Surname
Coste
Given Name
Gabriel
Active period
circa 1538 - circa 1543
Biography
Coste, Gabriel
(fl 1538–43). French composer. According to Fétis, the ‘G. Coste’ who composed 16 chansons and two motets for the anthologies of Jacques Moderne was a Gaspard Coste, chorister at Avignon Cathedral in 1530; however, no record of the name has since been traced at Avignon and Fétis was evidently confusing this composer with Gasparo Costa, an organist active in Italy at the end of the century. Furthermore, the index of Musicque de joye (Lyons, 1550) lists a ricercare by ‘Gabriel Costa’ although the usual designation ‘G. Coste’ figures above the music. The name Coste was fairly common in 16th-century Lyons. His Lyonese connections are also suggested by the fact that he set two heterometric stanzas from Bonaventure des Périers’ Voyage à Notre-Dame de l’Isle (Oeuvres; Lyons, 1544, p.51) – a challenging task for a composer accustomed to the more regular metre of Clément Marot and his followers. Most of Coste’s chansons follow the four-voice courtly model of Claudin de Sermisy; a majority of homophonic phrases alternate with occasional imitative entries. All but two begin with a variant of the ‘narrative’ rhythmic formula (ex.1). Celle fillette, Retirez vous and Sus donc fascheux are in the lighter, syllabic and contrapuntal style made famous by Janequin.
WORKS
chansons
all for 4 voices; ed. SCC, xxiv–xxviii (1992–3)
A mon avis (A. Héroët), 15417; Celle fillette (J. Molinet), 154016; Il n’est pas vray (M. de Saint-Gelais), 154314; Je ne scay combien (C. Marot), 154013; Jusques à la mort (Marot), 153817; Le corps ravy (P. Du Guillet), 15418; O de doulceur, 154016
Pour faire plus tost mal (Marot), 153817, ed. in Cw, lxi (1956); Retirez vous petits vers, 15418; Rigueur me tient, 153920; Si du proces d’amour, 153816; Si les oyseaulx, 153920; Si souvenir pouvoit, 153816; Sus donc fascheux, 154016; Ung pauvre aymant, 153920; Viens soulas (B. des Périers), 154017
other works
2 motets: Invocabo nomen tuum, 4vv, 153911, ed. in SCMot, x (1999); Puer natus est nobis, 5vv, 15425
Ricercar vigesimus 4, 4 insts, 155024; ed. in MRM, i (1964), 128, and ed. J. Barbier, Musicque de joye (Tours, 1993)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
FétisB
F. Dobbins: ‘“Doulce mémoire”: a Study of the Parody Chanson’, PRMA, xcvi (1969–70), 85–101, esp. 92
F. Dobbins: The Chanson at Lyons in the Sixteenth Century (diss., U. of Oxford, 1972), i, 55, 76–7, 144 [all chansons transcr. in ii, 42ff]
F. Dobbins: Music in Renaissance Lyons (Oxford, 1992), 189–316
FRANK DOBBINS
A VÉRIFIER ?
Memoires
books.google.frSociété archéologique de Montpellier - 1914 - Extraits
Ont été présens à la cérémonie : Messire Gaspard Coste, vicaire et chapelain ; Messire André Taillefer, curé de Saint-Geniès ; Messire Jean Taillefer, curé de Sussargues, qui ont signé avec nous. [Signatures :] — Saint-Julien, — Artaud ...
(fl 1538–43). French composer. According to Fétis, the ‘G. Coste’ who composed 16 chansons and two motets for the anthologies of Jacques Moderne was a Gaspard Coste, chorister at Avignon Cathedral in 1530; however, no record of the name has since been traced at Avignon and Fétis was evidently confusing this composer with Gasparo Costa, an organist active in Italy at the end of the century. Furthermore, the index of Musicque de joye (Lyons, 1550) lists a ricercare by ‘Gabriel Costa’ although the usual designation ‘G. Coste’ figures above the music. The name Coste was fairly common in 16th-century Lyons. His Lyonese connections are also suggested by the fact that he set two heterometric stanzas from Bonaventure des Périers’ Voyage à Notre-Dame de l’Isle (Oeuvres; Lyons, 1544, p.51) – a challenging task for a composer accustomed to the more regular metre of Clément Marot and his followers. Most of Coste’s chansons follow the four-voice courtly model of Claudin de Sermisy; a majority of homophonic phrases alternate with occasional imitative entries. All but two begin with a variant of the ‘narrative’ rhythmic formula (ex.1). Celle fillette, Retirez vous and Sus donc fascheux are in the lighter, syllabic and contrapuntal style made famous by Janequin.
WORKS
chansons
all for 4 voices; ed. SCC, xxiv–xxviii (1992–3)
A mon avis (A. Héroët), 15417; Celle fillette (J. Molinet), 154016; Il n’est pas vray (M. de Saint-Gelais), 154314; Je ne scay combien (C. Marot), 154013; Jusques à la mort (Marot), 153817; Le corps ravy (P. Du Guillet), 15418; O de doulceur, 154016
Pour faire plus tost mal (Marot), 153817, ed. in Cw, lxi (1956); Retirez vous petits vers, 15418; Rigueur me tient, 153920; Si du proces d’amour, 153816; Si les oyseaulx, 153920; Si souvenir pouvoit, 153816; Sus donc fascheux, 154016; Ung pauvre aymant, 153920; Viens soulas (B. des Périers), 154017
other works
2 motets: Invocabo nomen tuum, 4vv, 153911, ed. in SCMot, x (1999); Puer natus est nobis, 5vv, 15425
Ricercar vigesimus 4, 4 insts, 155024; ed. in MRM, i (1964), 128, and ed. J. Barbier, Musicque de joye (Tours, 1993)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
FétisB
F. Dobbins: ‘“Doulce mémoire”: a Study of the Parody Chanson’, PRMA, xcvi (1969–70), 85–101, esp. 92
F. Dobbins: The Chanson at Lyons in the Sixteenth Century (diss., U. of Oxford, 1972), i, 55, 76–7, 144 [all chansons transcr. in ii, 42ff]
F. Dobbins: Music in Renaissance Lyons (Oxford, 1992), 189–316
FRANK DOBBINS
A VÉRIFIER ?
Memoires
books.google.frSociété archéologique de Montpellier - 1914 - Extraits
Ont été présens à la cérémonie : Messire Gaspard Coste, vicaire et chapelain ; Messire André Taillefer, curé de Saint-Geniès ; Messire Jean Taillefer, curé de Sussargues, qui ont signé avec nous. [Signatures :] — Saint-Julien, — Artaud ...