A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Dankerts, Ghiselain
DANKERTS, Ghiselain, a native of Tholen in Zeeland, and a singer in the Papal Chapel in the middle of the 16th century. An eight-part motet of his composition, 'Lætamini in Domino,' is included in Uhlard's 'Concentus octo … vocum' (Augsburg 1545), and a six-part motet 'Tua est potentia' in the 'Selectissimae cantiones ultra centum' (Augsburg 1540). Also two books of madrigals for 4, 5, and 6 voices were published by Gardano (Venice 1559).
Notwithstanding the new school of composers, already well established in Rome, with Costanzo Festa, Arcadelt, etc. at its head, there were still many conservative musicians in that city, and Dankerts was one of them, who adhered strictly to the old Netherland school, and remained uninfluenced by the new art that had grown up around them. He gained great celebrity as judge in the dispute between two ecclesiastical musicians, Vicentino and Lusitano, upon the nature of the scales on which the music of their time was constructed. Dankerts was obliged to defend his verdict against Vicentino, in a learned and exhaustive treatise on the matter in dispute, the original MS. of which is preserved in the Vallicellan library at Rome. A full account of this controversy is given by Hawkins.[ J. R. S. B. ]