Jacquet of Mantua - Music

Music

Jacquet wrote almost exclusively sacred vocal music. He was attentive to the trends of the time, and his music shows a clear stylistic progression from an early reliance on late 15th century practices to a later grasp of the pervasive imitation used by the generation of composers after Josquin. His craftsmanship is careful, and his counterpoint is fluid and graceful; parts are well-balanced, and occasional homophonic sections break the prevailing polyphonic texture. Most of his music is full-textured, with all voices singing.

He wrote 23 masses which have survived, and well over 100 motets. Many of the motets are for state occasions: arrivals of dignitaries, marriages, tributes, laments and so forth. Only three secular works have survived, and those are most likely early compositions; the more zealous leaders of the Counter-Reformation had a low opinion of secular music, and Jacquet seems to have obliged them.

In his later years, his music was simpler, and he wrote many hymns. The tendency of the Council of Trent at this time was to encourage relatively simple music in which the words could be clearly understood; Jacquet was both following this trend, and showing the natural development of a style which had embraced complex polyphony early, and which later sought simplicity and clarity.