Hubert Waelrant

(c1517 - 1595)


Franco-Flemish composer and publisher. Possibly a pupil of Willaert in Venice, he can be traced as singer, teacher and publisher in Antwerp 1544-58. In 1554 he and Jean Laet founded a publishing business which issued anthologies of motets and chansons, including some of his own works; two of these were confiscated by the Inquisition on the grounds of suspected heresv, and certainly there is nothing specifically Catholic about the texts of Waelrant's motets. More of his music was published in 1588, and thirty-six villanella-like 3-part pieces survive in an English MS; his style is notable for its use of bold dissonances in word painting.





IVA: The Netherlanders from Josquin des Pres