Clemens non Papa (EN)

Clemens non Papa, a nickname used since 1546, born Jacques Clement, *ca. 1510–15 probably Middelburg (Walcheren), †probably after 21 April 1555 Diksmuide (West Flanders), Flemish composer. Little is known about Clemens non Papa’s life. From March 1544 to June 1545, he served successively as a singer, assistant choirmaster and, from 26 March 1545, choirmaster of the boys’ choir at St Donatian’s Church in Bruges; prior to 1549, he directed the chapel at Beaumont at the court of Philippe de Croÿ, Duke of Aerschot. From 1 October to 24 December 1550, he worked in the choir of the Chapel of the Marian Brotherhood at a Cathedral in ’s-Hertogenbosch, and finally directed the chapel at Diksmuide. It is possible that around 1538 he was in Paris, and around 1546 in Ypres, and perhaps also in Antwerp, Dordrecht and Leiden – however, there is no documentary evidence to confirm this information. He published his first works in Paris with P. Attaingnant; his final work was the four-voice motet Hic est vere martyr, the manuscript of which, preserved in one of the libraries in Leuven, contains the note: “Ultimum opus Clementis non Papae anno 1555 21 Aprilis.”

Clemens non Papa is one of the most outstanding Dutch composers of the mid-16th century. His style is characterised by a cappella vocal texture, linear vocal lines, and pervading imitation as a fundamental compositional principle. His technical mastery and creative ingenuity enabled him to significantly refine the compositional approach he had adopted from Gombert. Clemens non Papa meticulously crafts the textual and musical phrases used in syntactic imitation, shaping melodies freely and with panache, whilst subjecting them to strict rules regarding the treatment of dissonances. The form of his works is vivid and transparent, mainly thanks to his mastery of a free contrapuntal technique in five-part texture. Clemens non Papa played an important role in the development of chromaticism and is sometimes regarded as the creator of so-called “hidden chromaticism”. He treats chromaticism as a technical device rather than an expressive one; the transpositions of phrases in his works is what defines the originality of his musical language.

Clemens non Papa’s motets stand out as the highlight of his oeuvre, reflecting the most characteristic features of the Netherlandish style of that period. Most of his motets are liturgical works, very often based on biblical texts; only three motets have secular texts (e.g. Musica Dei donum); several double-text motets (e.g. Fremuit spiritu Jesus), with the second text, set to long note values, often placed in the highest voice. The most common form is motet for two voices, typically featuring an ABCB responsory form (Angelus Domini, Jerusalem surge). Clemens non Papa expands works based on short texts extensively through the repetition of words and phrases, each time set to music in a different way (Erravi sicut ovis). At the same time, he employs a range of melodic formulas of his own creation, used across various works; he draws only minimally on choral melodic material. The texture of the works is polyphonic, often nota contra notam, occasionally enriched with canon or passages resembling fauxbourdon, which lends it a somewhat archaic character (Credo from the Missa “Misericorde”). The arrangement of voices is characteristic of Dutch polyphony of this period; five-voice settings predominate, four-voice writing is still common, and more elaborate works for six- to eight-voices appear occasionally. Generally, in works with a greater number of voices, Clemens non Papa employs a homogeneous polyphony, rarely making use of the possibility of grouping voices (e.g. motet Pater peccavi for double-choir). In the seven-voice motet Ego flos campi, he divides the piece into two alternating groups – an upper three-voice and a lower four-voice. Often, contrary to the principles of linearism, he favours the highest voice. Of particular interest is his use, especially in the lowest voice, of ostinato figures (Angelus Domini, Fremuit spiritu Jesus); this technique is also repeated in the Mass (Missa “Languir me fault”). The composer employed strict imitation at the beginning of a piece or section, and free imitation as the piece progresses. He paid particular attention to developing phrases for initial imitation, employing two- or one-part phrases ending in a melisma; in his imitative passages, he uses combines strict and free imitation, as well as variation techniques. The guiding principle is that the structure of the phrase must correspond to the accents of the text. The rhythmic patterns of the motets are simple and clear; sections in triple metre are most often associated with changes in texture (homophony). Clemens non Papa experimented most boldly with musica ficta in his motets, employing tonal responses here as well (Super ripam Jordanis). He had no interest in sound painting; his motets feature only conventional phrases intended to illustrate the text; to emphasise the musical expression, he most often employs interval leaps, such as the minor sixth (Vox in Rama).

Clemens non Papa’s masses belong to the genre of missae parodiae, in the form commonly used at the time. The models for the masses include his own chansons (Misericorde au martir, Languir me fault) and those by other composers: N. Gombert (En espoir), C. de Sermisy (Or combien), A. Willaert (A la fontaine du prez), P. de Manchicourt (J’ay vu le cerf), as well as his own motets (Ecce quam bonum, Pastores quidnam vidistis) or those by others: such as J. Lupi (Quam pulchra es, Spes salutis), P. de Manchicourt (Caro mea), L. Hellinck (Panis quem ego dabo) and M. Lasson (Virtute magna). Only the model of the Missa “Gaude lux Donatiane” remains undeciphered. Clemens non Papa treats the mass models in different ways, utilising them in full or only in fragments, often supplementing the mass material with themes of his own invention; in the Missa “Misericorde”, he uses both chansons written to the same text. The masses are characterised by a polyphonic texture employing strict and free counterpoint, the distinctiveness of the initial motifs, the clarity of the textual and musical structure, and the extensive use of variation techniques. He employs literal or variational repetitions of phrases at various points in the text (e.g. the Missa “Caro mea” and Missa “Ecce quam bonum”), and occasionally introduces canon (Missa “Virtute magna”) or homophonic passages (the Missa “Or combine”). An exception among Clemens non Papa’s masses is the Missa pro defunctis, based, in accordance with the practice commonly used in funeral masses at the time, on a cantus firmus from Gregorian chant.

Clemens non Papa is the author of a musical setting of the psalter based on the Dutch translation of the psalms by Willem van Zuylene van Nyevelt, entitled Souterliedekens. It is a collection of simple, three-voice arrangements intended for domestic use, based precisely on a one-voice model, published in Antwerp in 1540 by Symon Cock. This songbook, much like Clemens non Papa’s arrangement, gained great popularity thanks both to the texts in the national language and to the melodies drawn primarily from Flemish folk songs (only a few melodies originate from well-known French and German songs and from Latin hymnody).

Clemens non Papa’s French chansons belong to the polyphonic song genre; occasionally, the composer uses even complex contrapuntal techniques in them (Languir me fault) and increases the number of voices to six or even eight. Generally, these are typical light songs with simple, diatonic melodics, sometimes with a repetitive structure reminiscent of the Parisian chanson (Frisque et galliard). Among them are lyrical, even elegiac pieces (Pour une las j’endure, Incessament suis triste), but most often humorous (Entre vous filles) and bacchanalian (La la la maître Pierre) sung during feasts (Jouons, jouons beau jeu). Some chansons reveal melodic and contrapuntal ingenuity (Une fillette bien gorrière) and compositional mastery (C’est a grand tort). In songs set to Flemish texts, he made greater use of chordal texture and metro-rhythmic variation.

Clemens non Papa’s works played a significant role in the development of 16th-century polyphonic music. Arrangements of his compositions, particularly his chansons and motets, feature in the repertoire of most 16th- and 17th-century organ and lute tablatures, including V. Bakfark’s lute tablatures from 1565 and 1569 (Circumdederunt me viri, Erravi sicut ovis, Jesu nomen sanctissimum) and in a manuscript tablature for keyboard instruments from 1585 in the Provincial Archives in Gdańsk, call number Vn 123 (Deus in adiutorium, Je prens en gre). Some of Clemens non Papa’s achievements, including the development of the a cappella vocal style, the interplay between voices (particularly in six-voice structures), the development of ostinato formulas, the beginnings of dramatic elements in biblical motets, and the binary form, etc. were taken up in their own works by the two most outstanding representatives of the late Renaissance – O. di Lasso and G.P. da Palestrina. They, along with Jacobus Vaet and other composers, used Clemens non Papa’s works as models for many missae parodiae.

Literature: J. Schmidt-Görg Die Messen des Clemens non Papa, “Zeitschrift für Musikwissenschaft” IX, 1926/27; K.Ph. Bernet Kempers Zur Biographie Clemens non Papas, “Zeitschrift für Musikwissenschaft” IX, 1926/27; K.Ph. Bernet Kempers Jacobus Clemens non Papa und seine Motetten, Augsburg 1929; K.Ph. Bernet Kempers Die Souterliedekens des Clemens Jacobus non Papa, “Tijdschrift van de Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muzieksechiedenis” XII, XIII, 1928, 1929; E.E. Lowinsky Two Motets Wrongly Ascribed to Clemens non Papa, “Revue Belge de Musicologie” II, 1948; K.Ph. Bernet Kempers Die Messe “En espoir” der Jacobus Clemens non Papa, in: the commemorative book of J. Schmidt-Görg, Bonn 1957; K.Ph. Bernet Kempers Jacobus Clemens non Papa’s Chansons in their Chronological Order, “Musica Disciplina” XV, 1961; K.Ph. Bernet Kempers Zum Todesjahr des Clemens non Papa, in: the commemorative book of K.G. Fellerer, Regensburg 1962; K.Ph. Bernet Kempers Bibliography of the Sacred Works of Jacobus Clemens non Papa. A Classified List with a Notice on his Life, “Musica Disciplina” XVIII, 1964; E.S. Beebe Mode, Structure and Text Expression in the Motets of Jacobus Clemens non Papa. A Study of Style in Sacred Music, Yale University, New Haven 1979 (dissertation); K.Ph. Bernet Kempers Text und Proportionsvorschrift zugleich. Die Motette “Me oportet minui” von Clemens non Papa, in: Musicae scientiae collectanea, the commemorative book of K.G. Fellerer, ed. H. Hüschen, Cologne 1973; E.S. Beebe Text and Mode as Generators of Musical Structure in Clemens non Papa’s “Accesserunt ad Jesum”, in: Music and Language, «Studies in the History of Music» I, eds. E.S. Beebe et al., New York 1983; R. Toft Traditions of Pitch Content in the Sources of Two Sixteenth-Century Motets, “Music and Letters” LXIX, 1988; J. van Benthem Lazarus versus Absalon. About Fiction and Fact in the Netherlands Motet, “Tijdschrift van de Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muzieksechiedenis” XXXIX, 1989; Clemens non Papa. Alphabetisches Verzeichnis seiner Motetten. Mit Angaben der Stimmenzahl, Originalschlüsselung, Finalis und Fundstelle in der Gesamtausgabe (CMM 4, 1951–76), eds. M. Cordes and U. Kiefner, “Jahrbuch Alter Musik” I, 1989; E.S. Beebe Why Clemens non Papa Did Not Need a “Secret Chromatic Art”, in: Musical Humanism and Its Legacy, commemorative book of C.V. Paliski, eds. N. Kovaleff Baker and B. Russano Hanning, Stuyvesant (New York) 1992; C.A. Elias Imitation, Fragmentation and Assimilation of Chansons in the Masses of Gombert, Clement and Crecquillon. A Kaleidoscopic Process, dissertation Chicago University, 1994; H.M. Brown Clemens non Papa, the Virgin Mary and Rhetoric, in: Musicologia humana, commemorative book of W. and U. Kirkendale, eds. S. Gmeinwieser, D. Hiley and J. Riedlbauer, «Historiae Musicae Cultores Biblioteca» LXXIV, Florence 1994.