Pierre de la Rue and Musical Life at the Habsburg-Burgundian Court (review)

Meconi's monograph on Pierre de La Rue is a welcome addition to Oxford University Press's studies devoted to individual composers of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Standing somewhat outside the expectations of a typical life-and-works volume, Meconi's book nevertheless provides fascinating insights into La Rue's world, adduced from the most meticulous consideration of archival documents, musical sources, and literary references. Pierre de la Rue unfolds in five chapters that are clearly written and free of jargon; detailed appendices, the bibliography, and indexes account for approximately one-third of the book's mass. In casting a wide net, comparing La Rue with other composers in his environs, Meconi's work will serve as an important resource for anyone undertaking advanced study of musical activity ca. 1480-1520.

The first two chapters explore the uncertainties of La Rue's early biography, his life at the Hapsburg court, and his status in comparison to the other musicians in service there. The details of La Rue's childhood in Tournai unfold rather easily, but recovering the early years of his career presents problems resulting from confusion with the doppelgänger Peter vander Straeten. To sort this out, Meconi painstakingly reconstructs the sources of assumptions made by two late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century authorities on La Rue, Edmond Vander Straeten and Georges Van Doorslaer. Meconi ultimately determines that equating La Rue and vander Straeten relies on slim evidence that takes too much explaining, and comes to the guarded conclusion that the possibility of the two being the same person is less likely than the possibility that they are different.

Once La Rue becomes a member of the Hapsburg-Burgundian chapel, the doppelgänger problem disappears; however, new complexities emerge regarding precisely where, when, and which member of the royal family he served. Meconi untangles a web of incomplete and inconsistent documents; intermarriages, untimely deaths, and the concomitant travels, consolidations, disbandments, and reconstitutions of the chapel; and wishful thinking on the part of previous scholars. Although this chapter may be daunting to those unaccustomed to coping with the ambiguities and frustrations of working with archival documents and layers of accrued misunderstandings, Meconi's research and methodology is beyond reproach.

"The Grande Chapelle and Musical Life at the Habsburg-Burgundian Court" (chap. 2) is an excellent description of the role of the chapel within the daily activities of the court and the duties of its various members, woven into the complex history of the court's peregrinations. The section on La Rue's colleagues is an accounting of those members of the chapel who, in addition to being singers, also composed polyphony at one time or another during their careers; coincidentally, they all became members of the chapel only after La Rue had been there for some time. Their positions and ranks are discussed relative to La Rue, which can sometimes confuse the reader since La Rue's situation was unstable and thus cannot provide a baseline.

Meconi's reason for this approach becomes clear as she navigates through numerous contradictions. Other musicians who had been at the court for less time than La Rue, or who were younger than him, sometimes surpassed him in rank, and despite his longevity at the court, he never rose to the position of premier chapelain. Dismantling long-standing claims proffered by earlier scholars, she demonstrates that La Rue did not necessarily receive preferential treatment and was not necessarily more highly esteemed by Marguerite than others, although she certainly appreciated his talents, as evidenced by numerous encounters between the two. Yet La Rue found himself in the company of other major composers, and he had ample access to large quantities of varied repertory during the course of his travels with the...