Alexander Agricola (/əˈɡrɪkələ/; bornAlexander Ackerman;[1]c. 1446 – 15 August 1506) was aNetherlandishcomposer of theRenaissance writing in theFranco-Flemish style. A prominent member of theGrande chapelle, theHabsburg musical establishment, he was a renowned composer in the years around 1500, and his music was widely distributed throughout Europe. He composed music in all of the important sacred and secular styles of the time.[2]
Agricola was the son, born out of wedlock, of Lijsbette Naps, a wealthy female merchant who lived inGhent. He was probably born sometime in the late 1450s and had a brother named Jan.[3] A commemorative motet first published in 1538 gave his age as 60 at the time of his death in 1506, but that may be due to a medieval convention concerning the number 60.[4]: 25 He may have received his musical training from the parish church of St Nicolas inGhent, as his mother made a substantial donation to its musical establishment in 1467.[3]: 380–381 In 1476 he is known to have been inCambrai, in the Low Countries, where he was employed as apetit vicaire or singer from February to May.[4]: 24
Most of his life he spent in posts in Italy, France and theLow Countries, though there are gaps where his activities are not known, and he seems to have left many of his posts without permission. Agricola was previously identified as the Alessandro d'Alemagna who served as a singer for Duke Galeazzo MariaSforza of Milan from 1471 to 1474, during the period when the Milanese chapel choir grew into one of the largest and most famous ensembles in Europe;Loyset Compère,Johannes Martini,Gaspar van Weerbeke, and several other composer-singers were also in Milan during those years.[5] In 1474 Duke Galeazzo Maria wrote a letter of recommendation for a certain "Alexander de Alamania" toLorenzo de' Medici.[6]: 22 That identification has since been questioned because the Milanese documents do not record the surname of this Alessandro d'Alemagna, and Agricola is from Flanders, not Germany.[2] The earliest unambiguous references to Agricola remain the documents at Cambrai.
For the long period from 1476 to 1491 nothing definite is known except that he spent part of the time in the French royal chapel, and he must have been building his reputation as a composer during this time, for he was much in demand in the 1490s, with France andNaples competing for his services. Between 1 October 1491 and 1 June 1492 Agricola served as part of the cathedral chapel in Florence.[7]: 344 In April 1492Charles VIII of France wrote a letter toPietro de Medici asking for the return of Agricola, which implies that he had been serving in the French royal chapel for an unknown duration beforehand.[8] Agricola was briefly in Naples in June 1492, althoughKing Ferrante had to relinquish him at the request ofCharles VIII. Ferrante tried to reacquire Agricola from Charles VIII during 1493, at one point offering him a salary of 300 ducats a year. However Ferrante's enthusiasm cooled during the rest of 1493 as the situation in Italy deteriorated (war broke out in the next year) and he told Agricola to not come toNaples.[9] Despite this, Agricola seemed to have returned to Naples (now ruled by Ferrante's sonAlfonso) in 1494, staying for some time between February and March.[10]
After this the paper trail for Agricola runs cold until the spring of 1500, when he took a position withPhilip the Handsome, who was Duke ofBurgundy and became King ofCastile upon the death of hismother-in-law in 1504. Agricola accompanied Philip on his travels through his extensive lands, which included two trips to Spain in 1501 and 1506, passing through France during the first trip and England in the second. He served alongside fellow composerPierre de la Rue, and was paid the same salary; he also received benefices inGorinchem andValenciennes[6]: 31–35 Other composers present in Philip's chapel during this time includesMarbrianus de Orto andAntonius Divitis. By this time Agricola was one of the most esteemed composers in Europe. Petrucci brought out a collection of his masses in 1504, an honour accorded to few composers before him. His motetSi dedero survives in over thirty sources and bothJacob Obrecht and Divitis wrote masses based on it.[2]Josquin paid homage to Agricola in hisMissa Faisant regretz by borrowing the ostinato idea first used in his four voiceTout a par moy, which is in turn based on Frye's chanson.[11] Works by Agricola, La Rue and Josquin make up the bulk of the choir book B–Br MS 9126, which was prepared just before Philip's second trip to Spain.[6]: 35
Agricola was still receiving his salary up until 22 July 1506, when the court was inValladolid. However, his name is not included in the chapel payments in October which was authorised shortly after Philip's death.[6]: 34–35 Agricola's own death on 15 August 1506 is confirmed by an epitaph found in a 16th-century manuscript in Brussels, it reads:Epitaph. Here lies one whom death ensnared: a Ghenter, formerly called Master Alexander Agricola, well spoken of in music. Death dispatched him on 15 August 1506: God grant that he be comforted and seated among the righteous. Amen.[12]
Agricola is one of the few transitional figures between theBurgundian School and the style of the Josquin generation of Netherlanders who actually wrote music in both styles.
Agricola's style is related to that ofJohannes Ockeghem, especially early in his career, and towards the end of his life he was writing using the pervasive imitation characteristic ofJosquin des Prez. While few of his works can be dated precisely, he does use many of the non-imitative, complex, rhythmically diversecontrapuntal procedures more often associated with Ockeghem. Unlike Ockeghem, however, he was willing to employ repetition,sequence, and florid imitation in the manner of the other composers who were working around 1500 when the technique became widespread.
Agricola wrotemasses,motets,motet-chansons, secular songs in the prevailingformes fixes such asrondeaux andbergerettes, otherchansons, and instrumental music. Much of his instrumental music was based on secular music byGilles Binchois or Ockeghem. Many of these pieces had become quite popular in the late 15th century.
Above all the variants in his general musical style over his working life, Agricola himself wrote in a highly distinctive style, taking the mysteriously sinuous lines of Ockeghem as his point of departure. His music is often very busy and highly detailed, with repeated sequence, repetition of terse rhythmic and motivic units, and a desire to usurp the underlying pulse, sometimes seeming to border on the perverse, either by prolonging cadential figures tocadence on the "wrong" beat, or by shifting the metrical beat of some parts against others. As an example, the closingAgnus Dei of his unusually extendedMissa 'In myne zin' features thecantus firmus stated in equal notes of eleven minims duration each in first statement, followed by a statement of five minims duration each, or in the secondSalve Regina setting, offsetting part of the statement of the cantus firmus by a quaver for its entire duration, in both cases with the other voices proceeding in a more strict quadruple meter above.
Other "games" played in the music include posing puzzles ofmode andmusica ficta for the performers (e.g. theKyrie of theMissa Le serviteur plays with the expectations of the very well known plainchant cantus firmus by setting up some knotty issues of the implied possibility of modal inflection with consistent extra flats.) The music is characteristically athletic in all voice parts, with the lower parts in particular featuring much that requires very fine singers, and not representing the normal simply harmonic function of the tenor-bass combinations used by most of his contemporaries. Often a highly elaborate set of quick motifs will spring unexpected from a previous slow-moving texture (e.g. the eruption of detailed duos beginning atGlorificamus te and climaxing atAdoramus te in theGloria of theMissa in myne zin).
His music was very highly regarded in its day, the very distinctive style leading to one contemporary commentator referring to it as "crazy", and another as "sublime".
There are other composers named Agricola who are sometimes confused with Alexander:
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