Composers of the Renaissance

Five Renaissance stamps

Myriam Voz and Thierry Martin designed the nice Belgium booklet Composers of the Renaissance. The booklet contains five stamps depicting important composers of the early days of Western music.
In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, composers from Belgium set the rhythm in Western European music. Five generations of polyphonic composers were responsible for making part-song sound like never before in churches and palaces on the old continent.

Guillaume Dufay and Gilles Binchois

The pioneers Guillaume Dufay (1400-1474) from Cambrai and Gilles Binchois (1400-1460) from Mons laid the foundations for subsequent generations. Guillaume Dufay in particular - a truly active Renaissance artist - managed to put his stamp on the music of his time and the future with compositions of heretofore unprecedented harmonic splendor.

Johannes Ockeghem

Johannes Ockeghem (1410-1497) lamented him after his death in dirges. This composer from Saint-Ghislain in Hainault bequeathed a small oeuvre of chiefly religious music that excels in compositional complexity. Yet despite the technical tours de force his masses and motets are exceptionally beautiful. The miniatures on the postage stamp booklet cover come from a manuscript of his Missa Ecce ancilla Domini.

Josquin des Prez

The third branch of polyphony was dominated by Josquin des Prez (1440-1521) from Picardy. Josquin des Prez is a key figure, not only for polyphony but also for the whole history of Western music. The scant and highly symbolic portrait that survived him adorns a frank on the postage stamp sheet.

Jacob Obrecht

The natural talent Jacob Obrecht (1457-1505) from Ghent represents the third generation on the postage stamps. His work is less revolutionary than that of Josquin des Prez, but is of very high quality, appreciated as far as Ferrara in Italy, where Duke Ercole d'Este appointed him chapel master at the end of his life.

Adriaan Willaert

Adriaan Willaert (1490-1562), who probably was born in Roeselare, actually held this post for 35 years at the San Marco in Venice. Under his direction, in terms of quality the music chapel of the basilica was the equal of that of Popes, Emperors and Kings. Adriaan Willaert gathered together a whole school of pupils and had an enormous influence on, among others, one of the Renaissance's most famous composers, Orlandus Lassus.

Orlandus Lassus

Orlandus Lassus (1532-1594) was born in Mons, but he spent his life at the most prestigious foreign courts. His legendary versatility was a guarantee that tradition and innovation were fused to an unequalled synthesis in his hands, the crowning of 150 years of Flemish polyphony, comparable with the genial synthesis that Bach managed to achieve with the musical Baroque.

Stamps in detail

Issue: Belgium, 23 January 2006
Stamp size: 25.3 x 44.1 mm
Booklet size: 180 x 64 mm
Design: Myriam Voz and Thierry Martin
Perforation: 11.5
Printing: rotogravure

More information

Stamps of Belgium
Postage Stamps 2006
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Crossbow
Hector Berlioz