome, Count Prospero d'Arco, to find a permanent replacement for Vaet, with a note expressing dissatisfaction with Gaucquier's performance.[4] He was indeed replaced by Philippe de Monte on 1 May 1568,[2] but the position of vice-Kapellmeister was created specifically for Gaucquier.[2] He was given a patent of nobility at the same time, acquiring a coat of arms depicting a nut tree.[3] In addition to his court duties he was music teacher to the younger sons of Maximilian.[3][5] In 1578, he requested release from his employment after having served the Holy Roman Emperor for twenty years,[2] which was granted by Rudolf II along with a lifelong pension of 100 guilders.[3] He moved to the Netherlands to become a conductor for his former pupil, Matthias, while the latter was acting as Governor-General there.[2][3][5]

He received an invitation from Archduke Ferdinand II to become Kapellmeister at his Innsbruck court.[2] Gaucquier left Brussels on 29 October 1581 to accept this position but he never arrived there.[2] There is no further mention of Gaucquier until his widow was granted a pauper's pension of 50 florins in March, 1583.[2][5]

Works

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In 1574 eight Magnificats, scored for four to six voices, were published in Venice.[3] A set of four masses scored for five to eight voices was published in Antwerp in 1581.[3] An additional four-voice mass has been attributed to him.[3] His works are in cantus firmus, with significant instances of indirect chromaticism and dissonant false relations.[3]

References

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  1. ^ a b Pratt, Waldo Selden (1907). The History of Music. New York: G. Schirmer, Inc. p. 133.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Blume, Friedrich; Finscher, Ludwig (2002). Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart: Allgemeine Enzyklopädie der Musik. Vol. Personenteil 7. Bärenreiter. p. 618. ISBN 3-7618-1117-9.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Sadie, Stanley, ed. (2001). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Vol. 7. Grove Dictionaries, Inc. p. 667. ISBN 1-56159-239-0.
  4. ^ Lindell, Robert (1985). "Die Neubesetzung der Hofkapellmeisterstelle am Kaiserhof in der Jahren 1567–1568: Palestrina Oder Monte?". Studien zur Musikwissenschaft (in German). 36: 35–52.
  5. ^ a b c Comberiati, C. P. (2016). Late Renaissance Music at the Habsburg Court. Routledge. pp. 87–89. ISBN 9781134287307.
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