Colin, Pierre
Colin, Pierre
William C. Lengefeld
https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.06092
Published in print: 20 January 2001
Published online: 2001
(fl 1538–72). French composer. He was Master of the Choirboys (c1539–61) and organist (c1562–1569) at St
Lazare Cathedral in Autun; he was also active as a priest and chaplain there from 1539 to about 1572. In
1832 Fétis summarized some account books for the chapel of François I's daughters (F-Pn fr.7853) in
which a Gilbert Colin, called Chamault, is listed as a clerk and chaplain from 1521 until his retirement in
1536. In the Biographie universelle Fétis confused this man with Pierre Colin – an identification not
supported by the music publications, which name only Pierre Colin (or simply Colin), not Gilbert (or
Pierre-Gilbert) Colin.
Most of Colin's 26 masses are parody works based on material from his own motets and psalms, as well as
from motets by Richafort, Certon and others; some of the masses were recopied in manuscripts in Italy (
I-TVd 19, Bsp A.XLVIII) and Spain (E-Tc 27). The ten Magnificat settings (of the even-numbered verses) use
the plainsong formulae as their structural basis. Among his best works are the 36 motets, most of which
are constructed in a series of overlapping points of imitation. In his early works duets contrast with
chordal sections, whereas later pieces are characterized by a fuller, more continuous texture. Nevertheless
they reflect Colin's concern with textual clarity. In the prologue to his Liturgicon musicarum he explained
that he had constructed the music so that the text might be easily understood, for ‘our souls are fed on the
inmost part of the text’. Although poor Latin accentuation occasionally occurs, the declamation is
generally successful because of Colin's subtle sense of timing, texture control and felicitous choice of
melodic figures. Six of the eight chansons commonly attributed to him were printed by Attaingnant, who
gave only the composer's surname; all are in a light, basically homophonic style, with some text-painting
and imitative textures. Through his sacred works, Colin made a significant contribution to French music in
the generation of composers after Josquin.
Works
Sacred
Liber octo missarum … moduli quos motettos usitatiori nomine vulgus vocat … parthenica cantica in laudem illibatae
virginis conscripta (quae … Magnificat inscribuntur) octo sunt, singulaque proprio tono distinguuntur, 4–6vv (Lyons, 1542)
Liber tertius missae sex, 4vv (Venice, 1544)
Les 50 pseaulmes de David traduictz par Clement Marot … en chant non vulgaire; mais plus convenable aux instrumens,
4vv (Paris, 1550)
Liturgicon musicarum 12 missarum (Lyons, 1554 [lost], 2/1556)
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Colin, Pierre
Missa, ad imitationem moduli ‘Confitemini’, 4vv (Paris, 1556)
Missa, ad imitationem moduli ‘In me transierunt’, 4vv (Paris, 1556)
Missa, ad imitationem moduli ‘Surgens Jesus’, 4vv (Paris, 1556)
Modulorum (quos vulgo motecta vocant), liber I, 4–6vv (Paris, 1562)
Modulorum … liber II (Paris, 1562)
Les sept pseaumes penitentiaux de David, traduits en rithme françoise, par Clement Marot, 4vv (Paris, 1564)
Messe, 4vv (Venice, 1580)
2 masses, 1547²
Missa ‘Salus nostra’, 4vv, in Missae duodecim (Paris, 1554) [later repr. separately]; 2 masses repr. from earlier edns in 1590²
1 Magnificat, 1547²
3 Magnificat settings, 1553³ [2 repr. from Liber octo missarum]
5
7
8
15 motets, 1539¹¹, 1542 , 1542 , 1551¹, 1553 , 1555¹³, 1555
14
Secular
5
7
19
7 chansons, 1538¹², 1541 , 1543 , 1545¹², 1549 , 1550¹²
1 in Le parangon des chansons, XIIe livre (Lyons, 1543) [unnamed; attrib. P. Colin in Catalogue de la bibliothèque de F.J.
Fétis (Brussels, 1877)]: 2 ed. in PÄMw, xxiii (1899/R), 1 ed. in RRMR, xxxviii (1981)
Bibliography
FétisB
F.-J. Fétis: ‘Recherches sur la musique des rois de France et de quelques princes, depuis Philippe-le-Bel (1285) jusqu'à
la fin du règne de Louis XIV’, Revue musicale, 12 (1832), 193, 241–4
F. Lesure and G. Thibault: ‘Bibliographie des éditions musicales publiées par Nicolas Du Chemin (1549–1576)’, AnnM, 1
(1953), 269–373; iv (1956), 251–4; vi (1958–63), 403
D. Heartz: Pierre Attaingnant, Royal Printer of Music (Berkeley, 1969)
W.C. Lengefeld: The Motets of Pierre Colin (fl. 1538–1565) (diss., U. of Iowa, 1969)
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Colin, Pierre
S.F. Pogue: Jacques Moderne, Lyons Music Printer of the Sixteenth Century (Geneva, 1969)
M.S. Lewis: Antonio Gardano, Venetian Music Printer, 1538–1569 (New York, 1988)
F. Dobbins: Music in Renaissance Lyons (Oxford, 1992)
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