Jacquet of Mantua (EN)

Jacquet of Mantua, Giachetto, Jachetto, Jachettus Gallicus, Jacobus Collebaudi, Jacques Colebault, *1483 Vitré (near Rennes), †2 October 1559 Mantua, French composer active in Italy.

He was probably a relative of Antoine Colebault, a French singer at the papal court of Leon X. From at least 1519, Jacquet was a singer at the court of the Rangoni family in Modena. In 1525 he stayed at the court of the Este family in Ferrara, where he befriended A. Willaert, among others. In 1526 he moved to Mantua and worked as a singer until 1534. That year he was granted citizenship and became titular maestro di cappella at the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, in the service of the bishop of Mantua, Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga. He held this position until his death and was highly valued and praised by the cardinal. Statements by G. Zarlino, P. Pontio (who repeatedly cite examples from Jacquet’s work), G.M. Lafranco, G.M. Artusi, P. Cerone and lesser-known theorists indicate that Jacquet’s contemporaries considered him one of the most outstanding composers of his time. This is also evidenced by the dissemination of his works in manuscripts beginning in the 1520s and in printed editions (he was among the composers whose works were published most frequently in the 16th century, including in the form of intabulations for lute and vihuela). Music historians, however, were slow to take an interest in this figure, partly because of the difficulty in determining the authorship of many works, which are attributed in the sources only to “Jacquet”. There were several composers with this name at the time; the best known, apart from Jacquet of Mantua, were Jacques de Wert and especially Jacquet de Berchem, who was active at the court of Ferrara and with whom Jacquet of Mantua was often confused. It was not until research in the 1960s and 1970s (including unpublished dissertations by P. Jackson and G. Nugent, as well as an unpublished dissertation by K. Widmaier from 1953) and the publication of his complete works, which began in 1971, that the importance of the Mantuan composer in the field of sacred music could be appreciated.

Publishers of Jacquet of Mantua’s complete works have also included sacred works formerly considered questionable – since they only bore Jacquet’s name – or attributed to Jacquet de Berchem. As a result, his oeuvre comprises 4 masses for 4 voices, 17 masses for 5 voices (including Missa “Ferdinandus dux Calabriae” and Missa “Hercules dux Ferrariae”) and one mass for 6 voices; 113 religious motets, including 9 for 3 voices, 39 for 4 voices, 55 for 5 voices, 9 for 6 voices and one for 8 voices (this sole motet for 8 voices, preserved in a manuscript as a work by Jacquet of Mantua, is also attributed to Jacotin in a collective print from 1545; it should be noted that Jacotin and Jacquet are both forms of the name James); vespers hymns for 4–5 voices, magnificats for 4 voices, numerous psalms, other sacred works from the 1567 print, one secular motet for 4 voices and 8 for 5 voices, a Latin drinking song for 4 voices, a chanson for 4 voices and a madrigal for 4 voices. 

Unlike Jacquet de Berchem, known almost exclusively as a composer of madrigals and chansons, Jacquet de Mantua limited himself mainly to sacred music. The vast majority of his masses belong to the missa parodia type and are based on works by J. Mouton (4 motets), C. da Rore (2 madrigals and one motet), Ph. Verdelot (one motet and one madrigal), J. Arcadelt (one madrigal), J. Richafort (one chanson), C. Sermisy (1 motet) and his own (4 motets). The composer treats his models in various ways: he sometimes quotes them almost literally, and at other times only alludes to their melodic material. In some motets he also employs melodic lines from individual voices of earlier composers, such as Hayne van Ghizeghem, A. de Févin, or Josquin des Prés. Jacquet de Mantua refers to Josquin in certain masses based on ostinato cantus firmi, whether constructed (the Missa “La sol fa re mi”) or arranged according to the syllables of the text (the Missa “Ferdinandus dux Calabriae”). It is worth noting, however, that in the mass entitled “Hercules dux Ferrariae” only the final part of the ostinato melody conforms to the principle of the soggetto cavato delle parole. Jacquet of Mantua’s motets are either one- or two-part, with the latter including reprise motets. Both in the masses and in the motets, G. Nugent observes certain stylistic differences: in the 4-voice works he noted a greater degree of homorhythm, pronounced sectionalism, voice-pairing, and more melisma in the melodic line; whereas in the 5-voice works there is less homorhythm, more frequent use of imitation in which sectional boundaries are blurred through overlapping points of imitation, and a predominantly syllabic style, reflecting a greater concern for textual declamation. The author also claimed that the distinction between 4-voice and 5-voice works was related to the earlier or later dates of their publication, which is not the case. Both types of compositions are distributed evenly and generally do not extend into the final years of the composer’s life. Works written in his last period, as well as those published posthumously, are instead characterised by an overall simplification of texture, evident for example in the vespers hymns and especially in the psalms written in the falsobordone style. This difference, however, results from the distinct nature of the genre. Jacquet of Mantua’s oeuvre constitutes an important bridge between the tradition of the previous generation – namely that of Josquin des Prés – and the music of his great contemporary, Gombert. The vitality of this link is demonstrated, among other things, by the fact that the most outstanding composers of the next generation, such as Philip de Monte, O. di Lasso, and G. P. da Palestrina, drew on the motets of the master from Mantua as the basis for their missae parodiae.

Literature: P. Wagner Geschichte der Messe, Leipzig 1913, reprint 1963; H. Zenck Adrian Willaerts “Salmi spezzati” (1550), “Die Musikforschung” II, 1949; A.M. Bautier-Regnier Jachet de Mantoue, “Revue Belge de Musicologie” VI, 1952; K. Widmaier Jachet de Mantua un sein Motettenschaffen, thesis, Universität Freiburg, 1953; P. Jackson The Vesper Hymns of Jachet di Mantua, thesis, University of North Carolina, 1965; V. Mattfeld Georg Rhaw’s Publications for Vespers, Brooklyn 1966; P. Tagmann Archivalische Studien zur Musikpflege am Dom von Mantua, 1500–1627, Bern 1967; P.T. Jackson The Masses of Jachet of Mantua, thesis, University of North Carolina, 1968; A. Dunning Josquini antiquos, Musae, memoremus amores: a Mantovan Motet from 1554 in Homage to Josquin, “Acta Musicologica” XLI, 1969; A. Dunning Die Staatsmotette, 1480–1555, Utrecht 1970; G. Nugent The Jacquet Motets and their Authors, thesis, Princeton University, 1973; P.T. Jackson Two Descendants of Josquin’s “Hercules” Mass, “Music and Letters” LIX, 1978; Q.W. Quereau Sixteenth-Century Parody. An Approach to Analysis, “Journal of the American Musicological Society” XXXI, 1978 (contains 1 motet by Jachet de Mantua); I. Fenlon Music and Patronage in Sixteenth-Century Mantua, 2 vols., Cambridge 1980, 1982 (vol. 2 contains one 4-voice motet by Jachet de Mantua from a 1539 edition); R. Dingle The Three-Voice Motets of Jacquet of Mantua, master’s thesis, University of London, 1987; E.E. Miles The Double Choir and cori spezzati Vespers’ Psalms of Antonio Gardane’s Cantus di Adriano et di Jachet of 1550, master’s thesis, University of Auckland, 1988; G. Nugent Jacquet’s Tributes to the Neapolitan Aragonese, “Journal of Musicology” VI, 1988; G. Nugent Anti-Protestant Music for Sixteenth-Century Ferrara, “Journal of the American Musicological Society” XLIII, 1990; G. Nugent Music Against Heresy: Ferrara in the Epoch of Renée of France, in: Atti del XIV congresso della Società internazionale di musicologia, ed. A. Pompilio, Turin 1990; G. Nugent Some Reflections on Patronage: Palestrina and Mantua, in: Music in Renaissance Cities and Courts. Studies in Honor of Lewis Lockwood, ed. A.M. Cummings and J.A. Owens, Warren 1996; C. Gallico Jachet da Mantoa e i nuovi modelli di cultura musicale al tempo di Giulio Romano, in: Sopra li fondamenti della verità. Musica italiana fra XV e XVII secolo, Bulzoni 2001; J. Milsom Josquin and Jacquet: A New Tudor Source?, “Tijdschrift van de Koninklijke Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis” LII, 2002; K. Pietschmann Kirchenmusik zwischen Tradition und Reform. Die päpstiche Sängerkapelle und ihr Repertoire im Pontifikat Paulus III. (1534–1549), Turnhout 2003; J. Duchamp Un manuscrit musical pour la liturgie des morts et ses Requiem inconnus de Palestrina et Jachet: Ferrare, Biblioteca Communale Ariostea, CL. II 476, “Revue de Musicologie” XCVI, 2010; D.C. Sanders Music at the Gonzaga Court in Mantua, Lanham 2012; Msze Maryjne z druku Scotta w rękopisie Kk I.1: Ruffo, Jachet, Morales i anonimowe, ed. M. Solarz, «Musica in Ecclesia Cathedrali Cracoviensi Audita» I, Krakow 2015; I. Fenlon Jacquet of Mantua and Music of State, in: Maestranze artisti e apparatori per la scena dei Gonzaga 1480–1630, ed. S. Brunetti, Bari 2016; J. Duchamp L’écriture foisonnante au XVIe siècle à travers le motet Murus tuus de Jacquet de Mantoue, in: Foisonnements et proliférations en musique, ed. M. Joubert and D. le Touzé, Lyon 2020.