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"Without music, life would be a mistake." - Friedrich Nietzsche

Nicolas Gombert

With Nicolaas Gombert we firmly arrive in the 16th century. Gombert, who is believed to be born in La Gorgue (at the French-Belgian border), could have been a student of Josquin, even though you wouldn't suspect it from his compositional style. While Josquin sought transparent structures and intelligible texts, Gombert let his musical phrases flow into each other, with the text declamation in the background. This, combined with his preference for low voices reminds him a bit of Ockeghem. One thing Gombert shared with his contemporaries was his attention to imitation. He was even one of the composer who practiced this most consistently: his music is teeming with imitations! All these characteristics give Gombert's music quite a closed, yet fascinating, feeling. Gombert wrote over 160 motets, most of them on Biblical texts. In addition, he composed at least 10 missas, and eight Magnificat settings, which are considered to be the pinnacles of his body of works. Gombert's secular music (over 70 chansons) once again underscore his trademark of imitation.