YEARBOOK OF THE ALAMIRE FOUNDATION

SELLING THE MADRIGAL: PIERRE PHALÈSE II AND THE FOUR ‘ANTWERP ANTHOLOGIES’
ally all corners of Europe. The composer also had direct ties to the Venetian music
presses. His own earliest works, four motets, appeared in the Venetian anthology
series Novi atque catholici thesauri musici, compiled by Petrus Joannelli and published
by Gardano in 1568. 14
Waelrant, the compiler of Symphonia angelica, offered Phalèse experience as
both madrigalist and, more importantly, as a professional music editor. 15 Between
1554 and 1558 he worked in partnership with the Antwerp-based printer Jean de Laet.
As the firm’s publisher, bookseller, financial manager, and artistic director, Waelrant
played a central role in bringing Italian-texted music to press. 16 His own volume of
chansons and madrigals appeared at the firm in 1558. 17 As a publisher, Waelrant had
access to Venetian music books and the latest works of native composers. There is
also evidence that Waelrant had close ties with Italy, where he may have travelled as
a youth. 18 Further, his madrigal Quand’io pens’al martire appeared in Madregali di
Verdelot a sei insieme altri madregali de diversi eccellentissimi autori (Venice, A.
Gardano, 1561) and Girolamo Scotto issued a book of thirty four-voiced canzone
napolitane by Waelrant in 1565. 19
14 The motets appear in books 2–4 of the series (RISM 1568 3–5 ). FORNEY, Pevernage, Andreas, p. 531
incorrectly gives the date RISM 1564 3–5 .
15 On the life and music of Waelrant, see A. GOOVAERTS, Les Deux Hubert Waelrant, in Revue Artistique,
1 (1878), pp. 14–18; W. PIEL, Studien zum Leben und Schaften Hubert Waelrants unter besonderer
Berücksichtigung seiner Motetten, (Marburger Beiträge zur Musikforschung, 3), Marburg, 1969; G.
PERSOONS, De genealogie van de Antwerpse toonkundige Hubertus Waelrant (1517–1595). Zijn
biografische data en ‘Voces belgicae’, in De Gulden Passer, 57 (1979), pp. 142–163; R. WEAVER,
art. Waelrant, Hubert, in S. SADIE and J. TYRRELL eds., The New Grove Dictionary of Music and
Musicians, 2nd ed., London, 2001, 26, pp. 923–926; G. HOEKSTRA ed., Waelrant. Il primo libro di
madrigali e canzoni francesi for 5 voices (1558), (Recent Researches in the Music of the Renaissance,
88), Madison, Wisconsin, 1991; and G. SPIESSENS, Een nieuwe Kijk op Componist Hubert Waelrant,
in Musica antiqua, 12 (1995), pp. 52–64.
16 On Waelrant’s responsibilities at the firm, see R. WEAVER, Waelrant and Laet: Music Publishers in
Antwerp’s Golden Age, Warren, Michigan, 1995, pp. 113–117.
17 See WEAVER, A Descriptive Bibliographical Catalog, no. 16, pp. 81–87. The five-voice madrigal
Sento laura from this volume also appears in a manuscript copied c. 1566, now housed at the Swedish
Royal Library (MS S227). See WEAVER, A Descriptive Bibliographical Catalog, no. 68, p. 207.
18 WEAVER, art. Waelrant, Hubert, p. 923.
19 Earlier editions of Gardano’s publication appeared in 1541 (RISM 1541 16 ) and 1546 (RISM 1546 19 )
without Waelrant’s setting (WEAVER, A Descriptive Bibliographical Catalog, no. 46, p. 177). Seventeen
compositions from Scotto’s volume survive in Winchester College MS 153, which was copied as
early as 1564. See WEAVER, A Descriptive Bibliographical Catalog, no. 48, pp. 179–181 (Le canzon
napolitane a qvattro voce, Venice, Girolamo Scotto, 1565) and no. 72, pp. 210–211 (Winchester MS
153). Waelrant’s madrigals also survive in the manuscript Bologna Q26, which was copied in Flanders
in the mid-1560s. See WEAVER, A Descriptive Bibliographical Catalog, no. 62, p. 204. See also
WEAVER, Waelrant and Laet, p. 49; cf. FORNEY, Antwerp’s Role in the Reception and Dissemination
of the Madrigal, pp. 243–246 on the dating of these manuscripts.
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