Gerardus Mes or Gherardus (fl. c. 1561) was a Franco-Flemish composer.

Life and work

Little of his work has survived, except the settings for four voices of the ''

Souterliedekens The ''Souterliedekens'' (literal: Psalter-songs) is a Dutch metrical psalter, published in 1540 in Antwerp, and which remained very popular throughout the century. The metrical rhyming psalms were, probably, arranged by a Utrecht nobleman: Willem v ...

'', 150

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

Psalm Songs and

canticle A canticle (from the Latin ''canticulum'', a diminutive of ''canticum'', "song") is a hymn, psalm or other Christianity, Christian song of praise with lyrics usually taken from biblical or holy texts. Canticles are used in Christian liturgy. Ca ...

s, possibly written by nobleman Willem van Zuylen van Nijevelt and published in 1540 with a notation of the melody for one voice. Mes's settings appeared in

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

in 1561 as the eighth up to the eleventh volume of the ''Musijck Boexkens'', a collection of Dutch songs edited by

Tielman Susato Tielman (or Tylman) Susato (''c.'' 1510/15 – after 1570) was a Renaissance composer, instrumentalist and publisher of music in Antwerp. Biography While Susato's exact place of birth is unknown, some scholars believe that because of his n ...

. In this series, Susato had already published Jacobus Clemens non-Papa's Psalm settings for three voices in 1556-57. As was already the case with the Dutch secular songs from Susato's ''Ierste'' and ''Tweetste Musijck Boexken'' (first and second Music Book), performance with human voices as well as with instruments is suggested in the edition of Mes's Psalm settings. On the title page of the Souterliedekens, Mes is also mentioned as a pupil of Clemens non-Papa, which is the only fact we know about his life. Of his ''Souterliedekens'', no complete copy has survived; the bass voice is missing. In his ''Souterliedekens'', Mes made use of several writing techniques: sometimes, he used the original tune of a Psalm Song from the collection published in 1540 in the

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...

voice (while Clemens used the tunes in the

tenor voice A tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The low extreme for tenors is widel ...

); sometimes he wrote an entirely new

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography *Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include v ...

, in which now and then was initially borrowed from the original tune whereupon the composition goes its own way. In a number of cases, Mes used an existing tune, but another one as Clemens did. Mes's ''Souterliedekens'' were apparently still popular in the seventeenth century; some of them were used by the

Delft Delft () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, ...

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...

and

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

Stalpart van der Wiele. An attempt to reconstruct the ''Souterliedekenss missing bass voice, was undertaken by Louis Peter Grijp. Apart from his Souterliedekens, only one other piece of music by Mes has survived; a motet.

Sources

* Louis Peter Grijp, ''The Souterliedekens by Gherardus Mes (1561)'', in ''From

Ciconia __NOTOC__ ''Ciconia'' ( ; ) is a genus of birds in the stork family. Six of the seven living species occur in the Old World, but the maguari stork has a South American range. In addition, fossils suggest that ''Ciconia'' storks were somewhat mor ...

Sweelinck Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck ( ; April or May, 1562 – 16 October 1621) was a Dutch composer, organist, and pedagogue whose work straddled the end of the Renaissance and beginning of the Baroque eras. He was among the first major keyboard com ...

, Donum natalicum Willem Elders,

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

, 1994 * Louis Peter Grijp, in the booklet of the cd ''Souterliedekens, sixteenth century secular songs and psalm settings from the Netherlands'',

Camerata Trajectina Camerata Trajectina is a Dutch early music ensemble (in English, the word, " camerata," generally means a choir or small chamber orchestra). The ensemble was founded in Utrecht (hence Latin ''trajectina''; of Utrecht) in 1974 by Jos van Veldhoven ...

, directed by Louis Peter Grijp.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mes, Gherardus 1500s births Belgian classical composers Belgian male classical composers Dutch male classical composers Dutch classical composers 16th-century Franco-Flemish composers Renaissance composers Year of death unknown