- EDITOR’S CHOICE
- 1987 · Peter Phillips, The Tallis Scholars
Jacobus Clemens non Papa
Biography
Clemens non Papa (Jacobus Clement, ca. 1510-1555 or 1556) was from the southern Netherlands and among the most influential composers of the Renaissance; his alias may have meant "Clement, not the Pope" to avoid confusion with Pope Clement VII. Immensely prolific and unquestionably famous, little is known about his life. Clemens' compositions primarily came through printer Tylman Susato in Antwerp, and he is known to have worked in Bruges, at the court of Castle Croÿ, and at Ypres, but no chronology is established. A memorial motet composed for Clemens by Jacobus Vaet establishes that his death was not by natural causes.