Thomas Crecquillon
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Thomas Crecquillon or Créquillon ( – probably early 1557) was a
Franco-Flemish school The designation Franco-Flemish School, also called Netherlandish School, Burgundian School, Low Countries School, Flemish School, Dutch School, or Northern School, refers to the style of polyphonic vocal music composition originating from Franc ...
composer of the
Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...
. While his place of birth is unknown, it was probably within the region loosely known at the time as the
Low Countries The Low Countries (; ), historically also known as the Netherlands (), is a coastal lowland region in Northwestern Europe forming the lower Drainage basin, basin of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta and consisting today of the three modern "Bene ...
, and he probably died at
Béthune Béthune ( ; archaic and ''Bethwyn'' historically in English) is a town in northern France, Subprefectures in France, sub-prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais Departments of France, department. Geography Béthune is located in the Provinces of Fran ...
.


Biography

Very little is known about his early life. He was a priest and a member of the chapel of Emperor
Charles V Charles V may refer to: Kings and Emperors * Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (1500–1558) * Charles V of Naples (1661–1700), better known as Charles II of Spain * Charles V of France (1338–1380), called the Wise Others * Charles V, Duke ...
, but whether he was ''maître de chapelle'' or merely a singer is still a matter of dispute; the surviving documents are contradictory. Later he seems to have held positions at
Dendermonde Dendermonde (; , ) is a city in the Flemish Region, Flemish Provinces of Belgium, province of East Flanders in Belgium. The Municipalities of Belgium, municipality comprises the city of Dendermonde and the towns of Appels, Baasrode, Grembergen, M ...
,
Béthune Béthune ( ; archaic and ''Bethwyn'' historically in English) is a town in northern France, Subprefectures in France, sub-prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais Departments of France, department. Geography Béthune is located in the Provinces of Fran ...
,
Leuven Leuven (, , ), also called Louvain (, , ), is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipalit ...
, and
Namur Namur (; ; ) is a city and municipality in Wallonia, Belgium. It is the capital both of the province of Namur and of Wallonia, hosting the Parliament of Wallonia, the Government of Wallonia and its administration. Namur stands at the confl ...
. Unlike many of the composers of the
Franco-Flemish school The designation Franco-Flemish School, also called Netherlandish School, Burgundian School, Low Countries School, Flemish School, Dutch School, or Northern School, refers to the style of polyphonic vocal music composition originating from Franc ...
, he seems never to have left his home region for
Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
or other parts of
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. Crecquillon was retired by 1555, and most likely he died in 1557, probably a victim of the serious outbreak of the plague in Béthune that year. The location of his burial remains a mystery, and no likeness of Crecquillon is known to exist. Crecquillon's music was highly regarded by his contemporaries, and shows a
harmonic In physics, acoustics, and telecommunications, a harmonic is a sinusoidal wave with a frequency that is a positive integer multiple of the ''fundamental frequency'' of a periodic signal. The fundamental frequency is also called the ''1st har ...
and melodic smoothness which prefigures the culminating
polyphonic Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice ( monophony) or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords ...
style of
Palestrina Palestrina (ancient ''Praeneste''; , ''Prainestos'') is a modern Italian city and ''comune'' (municipality) with a population of about 22,000, in Lazio, about east of Rome. It is connected to the latter by the Via Prenestina. It is built upon ...
. He wrote twelve masses, more than 100
motet In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the preeminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to the Eng ...
s and almost 200 ''
chanson A (, ; , ) is generally any Lyrics, lyric-driven French song. The term is most commonly used in English to refer either to the secular polyphonic French songs of late medieval music, medieval and Renaissance music or to a specific style of ...
s''. Stylistically he uses points of imitation, rather in the manner of
Josquin des Prez Josquin Lebloitte dit des Prez ( – 27 August 1521) was a composer of High Renaissance music, who is variously described as French or Franco-Flemish. Considered one of the greatest composers of the Renaissance, he was a central figure of the ...
, in almost all of his sacred works (the masses and motets), following the contemporary trend toward pervading imitation and
polyphonic Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice ( monophony) or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords ...
complexity. Unlike Josquin, however, Crecquillon rarely varies his texture for dramatic effect, preferring smoothness and consistency. His secular ''chansons'', unlike most of those by other composers of the same time, also use pervading imitation, although as is normal in a lighter form of music, they make considerable use of repetition (for example of the final phrase). Because they were imitative, it was Crecquillon's ''chansons'' which provided some of the best models for the later development of the instrumental ''
canzona The canzona, also known as the canzon or canzone, is an Italian musical form derived from the Franco-Flemish and Parisian '' chansons''. Background The canzona is an instrumental musical form that differs from the similar forms of ricercare ...
'', the instrumental form which developed directly from the ''chanson''. Many of his ''chansons'' were arranged for instruments, especially
lute A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck (music), neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lu ...
. The printers Petrus Phalesius the Elder (of Leuven) and Tielman Susato (of Antwerp) published more music by him than by any other composer, which shows the extent of his reputation at the time, though his music is not as often recorded today as is that of many of the Netherlanders working at the same time. His name is pronounced "toh-MAH krehk-kee-YON." Some historical sources spell the composer's last name with an acute accent mark above its "e", then the composer's last name is actually pronounced "krayk-kee-YON."


Scores

* * *The complete musical works of Thomas Crecquillon (the ''Opera Omnia'') were published in twenty volumes, between 1974 and 2011, by the American Institute of Musicology.


Further reading

* Gustave Reese, ''Music in the Renaissance''. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1954. () *"Thomas Crecquillon." ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. () * Jas, Eric, ed. ''Beyond Contemporary Fame. Reassessing the Art of Clemens non Papa and Thomas Crecquillon''. Turnhout: Brepols, 2005. * ''Thomas Crecquillon in Context: A Reappraisal of his Life and of Selected Works'', by Martin A. O. Ham (1998), published by the University of Surrey (a doctoral thesis). {{DEFAULTSORT:Crecquillon, Thomas 1500s births 1557 deaths Musicians from the Habsburg Netherlands Classical composers Male classical composers 16th-century Franco-Flemish composers Renaissance composers