Arcadelt, Jacob

About 1514-between 1570-1575

Celebrated composer, who was born in the Netherlands, about the end of the Fifteenth Century. He was one of the most popular composers of his time. He went to Rome and became teacher of singing for the boys' choir of the Papal Chapel. About 1555 he went with the Duke of Guise to Paris, where he probably lived until his death. Nearly all of his sacred compositions written in Rome, comprising masses and motets, remained unpublished and are in manuscript in the Vatican, but his secular writings, principally madrigals and chansons, were published, and his fame rests on these. He was one of a distinguished group of Netherland musicians who went to Italy and helped to found the Italian school of music. His masses and religious compositions written in Paris were published.