GOUDIMEL, Claude

(1514/20-1572)

Claude Goudimel was a French composer of sacred and secular music. His psalm settings in particular were important in the development of Protestant musical styles. Goudimel's compositional career began in Paris while he was a student at the university, and his first chansons were published there in 1549. Over the course of his life he composed more than seventy chansons. A number of these were settings of texts by Pierre de Ronsard,* whom Goudimel knew personally. In 1551 he began work as a proofreader for the Parisian publisher Nicholas du Chemin, and from 1552 to 1555 he was a partner in the business. He spent the years 1557 to 1567 in the city of Metz, a Huguenot stronghold. During this time he converted to Protestantism. Goudimel's final years were spent in Lyons. He met his death in August of 1572, a victim of the St. Bar­tholomew's Day Massacre.

Psalms were an important component of the Protestant musical tradition, es­pecially in the music of the Calvinist church. Metrical versions in the vernacular (known as the Geneva Psalter) were a staple of congregational singing, and the tunes associated with them were well known. Between 1551 and 1556 Goudimel published eight books of psalm settings (some sixty in number) in a style similar to the contemporary motet. After his conversion, he produced two complete settings of the Geneva Psalter. One comprises simple chordal settings appropri­ate for domestic singing, while the other is in a more elaborate style. The former was translated into German and published in 1573. It had a strong influence on Lutheran worship traditions.

Bibliography

P.-A. Gaillard, "Claude Goudimel," in The New Grove Dictionary ofMusic and Musi­cians, ed. Stanley Sadie, vol. 7, 1980: 578—79.

Russell E. Murray, Jr.