Claude Goudimel (c. 1514 to 1520 – 1572) was a French
composer, music editor and publisher, and music
theorist of the High Renaissance. He was born in
Besançon, France. Few details of his life are known
until he is documented in Paris in 1549, where he was
studying at the University of Paris; in that year he
also published a book of chansons. In the early 1550s
he worked with printer Nicolas Du Chemin [fr], and may
have still been studying at the University of Paris
until 1555; by 1555 he was...(+)
Claude Goudimel (c. 1514 to 1520 – 1572) was a French
composer, music editor and publisher, and music
theorist of the High Renaissance. He was born in
Besançon, France. Few details of his life are known
until he is documented in Paris in 1549, where he was
studying at the University of Paris; in that year he
also published a book of chansons. In the early 1550s
he worked with printer Nicolas Du Chemin [fr], and may
have still been studying at the University of Paris
until 1555; by 1555 he was also Du Chemin's partner in
the publishing business.
Goudimel moved to Metz in 1557, converting to
Protestantism, and is known to have been associated
with the Huguenot cause there; however he left Metz due
to the increasing hostility of the city authorities to
Protestants during the Wars of Religion. First he
settled in his native town of Besançon, and later
moved to Lyon.
It is supposed Goudimel was murdered in Lyon in August
1572, during the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, along
with much of the Huguenot population of the city. His
last letter to his close friend and poet Melissus
showing Goudimel sick with fever on August 23, 1572,
allowed M. Weckerlin to suppose that instead of dying
in the massacre of Saint Barthelemy, the master could
have died quite simply in his bed. However, there is no
definitive evidence to support or contradict either
theory of his passing. The death of Goudimel inspired
among the versifiers of this time a respectable number
of epitaphs, sonnets and other famous pieces in French,
Latin and Greek.
Goudimel is most famous for his four-part settings of
the psalms of the Genevan Psalter, in the French
versions of Clément Marot. In one of his four complete
editions he puts - unlike other settings at the time -
the melody in the topmost voice, the method which has
prevailed in hymnody to the present day. In addition he
composed masses, motets, and a considerable body of
secular chansons, almost all of which date from before
his conversion to Protestantism (probably around
1560).
In 1554, he became the editor of a large collection of
masses, motets and Magnificat of several composers, a
collection printed by Nicolas Duchemin, and in which
Goudimel appeared as the author of seven Latin and
Catholic works. In the year following, Goudimel, still
at Duchemin's, brought out a book of pieces for four
voices of his composition on the Odes of Horace.
However, he felt some contrition about setting work of
the pagan poet, and in 1557 he wrote: "To Monsieur de
La Bloctière, Mr. Claude Belot, Angevin, advocate in
the court of Parliament of Paris, C. Goudimel, his good
friend, wishes good health. Sir, ... I present to you
this third book of Music of mine on the divine verses
of the divine and royal Prophet. Also in no way could I
choose the man, who seems to me to favor this little
work of better heart than you, who alone amiably forced
me to change, even quit, the profane lyre of the
profane poet Horace, to memorize in hand and boldly
undertake to touch and wield the sacred harp of our
great David."
Goudimel's stay in Metz lasted several years. It was
there that he addressed, in 1564, the dedication of his
first complete psalter to "Mgr Roger de Bellegarde,
ordinary gentleman of the king's room," and, in 1565,
that of the second psalter to "Mgr d'Auzances, knight
of the Order and lieutenant general of the king." On
March 18, 1565, he was named godfather of a child at
the reformed church of this city. in 1566, he published
his seventh book of psalms in the form of motets. It
was, therefore, after his departure from Paris that the
celebrities Adrien le Roy and Robert Ballard published
his masses in 1558; and it was also during his time in
Metz that Goudimel began to concentrate all of his
artistic ability in the various musical interpretations
of the French translation of the psalms by Clément
Marot and Théodore de Bèze. He worked on the
continuation of his large collection of motet-shaped
psalms, and wrote almost simultaneously two different
versions of the complete psalter, each containing one
hundred and fifty psalms.
Goudimel's style tends to be homophonic, with an
intriguing use of syncopated rhythm and melisma and
staggered voice entries to bring out inner parts,
especially in the chansons. His Psalm settings,
however, are more polyphonic, characteristic of the
moderate contrapuntal style exemplified by the chansons
of Jacques Arcadelt, an approximate contemporary.
The widespread claim that he taught Palestrina is now
regarded as untenable. His Opera Omnia extends to 14
volumes, though several of his works are fragmentary,
missing one or more voices
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Goudimel).
Although originally composed for Chorus (SATB), I
created this interpretation of "Glória in excélsis
Déo" (Glory to God in the highest) for Woodwind
Quartet (Flute, Oboe, English Horn & Bassoon).
PARTITION