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(b Valenciennes, ?1548–50; d Naples,
Sept 1614). Flemish composer, organist and teacher, resident in Italy.
He was a leading composer of the Neapolitan school in the late 16th and
early 17th centuries.
1. Life.
Macque’s birthplace is given on his marriage contract and on the
title-page of his volume of motets of 1596. As a boy he sang in the
choir of the imperial chapel at Vienna. A memorandum of 7 December 1563
recommended that he be placed in the Jesuit college at Vienna because
his voice had broken: this establishes his approximate date of birth.
After he left the college he studied with Philippe de Monte and by 1574
he had moved to Rome under the patronage of Monsignor Serafino Oliviero
Razzali, Judge of the Sacra Romana Rota. From 1 October 1580 to 21
September 1581 he was organist of S Luigi dei Francesi, Rome. During
this period Macque established relationships with members of the Caetani
family. It was probably through the influence of Cardinal Enrico Caetani
that four of his polychoral motets appear in a manuscript prepared under
the auspices of Annibale Zoilo for the Lenten music at the SS Trinità
dei Pellegrini in the early 1580s. Together with G.M. Nanino, Marenzio,
Giovannelli and others, he was a member of the Compagnia dei Musici di
Roma when it won papal sanction in 1584.
During the early part of 1585 Macque moved to Naples where he was
employed by the Gesualdo household. His publications during this period
are dedicated to prominent members of the Neapolitan nobility: Carlo
Gesualdo and his father, Fabrizio, Cesare D’Avalos and Scipione
Pignatello. In May 1590 he was appointed second organist to Scipione
Stella at SS Annunziata. In 1594 he became organist of the chapel of the
Spanish Viceroy and five years later maestro di cappella, succeeding
Bartolomeo Roy. During his tenure the musical forces were doubled, and
two of his pupils, G.M. Trabaci and Ascanio Mayone, served as first and
second organists. Other distinguished pupils included Francesco
Lambardi, Donato Antonio Spano, Andrea Falconieri and Luigi Rossi.
2. Works.
Macque’s compositions may be divided into three chronologically and
geographically defined groups: the Roman works from the years 1574–84,
the early Neapolitan works 1585–96 and the later Neapolitan period,
1597–1614. The early madrigals reflect the conservatism of his Roman
contemporaries. More colourful tendencies occasionally appear, and they
are more frequent in his publication of 1579: in Di coralli e perle, for
example, the extensive melodic movement of the minor second results in
expressive harmony foreshadowing the experimental, roving harmonies of
his later works. The two books of Madrigaletti et napolitane (1581–2)
are modelled on the canzone alla napolitana of Ferretti. Many of them
still retain the formal scheme of the villanella (AA1BCC1), but there is
a greater emphasis on pictorial treatment. The serious madrigals of the
early 1580s are tempered by his association with Marenzio, who was some
ten years younger. They are in a more popular style. Simple diatonic
melodies appear in playful imitation contrasting with sections made up
of short, regular homophonic phrases. The lowest voice often has the
character of a harmonic bass moving mostly in 4ths and 5ths. The greater
demands in several of the madrigals published in Ferrarese anthologies
during this period suggest that they were written for that court’s
concerto di donne. The polychoral motets and the litany for two and
three choirs from the Roman period follow the same procedure adopted by
Palestrina in his motets published in 1576. Each choir maintains its
complete harmonic function and cadence points do not overlap. This style
was suited to the acoustics of the larger churches and oratorios in
Rome.
A series of letters written by Macque between 1586 and 1589, preserved
in Caetani Archives in Rome, discuss his concern with the publication of
two books of madrigals (1586 and 1587) and a book of ricercares and
canzone francese (1586). In the Primo libro de madrigali Macque
exploited a technique that foreshadows some of his later music: two
voices proceed in 3rds or suspensions while the remaining voices have an
interplay of short motives in imitation. The passage is repeated in
invertible counterpoint. The madrigals of the Secondo libro for five
voices are in the style of the canzonetta. Among Macque’s canzonettas of
this period is his contribution to Il devoto pianto della gloriosa
Vergina (RISM 15925), the Italian adaptation of the Stabat mater
published by Verovio. Macque’s only published book of motets (1596) was
dedicated to Francesco Maria Tarugi, one of the founders of the Oratorio
di S Filippo in Naples. The six-voice motet Rex autem David stands apart
from the rather conservative style of this collection in its use of
chromaticism and harmonic inflections depicting David’s grief over the
death of his son Absalon.
Macque’s final group of publications begins with the Terzo libro for
five voices (1597), dedicated to Alfonso II, Duke of Ferrara, and
published by the ducal printer Baldini. The book consists mainly of
pastoral texts chosen with the Ferrarese court in mind. In his fourth
book (1599), Macque developed the technique first essayed in the Primo
libro for four voices: combining descending or ascending chromatic
passages in imitation with counter motives in short note values. In the
last two books (1610 and 1613) intervals ‘forbidden’ in 16th century
counterpoint appear for the first time in his music. He experimented
here with new verse styles as well: several of the texts in both books
consist solely of quinarii, and the madrigal cycle based on the
concluding terze rime from Sannazaro’s Arcadia: I tuoi capelli, o Filli,
in una cistola provided Macque with his only sdruccioli verse.
Macque’s instrumental and keyboard works embrace a wide range of forms,
including ricercares, canzonas, capriccios, variations on the Ruggiero
and a toccata a modo di trombetta. Among the works that have received
most attention are the Consonanze stravaganti, Durezze e ligature, and
the Prima e seconda stravaganze. His ricercares are based on multiple
subjects which are stated in the opening exposition. The Ricercare del 8
tono con quattour fughe from his second book (preserved only in
manuscript copies) served as a model for Frescobaldi’s Recercar nono:
Obligo di quattro soggetti (1615). |
