CLEMENS NON PAPA, JACOBUS

Renaissance composer; b. Ypres, Flanders, c. 1510;d. Dixmuide?, c. 1555. In 1544, then a priest, he was appointed choirmaster at St. Donatien, Bruges, but was dismissed the following year. Writers in the 17th century place his activity at Antwerp, Ypres, and finally Dixmuide, where he is said to have died. His final work, the motet Hic est vere martir, was copied in 1555, and it is likely that death interrupted composition of his Souterliedekens (Little Psalter Songs), completed and published by Susato (Antwerp 1556). A lament on his death by Jakob Vaet appeared in 1558. He was published under the name Jacques Clément until he began using Clemens non Papa in 1546—to distinguish himself, so it is thought, from an Ypres poet, Jacobus Papa. His works include 15 Masses, 231 motets, many French and Flemish songs, and Souterliedekens, three-part settings of the Psalms in Flemish, employing popular tunes of the day. His clear and expressive style influenced such composers as Orlando di lasso.

Bibliography: Opera omnia, ed. k. p. bernet kempers, Corpus mensurablis musicae, ed. American Institute of Musicology 4 (Rome 1951–), 21 v. planned. k. p. bernet kempers, Jacobus Clemens non Papa und seine Motetten (Augsburg 1929). Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, ed. f. blume (Kassel-Basel 1949–) 2:1476–80. "Zum Todesjahr des Clemens non Papa," Karl Gustav Fellerer zum 60 Geburtstag, ed. h. drux et al. (Studien zur Musikgeschichte des Rheinlandes 2; Cologne 1962). e. lowinsky, Secret Chromatic Art in the Netherlands Motet, tr. c. buchman (New York 1946). g. reese, Music in the Renaissance (rev. ed. New York 1959). e. s. beebe, "Mode, Structure, and Text Expression in the Motets of Jacobus Clemens non Papa: A Study of Style in Sacred Music" (Ph.D. diss. Yale University, 1976). w. elders, "Clemens (non Papa,)" in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, vol. 4, ed. s. sadie 476–480, (New York 1980). d. m. randel, ed., The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music (Cambridge, Massachusetts 1996) 164. n. slonimsky, ed. Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, Eighth Edition (New York 1992) 339.

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