RenaissanceJacob Obrecht
Jacob Obrecht was born in Ghent, Flanders, more than five hundred and fifty years ago.
Jacob Obrecht’s life
The big moments of this life, and what was happening in the world at the same time.
A life at a glance
- 1457👶 Birth
Born in Ghent, son of the city trumpeter Willem Obrecht
- 1480🎩 Careerabout age 23
Choirmaster in Bergen op Zoom
- 1484🎩 Careerabout age 27
Master of the choirboys in Cambrai
- 1487🧳 Journeyabout age 30
Stay in Ferrara with Duke Ercole d’Este
- 1492🏛️ Landmarkabout age 35
Columbus reaches the Americas
- 1492🌍 Meanwhile
Christopher Columbus reaches the Americas
- 1501🌍 Meanwhile
Petrucci publishes the first printed book of music in Venice
- 1503🎼 Workabout age 46
Petrucci prints a book of his Masses in Venice
- 1503🌍 Meanwhile
Leonardo da Vinci begins the Mona Lisa
- 1505🕯️ Deathabout age 48
Dies of plague in Ferrara
Listen to the music
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Jacob Obrecht’s music is in the public domain, but Wikimedia Commons does not yet offer a freely licensed recording of these works. The links below lead to scores and searches on Commons; as soon as a free recording is published, it can be added here.
Once upon a time…
Jacob Obrecht was born in Ghent, Flanders, more than five hundred and fifty years ago. His dad was the city trumpeter: he played at festivals and parades. So Jacob grew up to the sound of trumpets!
He became a priest and choirmaster in great churches in Bruges and Antwerp. He mostly wrote masses, about thirty. He liked taking a well-known tune, sometimes a popular song, and hiding it in his music by cutting it into little pieces.
An Italian duke in Ferrara loved his music and invited him. Obrecht went back there at the end of his life, but a terrible disease, the plague, struck the city and took him.
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