Surname
Alaire
Given Name
—
Role
Composer
Musician
Active period
1534 - 1549
Biography
NG2
Alaire [Allaire, Alere]
(fl 1534–49). French composer. According to Fétis, there was a singer called Allaire at Notre Dame in Paris in April 1547, but the name is not mentioned in Chartier’s study of the maîtrise or in Wright. All the surviving music ascribed to Alaire, one mass and eight chansons, was published in Paris by Attaingnant; none of it was reprinted in any form, although two of the chansons were copied into a manuscript owned by a Bruges merchant. It is unlikely that Alaire can be identified with either of the contemporary Flemish musicians Simon Alard or Jacques Alardy, or with the ‘Alardino’ whose six-voice madrigal Passa la nava mia was printed in Venice (RISM 156116). Despite the limited dissemination of Alaire’s works, evidence of his influence can be seen in later settings of Marot’s poem Quant je vous ayme ardentement by Arcadelt (1547) and Certon (1570), which borrow melodic motifs from Alaire’s hauntingly beautiful setting.
Bien mauldit, in which two of the five voices proceed in strict canon, is fairly typical of the contrapuntal style of the post-Josquin generation. The remaining chansons resemble those of Sermisy in their use of duple rhythm, concise minor-mode melodies, their alternation of imitative and homophonic passages and clear reflection of poetic structure. The mass makes extensive use of material from a motet for equal voices by Hesdin (also published in Paris in 1534), expanding its basic motifs and adding others with broader-arching phrases within a wider vocal range. Alaire seems to have favoured the Aeolian mode (whose finalis A was represented in contemporary solmization theory by the vowels in his name: A = la mi re), using it in the mass and in four chansons.
WORKS
for 4 voices unless otherwise indicated
Missa ‘Sancta et immaculata’, 15342 (on Hesdin’s motet)
Bien mauldit est l’estat des amoureux, 5vv, 153413; Cruelle mort qui de rien n’est contente, 153413, F-CA 125–8, ed. in Trésor musical, xvii (Brussels, 1881) with substitute text, De peu de bien; Il n’est douleur qui tant soyt admirable, 154924; Martin menoit son pourceau au marché (C. Marot), 153414; N’aurai-je point de mon mal allégéance, 153413; Pour vous donner parfaict contentement (Margaret of Navarre), 15356, ed. in Cw, cxxvi (1979); Quant je vous ayme ardentement (Marot), 153814; Triste pensif par le pourchas de rigueur, 153413, CA 125–8, ed. in Trésor musical, xviii (Brussels, 1882)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
FétisB
F.L. Chartier: L’ancien chapitre de Notre-Dame de Paris et sa maîtrise (Paris, 1897/R), 78
C. Wright: Music and Ceremony at Notre Dame of Paris, 500–1550 (Cambridge, 1989)
FRANK DOBBINS
Alaire [Allaire, Alere]
(fl 1534–49). French composer. According to Fétis, there was a singer called Allaire at Notre Dame in Paris in April 1547, but the name is not mentioned in Chartier’s study of the maîtrise or in Wright. All the surviving music ascribed to Alaire, one mass and eight chansons, was published in Paris by Attaingnant; none of it was reprinted in any form, although two of the chansons were copied into a manuscript owned by a Bruges merchant. It is unlikely that Alaire can be identified with either of the contemporary Flemish musicians Simon Alard or Jacques Alardy, or with the ‘Alardino’ whose six-voice madrigal Passa la nava mia was printed in Venice (RISM 156116). Despite the limited dissemination of Alaire’s works, evidence of his influence can be seen in later settings of Marot’s poem Quant je vous ayme ardentement by Arcadelt (1547) and Certon (1570), which borrow melodic motifs from Alaire’s hauntingly beautiful setting.
Bien mauldit, in which two of the five voices proceed in strict canon, is fairly typical of the contrapuntal style of the post-Josquin generation. The remaining chansons resemble those of Sermisy in their use of duple rhythm, concise minor-mode melodies, their alternation of imitative and homophonic passages and clear reflection of poetic structure. The mass makes extensive use of material from a motet for equal voices by Hesdin (also published in Paris in 1534), expanding its basic motifs and adding others with broader-arching phrases within a wider vocal range. Alaire seems to have favoured the Aeolian mode (whose finalis A was represented in contemporary solmization theory by the vowels in his name: A = la mi re), using it in the mass and in four chansons.
WORKS
for 4 voices unless otherwise indicated
Missa ‘Sancta et immaculata’, 15342 (on Hesdin’s motet)
Bien mauldit est l’estat des amoureux, 5vv, 153413; Cruelle mort qui de rien n’est contente, 153413, F-CA 125–8, ed. in Trésor musical, xvii (Brussels, 1881) with substitute text, De peu de bien; Il n’est douleur qui tant soyt admirable, 154924; Martin menoit son pourceau au marché (C. Marot), 153414; N’aurai-je point de mon mal allégéance, 153413; Pour vous donner parfaict contentement (Margaret of Navarre), 15356, ed. in Cw, cxxvi (1979); Quant je vous ayme ardentement (Marot), 153814; Triste pensif par le pourchas de rigueur, 153413, CA 125–8, ed. in Trésor musical, xviii (Brussels, 1882)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
FétisB
F.L. Chartier: L’ancien chapitre de Notre-Dame de Paris et sa maîtrise (Paris, 1897/R), 78
C. Wright: Music and Ceremony at Notre Dame of Paris, 500–1550 (Cambridge, 1989)
FRANK DOBBINS