The Art of Music. Vol. 01 (of 14), A Narrative History of Music. Book 1, The Pre-classic Periods / A Comprehensive Library of Information for Music Lovers and Musicians

by Unknown

III

The next important advance in the art of polyphony is associated with the name of Johannes Okeghem,[95] to whom the leadership in the art of music passed at the death of Dufay, in 1474. Like many other musicians of the time, Okeghem was trained as a choir boy, being one of the fifty-three choristers in the cathedral at Antwerp just before the middle of the century. About twenty years later we find him in Paris as royal chapel master, in great favor with King Louis the Eleventh. He travelled to Spain at the King’s expense, and later, about 1484, revisited his native country, where he was received at Bruges with great ceremony. It is evident, therefore, that his fame was already well established during the lifetime of the older master, Dufay, to whose mantle he fell heir at about the age of forty-five. It is thought that during the latter period of his life he resided at Tours, where he died in 1495. It is most likely that he was a pupil of Binchois, rather than of Dufay.

The extant compositions of this master are seventeen masses, seven motets, nineteen chansons, and a number of canons. One mass is in the possession of the papal chapel, and five of the chansons were published by Petrucci early in the sixteenth century, not long after Okeghem’s death. The Missa cujusvis toni was used for many years in the cathedral at Munich, where the MS., with corrections made by the singers themselves, still exists. Another mass, Deo gratia, has become one of the curiosities of musical history, from the fact that it is written for thirty-six parts, with a nine-fold canon.

It may be said at once that Okeghem’s celebrity, and his important place in the history of polyphony, rest upon two things: his remarkable influence as a teacher, and the fact that under him and his pupils the canonic style, in extremely ingenious combinations, reached the apogee of its development. Preceding composers had studied and written much about the proper manner of treating two or more melodies in combination, about intervals, progressions, dissonances, mensural problems, and the art of imitation, diminution, inversion, and the like. Some of them had expended their genius in systematizing and classifying the complex rules for contrapuntal writing, and they delighted in setting themselves difficult tasks to be performed within these rigid rules. This was all very well; it resulted in the establishment of a perfected technique and a body of knowledge, the value of which was recognized by every musician with scholarly aims. Okeghem appeared on the scene at a time when the struggle with technical difficulties seemed to be an end in itself, and his genius—of the mathematical sort—enabled him to master and play with them. It is a mistake to suppose that he devoted himself wholly, or even largely, to the composition of more ‘riddle canons,’ as they are called; but it is probably a fact that he is most frequently remembered and characterized by them.

RIDDLE CANON BY PIERRE DE LA RUE.

A hint as to the nature of these curious compositions will be sufficient, perhaps, to mystify the uninitiated reader. The mass, Ad omnem tonum, shows, instead of the clefs, question marks as signatures; and it may be sung, by using the corresponding accidentals, in any church mode. The thirty-six part mass, with canon for nine parts, already mentioned, is not a ‘riddle,’ but has all the difficulties of one. In Okeghem’s school is found the so-called ‘crab canon,’ canon cancrizans, which is first sung through in the usual way from beginning to end, then repeated backward. There is also a canon which, like the canon cancrizans, is to be sung through twice, but from the beginning to the end both times. In the second singing, however, each progression of the original melody down is answered by a corresponding interval up, or vice versa. This is known as the ‘inverted canon.’ One of Okeghem’s followers, Hobrecht, furnishes us even with a canon which has both the retrograde and the inverted motion.

In fact, canonic forms of all varieties and complications were treated by Okeghem and his school to the point of exhaustion. It must not be forgotten that the range given to a single voice was much more limited than at present; that these compositions must conform to the strictest rules, not only when sung in the normal manner, but when repeated in retrograde or inverted motion; and that the very essence of the work was the perfection attained in adhering to contrapuntal laws, rather than the expression of individual feeling. Okeghem himself made these puzzles but rarely, and, as it were, in the manner of providing an intellectual treat for the educated musicians of his day, especially those who formed the church choirs. These difficult works were a test of their ability and thorough acquaintance with Church modes; they afforded exercise in transposition from one mode to another and offered the charm of variety which the special characteristics of each individual mode imparted. Furthermore, they tended to develop the highest artistry the vocalist was capable of, and were an illustration of the variety of combinations possible with the already existing parts.

It has often been claimed that Okeghem was only a musical pundit; that his works are merely curiosities, depending for their interest on their mathematical ingenuity, and not on their artistic worth. But such a judgment does the master less than justice. Even from the point of view of later and more beautiful achievements, it must be acknowledged that at least some of his compositions have a certain artistic merit. Moreover, the service of Okeghem and his school was one of the necessary preliminaries to the full perfection of the art of polyphony. Technical difficulties were solved once for all, and a vast system of theoretical knowledge was prepared by their devoted labors for the use of the greater masters who should follow. So keen a critic and judge as R. G. Kiesewetter (1841) says of Okeghem and his followers: ‘... they have greater facility in counterpoint and fertility in invention; their compositions, moreover, being no longer mere premeditated submissions to contrapuntal operation, are for the most part indicative of thought and sketched with manifest design; being also full of ingenious contrivances of an obligato counterpoint, at that time just discovered.’

Besides, the work of Okeghem is interesting as illustrating a certain phase of character peculiar to the Middle Ages. There was, at the time, a love of secrecy and mystery, which led artists and expert craftsmen to embody the signs of their craft in a private and esoteric system, which no one but the initiated could understand. In accordance with this trend, the writing down of a canon of Okeghem, as has been pointed out, often took the form of a special musical design, consisting only of a few notes and a short Latin inscription. The reading of such a canon was not always easy, even to the initiated: but to the novice it had all the mystery of a Delphic oracle. It was not possible, of course, even for the most cultivated musician, upon hearing such a work performed, to recognize and follow all its complexities. Okeghem was the master who aroused and nourished the taste for these complex achievements in music, though he was by no means their inventor. Such devices, though to a less degree, were already known to Dufay, as is shown in his canon, L’omme armé. But Okeghem brought the art to the point of virtuosity; and it is for this reason he stands at the head of the Netherland school. Judged by the standard of pure art, he is at his best as a composer of chansons. Even these, however, have long outlived their day, just as his contrapuntal riddles have long ceased to tease the intelligence or curiosity of lovers of music.

It is by virtue of another quality, his gift for teaching, that Okeghem lives to-day. As the founder of the Netherland school merely, his influence must almost have ceased when the traditions of that school were superseded by the vital enthusiasm of another; but, as the teacher of the leaders of succeeding schools, he has achieved a kind of immortality sometimes missed by greater artists. In the whole history of music Okeghem as a teacher stands alone. Only Porpora, possibly, the great singing master of the eighteenth century, can be compared to him. Kiesewetter says, ‘Through his pupils the art was transplanted into all countries, and he must be regarded (for it can be proved by genealogy) as the founder of all schools from his own to the present age.’

Only a few of his most distinguished pupils can be mentioned here: Jean de Roi, Basiron, Jacques Barbireau, Pierre de la Rue, Compère, Agricola, Caron, Verbonnet, Brumel, and, greatest of all, Josquin des Prés. Some of them, such as Agricola, unfortunately conceived the writing of contrapuntal intricacies to be their chief duty; while others used their acquired knowledge to better purpose. The Belgian, Hobrecht (1450-1505), chapel master of Notre Dame at Antwerp, was probably not a personal pupil of Okeghem, though a zealous follower and admirer. While assimilating and adopting the master’s ingenuity, he also was able to weave into his masses and motets a personal, subjective quality which marks them with the composer’s individuality. So highly esteemed was Hobrecht in his day that in 1494 the whole choir of the principal church in Bruges, for which he had written a mass, travelled to Antwerp in order to express thanks and do him honor.

During Okeghem’s supremacy—a matter of forty years or so—some of the more interesting forms, which had been cultivated in the time of Dufay, disappeared. We look in vain for the mediæval rondo, the ballad, the accompanied secular art song, and the paraphrased church song, with instrumental accompaniment. The contribution of Okeghem and his followers was the development of technical resources and a greater freedom, both in range and style, in vocal composition. His unremitting, thoughtful search for fundamental rules established the art of polyphony on a firm basis, and provided a safe starting point for the utterance of truth and passion. It is the fate, however, of work depending on a passing taste to grow old quickly, and Okeghem himself probably outlived his popularity. But his pupils spread over Europe and perpetuated his learning, and some of them, at least, enriched the art by a fresher genius. Unlike the old French and Gallo-Belgian masters, who stayed at home, these writers overflowed into Italy and Germany, established schools of instruction, and founded choruses for the production of vocal works. Among them, moreover, was one genius who exercised the strongest influence on the art of music, and deserves to rank as one of its greatest masters. That genius was Josquin des Prés.