Jheronimus Vinders (also Vender or Venders) (

fl. ''Floruit'' (; abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for "they flourished") denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indicatin ...

1525–1526) was a

Franco-Flemish The designation Franco-Flemish School, also called Netherlandish School, Burgundian School, Low Countries School, Flemish School, Dutch School, or Northern School, refers, somewhat imprecisely, to the style of polyphony, polyphonic vocal music com ...

composer of the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

, active at

Ghent Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded in ...

. He was a minor member of the generation after

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 ...

, and he also composed a notable lament on the more famous composer's death. Next to nothing is known about his life, except that he was the singing-master at Onze-Lieve-Vrouwe-op-de-rade, the guild at St. Baaf cathedral (formerly known as the Janskerk), in Ghent, in 1525 and 1526.Jas, Grove online That city was a prominent center of music-making throughout the Renaissance, and produced many famous composers and singers. Vinders' music has both progressive features, such as the pervasive

imitation Imitation (from Latin ''imitatio'', "a copying, imitation") is a behavior whereby an individual observes and replicates another's behavior. Imitation is also a form of that leads to the "development of traditions, and ultimately our culture. I ...

which was to characterize the compositions of the generation of

Gombert Nicolas Gombert (c. 1495 – c. 1560)Atlas, p. 396 was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance. He was one of the most famous and influential composers between Josquin des Prez and Palestrina, and best represents the fully developed, complex ...

and

Clemens non Papa Jacobus Clemens non Papa (also Jacques Clément or Jacob Clemens non Papa) ( – 1555 or 1556) was a Netherlandish composer of the Renaissance based for most of his life in Flanders. He was a prolific composer in many of the current styles, and ...

, and unusually conservative elements, such as use of the

cantus-firmus In music, a ''cantus firmus'' ("fixed melody") is a pre-existing melody forming the basis of a polyphonic composition. The plural of this Latin term is , although the corrupt form ''canti firmi'' (resulting from the grammatically incorrect trea ...

technique, which had been old-fashioned since around 1500 or even before. Sometimes he combined both the conservative and progressive elements together in the same work, such as in his mass based on the famous tune ''

Fors seulement Fors seulement is a French chanson, popular as a basis for variations and as a cantus firmus. An early version, attributed to Johannes Ockeghem, is sometimes called ''Fors seulement l'attente'' to distinguish it from his similarly titled ''Fors s ...

'', which uses both

and

parody A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its subj ...

together (parody technique was to be the favorite method of mass composition right up to the end of the century; it used many voices of a multi-voice model). Vinders wrote both sacred and secular music. All is

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, h ...

music for voices; no instrumental compositions have survived, or been attributed to him. Four

mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

es survive, all for five voices; all use different kinds of sources. The ''Missa Fors seulement'' is built on the chansons by

Antoine de Févin Antoine de Févin (ca. 1470 – late 1511 or early 1512) was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance. He was active at the same time as Josquin des Prez, and shares many traits with his more famous contemporary. Life Févin was most likely b ...

and

Matthaeus Pipelare Matthaeus Pipelare ( – ) was a Netherlandish composer, choir director, and possibly wind instrument player of the Renaissance. He was from Louvain, and spent part of his early life in Antwerp. Unlike many of his contemporaries, many of whom t ...

; the ''Missa Fit porta Christi pervia'' is based on a

plainchant Plainsong or plainchant (calque from the French ''plain-chant''; la, cantus planus) is a body of chants used in the liturgies of the Western Church. When referring to the term plainsong, it is those sacred pieces that are composed in Latin text. ...

cantus firmus; the ''Missa Myns liefkens bruyn ooghen'' uses as its source a secular song in Dutch, by

Benedictus Appenzeller Benedictus Appenzeller (between 1480 and 1488 – after 1558) was a Franco-Flemish singer and composer of the Renaissance, active in Bruges and Brussels. He served Dowager Queen Mary of Hungary for much of his career, and was a prolific composer ...

; and the ''Missa Stabat mater'' uses the motet by Josquin, a composer he evidently admired. Eight of his

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 pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to Margar ...

s survive, and they vary from four to seven voices; his famous ''O mors inevitabilis'', a lament on the death of Josquin des Prez, is for seven. This is one of his most often recorded pieces in the present day, sometimes paired with Gombert's similar lament on Josquin's death, ''Musae Jovis''; it has even been used as background music in a 2005 computer game,

Civilization IV ''Civilization IV'' (also known as ''Sid Meier's Civilization IV'') is a 4X turn-based strategy computer game and the fourth installment of the ''Civilization'' series, and designed by Soren Johnson under the direction of Sid Meier and his vid ...

. The three known secular songs by Vinders, "Myns liefkens bruyn ooghen", "Och rat van aventueren", and "O wrede fortune", are all in

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 ...

, suggesting that this may have been his native language in bilingualWegman, Grove online: "As a major town in a northern-French county, Ghent has always been bilingual..." Ghent; many of the composers from that area wrote French

chanson A (, , french: chanson française, link=no, ; ) is generally any lyric-driven French song, though it most often refers to the secular polyphonic French songs of late medieval and Renaissance music. The genre had origins in the monophonic s ...

s, but if Vinders did, none have survived. The secular pieces are for four to six voices. The first recording dedicated to Vinders' works was recently recorded by the

Choir of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge The Choir of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge is a Cambridge collegiate choir, under the direction of the musicologist and conductor David Skinner, with Senior Organ Scholar Emily Evans and Junior Organ Scholar Luca Myers. The composer Eric Whit ...

with

Andrew Lawrence-King Andrew Lawrence-King (born 3 September 1959) is a harpist and conductor from Guernsey known for his work in early music. Career Lawrence-King received an organ scholarship to Selwyn College, Cambridge, following on his work as head chorister at t ...

, (renaissance harp and psaltery) and directed by

David Skinner (musicologist) David Skinner is a British musicologist and choir director. He works at the University of Cambridge, where he is the director of music at Sidney Sussex College and is an affiliated lecturer, teaching historical and practical topics from the me ...

on the Inventa Records label.

References

* ''Jheronimus Vinders, Collected Works,'' ed. Eric Jas. Recent Researches in the Music of the Renaissance, vols. 166-167 (2018) * Eric Jas, "Jheronimus Vinders", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed August 16, 2007)
(subscription access)
* Rob C. Wegman, "Ghent", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed September 3, 2007)
(subscription access)
* Allan W. Atlas, ''Renaissance Music: Music in Western Europe, 1400–1600.'' New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1998.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vinders, Jheronimus Renaissance composers 16th-century deaths Year of birth unknown Male classical composers