OBRECHT (HOBRECHT), JACOB. - Flemish musician, b. at Utrecht about 1430, d. at Mantova in 1505.
He was first a singer at the court of Ercole d'Este in Ferrara; he then went to Utrecht, where he was the tutor of Erasmo
di Rotterdam; he was subsequently at Cambrai in 1483, then at Bruges, later at Anversa, and in 1504 returned to Italy. O. is one of the greatest composers of his time, and his highly inspired music, though at times studied and elaborate, is distinguished by an elevated style and a marked tendency toward imitation, while counterpoint is treated rigorously. There survive several masses by him, the Misse Obrecht, printed at Venice in 1503 by Petrucci: Il ne demande, Grecorum, Fortuna desperata, Malheur me bat, Salve diva Parens. Other masses are found in various collections of the period, in manuscripts of the Biblioteca Vaticana, and in those of Monaco di Baviera, Milano, Modena, and Vienna. Many of his motets are scattered through the collections of Petrucci himself and of others. Edited by S. Wolf, a complete edition of O.'s music was published in 1908 at the initiative of the «Vereinigung voor Nederlandsche Muziekgeschiedenis».