Born for the Muses

Drawing on new archival sources and a recently discovered portrait, Wegmen explores the social and cultural conditions that shaped the life and musicianship of Jacob Obrecht. He offers a new assessment of the creative achievement and historical significance of one of the most prominent composers of the late fifteenth century. Son of a town trumpeter, Jacob Obrecht became one of the most prominent composers in Europe in the late fifteenth century. In Born for the Muses, Rob Webman enlarges our picture of the social and cultural conditions that framed his world, drawing on a wealth of new archival sources and a newly discovered dated portrait that sheds light on his developmnet as a composer. Obrecht's greatest contribution lay in the field of mass composition. In a penetrating stylistic analysis, Wegman treats each of the thirty-odd surviving masses as a historical record, tracing influences and establishing a rich context for the development of Obrecht's musical language. This new assessment of his creative achievement and historical significance entirely changes the face of Obrecht studies and of late fifteenth-century music in general.