la Rue, Pierre de
LA RUE, PIERRE DE
Renaissance church composer (called also Peter van Straten, Petrus de Vico, Pierchon); b. probably Tournai, Belgium, c. 1460; d. Courtrai, Nov. 20, 1518. He was a singer and member of the Brotherhood of Our Lady,'s Hertogenbosch (1489–92), and a chaplain and singer of the Burgundian-Hapsburg court at Brussels and Malines (1492–1516) where he served Maximilian of Austria, Philip the Fair, Margaret of Austria, and Charles V. He participated in many journeys of the court, including those to Spain in 1501–02 and 1506. In 1516 he took up residence at the chapter of Notre-Dame Cathedral, Courtrai, where he held a canonry, and died there. His known compositions include 31 Masses, 7 Mass movements, 7 Magnificats, 23 motets, and about 35 secular songs to French and Flemish texts. Most of his works survive in MS, among them splendidly illuminated choirbooks of the Netherlands court chapel and the Papal chapel. Petrucci printed a volume of five of his Masses, the Misse Petri de la Rue (Venice 1503).
La Rue's compositions are notable examples of Franco-Flemish polyphony and are distinguished by their rhythmic and contrapuntal intricacy and their great expressiveness. He was held in high regard by his royal employers and by fellow musicians, and his works continued to be cited in treatises throughout the 16th century. Most important are the Masses, among them a requiem for low voices, a six-part Missa Ave sanctissima Maria in triple canon (parodying a motet variously attributed to Verdelot and to La Rue himself), and two canonic Masses on the popular cantus firmus, L'Homme armé.
Bibliography: Modern eds. Liber Missarum, ed. a. tirabassi (Malines 1941), seven Masses from a MS in Royal Library, Brussels. Monumenta musicae Belgicae, v. 8 Drie missen, ed. r. b. lenaerts and j. robijns (Antwerp 1960). Documenta polyphoniae liturgicae Sanctae Ecclesiae Romanae, ed. l. feininger (Rome 1947–), ser. 1B, no. 1, one Mass. Das Chorwerk, ed. f. blume, v. 3 (1930), chansons; v. 11 (1931), Requiem; v. 91, motets. m. picker, ed., The Chanson Albums of Marguerite of Austria (Berkeley 1965). j. robyns, Pierre de la Rue, circa 1460–1518: Een biobibliographische studie (Brussels 1954). n. davison, "The Motets of Pierre de la Rue," Musical Quarterly 48 (1962) 19–35. w. rubsamen, Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, ed. f. blume (Kassel-Basel 1949–) 8:225–239. g. reese, Music in the Renaissance (rev. ed. New York 1959). n. davison, "Absalom fili mi Reconsidered," Tidschrift van de Koninklijke Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis, 46 (1996) 42–56. j. e. kreider, "The Masses for Five and Six Voices by Pierre de la Rue" (Ph.D. diss. Indiana University 1974). h. meconi, "Style and Authenticity in the Secular Music of Pierre de la Rue" (Ph.D. diss. Harvard University 1986). d. m. randel, ed., The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music (Cambridge, Mass. 1996) 485. n. slonimsky, ed., Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (8th ed. New York 1992) 1012. m. staehelin, "Pierre de La Rue," in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. s. sadie, v. 10 (New York 1980) 473–476.
[m. picker]