4 minute read
The Capilla Flamenca
by Honey Meconi
The Capilla flamenca (Flemish chapel) was the private chapel choir of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (1500–1558). At the time that Charles was elected emperor, in 1519, he ruled more territory than anyone since the time of the Roman Empire. This came about more by accident than design: Charles's grandfather, Maximilian I of Austria, had married Mary of Burgundy, only child and heir of Charles the Bold, the last Duke of Burgundy. Although Burgundy proper reverted to the French crown upon the death of Charles the Bold in 1477, Mary was still the ruler of the remaining Burgundian territories (the Burgundian Netherlands), which included what is now Belgium (both Flanders, where Flemish was spoken, and Wallonia, where French was the language), parts of northern France, and portions of the southern Netherlands. Maximilian brought his own considerable Habsburg territories in Germany, Austria, and Eastern Europe to the marriage.
Seeking to increase his family's power, Maximilian married his two children, Philip the Fair and Margaret of Austria, to Juan and Juana of Spain, daughter and son of Ferdinand and Isabella. With the deaths of Juan, heir to the Spanish throne, and both of Juan's parents, Ferdinand and Isabella, the young Charles became the ruler of Spain and its territories through his mother, Juana. Thus, Charles was now sovereign of the Burgundian Netherlands, all the Habsburg lands, Spain, and the massive holdings of the Spanish New World— an empire of staggering size.
Charles came from a long line of passionate music lovers going back to the first Duke of Burgundy in the fourteenth century. This love manifested itself most conspicuously in the employment of a large number of professional singers. In the time of Charles’ parents, they would have had both a grande chappelle and a petite chappelle, the former including up to thirty-eight musicians. This was notable at a time when many churches had just a handful of professional singers. The chapel was kept busy; their daily church services, including the performance of the mass, typically included not just plainchant (a single melodic line, sung in unison and popularly known as Gregorian Chant,) but also the most up-to-date and complex polyphony for up to eight voice parts. We know this because of surviving manuscripts from the court as well as inventories of music books owned.
The chapel accompanied Charles (and his predecessors) everywhere. This was important because in the days
before media such as newspapers or photography, a ruler wished to display himself (and his power) to his subjects on a regular basis. He needed to be seen to be believed, and a ruler who could command such a massive musical force was especially impressive. And because their territories were far-flung, Habsburg-Burgundian rulers were typically on the move.
Charles was raised in the Low Countries, mostly in Brussels and Mechelen. The first time he left his native region was to travel to his new kingdom of Spain in 1517. The chapel he brought with him, consisting of twenty-eight members, became known as the Capilla flamenca to distinguish it from the much smaller and less prestigious Spanish chapel that he inherited from his mother Juana and his Spanish grandfather, Ferdinand. The quality of musical training in the Low Countries meant that, for much of the fifteenth century and well into the sixteenth, most of the best performers and the best composers came from the North. From his own musicians and from the music they encountered on their frequent travels, Charles's Capilla flamenca drew on the riches of both sacred and secular music throughout his reign, performing compositions by Pierre de la Rue (the most significant composer in the chapel when Charles was growing up), Thomas Crecquillon (chapel master for Charles), Josquin des Prez (wildly popular throughout Europe, and richly represented in music manuscripts owned by Charles), and other leading composers of the day such as Clemens non Papa, Adrian Willaert, and Claudin de Sermisy. No other institution, not even the Papal Chapel, had a repertory as rich as that of the Capilla flamenca, and the music they performed represents the great riches of the sixteenth century, the "Golden Age of Polyphony." •
Honey Meconi is the inaugural Arthur Satz Professor at the University of Rochester, where she is also Professor of Musicology at the Eastman School of Music.
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