Surname
François
Given Name
Jean
Variant Name
Franciscus
Gembloux (de)
Place of birth
Gembloux
Role
Composer
Master of choirboys
Musician
Active period
1418 - 1421
Workplace
Lisieux
Biography
Homonymie. Ce compositeur n'est manifestement pas le Jean François actif dans les années 1390-1415, notamment à la cour de Bourgogne.
• Saucier 2005, p. 332 ne s’occupe que de Jo Fr de Gemblaco, succentor de St-Martin de Liège en 1418/19 et 1420/21.
• NG 2 (Fallows) confirme sa position: Franchois de Gemblaco, Johannes (fl c1415--30). Franco-Flemish composer. All his music first appears in sources copied in the years 1425 to 1435 and none of it suggests a style any earlier than 1415; so he must surely be the 'Joh. Franciscus de Gemblaco' documented as a succentor at the collegiate church of St Martin, Liege, by September 1417 and in 1419--20 (as carefully argued in Quitin, later fully supported by Igoe and Strohm). The widely held view that he was the Burgundian court singer Johannes Franchois, documented from 1378 to 1415 (see Wright) and born no later than 1355, must be considered thoroughly implausible; since that man was a canon of Evreux from 1394 he cannot be the humble succentor of 1417--20. The name 'de Gemblaco' is extremely common in Liege, and the composer may therefore have been born there rather than at Gembloux (which is in the diocese of Liege, though nearer to Brussels). Many details in his music suggest the influence of other composers from Liege, particulary Hugo de Lantins and Johannes Ciconia. Given the wide distribution of his music in Italian sources, it is likely that he later moved south, as is implied, in fact, in the text of his Sans oublyer.
The name 'Jo franchois de gemblaco' appears only twice in the musical sources, in I-Bc Q15 for two Gloria settings; otherwise his works are ascribed 'Jo Franchois' or 'Jo Gemblaco', but their stylistic consistency makes it fairly certain that all the music is by a single composer. That style is moreover clear enough to make it easy to agree with Feininger that the anonymous Gloria--Credo pair is indeed by the same man. More than any other composer of his generation he explored systematic imitation, often using several different pitches for successive entries; in this he seems to have followed and expanded on the lead of Hugo de Lantins. He made considerable use of motivic and sequential treatment as well as of detailed expressivity in text setting, both perhaps expanding on the initiatives of Johannes Ciconia. His five-voice motet Ave virgo lux Maria is notable for its famous textless introit with two canonic voices over a wide-range 'trumpetta', for having its cantus firmus (the antiphon Sancta Maria succurre miseris; see LU, 1255) not in the tenor but in the contratenor, and for its extensive unison imitation between the upper voices; in this last respect it seems again to expand techniques pioneered by Ciconia.
WORKS
mass pairs: Gloria and Credo, 3vv, ed. C. van den Borren, Polyphonia sacra (Burnham, Bucks., 1932, 2/1963), 93 (paired in I-Bc Q15 and by implication in AO; the jaunty 'Amen' section of the Credo presented there as an appendix appears in all full sources apart from GB-Ob 213)
Gloria and Credo, 3vv, ed. in Igoe, 21 (paired in I-AO and Bc Q15, though there is some dispute as to whether they really belong together: they have the same tonality and style, but the Gloria is considerably more condensed -- called 'brevior' in the index to AO -- and the Credo tenor carries the melody Alma redemptoris mater, though the Gloria tenor has a similar manner)
Gloria and Credo, 3vv (anon. but plausibly attrib. to Franchois de Gemblaco and ed. in Feininger, Bc Q15, ff. 103v--106)
motets: Ave virgo lux Maria/Sancta Maria, 5vv with alternative 4vv version, ed. in Igoe, 32, and DTO, lxxvi, Jg. xl/19
rondeaux
all edited in van den Borren, 1950
Mon seul voloir mon souverain retour, 3vv
Par ung regart des deux biaulx yeux riant, 3vv
Sans oublyer sans faire departye, 3vv (also in the Buxheim Keyboard Manuscript, ed. B. Wallner in EDM, 1st ser., xxxviii, 1958, 160)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
StrohmR; C. van den Borren: Etudes sur le quinzieme siecle musical (Antwerp, 1941), 48--9, 107ff ; C. van den Borren, ed.: Pieces polyphoniques profanes de provenance liegeoise (XVe siecle) (Brussels, 1950) ; L. Feininger, ed.: Jo Franchoys (?): Gloria e Credo, Documenta Polyphoniae Liturgicae Sanctae Ecclesiae Romanae, 1st ser., xi (Rome, 1952) ; J. Quitin: 'A propos de Jean-Francois de Gembloux et Johannes de Limburgia', RBM, xxi (1967), 118--24 ; J. Igoe: 'Johannes Franchois de Gemblaco', NRMI, iv (1970), 3--50 ; C. Wright: Music at the Court of Burgundy 1364--1419 (Henryville, PA, 1979), 169--71 [incl. detailed list of sources and ascriptions] ; R. Strohm: 'Einheit und Funktion fruher Messzyklen', Festschrift: Rudolf Bockholdt, ed. N. Dubowy and S. Meyer-Eller (Pfaffenhofen, 1990), 141--60
DAVID FALLOWS
• Saucier 2005, p. 332 ne s’occupe que de Jo Fr de Gemblaco, succentor de St-Martin de Liège en 1418/19 et 1420/21.
• NG 2 (Fallows) confirme sa position: Franchois de Gemblaco, Johannes (fl c1415--30). Franco-Flemish composer. All his music first appears in sources copied in the years 1425 to 1435 and none of it suggests a style any earlier than 1415; so he must surely be the 'Joh. Franciscus de Gemblaco' documented as a succentor at the collegiate church of St Martin, Liege, by September 1417 and in 1419--20 (as carefully argued in Quitin, later fully supported by Igoe and Strohm). The widely held view that he was the Burgundian court singer Johannes Franchois, documented from 1378 to 1415 (see Wright) and born no later than 1355, must be considered thoroughly implausible; since that man was a canon of Evreux from 1394 he cannot be the humble succentor of 1417--20. The name 'de Gemblaco' is extremely common in Liege, and the composer may therefore have been born there rather than at Gembloux (which is in the diocese of Liege, though nearer to Brussels). Many details in his music suggest the influence of other composers from Liege, particulary Hugo de Lantins and Johannes Ciconia. Given the wide distribution of his music in Italian sources, it is likely that he later moved south, as is implied, in fact, in the text of his Sans oublyer.
The name 'Jo franchois de gemblaco' appears only twice in the musical sources, in I-Bc Q15 for two Gloria settings; otherwise his works are ascribed 'Jo Franchois' or 'Jo Gemblaco', but their stylistic consistency makes it fairly certain that all the music is by a single composer. That style is moreover clear enough to make it easy to agree with Feininger that the anonymous Gloria--Credo pair is indeed by the same man. More than any other composer of his generation he explored systematic imitation, often using several different pitches for successive entries; in this he seems to have followed and expanded on the lead of Hugo de Lantins. He made considerable use of motivic and sequential treatment as well as of detailed expressivity in text setting, both perhaps expanding on the initiatives of Johannes Ciconia. His five-voice motet Ave virgo lux Maria is notable for its famous textless introit with two canonic voices over a wide-range 'trumpetta', for having its cantus firmus (the antiphon Sancta Maria succurre miseris; see LU, 1255) not in the tenor but in the contratenor, and for its extensive unison imitation between the upper voices; in this last respect it seems again to expand techniques pioneered by Ciconia.
WORKS
mass pairs: Gloria and Credo, 3vv, ed. C. van den Borren, Polyphonia sacra (Burnham, Bucks., 1932, 2/1963), 93 (paired in I-Bc Q15 and by implication in AO; the jaunty 'Amen' section of the Credo presented there as an appendix appears in all full sources apart from GB-Ob 213)
Gloria and Credo, 3vv, ed. in Igoe, 21 (paired in I-AO and Bc Q15, though there is some dispute as to whether they really belong together: they have the same tonality and style, but the Gloria is considerably more condensed -- called 'brevior' in the index to AO -- and the Credo tenor carries the melody Alma redemptoris mater, though the Gloria tenor has a similar manner)
Gloria and Credo, 3vv (anon. but plausibly attrib. to Franchois de Gemblaco and ed. in Feininger, Bc Q15, ff. 103v--106)
motets: Ave virgo lux Maria/Sancta Maria, 5vv with alternative 4vv version, ed. in Igoe, 32, and DTO, lxxvi, Jg. xl/19
rondeaux
all edited in van den Borren, 1950
Mon seul voloir mon souverain retour, 3vv
Par ung regart des deux biaulx yeux riant, 3vv
Sans oublyer sans faire departye, 3vv (also in the Buxheim Keyboard Manuscript, ed. B. Wallner in EDM, 1st ser., xxxviii, 1958, 160)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
StrohmR; C. van den Borren: Etudes sur le quinzieme siecle musical (Antwerp, 1941), 48--9, 107ff ; C. van den Borren, ed.: Pieces polyphoniques profanes de provenance liegeoise (XVe siecle) (Brussels, 1950) ; L. Feininger, ed.: Jo Franchoys (?): Gloria e Credo, Documenta Polyphoniae Liturgicae Sanctae Ecclesiae Romanae, 1st ser., xi (Rome, 1952) ; J. Quitin: 'A propos de Jean-Francois de Gembloux et Johannes de Limburgia', RBM, xxi (1967), 118--24 ; J. Igoe: 'Johannes Franchois de Gemblaco', NRMI, iv (1970), 3--50 ; C. Wright: Music at the Court of Burgundy 1364--1419 (Henryville, PA, 1979), 169--71 [incl. detailed list of sources and ascriptions] ; R. Strohm: 'Einheit und Funktion fruher Messzyklen', Festschrift: Rudolf Bockholdt, ed. N. Dubowy and S. Meyer-Eller (Pfaffenhofen, 1990), 141--60
DAVID FALLOWS