Joan

Joan Brudieu

Diocese of Limoges , 1520
La Seu d'Urgell , 1591

Composer and Performer

Composer

Although biographic documentation on Brudieu is scarce, he appears to have been a singer in La Seu d'Urgell Cathedral in 1538. A year later, he was appointed Kapellmeister of the same institution. For unknown reasons, Brudieu left this position in 1543 and returned two years later. In 1546, he was ordained and in 1548 he was appointed Kapellmeister for life. Although he moved to Balaguer in 1577 and was organist and Kapellmeister of Santa Maria del Mar (Barcelona) in 1578, he returned to the cathedral in 1579.

His most prominent compositions are Llibre de madrigals (Barcelona, 1585), a prominent polyphonic work with four madrigals in Catalan, two of which set to music poems by Ausiàs Marc ("Fantasiant amor" and "Ma voluntat ab la raho") and Missa de difunts for four voices, preserved in the Archive of the Cathedral of La Seu d'Urgell. In some of his compositions, he uses melodies of the oral tradition, such as in Goigs de Nostra Dona. He is considered one of the great figures of the Catalan Renaissance.