Weerbeke, Werbeck, Gaspar, Jaspar, van *ca. 1445 Oudenaarde, †after 1516 Rome (?), Flemish composer. Probably educated in Flanders, he became maestro di cappella di camera to Galeazzo Maria Sforza around 1471. He was associated with the Sforza family until their decline, after the capture of Milan by the French in 1499, with interruptions in the years 1480–89, when he was active in the papal choir, and in the years 1495–98, when he maintained closer ties with the Burgundian court of Philip the Fair. In 1500, he resumed his duties as a singer in the papal chapel, of which he remained a member until at least 1514. He received various prebends and benefices; the last source mention of Weerbeke – a document granting him a canonical prebend in Mainz – comes from Rome in 1517.
Weerbeke’s work (usually referred to by his contemporaries only by his first name) enjoyed considerable recognition at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries. F. Gaffurius (Practica musice) and G. Crétin (Deploration sur le trespas de Jean Okeghem) list him among the greatest composers of the era, and in the early prints of O. Petrucci (1501–09) as many as 31 of his works were published (including masses in his own collection, which was a unique distinction). Numerous copies of his works have also survived, including a mass and two motets (anonymously) in Warsaw (University Library) in a manuscript originating from Silesia or Bohemia. Like his compatriots working in Milan, Josquin des Prés and L. Compère, Weerbeke combined in his compositions the refined techniques of Netherlandish polyphony, such as syntactic imitation and canon (Agnus II in the Mass N’as tu pas), with elements of the Italian style, characterised by, among other things, textural simplicity and clarity (homorhythms, antiphonal opposition of voice groups) and attention to the correct declamation of the text. Italian influences are also evident in Weerbeke’s motets, which (with the exception of the five-voice compositions) are not based on fixed melodies, although plainchant is sometimes paraphrased by the voices participating in the imitation. The cantus firmus technique dominates Weerbeke’s masses, the oldest of which (O Venus bant and Ave regina, with the antiphon text sung in the tenor) are clearly influenced by the work of G. Dufay, visible, among other things, in the mensural markings, the proportions of free and cantus firmus-based sections, and the use of leading motifs. Fixed melodies, from both liturgical works and secular songs, are usually quoted in the tenor, but also in the bass (Agnus III in the mass Princesse d’amourettes) or in various voices (the mass N’a tu pas). In two masses, Weerbeke introduces both the cantus firmus and elements of parodied technique. The model material, sometimes paraphrased in all four voices (the mass Et trop penser), usually undergoes significant rhythmic (changing the tempus imperfectum for the perfectum) and melodic transformations. Weerbeke also created so-called motet masses, characteristic of the Milanese tradition, in which the fixed and variable parts of the mass were replaced by other religious texts. Weerbeke’s three cycles of this type: Ave mundi Domina (8 pieces), Quam pulchra es (8 pieces, including one in two movements), and Spiritus Domini (6 pieces), achieve coherence through the fairly consistent use of a fixed mode, set of keys, and a schematic sequence of mensural markings in each. Three of the six chansons attributed to Weerbeke belong to the somewhat conservative polytextual chanson type, in which the superius performs a single text, while another popular song is introduced in the lower voices (or, in the case of a motet chanson, a melody from the tenor of one of Weerbeke’s motets in the bass).
Literature: G. Croll Gaspar van Weerbeke. An Outline of his Life and Works, “Musica Disciplina” VI, 1952; E.F. Fiedler H. Finck, G. vav Weerbeke und die Göttin Venus. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Cantus-firmus-Praxis im frühen 16. Jahrhundert, in: Renaissance-Studien, commemorative book of H. Osthoff, ed. L. Finscher, Tutzing 1979; D. Kämper La stangetta. Eine Instrumentalkomposition Gaspars van Weerbeke? in: Ars musica, ars scientia, commemorative book of H. Hüschen, ed. D. Altenburg, Cologne 1980; L.H. Ward The „Motetti missales” Repertory Reconsidered, “Journal of the American Musicological Society” XXXIX, 1986; W. F. Prizer Music at the Court of the Sforza. The Birth and Death of a Musical Center, “Musica Disciplina” XLIII, 1989; E.F. Fiedler A New Mass by Gaspar van Weerbeke?, in: Studien zur Musikgeschichte, commemorative book of L. Finscher, ed. A. Laubenthal and K. Kusan-Windweh, Kassel 1995; P. Macey Galeazzo Maria Sforza and Musical Patronage in Milan, “Early Music History” XV, 1996; E.F. Fiedler Die Messen des Gaspar van Weerbeke (ca. 1445–nach 1517), «Frankfurter Beiträge zur Musikwissenschaft» XXVI, Tutzing 1997; P.A. Merkley, L.L. Matthews Merkley Music and Patronage in the Sforza Court, «Studi sulla storia della musica in Lombadria: Collana di testi musicologici» III, Turnhout 1999; L.L. Matthews Weerbeke in Milan: Aspects of Clientage at Court, commemorative book of A. Dunning, ed. G. Fornari, Turnhout 2002; A. Pavanello Stabat mater/Vidi speciosam: Some Considerations on the Origin and Dating of Gaspar van Weerbeke’s Motet in the Chigi Codex, “Tijdschrift van de Koninklijke Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis, LX, 1–2, 2010; R. Chiu Music, Pestilence and Two Settings of O beate Sebastiane, “Early Music History” XXXI. 2012; R.J. Wieczorek Patronat muzyczny w renesansowych Włoszech (1470–1527): Mediolan, Ferrara, Mantua, Florencja, Rzym, Poznań 2013; A. Pavanello Weerbeke at Rome: The Making of a Papal Composer, in: Musikalische Perfomanz und päpstliche Repräsentation in der Renaissance, ed. K. Pietschmann, Kassel 2014; Gaspar van Weerbeke: New Perspectives on his Life and Music, ed. A. Lindmayr-Brandl, P. Kolb, Turnhout 2019; A. Pavanello A Flemish Venus in Milan: Gaspar van Weerbeke’s Missa O Venus Bant, “Early Music History” XXXVIII, 2019; A. Pavanello Praying to Mary: Another Look at Gaspar van Weerbeke’s Marian Motetti Missales, in: Motet cycles: Between Devotion and Liturgy, ed. A. Pavanello, D.V. Filippi, «Schola Cantorum basiliensis: Scripta» VII, Bazylea 2019; E. Verroken New Biographical information on the formative years of Gaspar van Weerbeke, “Journal of the Alamire Foundation” XII, 1, 2020.
Editions:
Gaspar van Weerbeke Collected Works, «Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae» CVI, vol. 1: Masses. Part 1, ed. A. Pavanello, A. Lindmayr-Brandl, [no place] 2016; vol. 2: The Masses. Part 2, ed. P. Kolb, A. Lindmayr-Brandl, [no place] 2018; vol. 3: The Motet Cycles (cycles 1–3), ed. A. Lindmayr-Brandl, Neuhausen 1998; vol. 4: Motets, ed. A. Pavanello, A. Lindmayr-Brandl, vol. 5: Settings of Liturgical Texts, Songs, and Instrumental Works, ed. P. Kolb, A. Pavanello, A. Lindmayr-Brandl, [no place] 2020
3 cycles of motets (1–2, 4), 3 other motets and a mass Ave regina caelorum, facsimile, in: Milan, Archivio della Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo, Sezione Musicale, Librone 1 (olim 2269) and Milan (…), Librone 2 (olim 2268), ed. H.M. Brown, «Renaissance Music in Facsimile» XIIa i XIIb, New York 1987, transcription in: Gaspar van Weerbeke Messe e motetti, ed. G. Tintori, «Archivium Musices Metropolitanum Mediolanense» XI, Milan 1963
mass O Venus bant, ed. R. Gerber, «Das Erbe Deutscher Musik» 1st series, XXXIII, Kassel 1960
Gaspar van Weerbeke, Missa „Princesse d’amourettes”, ed. W. Elders, «Exempla Musica Neerlandica» VIII, Utrecht 1974
6 motets and 2 motets and 3rd cycle of Petrucci’s prints in: Selections from Motetti A numero trentatre (Venice, 1502) and Selections from Motetti libro quarto (Venice, 1505), ed. R. Sherr, «Sixteenth-Century Motet», I and III, New York–London 1991
5 motets in: Ottaviano Petrucci. Motetti de Passione, de Cruce, de Sacramento, de Beata Virgine et huiusmodi. B, Venice, 1503, ed. W. Drake, «Monuments of Renaissance Music» XI, Chicago 2002
La stangetta in: Harmonice musices odhecaton A, ed. H. Hewitt, Cambridge (Massachusetts) 1942, 2nd ed. 1946, reprint 1978
Compositions
Vocal:
religious:
Misse Gaspar for 4 voices, 5 cycles, published in Venice 1507
mass for 4 voices, in a collective print from 1509
2 masses for 4 voices, manuscript (Jena, Vatican)
Missa „Une mousse de Biscaye” for 4 voices, attributed to Josquin des Prés, published in Venice 1505
2 Credo for 4 voices, in a collective print from 1505
2 lessons on lamentation for voices, in a collective print from 1506
15 motets for 4 voices (two of them published anonymously with a different text in a laud collection from 1508), published in collective prints of O. Petrucci from 1502, 1503, 1505 and 2 motets, manuscript Milan, Vatican
1 motet for 5 voices, in a collective print from 1508
24 motetti missales for 4 voices (including one in two versions and 1 with two different texts) in two cycles preserved in a manuscript from Milan (Gaffori codices) and the third one in a collective print of O. Petrucci from 1505 (the fourth cycle is prepared in the second F. Gaffurius Codex from 4 repeated motets and a new one)
2 sequences: one for 5 voices and one for 4 voices (uncertain authorship)
Magnificat, manuscript Vatican
secular:
3 chansons for 4 voices (including two preserved without bass and one preserved also with an Italian text, attributed also to L. Compère)
1 chanson for 3 voices, manuscript Florence, Rome
1 chanson for 3 voices preserved in a manuscript and in a collective print from 1501 (in which one is attributed to Josquin des Prés)
motet chanson for 4 voices, manuscript Brussels, London
Instrumental:
La stangetta for 3 voices, uncertain authorship, in Harmonice musices odhecaton A, published in Venice 1501
