Alexander Agricola

Alexander Agricola was born c. 1445 in Ghent at a time when the area of N. France and Flanders held musical preeminence in Europe, Along with many of his Franco-Flemish colleagues he found gainful employment in Italy.  He was at the court of Duke Ascanio Sforza of Milan 1471 to 1474 when the Milanese chapel was one of the finest in Europe; it included compatriots, Loyset Compère, Johannes Martini, Gaspar van Weerbeke. On the recommendation of Sforza in 1474 Agricola went to work for Lorenzo de’ Medici in Florence., but left soon after, for in 1476 he is back in France, listed as a vicar at Cambrai Cathedral and later at the French Royal Chapel. However, Italy seems to have had a strong attraction, for he was AWOL in Florence and Naples, only returning to the French Court in June 1492 after much diplomatic exchange. Finally, in 1500 he was in the chapel of Philip the Fair, Duke of Burgundy and, (after Queen Isabella died in 1504), King of Castile. In 1506 Duke Philip was in Spain arranging his claim to the throne of Castile when his musician, Agricola, died at Valladolid, in August during an outbreak of the plague. A month later Duke/King Philip also succumbed, (one is tempted to add “under suspicious circumstances”).

Agricola is one of the major musical figures of the later 15th century, attested to by the substantial compositional legacy of ten masses, about twenty motets, and many other works. The ease with which he obtained positions at the best musical establishments of his day also betrays the high regard in which he was held. He wrote many instrumental variants on pre-existing tunes–five on “De tous biens playne”, the chanson written by a precursor at the Burgundian Court, Hayne van Ghizeghem. Regrettably only two of the five are to be heard here.

‘Opera Omnia’ by Agricola in five volumes were transcribed and edited by Edward R. Lerner, 1970.