Alexander Agricola

(c.1446-1506)

Franco-Flemish composer. Like many of his compatriots he went to Italy, serving at the Sforza court in Milan in 1471-4 and then dividing his time between Italy (Florence and the Aragonese court in Naples) and the north, where he was a choirman at Cambrai, a musician at the French court, and finally a singer at the Burgundian court of Philip the Handsome. He died while accompanying the Duke on a visit to Spain. Eight Masses, twenty-five motets and other sacred music of Agricola's survive, but he was notable as a composer of secular music--nearly 100 chansons and pieces with Italian and Dutch texts, His carnival songs are brilliant examples of chordal Italianate writing, and manv of his secular pieces were published by Petrucci, he could also write elegantly complex melodic lines, and was especially adept at arranging chansons by his contemporaries.



A Partial Alexander Agricola Discography | IVA: The Netherlanders around and after Josquin