Composer. A gifted representative of the Flemish School of Renaissance music, he is known chiefly for his Masses and motets. Born in Axel, the Netherlands, Hellinck was raised in Bruges, Flanders (now part of Belgium). At age 12 he entered the Cathedral of St. Donatian as a choirboy, and apart from a stay at Bruges' Church of Notre Dame (1521 to 1523) he remained there until his death, successively serving as verger, priest, and choir director. His burial site is lost; St. Donatian's was destroyed by a pro-French Revolutionary mob in 1799. Although his short life was circumscribed and provincial, Hellinck's creative imagination was anything but. He freely set texts in Latin, French, German, and Flemish, assimilating the musical influences of each culture into his own probing polyphonic idiom. His 14 Parody Masses (Mass settings adapted to pre-existing melodies), among them the "Missa Panis quem ego dabo" and "Missa Iam non dicam", rate with the finest examples of the genre. Other surviving works are 15 motets and about 40 songs. Palestrina admired Hellinck and quoted him in some of his own compositions.
Composer. A gifted representative of the Flemish School of Renaissance music, he is known chiefly for his Masses and motets. Born in Axel, the Netherlands, Hellinck was raised in Bruges, Flanders (now part of Belgium). At age 12 he entered the Cathedral of St. Donatian as a choirboy, and apart from a stay at Bruges' Church of Notre Dame (1521 to 1523) he remained there until his death, successively serving as verger, priest, and choir director. His burial site is lost; St. Donatian's was destroyed by a pro-French Revolutionary mob in 1799. Although his short life was circumscribed and provincial, Hellinck's creative imagination was anything but. He freely set texts in Latin, French, German, and Flemish, assimilating the musical influences of each culture into his own probing polyphonic idiom. His 14 Parody Masses (Mass settings adapted to pre-existing melodies), among them the "Missa Panis quem ego dabo" and "Missa Iam non dicam", rate with the finest examples of the genre. Other surviving works are 15 motets and about 40 songs. Palestrina admired Hellinck and quoted him in some of his own compositions.
Bio by: Bobb Edwards
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