FUN IN CHURCH?
Gaspar van Weerbeke presided over a stellar group of young musicians in Milan, testifying to his
employer’s zeal in patronizing nothing but the best as an aspect of princely self-aggrandizement. That is to
say: with great acuity, the Sforza dukes managed (in part through Gaspar’s scouting “nose”) to recruit at
early phases of their careers a pleiad of future stars, including at least two whose future fame would
eclipse Gaspar’s own. They included Johannes Martini (d. 1498), who served briefly in Galeazzo’s
chapel choir in 1474, between stints at the rival court of Ercole (Hercules) I, Duke of Ferrara, where he
eventually directed the chapel choir. In all likelihood, and in time-honored fashion, he used his invitation
to sing at Milan as a stepping-stone toward the betterment of his rank at Ferrara.
Even more illustrious than Martini was the youngest northern star who trained under Gaspar van
Weerbeke at Milan in the 1470 s, a Frenchman named Loyset Compère (d. 1518) who eventually went
back home to serve in the court chapel of King Charles VIII in Paris. It was on Compère that Gaspar van
Weerbeke and his specially crafted Milanese music made the strongest immediate impression. An even
greater number of motetti missales survives from Compère’s pen than from Gaspar’s, and Compère
continued to develop this style and to apply it to new genres. His Marian pastiche, Ave Maria, is about as
low in style as a motet can go, leading one to suspect a double purpose, hailing both Maria Virgo and
Galeazzo Maria, both Virgin protectress and noble patron. In its patchwork of texts and tunes it is a virtual
send-up of the ancient ars combinatoria, cast in very up-to-date patter declamation—syllables placed on