OBRECHT, JACOB

(ca. 1452—1505)

Flemish composer. Born at Bergen-op-Zoom and educated at theUniversity of Louvain, he spent most of his career in the Netherlands but visited Italy, mainly the court of the duke ofFerrara, in 1487-1488. He returned to Fer-rara as head of the duke's choir in 1504 but died of plague the fol-lowing year. His surviving works include 29 masses, 28 motets, and a number of songs in Latin and Dutch, as well as instrumental music. He was director of choirs in Utrecht, Bergen-op-Zoom, Cambrai, Bruges, and Antwerp as well as several other places in the Nether-lands. His compositions often used borrowed themes but treated them in innovative ways. Some of his masses were based on secular songs, others on traditional Gregorian melodies.