Pierre Cadéac

Pierre Cadéac (

He was most likely from the small town of Cadéac, in the southern part of Gascony near the Pyrenees, as suggested by his name. All that is known about his life is that he was choirmaster in Auch, the historical capital of the region, in 1556, as mentioned on the title page of Du Chemin's publication of his Missa Alma Redemptoris Mater. A poem by Bernard du Poey, published in 1551, also mentions him as being resident in Auch, but does not give his employment or any other details.^[1] In 1538 Jacques Moderne published some of his chansons in Lyons; this is the earliest date of activity known for Cadéac, but his location or employment at that time are not known.

Music and influence

Cadéac wrote music in most of the vocal forms of the time and place, including secular

The distribution of his motets was also extraordinary, with copies found in places as remote from their Gascon origin as Madrid, Strasbourg, Nuremberg, Venice, and Kraków, Poland. According to Grove,^[1] a version of his chanson Je suis deshéritée has been found in England, fitted with English words ("Oure Father, God Celestiall"), though in fact the words are in the distinct Scots language, not English. (It is a translation of the Lord's Prayer, though the original is not so reverent: "I'm broke. Go tell my friend" is the gist of the opening stanza.)

Cadéac's musical style originated from the homophony and simplicity prevalent in the 1530s, especially in the Parisian chanson at the time of Clément Janequin, with clear diction, short phrases, general avoidance of dense polyphony, and abundant parallel imperfect intervals. He used these same simple textures in his sacred music, textures which contrasted considerably with the dense counterpoint being written by the Netherlanders of his generation (composers such as Nicolas Gombert).^[1]

Most of his motets appeared in 1555, in a publication by Le Roy & Ballard, Petri Cadeac musici excellentissima moteta. The 18 pieces in this set are for from four to six voices. This publication was the biggest single print of his music of the time.

References

• Howard Mayer Brown: "Chanson, 4." The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980.
  ISBN 1-56159-174-2
• Lawrence F. Bernstein: "Pierre Cadéac", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed July 16, 2007), (subscription access)
• George Nugent/Eric Jas: "Nicolas Gombert", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed July 16, 2007), (subscription access)
• ISBN 978-0-393-09530-2
  .

External links

• Free scores by Pierre Cadéac in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
• Free scores by Pierre Cadéac at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)