Manchicourt, Pierre de (EN)

Manchicourt, Mancicourt, Manchicurti, Pierre de, *ca. 1510 Béthune, †before February 1562 (?) Madrid (the death date of 5th October 1564, given in recent literature after The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, is less likely), Franco-Flemish composer. In 1525 he was a chorister at Arras Cathedral. Provided that the designation “Ecclesiae Turonensis praefectus” on the title page of a 1539 print is not an error, Manchicourt was at that time the director of the cathedral choir in Tours. In 1545 he was maître de chapelle at Tournai Cathedral; his position is likewise indicated in prints from 1553 (“Ecclesiae Tornacensis Phonascus”) and 1556. That same year he was also canon of Arras cathedral, which most likely did not require him to reside in the city. After April 1559 he became the director of the chapel at the court of Philip II, who was then residing in the Low Countries. In 1560 he departed with the court for Toledo and Segovia, and in Spain he probably directed the ensemble until his death.

Manchicourt is one of the most eminent representatives of the generation of N. Gombert and Clemens non Papa. He drew on the work of Josquin des Prés, at times introducing canons in his earlier motets (for example O virgo virginum, 1534, or the more intricate canon in Regina caeli laetare, 1539, in which the comes must omit all rests and minim-value dots, following an enigmatic instruction based on the ambiguity of the word “souspirer” – to take a breath and suspirium  – a minim rest), basing works on an ostinato (the secular motet Nil pace est melius, probably from 1546) or quite frequently using voice-parings – both in motets and in masses and chansons – to present either the same phrase or different ones, resulting in a two-theme exposition. He also drew on the Josquinian tradition, often giving two-part motets a reprise form, with the repetition being either exact or subjected to variational transformations (including, among others, the change from duple to triple meter); the musical reprise does not always coincide with a repetition of the text. In Manchicourt’s motets and masses, imitative or quasi-imitative structures are the most common, while homorhythm – especially in the motets – appears only rarely, usually in longer note values and functioning as a noema-like figure (for example at the words “O Maria” or “Iesum Christum”). In some settings of the Gloria and Credo, homorhythmic passages occur more frequently, likely in connection with the structure of the models (as in the Missa “De retourner”, in which imitation plays a lesser role). Exceptions include somewhat longer homosyllabic structures in the Requiem and in the penitential motet Peccantem me; in the latter work, Manchicourt also employs a marked slowing down at the word “miserere.” Similarly, the supplicatory motet O Bone Iesu stands out due to the absence of imitation at the beginning and the highlighting of the words “in dolore suspirat” through homorhythm. However, scholars have generally observed few examples where the music depicts or illustrates the text.

Manchicourt’s masses, settings of the five-part Ordinary, are predominantly parody masses and are based on motets (ten cycles) and chansons (six cycles) either of his own composition (three), by C. de Sermisy (three), J. Mouton (two), anonymous works published in 1529 (two), or by Gombert, J. Richafort and J. Lhéritier, or Crecquillon (3 model motets have not been identified). The remaining two masses – Veni Sancte Spiritus and De Domina – together with the Requiem and the Magnificat secundi toni, are based on their respective chant melodies. In certain sections of the Mass, the composer manipulates the number of voices in a schematic manner: reducing them in the Credo at the words “Crucifixus” to two or three voices (or to four in 6-voice masses); in the Sanctus, to two voices at “Pleni sunt” and to three at “Benedictus”; and occasionally in the Gloria to two voices at “Domine Deus”, while conversely often increasing them to five or six voices in the third Agnus Dei. Similarly, in the Magnificat, for which he set only the even verses, the first two are 4-voice, the next ones 3- and 2-voice, and the final two are 5-voice.

Many of Manchicourt’s chansons belong to the Josquin-type, in which the imitative texture does not differ from that of motets; in Si mon traveil there even appears, throughout the entire piece, a canon by inversion. Others are closer to the Parisian chanson type. In these, homorhythmic passages, sometimes in triple meter, are more frequent, as is free counterpoint; all voices do not always participate in the imitation, and the imitative phrases themselves tend to be shorter and more clearly differentiated rhythmically. The form of the chansons follows the poetic structure of the texts, which is why various kinds of repetitions occur. In Susato’s 1545 collection there are two chansons spirituelles and twenty-seven secular ones, whose texts are either lyrical or frivolous, and this diversity is reflected in the musical layer.

Literature: R. Vannes Dictionnaire des musiciens (compositeurs), Brussels 1947; J.D. Wicks The Motets of Pierre de Manchicourt (ca. 1510–1564), thesis, Harvard University, 1959; N. Bridgman The Franco-Flemings in the North, in: The New Oxford History of Music, vol. 4, Oxford 1968; H. Hüschen Lob- und Preismotetten auf die Musik aus früheren Jahrhunderten, w: Musicae scientiae collectanea. Festschrift Karl Gustav Fellerer zum 70. Geburtstag, ed. H. Hüschen, Cologne 1973; L.J. Wagner Music of Composers from the Low Countries at the Spanish Court of Philip II, in: Musique des Pays-Bas ancienne – Musique espagnole ancienne, Leuven 1988; R. Tomiczek-Gernez Pierre de Manchicourt und die Missa ad imitationem modulorum, Brussels 1993; H. Vanhulst Le Bassus novi prorsus et elegantis libri musici (1561): un recueil allemand de motets et de chansons françaises, tant spirituelles que profanes, de compositeurs des anciens Pays-Bas, “Revue Belge de Musicologie” LIII, 1999; H. Meconi Early Musical Borrowing, New York 2004.