Surname
Brumel
Given Name
Antoine
Date of birth
circa 1460
Date of death
circa 1513
Role
Composer
Musician
Active period
1483 - 1513
Workplace
Laon
Biography
Santifaller1949, p.598, n°408: le 10 avril 1491, à Nuremberg, Maximilien d’Autriche produit une expectative au profit d’“Antoine Brunil”, clerc du diocèse de Laon, pour le monastère Saint-Victor de Genève (aucun doute possible)
• NG2 - 1. Life. Brumel may have been born at Brunelles, near Nogent-le-Rotrou, west of Chartres, about 1460. A famous passage in Crétin's déploration on the death of Ockeghem has often been interpreted to mean that Brumel was a pupil of the great master of Tours: Agricolla, Verbonnet, Prioris / Josquin Desprez, Gaspar, Brumel, Compère, / Ne parlez plus de joyeulx chantz ne ris, / Mais composez ung Ne recorderis,/ Pour lamenter nostre maistre et bon père. However, nothing in Brumel's early works points to a close connection with Ockeghem. The earliest mention of the composer is found at Chartres, where the cleric Anthonius de Brumel became an horarius et matutinarius (singer at the day and night Office) at Notre Dame on 9 August 1483. Because of his abilities, he was granted the larger stipend of the church. By 4 October 1486 he had become Master of the Innocents at St Pierre, Geneva, where he remained until 1492. Meanwhile he was given leave for a period during 1489-90 to visit the court of the Duke of Savoy at Chambéry. Although offered a position there, he returned to Geneva, where relations with the chapter authorities became so strained that he suddenly left in August 1492. His immediate destination remains unknown, but in 1497 he was a canon at Laon Cathedral. At some time he became a priest, probably during that interim. On 5 January 1498 Brumel was placed in charge of the education and musical training of the children at Notre Dame, Paris. In September 1500 he was given two weeks' vacation to visit his birthplace, which, although unnamed, must have been in the general vicinity. Later the same year a controversy arose over the appointment of a new choirboy, so that again Brumel resigned in unpleasant circumstances. From 1 June 1501 to 1 July 1502 he was employed at Chambéry as a singer at the ducal court. In July 1505 Alfonso I d'Este of Ferrara entered negotiations through an intermediary, Sigismondo Cantelmo, Duke of Sora, then at Lyons, to employ the composer as maestro di cappella. The lifetime contract offered provided a benefice valued at 100 ducats a year, an annual salary of 100 ducats, a house in Ferrara and 50 ducats toward the expenses of travel to Ferrara. Brumel began his duties in August 1506 and remained at Ferrara until the chapel was disbanded in 1510. A document of 11 May 1512 indicates that Brumel was then archpriest of the united churches of S Johannes in Libia and S Sabina outside Faenza, and that he was probably in Mantua at about this time. Circumstances surrounding the document suggest that the composer was then quite ill and may have died soon after. At least one important work, the Missa de beata virgine, seems to have been composed after Brumel left Ferrara. Vincenzo Galilei wrote a treatise (I-Fn Anteriori Galilei, vol.i, f.138) in which he listed a number of French and Netherlandish composers, including Brumel, who he said assembled in Rome in 1513, when Leo X was elected pope (see Lowinsky). Nothing has been found to confirm Brumel's activities there. Since Galilei was born at about the time Brumel died, he could have had no direct knowledge of the event, and his report may be incorrect.
• NG2 - 1. Life. Brumel may have been born at Brunelles, near Nogent-le-Rotrou, west of Chartres, about 1460. A famous passage in Crétin's déploration on the death of Ockeghem has often been interpreted to mean that Brumel was a pupil of the great master of Tours: Agricolla, Verbonnet, Prioris / Josquin Desprez, Gaspar, Brumel, Compère, / Ne parlez plus de joyeulx chantz ne ris, / Mais composez ung Ne recorderis,/ Pour lamenter nostre maistre et bon père. However, nothing in Brumel's early works points to a close connection with Ockeghem. The earliest mention of the composer is found at Chartres, where the cleric Anthonius de Brumel became an horarius et matutinarius (singer at the day and night Office) at Notre Dame on 9 August 1483. Because of his abilities, he was granted the larger stipend of the church. By 4 October 1486 he had become Master of the Innocents at St Pierre, Geneva, where he remained until 1492. Meanwhile he was given leave for a period during 1489-90 to visit the court of the Duke of Savoy at Chambéry. Although offered a position there, he returned to Geneva, where relations with the chapter authorities became so strained that he suddenly left in August 1492. His immediate destination remains unknown, but in 1497 he was a canon at Laon Cathedral. At some time he became a priest, probably during that interim. On 5 January 1498 Brumel was placed in charge of the education and musical training of the children at Notre Dame, Paris. In September 1500 he was given two weeks' vacation to visit his birthplace, which, although unnamed, must have been in the general vicinity. Later the same year a controversy arose over the appointment of a new choirboy, so that again Brumel resigned in unpleasant circumstances. From 1 June 1501 to 1 July 1502 he was employed at Chambéry as a singer at the ducal court. In July 1505 Alfonso I d'Este of Ferrara entered negotiations through an intermediary, Sigismondo Cantelmo, Duke of Sora, then at Lyons, to employ the composer as maestro di cappella. The lifetime contract offered provided a benefice valued at 100 ducats a year, an annual salary of 100 ducats, a house in Ferrara and 50 ducats toward the expenses of travel to Ferrara. Brumel began his duties in August 1506 and remained at Ferrara until the chapel was disbanded in 1510. A document of 11 May 1512 indicates that Brumel was then archpriest of the united churches of S Johannes in Libia and S Sabina outside Faenza, and that he was probably in Mantua at about this time. Circumstances surrounding the document suggest that the composer was then quite ill and may have died soon after. At least one important work, the Missa de beata virgine, seems to have been composed after Brumel left Ferrara. Vincenzo Galilei wrote a treatise (I-Fn Anteriori Galilei, vol.i, f.138) in which he listed a number of French and Netherlandish composers, including Brumel, who he said assembled in Rome in 1513, when Leo X was elected pope (see Lowinsky). Nothing has been found to confirm Brumel's activities there. Since Galilei was born at about the time Brumel died, he could have had no direct knowledge of the event, and his report may be incorrect.