Description
Tielman Susato'sPublishing House "Inden Cromhorn", 1551A milestone in the history of European culture was the invention ofprinting around 1440. The first occurrence of printed music is generallyreckoned to be the Venetian Ottavino Petrucci's famous note-books from 1501.Around the middle of the sixteenth century another important music printer wasactive in Antwerp. This was Tielman Susato, who was also a composer, arrangerand municipal musician. He was born around 1500 and evidence exists to suggest thathe may have been German, Dutch or Flemish. He died sometime between 1561 and1564. Susato began publishing music in 1541-42, at first together with twoassociates, but from 1543 he published music on his own, mostly by Flemishcomposers: Masses, motets, madrigals and chansons. His successors usedmore common printing methods which did not produce such polished results, butwere much cheaper, which made published music more accessible, especially forthe middle classes who were becoming more and more culturally aware.By 1551 Susato could afford to move his business to a new location, IndenCromhorn (At the sign of the Cromhorn). He felt sufficiently securefinancially to strike a blow for the Dutch, or Flemish, language. Flemish songsor liedekens had previously been dispersed throughout Europe inhand-written manuscripts, but they were not held in very high regard. Mostoften they were either translated into one of the 'major' languages such asFrench or German or simply used as a melodic underlay or cantus firmus forother types of compositions such as Mass movements, motets and purelyinstrumental works, sometimes retaining the first line of text in the title.With great enthusiasm Susato succeeded in persuading some Franco-Flemishcomposers to join his cause to further the Dutch language, including in hiscollection the work of a few composers who had already died. The oldest ofthese wasJohannes Ghiselin, alias Jean Verbonnet, who was active in the fifteenthcentury ([22]). Indeed Susato displays in his own compositions ([10], [13],[24]) both awareness of and fondness for such archaic composition styles andinflections ([24]). There is, however, amongst his songs, one composition whichsounds to be almost half a century ahead of its time [14].Thus Susato was able to gather 55 settings of Dutch texts in the firsttwo musyck boexkens (music books) of 1551, 28 in the first and 27 in thesecond, in some cases variants of the same song, such as [27] and [55]. Thetitle page reads as follows: amoureuse liedekens in onser nederduytschertalen, Gecomponeert by diuersche componisten, zeer lustich om singen en spelenop alle musicale Instrumenten, Gedruckt Tantwerpen by Tielman Susato wonendeuoer die nieuue waghe Inden Cromhorn (Amorous songs in our Netherlandishtongue, composed by divers composers, very pleasing to sing and play on allmusical instruments, printed in Antwerp by Tielman Susato, residing at the signof the Crumhorn).Susato's third publication that year was entitled