A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Verdelot, Philippe

by Reginald Lane-Poole

VERDELOT,^[1] Philippe, a Flemish composer of the early part of the 16th century, appears to have settled in Italy when young, since his first work—a motet—was printed in the 'Fior de' Motetti e Canzoni' published, as is believed, at Rome in 1526, and since he is found to have resided at Florence at some time between 1530 and 1540. It is certain however that he was, either now or from an earlier date, attached to the singing staff of the church of S. Mark at Venice, and we have the authority of ^[2]Guicciardini for the statement that he was already dead by the year 1567. His last publication is dated 1549.

Verdelot is commemorated by Cosmo Bartoli, and by Vincenzo Galilei, who printed two lute-pieces by him in 'Fronimo.' His works had reached France and were printed in French collections as early as the year 1530. The great Willaert thought so highly of him as to arrange some compositions of his in tabulature for lute and a solo voice. The two Venetian masters indeed, together with Arcadelt, may be taken as the representative madrigalists of their time, and ranked among the earliest writers and chief promoters of that style of composition. ^[3]Verdelot's remarkable skill in the science of music is well shown in the fifth part which he added to Jannequin's 'Bataille.' But his distinction is not simply that of a learned writer: his productions also display a certain feeling for beauty and appropriateness of expression which is his highest characteristic.^[4] His works consist exclusively of madrigals, motets, psalms, and masses, and are enumerated by Fétis and Eitner.

[ R. L. P. ]

Appendix:

VERDELOT, Philipp. Add that Antonio Gardano, the publisher, when introducing in 1541 a collection of six-part madrigals by Verdelot, describes them on the title-page as the most divine and most beautiful music ever heard ('la più divina e più bella musica che be udisse giammai'). It has long been the question who is the real creator of the madrigal as a musical form. Adrian Willaert has often been represented as the first composer of madrigals. But more recent investigation would seem to prove that Verdelot has a better claim than Willaert to this position. Besides the fact insisted on by Eitner ('Monatshefte für Musik-Geschichte,' xix. 85) that only a very few of Willaert's secular compositions are properly madrigals, the most of them being rather in the lighter style of vilanellas, his first composition of the kind appeared only in 1538, while as early as 1536 Willaert himself had arranged in lute tablature for solo voice and lute accompaniment twenty-two madrigals by Verdelot ('Intavolatura degli Madrigali di Verdelotto da cantare et sonare nel lauto … per Messer Adriano,' Venice, 1536). Apart from the early mention of the name in the 14th century, the earliest known volume of musical pieces described as madrigals bears the date 1533, and Verdelot is the chief contributor. It is entitled 'Madrigali Novi de diversi excellentissimi Musici.' (See Eitner, 'Bibliographie der Sammelwerke,' p. 27.) If any one might dispute the claim of Verdelot to be the first real madrigalist, perhaps it is Costanzo Festa, who also appears as a contributor to this volume, and whose name otherwise as a composer appears earlier in print than that of Verdelot. (It should be mentioned that this first book of madrigals is not perfectly preserved, two part-books only existing in the Königl. Staatsbibliothek at Munich.) From 1537 onwards various collections of Verdelot's madrigals for four, five, and six voices were made by enterprising publishers, such as Scotto and Gardano, but always mixed up with the works of other composers. Eitner says that no independent collection of Verdelot's madrigals is known to exist. Out of the miscellaneous collections he reckons up about 100 as composed by Verdelot, although with regard to many of them some uncertainty prevails, from the carelessness of the publishers in affixing names, and perhaps also their wish to pass off inferior compositions as the work of the more celebrated masters. The feat of adding a fifth part to Jannequin's 'Bataille' first appeared in Tylman Susato's tenth 'Book of Chansons,' published at Antwerp in 1545, and has been reprinted in modern times by Commer. Besides madrigals, Verdelot appears as composer of motets in the various collections made by publishers from 1532 onwards. Forty are enumerated in Eitner's 'Bibliographie,' several of them imperfectly preserved. Of the complete works which Ambros examined, he praises the masterly construction, and the finely developed sense for beauty and pleasing harmony.—Only one Mass by Verdelot is known, one entitled 'Philomena,' in a volume of five Masses published by Scotto, Venice, in 1544. Fétis and Ambros say that several exist in manuscript in the archives of the Sistine Chapel at Rome; but Codex 38, to which Fétis refers, is shown by Haberl's Catalogue ('Katalog der Musik-werke im päpstlichen Archiv,' pp. 18 und 171, 2) to contain only three motets by Verdelot. (See also Van der Straeten, 'Musique de Pays-Bas,' vi. 473.)

[ J. R. M. ]

1. Two notices cited by M. vander Straeten, La Musique aux Pays-bas vi. 322, suggest that the name 'Verdelot' is an appellative: if so, we are ignorant of the composer's real name. One of the cases referred to is connected with the town of Bruges.
2. Quoted by Vander Straeten, i. 44.
3. Ambros, Geschichte der Musik, vol. ii. 513.
4. See generally Fétis. vol. viii. 319-321; Ambros, vol. iii. 293 f.; vander Straeten, vol. vi. 321 f., 366.