A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Vaet, Jacques

by Reginald Lane-Poole

VAET,^[1] Jacques (or Jacob), Flemish composer of the 16th century,^[2] attached to the imperial Kapelle at Vienna in the capacity of chanter and apparently also of court-composer, as early as 1520–1526, when he wrote a motet 'in laudem eerenissimi principis Ferdinandi archiducis Austriae.' After a long life of this service ^[3]he was appointed 'obrister Kappelmeister,' Dec. 1, 1564, and died Jan. 8, 1567. That he remained active as a composer to the court, is shown by his motet 'in laudem invictissimi Romanorum imperatoris Maximiliani II.,' who ascended the throne in July 1564. ^[4]Both motets were printed in P. Ioannelli's 'Novus Thesaurus Musicus,' Venice, 1568, which also contains a motet 'in obitum Iacobi Vaet.' F. Haemus, in his 'Poemata' (Antwerp 1578), has an elegy 'in obitum Iacobi Vasii, Caesaris Maximiliani archiphonasci,' which is quoted by ^[5]M. vander Straeten.

^[6]Vaet's compositions are principally comprised in the 'Novus Thesaurus' just mentioned, which includes 25 motets, 8 'Salve Regina,' and one 'Te Deum' of his; and in the five volumes of the 'Thesaurus musicus' published at Nuremberg in 1564 (all motets). Other motets, 'Sententiae piae,' etc., appear in several collections of Tylman Susato, Montanus, Phalesius, and Buchaw; and three French chansons are found respectively in Phalesius' first book of 'Chansons' (1554), in Waelrant and Laet's 'Jardin musical' (1556), and in Buchaw's 'Harmoniae' (1568). Vaet's reputation among ^[7]contemporaries stood very high. Among modern critics, ^[8]Fétis admires the correctness, want of affectation, and religious character, of his writing; he did not care, like so many of the composers of that time, to strain after merely learned, or pedantic, effects. ^[9]Ambros, commenting on the richness and nobility of Vaet's style, and the variety of his treatment, singles out his 'masterpiece,' the 8-voice 'Te Deum,' and a 'Miserere' in 5 parts, which he regards as worthy of special distinction.

[ R. L. P. ]

1. The name is also written Vaedt and Waet. Owing to the latter spelling the composer was often confused with an entirely different person, Jacques (or Giaches) de Wert, a mistake which appeared in the first edition of Fétis' Dictionary. Compare the remarks of M. Vander Straeten, La Musique aux Pays-bas iii. 197 f.; 1875.
2. Vaet's birthplace is unknown, but one Jean Vaet, who may be of his family, has been discovered as living at Ypres in 1499: Vander Straeten, i. 120; 1867.
3. Vander Straeten, v. 79, 102; 1880.
4. Compare Fétis viii. 291 a (2nd ed.); Ambros, Geschichte der Musik. iii. 324.
5. Vol. i. 119 f.
6. Eitner, Bibliographie der Musik-Sammelwerke, pp. 886–888; cp. Fétis viii. 291 b.
7. See for instance the extract in Vander Straeten iv. 64; 1878
8. Vol. viii. 292 a.
9. Vol. iii. 325.