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Jacobus Gallus

Jacobus Gallus Carniolus (Slovenian: Jakob Petelin Kranjski) (15501591) was a late-Renaissance composer of Slovene ethnicity. Born in
Carniola, his first musical steps were in monastery Stini in Slovenia, and
later in Rijeka (Croatia) or Trieste (Italy). It is assumed that he also learned
with Italian organist Andre Gabrieli. He sang in the boys choir in palace
chapel in Vienna, and worked in monasteries and bishops residences
around Austria, Czech republic, Moravia and Bohemia, and from 1585. he
moved to Prague as a cantor of a church.

He composed spiritual and secular works in a capella style of Flemish


and Venetian schools. Most of them were printed while he was alive, and
the rest is preserved as manuscripts. Hes a prominent representative of
High Renaissance, very appreciated in the musical world of his time. Text
is very respected in his works, like most of composers of his time. He
wanted it to be very understandable so he used one note for one syllable.
He used melismas on appropriate Mass parts, as usual in that time. That,
though, doesnt mean that the respective word always needed ornaments.
But, they are appearing in descendit (descending), ascendit (ascending),
resurrectionem (through resurrection); on text tu solus (you alone) theres
only one note/voice, and on word non erit finis (there wont be an ending)
there are motive repeats.

Galluses choral movements are for different number of voices 4 to


24. The choir compositions were mostly not long, just like the usual
renaissance vocal pieces. A verse is most often considered a whole, so he
cares about the phrase length which depends on the verse. The number of
voices mostly dictated the character of the choir. Choirs with less voices
were treated with free polyphony, most often with imitated beginings (on
one or two themes) or with a combination of free poliphony and chord
verticals. These choirs are mostly in Flemish tradition, showing perfected
polyphonic technique. The second type of choirs are the vocal pieces
based only on chords, where you get the impression on being even closer
to the harmony.

Gallus was the first to bring the Venetian choir style to middle
Europe. Under this influence are the choirs with eight voices, but also
some with six, twelve voices and others. Basically the voices were divided

into two choirs: choirs with same voice structure, high and low voices, and
sometimes into three or four choirs. These groups are basically then
making a kind of dialogue and theyre repeating the parts of previous
choir, changing their phrase and bringing new. Their mutual conversation
can be chain connected or independent, and rarely a choir, that already
finished its phrase, would make a kind of accompaniment for the other.
Every choir is chords-conceived, so if it is polyphonicly built up, there are
outstanding combinations appearing in every choir, and also in their
mutual relations which are against each other. There are examples when
two-choir style appears in choirs based on free polyphony.

Calm melodic lines, with small interval jumps are sometimes with
chromatic added up to give color. It doesnt impose otself by its presence,
but it gives a special sonority to the choral. Light melodic flow is based on
changing between the shorter and longer notes in spiritual work. These
are, in contemporary, whole notes (or even longer) and halfs, even
quarters, which are, like the eight-notes, used as ornaments or in
sequence, in essence of passages. In secular compositions the form is
somewhat different and the movement is more vivid (in quarter or eightnotes). Passages which are highlighted feature different metrics (in whole
notes) The change of measure during pieces is conditioned by metric
changes to the text. Flexibility and liveliness of Galluses rhythm can be
felt in the splice of voices that are pulsing continuously. Gallus used
quantitative Renaissance rhythm with swaying flow in thoughtful
connections of two-piece and three-piece measures, with different note
lengths. Hes sometimes approaching the Slovene, respectively Czech and
Slovenian rhythmic and melodic elements. Based on old church moduses,
Galluses pieces exceed from one to another modus, and he uses Picardy
third in the inner cadence.

Earliest Galluses printed work, Selectiores quaedam missae, was


printed in four books in year 1850. but those are not the only preserved
pieces from this form. He always sticked to the Ordinarium with
movements in the same modus and wider conceptualized Gloria and
Credo, in which theres independence in some parts. Some of the Masses
are with less movements. Whether theyre in a rudimentary form, or wider
sonority, those Masses belong to parody Masses. Secular and religious
composition which served as stimulus to every single Mass appears as a
melodic-counterpoint fragment which gets the character model. Usually
repeats itself more times (even up to ten) during all the movements,
sometimes in parts, with smaller or bigger changes in regard to the order,
crossing voices, rhythmical changes, changes in homophony or polyphony
and free thematic combinations, even the omission. The models are
similar to the original in movements with richer text. Their presentation

and flow are interrupted by free composed parts, and that indicates the
independence of the composers work.

Observed as a cycle, the movements have contrasts in the form: in


polyphony, chords verticals, dual-choir syllable and quadruple-voicing. Or
theyre, on the other hand, composed only on one particular principle on
the basis of the dialogue between the choirs or in canonic conduction.
Technically most accomplished Masses were created in the union of linear
and vertical components, and thus a unique approach is achieved to the
whole, and that didnt affect the change of the character or the parts. In
order to be emphasized, Cum Sancto Spiritu (With the holy spirit),
Confiteor (Confession), and Hosanna (Glory), can be composed only with
longer notes.

Galluses motets were printed in collection of Opus musicium


(Musical act 1586, 1587. and 1590) in four to twenty four voices. He
intended them to be performed during the whole ecclesiastical year. Even
though they were quite criticized by some conductors of smaller choirs,
and Galluses financial problems, they were published because of people
who respected his art. Those were not big compositions which matched
standard Renaissance motets. They show the beauty of Galluses language
in inventive shaping of spiritual verses. Two-choir motets, mostly in eight
voices, are developed by mutually opposing or merging two separated
groups which are in the inner structure mostly chordal. Normally at the
end of the section comes the merging of two choirs. These are technically
Galluses most advanced motets, and among them some are based on the
principle of echo. If theyre not two-choir motets, theyre a combination of
free polyphony, imitational process and chordal verticals. Principles of the
last way of composing are sometimes overcoming the others, showing as a
result of polyphonic thinking.

Among motets which are based on strong chordal thinking is Ecce


quomodo moritur iustus (Heres how righteous man dies), without doubt
Galluses most famous work. With light movement, within F Major, D Minor
and G minor, with breaks, respectively rests after every phrase, this motet
applies the tone painting (on the word iustus), which emphasizes even
more the unity between the word and tone. It consists of two parts, and
every section has identical ending.

Madrigals, published in collection Moralia (Lesson, 1589, 1590) and


Harmoniae morales (Moral inscriptions, 1586) were probably composed in
Prague between year 1585. and 1589. That was period in which Gallus

came in contact with contemporary music and Prague intellectual elite. He


gave those weird names to his pieces because he didnt want to call them
madrigals. By doing so he showed that his thoughts were turned to
everyday happiness, and by no means to excessive emotions. He chose
Latin as language basis.

Galluses choir opus continued to live even after his death. He was
not known only among his closer friends but also among bigger baroque
composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Friedrich Haendel.

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