Loyset Compère and City Hall, London (Southwark): Difference between pages

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[[Image:Compere.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Manuscript of ''Omnium bonorum plena'', a motet by Compère, and probably his earliest surviving work; the exact date is unknown, but probably c.1470.]]

[[Image:city.hall.london.arp.jpg|thumb|right|250px|City Hall, taken from the high walkway on Tower Bridge]]

[[Image:Cityhalllondon-int.600px.jpg|thumb|215px|The interior of City Hall]]

'''City Hall''' in [[London]] is the [[headquarters]] of the [[Greater London Authority]] and the [[Mayor of London]]. It stands on the south bank of the [[River Thames]], in the [[More London]] development by [[Tower Bridge]]. Designed by [[Norman Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank|Norman Foster]], it opened in July [[2002]].

The building has an unusual bulbous shape, intended to reduce the [[building]]'s surface area and thus improve [[Energy conservation|energy efficiency]]. It has been compared variously to [[Darth Vader]]'s helmet, a misshapen [[Egg (food)|egg]], a human [[scrotum]], a [[woodlouse]] or a [[motorcycle helmet]]. London Mayor [[Ken Livingstone]] referred to it as a "glass [[testicle]]". Its designers reportedly saw the building as a giant sphere hanging over the Thames, but opted for a more conventionally rooted building instead. The building has no front or back on conventional terms but derives its shape from a modified sphere.

'''Loyset Compère''' (c.[[1445]] – [[August 16]], [[1518]]) was a [[France|French]] [[composer]] of the [[Renaissance music|Renaissance]]. Of the same generation as [[Josquin des Prez]], he was one of the most significant composers of [[motet]]s and [[chanson]]s, and one of the first musicians to bring the light Italianate Renaissance style to France.

City Hall was constructed on a site formerly occupied by wharves serving the [[Pool of London]]. The building does not belong

==Life==

to the GLA but is leased under a 25-year rent. It forms part of a larger development called [[More London]], including offices and shops. Next to City Hall is a sunken [[amphitheatre]] called The Scoop, which is used in the summer months for open-air performances; it is not, however, part of the GLA's jurisdiction.

A 500 metre (1,640 foot) [[helical]] [[walkway]], reminiscent of that in [[New York City|New York]]'s [[Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum]] ascends the full height of the building. At the top of the ten-story building is an exhibition and meeting space called "London's Living Room," with an open viewing deck which is occasionally open to the public. The walkway provides views of the interior of the building, and is intended to symbolise transparency; a similar device was used by Foster in his design for the rebuilt [[Reichstag (building)|Reichstag]] in [[Germany]]. In 2006 it was announced that Solar [[photovoltaic]] cells would be fitted to the building by the [[London Climate Change Agency]] [http://home.nestor.minsk.by/build/press/2006/09/1522.html].

City Hall is not in the [[City of London]], whose headquarters is in the [[Guildhall, London|Guildhall]] north of the Thames. The predecessors of the Greater London Authority, namely the [[Greater London Council]] and the [[London County Council]], had their headquarters at [[County Hall, London|County Hall]], upstream on the South Bank. Although County Hall's old council chamber is still intact, the building is unavailable for use by the GLA due to the building's conversion into, amongst other things, a luxury hotel, amusement arcade and [[aquarium]].

His exact place of birth is not known, but documents of the time assign him to a family from the province of [[Artois]] (in modern France), and suggest he may have been born in [[Hainaut]] (in modern [[Belgium]]). At least one source from [[Milan]] indicates he described himself as coming from [[Arras]], also in Artois. Both the date and probable place of birth are extremely close to those of Josquin des Prez; indeed the area around the current French-Belgian border produced an astonishing number of excellent composers in the [[15th century|15th]] and [[16th century|16th]] centuries, composers whose fame spread throughout Europe. Often these composers are known as the Franco-Flemish, or as the [[Dutch School (music)|Dutch School]].

== External links==

In the [[1470s]] Compère worked as a singer in [[Milan]] at the chapel of Duke [[Galeazzo Maria Sforza]], during the time that composers such as [[Josquin Des Prez]] and [[Gaspar van Weerbeke]] were also singing there. The chapel choir in the early 1470s grew into one of the largest and most famous singing ensembles in Europe. After the murder of the duke in [[1476]], Compère appears to have been "laid off" from the chapel, and he may have returned to France at this time. Sometime during the next ten years he began to work at the French court, and he accompanied [[Charles VIII of France|Charles VIII]] on his invasion of Italy in [[1494]] (in what capacity is not known). He was in [[Rome]] in early [[1495]] during the occupation of the city by Charles and his army.

{{commonscat|City Hall (London)}}

* [http://www.london.gov.uk/gla/city_hall/index.jsp Official website]

* [http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/andy/qt/gla.html 3D Panorama inside City Hall (requires QuickTime)]

* [http://www.mayorwatch.co.uk/news.php?slug=Guide-City-Hall-Home-GLA&article_id=50 MayorWatch Guide to City Hall]

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Next he had a series of church positions. By [[1498]] Compère was at [[Cambrai]], and from [[1500]] to around [[1504]] he was at [[Douai]]; his final appointment was at a church in [[St Quentin]]. Throughout this time he seems to have been in part-time service to the French court, as evidenced by his many compositions for official and ceremonial occasions. He died at St Quentin.

[[Category:Local government buildings in London]]

[[Category:London Government]]

[[Category:Buildings and structures in Southwark]]

[[Category:City and town halls in the United Kingdom|London]]

[[Category:2002 architecture]]

[[Category:Norman Foster buildings]]

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==Works==

[[cs:Londýnská radnice]]

Unlike his contemporaries, Compère seems to have written few [[mass (music)|masses]] (at least very few survive). By temperament he seems to have been a miniaturist, and his most popular and numerous works were in the shorter forms of the day&mdash;primarily [[chanson]]s and [[motet]]s. Two stylistic trends are evident in his music: the style of the [[Burgundian School]], which he obviously had learned in his early career before coming to Italy, and the current style of the lighter Italian composers, who were were writing [[frottola]]s (the light and popular predecessor to the [[madrigal (music)|madrigal]]). Compère had a gift for melody, and many of his chansons became popular; later composers used several as [[cantus firmus|canti firmi]] for masses. Occasionally he seems to have given himself a formidable technical challenge and set out to solve it, such as writing [[quodlibet]]s (an example is ''Au travail suis'', which combines no less than six different tunes written to the same text by different composers).

[[de:City Hall (London)]]

[[fr:Hôtel de ville de Londres]]

Compère wrote several works in a unique form, sometimes called a free motet, which combines some of the light elegance of the Italian popular song of the time with the [[counterpoint|contrapuntal]] technique of the Netherlanders. Some mix texts from different sources, for instance a rather paradoxical ''Sile fragor'' which combines a supplication to the [[Blessed Virgin Mary|Virgin Mary]] with a drinking song dedicated to [[Dionysus|Bacchus]]. His choice of secular texts tended towards the irreverent and suggestive.

[[ka:სიტი ჰოლი (ლონდონი)]]

[[pl:City Hall (Londyn)]]

His chansons are his most characteristic compositions, and many scholars of Renaissance music consider them to be his best work. They are for three or four voices, and are in three general categories: Italianate, light works for four [[a cappella]] voices, very much like frottolas, with text set syllabically and often [[homophony|homophonically]], and having frequent cadences; three-voice works in the Burgundian style, rather like the music of [[Guillaume Dufay|Dufay]]; and three-voice "motet-chansons," which resemble the [[Medieval music|medieval]] motet more than anything else. In these works the lowest voice usually sings a slow-moving cantus firmus with a [[Latin]] text, while the upper voices sing more animated parts, in French.

[[fi:Lontoon kaupungintalo]]

Many of Compère's compositions were printed by [[Ottaviano Petrucci]] in [[Venice]], and disseminated widely; obviously their availability contributed to their popularity. Compère was one of the first composers to benefit from the new technology of [[printing]], which had a profound impact on the spread of the Franco-Flemish musical style throughout Europe.

Compère also wrote several settings of the [[Magnificat]] (the hymn of praise to the Virgin Mary, from the first chapter of the [[Gospel of Luke]]), as well as numerous short motets.

==Media==

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==Sources==

{{Commons|Category:Loyset Compère}}

* [[Gustave Reese]], ''Music in the Renaissance''. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1954. ISBN 0393095304

* Article "Loyset Compère," in ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. ISBN 1561591742

[[Category:1445 births|Compère, Loyset]]

[[Category:1518 deaths|Compère, Loyset]]

[[Category:Renaissance composers|Compère, Loyset]]

[[Category:French composers|Compère, Loyset]]

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[[fr:Loyset Compère]]