Hobrecht, Jacob

1430-1506

Sometimes given as Jacob Obrecht. Date of birth is not positively known, but was probably about 1430, in Utrecht on the Rhine. He was one of the most famous musicians of the Fifteenth Century. He was chorister at the Utrecht Cathedral in 1465. Later he was a teacher at St. Donatien, Bruges; director of a school of singing of Cambray, and in 1491 chapelmaster of the Antwerp Cathedral. In the records of the cathedral has been found much data concerning Hobrecht and his work. His masses, motets and hymns have been preserved in various collections, some in manuscript in the Munich Royal Library and in the archives of the Papal Chapel. In 1503 Petrucci printed a collection of Hobrecht's masses under the title of Missae Obrecht, and included Je ne demande, Grecorum Malheur me bat, Salve diva parens and Fortuna disparta, which is considered his finest and has been published in modern notation. Hobrecht died in Antwerp in 1506.