Renaissance Music Tour
Joakim Krutnes
Departure From The Hague and going to Amsterdam
We will leave early in the morning around eight o'clock from The Hague. Our first trip will be a short one, we are going to the lovely city of Amsterdam. Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck was not born here but he lived here most of his life. He also went to Antwerp and Rotterdam several times. He later died in 1621 in Amsterdam where he lived at the time. Even though he died hundreds of years ago you can still find many things he left behind there. He created many famous pieces one of them is Hodie Christus Natus Est. He created both sacred and secular music and he was among the first keyboard composers.
Orlande de Lassus in Belgium
After we have been in the beautiful city of Amsterdam we will head down to Belgium. We will visit the small town of Mons. This is where the famous composer Orlande de Lassus was born. He lived in Mons most of his childhood but then he sicily later. It is believed that while he lived in Mons he was kidnapped several times simply because of his magnificent singing voice. But don’t worry this is a beautiful city now. It is still unknown when he was born but it is sometime between 1530-1532 and he died again in 1594. He traveled around a lot in Europe and worked for many different people, courts and churches. We will learn more about him when we visit rome later in this trip.
Gilles Binchois
The next stop on this tour is not really its own stop, it is more like a continuation of the stop in Mons, Belgium. You see many famous composers came from Belgium and many of them came from the little town Mons. That is the case with Gilles Binchois. He was born in Mons it the late 1500s or early 1400s. He influenced music history more than most composers at the time because his pieces were borrowed and used as source material. He created all type of music. Most of his secular songs were about love or chivalry. He was employed by the duke of burgundy.
Josquin des Prez
He was born in a small town on what's now the border between France and Belgium and that is where we are going! He studied music in rome and worked for the italian and french court as well as the pope. We will also go to rome later in this trip to learn more about Josquin. Josquin is considered one of the greatest composers of all time. Infact music teacher Ms. Ellwood has said “He was a master
composer” Since this place wasn’t the most important place in his career we won’t stay here for long. He created mostly sacred music but some secular music as well, one of his most famous works were Missa Pange Linga which you can listen to if you scroll down a little bit.
Rome
The next stop of this tour is in remarkable rome! This is where one of my favorite composers spent most of his life. He worked for the pope and for the italian court while he lived here. You guessed right (or wrong) it was Josquin des Prez who lived here. But he was not alone here, Orlande de Lassus also lived here. Although they didn’t live here at the same time they were probably influenced by each other. Orlande worked for the Grand duke of Tuscany while he lived here and he got a very prestigious job there as the “maestro di cappella” of the Basilica of Saint John Lateran.