Surname
Castro (de)
Given Name
Jean
Date of birth
1540-1545
Place of birth
Liège ?
Date of death
after 1600
Place of death
Köln
Role
Chapelmaster
Composer
Musician
Active period
1569 - circa 1600
Workplace
Verona
Institution
Accademia Filarmonica di Verona
Biography
NG2
Castro, Jean de [Iehan, Giovan, Giovanni, Ioanne, Ioannis a]
(b ?Liège, c1540–45; d ?Cologne, c1600). Flemish composer. The Walloon poet Etienne de Walcourt referred to him as ‘nostre Castro’ (RISM 15743) and the title page of his Novae cantiones sacrae (1588) describes him as ‘Eburone’, a term frequently used for Liège in the 16th and 17th centuries. In the late 1560s he moved to Antwerp, where he stayed until mutinous Spanish soldiers partially destroyed the city in November 1576. He fled via Germany (where he possibly established contact with his future employer, Johann Wilhelm, Duke of Jülich, Cleves and Berg) to France, where he stayed for several years. In 1585 he attended the wedding in Düsseldorf of Duke Johann Wilhelm, for whom he wrote a hymeneal. In 1586 Castro returned to Antwerp after relative peace had descended on the city, but two years later the duke appointed him Kapellmeister at Düsseldorf. He remained there until 1591, when his departure was prompted by the duke's increasing insanity; he moved to Cologne, where he spent the rest of his life.
The number of volumes produced during Castro's lifetime demonstrates both his popularity and his prolificacy, while the many and varied dedications of the prints chart the changing allegiances of a man who had to rely for most of his career (apart from his years in Düsseldorf) on the unstable system of private patronage. He was clearly well known by the wealthy politicians and merchants of his time; some of the dedications (for instance, to highly placed politicians such as Gerard van Groesbeck, prince-bishop of Liège, and Frédéric Perrenot, Governor of Antwerp) indicate that he was hoping for an official position, but many of the prints are dedicated to merchants both in the Low Countries and elsewhere. A particularly significant dedication is that of his 1575 print to Justinien Pense, a citizen of Lyons, who had earlier commissioned a manuscript of Castro's works, which was copied in Antwerp by Jean Pollet; Castro later dedicated another print to a relative of Pense. During his stay in Cologne no fewer than 15 volumes of his music appeared, but his works from this period show an increasing emphasis on religious music. The dedications of prints of religious music to Ernst of Bavaria, Archbishop of Cologne (1593), and other notable prelates connected with him seem to suggest that Castro wished for a position at the archiepiscopal court, but there is no conclusive evidence for an official appointment. Many of his works written in Cologne were published by Grevenbruch, who acknowledged him as ‘the only musician of our time’; his last publication is dated 10 July 1599, and he probably died shortly thereafter. In many ways, Castro can be seen as similar to his contemporary Lassus, but chiefly because of his preference for three-part writing in the main genres then current (chanson, motet, madrigal and mass) he occupies a unique position in the last three decades of the 16th century. In the early three-part songs and throughout his madrigal-writing career he relied on borrowing and adaptation of pre-existing material. His choice of models reflected the tastes of his day: Lassus was the main choice for the chansons; for the motets he drew on an earlier generation (mainly Clemens non Papa and Cipriano de Rore); the madrigals shift from an early preference for Rore to a later concentration on Luca Marenzio and on specific madrigal anthologies, particularly the well-known prints by Phalèse & Bellère (RISM 158314-15 and 158519). Apart from thematic citations, Castro adopted further elements of the model, such as the three upper clefs, the mode and the division into sections.
The compositional foundation of Castro's music was imitative counterpoint, but in accordance with the increasing emphasis on text declamation in the later 16th century the counterpoint regularly gives way to a more homophonic style. His primary aim seems to have been expressive representation of the text, and he frequently made use of madrigalisms, even in the chansons and motets. His melodies are often lively, although less fluent than those of Lassus; his use of harmonies is characterized by frequently applied accidentals (although he tended to avoid extreme chromaticism) and false relations. He was also clearly influenced by the contemporary interest in literary humanism, as is demonstrated in the Ronsard chansons (1576) and in his use of texts in classical metres for occasional ceremonial works composed for prominent figures in Antwerp and Cologne.
Castro's reputation during his time is attested by the wide dissemination of his works, which were printed not only in the Netherlands, France and Germany, but also in Venice and Geneva. His 1574 publication La fleur des chansons was also the source for two anthologies of contrafacta by Simon Goulart (Geneva, 1577). Prints of his music were sold in numbers only exceeded by the compositions of Lassus, and his works continued to be published up to 30 years after his death.
WORKS
Edition: Jean de Castro: Opera omnia, ed. I Bossuyt and others (Leuven, 1993–) [B]
sacred
[20] Sacrarum cantionum liber unus, 5, 8vv/insts (Leuven, 1571); ed. in Denkmäler rheinischer Musik, xvii (Düsseldorf, 1974)
[25] Triciniorum sacrorum liber unus, 3vv (Leuven, 1574); B iv
[27] Novae cantiones sacrae, quae vulgo motetta vocantur, 5, 6, 8vv (Douai, 1588), ed. in Denkmäler rheinischer Musik, xviii (Frankfurt, 1975)
[19] Cantiones sacrae, quae motetas vulgo nominant, 5vv (Frankfurt, 1591); ed. in Denkmäler rheinischer Musik, xvi (Düsseldorf, 1974)
[26] Triciniorum sacrorum … liber unus [sic], 3vv/insts (Antwerp, 1592)
[12] Bicinia … cantiones aliquot sacrae, continentes hymnos, prosas et laudes ab ecclesia decantari solitas, 2vv (Cologne, 1593); B ii
[6] Cantiones aliquot sacrae, 3vv/insts (Cologne, 1593)
Cantiones aliquot sacrae, 3vv (Cologne, 1596, 2/1598)
Missae tres, 3vv (Cologne, 1599)
Works in 15694, 15696, 15803, 16232
Motets in D-Mbs, GB-Lcm, PL-WRu
secular
Il primo libro di [33] madrigali, canzoni & motetti, 3vv (Antwerp, 1569); B iii
[8] Chansons et [11] madrigales [and 1 motet], 4vv/insts (Leuven, 1570)
La fleur des chansons, 3vv (Leuven and Antwerp, 15743)
Livre de chansons, 3vv (Paris, 1575, 2/1582), ed. in SCC, v (1989)
Livre de meslanges contenant un recueil de chansons, 4vv (Leuven and Antwerp, 15754)
Chansons, odes, et sonetz de Pierre Ronsard, 4, 5, 8vv (Leuven and Antwerp, 1576), ed. in RRMR, xcvii (1994)
Second livre de chansons, madrigalz et motetz, 3vv (Paris, 1580), ed. in SCC, v (1989)
[7] Chansons, [16] madrigaux et [14] motetz, 3vv (Antwerp, 1582)
Livre de chansons, 5vv/insts, avec une pastorelle en forme de dialogue, 7vv (Antwerp, 1586)
Madrigali, 3vv, con 2 canzoni francese, 6vv (Antwerp, 1588, 2/1607, 3/1620)
Recueil des chansons, 3vv (Antwerp, 1591, 2/1609)
Rose fresche, madrigali, 3vv (Venice, 1591)
Chansons, stanses, sonets, et épigrammes … livre second, 2vv/insts (Antwerp, 1592, 2/1610/R, 3/1634); B i
[6] Sonets, avec une chanson, contenant neuf parties … livre premier, 2vv/insts (Antwerp, 1592, 2/1610R, 3/1634); B i
Trois odes contenant chascune d’elles douze parties, 4vv (Douai, 1592)
Sonets du Seigneur Pierre de la Meschiniere, 3vv (Douai, 1593, lost, Persoons no.16; 2/1600, lost, Persoons no.20; 3/1604, lost, Persoons no.30; 4/1611)
Quintines, sextines, sonets, 5vv/insts (Cologne, 1594)
Scielta de più vaghi madrigali, 5vv (Venice, 1594, lost)
Harmonie joyeuse et délectable, contenant aucunes stanzes et chansons, 4vv (Antwerp, 1595)
Chant musicale sur les nopces du … Prince Don Philippe … et de la … Princesse Gregoria Maximiliana, 5vv (Cologne, 1597)
Works in 156910, 156911, 15709, 15772, 15773, 160914, 16139 (lute arr.)
Chansons … composées et mises en musique par M. Jean de Castro, … escript en Anvers par Jean Pollet lillois … anno 1571, 4, 5vv, F-Pn
Works in GB-Cfm, Lcm, Och, PL-WRu
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Grove6 (L.F. Bernstein)
M. Oebel: Beiträge zu einer Monographie über Jean de Castro (ca. 1540–1610) (Regensburg, 1928)
F. Dobbins: ‘Lassus – Borrower or Lender: the Chansons’, RBM, xxxix–xl (1985–6), 101–57
G. Persoons: ‘Joannes I Bogardus, Jean II Bogard en Pierre Bogard als muziekdrukkers te Douai van 1574 tot 1633 en hun betrekkingen met de Officina Plantiniana’, Gulden passer, lxvi–lxviii (1988–9), 613–63
J. Brooks: ‘Jean de Castro, the Pense Partbooks and Musical Culture in Sixteenth-Century Lyons’, EMH, xi (1992), 91–149
I. Bossuyt: ‘Jean de Castro and his Three-Part Chansons Modelled on Four-and Five-Part Chansons by Orlando di Lasso: a Comparison’, Orlando di Lasso: Munich 1994, 25–67
S. Willaert and I. Bossuyt: ‘Jean de Castro's Il Primo Libro di Madrigali, Canzoni e Motetti’, Music Fragments and Manuscripts in the Low Countries [Yearbook of the Alamire Foundation, ii] (Leuven-Peer, 1997), 333–51
I. Bossuyt: ‘Orlando di Lasso as a Model for Composition as seen in the Three-Voice Motets of Jean de Castro’, Orlando di Lasso Studies, ed. P. Bergquist (Cambridge, 1999), 158–82
IGNACE BOSSUYT, KATRIEN DERDE, SASKIA WILLAERT
Castro, Jean de [Iehan, Giovan, Giovanni, Ioanne, Ioannis a]
(b ?Liège, c1540–45; d ?Cologne, c1600). Flemish composer. The Walloon poet Etienne de Walcourt referred to him as ‘nostre Castro’ (RISM 15743) and the title page of his Novae cantiones sacrae (1588) describes him as ‘Eburone’, a term frequently used for Liège in the 16th and 17th centuries. In the late 1560s he moved to Antwerp, where he stayed until mutinous Spanish soldiers partially destroyed the city in November 1576. He fled via Germany (where he possibly established contact with his future employer, Johann Wilhelm, Duke of Jülich, Cleves and Berg) to France, where he stayed for several years. In 1585 he attended the wedding in Düsseldorf of Duke Johann Wilhelm, for whom he wrote a hymeneal. In 1586 Castro returned to Antwerp after relative peace had descended on the city, but two years later the duke appointed him Kapellmeister at Düsseldorf. He remained there until 1591, when his departure was prompted by the duke's increasing insanity; he moved to Cologne, where he spent the rest of his life.
The number of volumes produced during Castro's lifetime demonstrates both his popularity and his prolificacy, while the many and varied dedications of the prints chart the changing allegiances of a man who had to rely for most of his career (apart from his years in Düsseldorf) on the unstable system of private patronage. He was clearly well known by the wealthy politicians and merchants of his time; some of the dedications (for instance, to highly placed politicians such as Gerard van Groesbeck, prince-bishop of Liège, and Frédéric Perrenot, Governor of Antwerp) indicate that he was hoping for an official position, but many of the prints are dedicated to merchants both in the Low Countries and elsewhere. A particularly significant dedication is that of his 1575 print to Justinien Pense, a citizen of Lyons, who had earlier commissioned a manuscript of Castro's works, which was copied in Antwerp by Jean Pollet; Castro later dedicated another print to a relative of Pense. During his stay in Cologne no fewer than 15 volumes of his music appeared, but his works from this period show an increasing emphasis on religious music. The dedications of prints of religious music to Ernst of Bavaria, Archbishop of Cologne (1593), and other notable prelates connected with him seem to suggest that Castro wished for a position at the archiepiscopal court, but there is no conclusive evidence for an official appointment. Many of his works written in Cologne were published by Grevenbruch, who acknowledged him as ‘the only musician of our time’; his last publication is dated 10 July 1599, and he probably died shortly thereafter. In many ways, Castro can be seen as similar to his contemporary Lassus, but chiefly because of his preference for three-part writing in the main genres then current (chanson, motet, madrigal and mass) he occupies a unique position in the last three decades of the 16th century. In the early three-part songs and throughout his madrigal-writing career he relied on borrowing and adaptation of pre-existing material. His choice of models reflected the tastes of his day: Lassus was the main choice for the chansons; for the motets he drew on an earlier generation (mainly Clemens non Papa and Cipriano de Rore); the madrigals shift from an early preference for Rore to a later concentration on Luca Marenzio and on specific madrigal anthologies, particularly the well-known prints by Phalèse & Bellère (RISM 158314-15 and 158519). Apart from thematic citations, Castro adopted further elements of the model, such as the three upper clefs, the mode and the division into sections.
The compositional foundation of Castro's music was imitative counterpoint, but in accordance with the increasing emphasis on text declamation in the later 16th century the counterpoint regularly gives way to a more homophonic style. His primary aim seems to have been expressive representation of the text, and he frequently made use of madrigalisms, even in the chansons and motets. His melodies are often lively, although less fluent than those of Lassus; his use of harmonies is characterized by frequently applied accidentals (although he tended to avoid extreme chromaticism) and false relations. He was also clearly influenced by the contemporary interest in literary humanism, as is demonstrated in the Ronsard chansons (1576) and in his use of texts in classical metres for occasional ceremonial works composed for prominent figures in Antwerp and Cologne.
Castro's reputation during his time is attested by the wide dissemination of his works, which were printed not only in the Netherlands, France and Germany, but also in Venice and Geneva. His 1574 publication La fleur des chansons was also the source for two anthologies of contrafacta by Simon Goulart (Geneva, 1577). Prints of his music were sold in numbers only exceeded by the compositions of Lassus, and his works continued to be published up to 30 years after his death.
WORKS
Edition: Jean de Castro: Opera omnia, ed. I Bossuyt and others (Leuven, 1993–) [B]
sacred
[20] Sacrarum cantionum liber unus, 5, 8vv/insts (Leuven, 1571); ed. in Denkmäler rheinischer Musik, xvii (Düsseldorf, 1974)
[25] Triciniorum sacrorum liber unus, 3vv (Leuven, 1574); B iv
[27] Novae cantiones sacrae, quae vulgo motetta vocantur, 5, 6, 8vv (Douai, 1588), ed. in Denkmäler rheinischer Musik, xviii (Frankfurt, 1975)
[19] Cantiones sacrae, quae motetas vulgo nominant, 5vv (Frankfurt, 1591); ed. in Denkmäler rheinischer Musik, xvi (Düsseldorf, 1974)
[26] Triciniorum sacrorum … liber unus [sic], 3vv/insts (Antwerp, 1592)
[12] Bicinia … cantiones aliquot sacrae, continentes hymnos, prosas et laudes ab ecclesia decantari solitas, 2vv (Cologne, 1593); B ii
[6] Cantiones aliquot sacrae, 3vv/insts (Cologne, 1593)
Cantiones aliquot sacrae, 3vv (Cologne, 1596, 2/1598)
Missae tres, 3vv (Cologne, 1599)
Works in 15694, 15696, 15803, 16232
Motets in D-Mbs, GB-Lcm, PL-WRu
secular
Il primo libro di [33] madrigali, canzoni & motetti, 3vv (Antwerp, 1569); B iii
[8] Chansons et [11] madrigales [and 1 motet], 4vv/insts (Leuven, 1570)
La fleur des chansons, 3vv (Leuven and Antwerp, 15743)
Livre de chansons, 3vv (Paris, 1575, 2/1582), ed. in SCC, v (1989)
Livre de meslanges contenant un recueil de chansons, 4vv (Leuven and Antwerp, 15754)
Chansons, odes, et sonetz de Pierre Ronsard, 4, 5, 8vv (Leuven and Antwerp, 1576), ed. in RRMR, xcvii (1994)
Second livre de chansons, madrigalz et motetz, 3vv (Paris, 1580), ed. in SCC, v (1989)
[7] Chansons, [16] madrigaux et [14] motetz, 3vv (Antwerp, 1582)
Livre de chansons, 5vv/insts, avec une pastorelle en forme de dialogue, 7vv (Antwerp, 1586)
Madrigali, 3vv, con 2 canzoni francese, 6vv (Antwerp, 1588, 2/1607, 3/1620)
Recueil des chansons, 3vv (Antwerp, 1591, 2/1609)
Rose fresche, madrigali, 3vv (Venice, 1591)
Chansons, stanses, sonets, et épigrammes … livre second, 2vv/insts (Antwerp, 1592, 2/1610/R, 3/1634); B i
[6] Sonets, avec une chanson, contenant neuf parties … livre premier, 2vv/insts (Antwerp, 1592, 2/1610R, 3/1634); B i
Trois odes contenant chascune d’elles douze parties, 4vv (Douai, 1592)
Sonets du Seigneur Pierre de la Meschiniere, 3vv (Douai, 1593, lost, Persoons no.16; 2/1600, lost, Persoons no.20; 3/1604, lost, Persoons no.30; 4/1611)
Quintines, sextines, sonets, 5vv/insts (Cologne, 1594)
Scielta de più vaghi madrigali, 5vv (Venice, 1594, lost)
Harmonie joyeuse et délectable, contenant aucunes stanzes et chansons, 4vv (Antwerp, 1595)
Chant musicale sur les nopces du … Prince Don Philippe … et de la … Princesse Gregoria Maximiliana, 5vv (Cologne, 1597)
Works in 156910, 156911, 15709, 15772, 15773, 160914, 16139 (lute arr.)
Chansons … composées et mises en musique par M. Jean de Castro, … escript en Anvers par Jean Pollet lillois … anno 1571, 4, 5vv, F-Pn
Works in GB-Cfm, Lcm, Och, PL-WRu
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Grove6 (L.F. Bernstein)
M. Oebel: Beiträge zu einer Monographie über Jean de Castro (ca. 1540–1610) (Regensburg, 1928)
F. Dobbins: ‘Lassus – Borrower or Lender: the Chansons’, RBM, xxxix–xl (1985–6), 101–57
G. Persoons: ‘Joannes I Bogardus, Jean II Bogard en Pierre Bogard als muziekdrukkers te Douai van 1574 tot 1633 en hun betrekkingen met de Officina Plantiniana’, Gulden passer, lxvi–lxviii (1988–9), 613–63
J. Brooks: ‘Jean de Castro, the Pense Partbooks and Musical Culture in Sixteenth-Century Lyons’, EMH, xi (1992), 91–149
I. Bossuyt: ‘Jean de Castro and his Three-Part Chansons Modelled on Four-and Five-Part Chansons by Orlando di Lasso: a Comparison’, Orlando di Lasso: Munich 1994, 25–67
S. Willaert and I. Bossuyt: ‘Jean de Castro's Il Primo Libro di Madrigali, Canzoni e Motetti’, Music Fragments and Manuscripts in the Low Countries [Yearbook of the Alamire Foundation, ii] (Leuven-Peer, 1997), 333–51
I. Bossuyt: ‘Orlando di Lasso as a Model for Composition as seen in the Three-Voice Motets of Jean de Castro’, Orlando di Lasso Studies, ed. P. Bergquist (Cambridge, 1999), 158–82
IGNACE BOSSUYT, KATRIEN DERDE, SASKIA WILLAERT