Low Countries life

Abstract

Gheerkin de Hondt is not a composer who will be familiar to many. The back cover of Roelvink’s book advertises him as ‘a fine representative of the large network of singers and composers contributing to one of the most significant periods in the history of music in the Low Countries’. The known details of Gheerkin’s life are few and can be easily summarized. He was probably born in Bruges around 1495 as a son of the roofer/slater Jacob de Hondt. He made a career as a singer, zangmeester and composer, and is documented in one or more of these capacities in the Nieuwe Kerk of Delft (1521–3 and 1530–32), in St Jacob’s church in Bruges (1532–9), and at the Illustre Lieve Vrouwe Broederschap in ’s-Hertogenbosch (1539–47). He was fired in 1547 because his wife had not taken good care of the choirboys. According to the accounts of the Broederschap he then left for ‘Vrieslant’, which is where the trail stops. We have no idea what Gheerkin did next and when he died. What we do know is that his musical oeuvre consists of five Masses, four motets, eight chansons and one Dutch polyphonic song.