Robert de Févin (late 15th and early 16th centuries) was a French 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 ...

. He was the brother of Antoine de Févin, a considerably more famous composer at the court of

Louis XII of France Louis XII (27 June 14621 January 1515), also known as Louis of Orléans was King of France from 1498 to 1515 and King of Naples (as Louis III) from 1501 to 1504. The son of Charles, Duke of Orléans, and Marie of Cleves, he succeeded his second ...

. Whether he was older or younger than Antoine is not known. Little is known about his life, except that either he was born in

Cambrai Cambrai (, ; ; ), formerly Cambray and historically in English Camerick or Camericke, is a city in the Nord department and in the Hauts-de-France region of France on the Scheldt river, which is known locally as the Escaut river. A sub-pref ...

Arras Arras ( , ; ; historical ) is the prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais department, which forms part of the region of Hauts-de-France; before the reorganization of 2014 it was in Nord-Pas-de-Calais. The historic centre of the Artois region, with a ...

, the birthplace of his brother, and his father was an alderman in Arras in 1474. He held the post of ''maître de chapelle'' (chorus master) in Cambrai, to the dukes of

Savoy Savoy (; )  is a cultural-historical region in the Western Alps. Situated on the cultural boundary between Occitania and Piedmont, the area extends from Lake Geneva in the north to the Dauphiné in the south and west and to the Aosta Vall ...

, sometime around 1500; he may even have been born there. References to the "brothers Févin" as composers can be found from the time. Robert may have died before about 1518, as evidenced by a memorial note written on a copy of his ''Missa la sol mi fa re'', which was probably copied around that year. He wrote masses,

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

lamentation A lament or lamentation is a passionate expression of grief, often in music, poetry, or song form. The grief is most often born of regret, or mourning. Laments can also be expressed in a verbal manner in which participants lament about something ...

s, though little of his work has survived. Three masses, a four-voice credo from a mass (the rest of which has been lost), two settings of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, one five-voice

Marian antiphon Marian hymns are Christian songs focused on Mary, mother of Jesus. They are used in devotional and liturgical services, particularly by the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran churches. Some have been a ...

(''Alma Redemptoris mater''), and the music of a six-voice motet (with the text absent) are all that survives of his work. Stylistically it is similar enough to his brother Antoine's music that several of Robert's pieces have been misattributed to Antoine. Robert evidently emulated the style of

Josquin 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 ...

, copying not only the smooth polyphony of the more famous composer but basing two of his masses directly on works by him. Some of Févin's music can be found in the '' Medici Codex'' of 1518.

References

*"Robert de Févin", in ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. *

Gustave Reese Gustave Reese ( ; November 29, 1899 – September 7, 1977) was an American musicologist and teacher. Reese is known mainly for his work on medieval and Renaissance music, particularly with his two publications ''Music in the Middle Ages'' (1940 ...

, ''Music in the Renaissance''. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1954. *David Fallows: "Robert de Févin", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed January 2, 2006)
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Fevin, Robert de French Renaissance composers French male classical composers 15th-century births 16th-century deaths