Clemens, Jacob, called non Papa

CLEMENS, Jacob, called non Papa. - Musician, b. in Flanders toward the end of the 15th century or the beginning of the 16th, d. at Dixmuiden in 1555. He was called Non Papa to distinguish him from a contemporary, the poet Jacobus Papa, who lived at Ypres, where C. J. stayed for some time.

He composed many works of sacred music in which he proves himself a worthy continuer of the glorious tradition of Josquin Després and a forerunner of the great Palestrinian art: works of a limpid, harmonious, pure style, which reveal themselves powerfully expressive in the counterpoint of the voices and in the thematic elaboration of the melodies. They are many: masses for 4-5-6 voices, printed in 10 volumes at Louvain by Phalese from 1558 to 1560; Cantiomum sacrarum for 4 voices; motets in various collections of the time, down to the works reprinted in modern collections (Commer and Maldeghem) and recent ones (a 5-voice motet O Maria, edited by H. B. Collins at Chester in 1933). Numerous manuscripts are found in various libraries of Europe: Berlin, Basel, Dresden, Kassel, London (British Museum), Leiden, Regensburg, Cambrai, Wolfenbüttel, Lübeck, Briga, Vienna, etc., as well as in Rome (Sistine Chapel and St. Cecilia).

Luisa Cervelli