Donemus Webwinkel — Cleve, Joannes de

Joannes de Cleve was a composer active at the Habsburg court of Ferdinand I and Charles II. He came from the Duchy of Cleves in the Northern Rhineland in Germany. He was recruited as a choirboy into Ferdinand’s chapel in Vienna. Later, when Ferdinand’s successor Charles II organized a new chapel in Graz (Austria) De Cleve was appointed as Kapellmeister in Graz.
There are no items to be found in history about De Cleve’s youth or education. That is a pity because I wondered whom he learned his techniques from. Although all his works in this album from 1579 sound very pleasant and consonant, his style is unique, and unlike anything else I worked on.
Grantley McDonald (Cinquecento, 2020) writes about him: “De Cleve was a master in counterpoint. For example, in Carole qui veniens (#1) the Discantus voice begins with
a strong melodic gesture: a falling fifth. The next voice inverts this as a rising fifth; the subsequent entries each begin with either a rising or falling fifth. This piece also creates varietas - an element in polyphonic writing essential to avoiding monotony - through more modern techniques, such as light chromaticism. ‘Carole qui veniens’ opens the Cantiones seu Harmoniæ Sacræ, and serves as an extension of the dedication of the collection, with De Cleve depicting himself as the Archduke’s client. The text plays on the complex relationships within the Habsburg dynasty: Karl, the addressee of the text, named after his uncle (Charles V), was simultaneously the son of another emperor (Ferdinand I), and the uncle and brother of two further emperors (Rudolph II and Maximilian II respectively)”.