Jan Belle


Jan Belle was a Flemish composer from the Franco-Flemish School and a music theorist.

Live

Between 1546 and 1547, Belle was a magister duodenorum at the Holy Cross Church in Liège. He was referred to as "de Lovanium", which indicates that he was originally from Leuven. He may also have been a Kapellmeister at the Church of Our Lady in Sint-Truiden.

Works

Jan Belle was a composer as well as a music theorist.
In 1552, the publisher and editor Jacob Bathen, who lived in Maastricht, published Belle’s probable first work relating to music. This was the Musices encomion, a book on music theory. No copies of the book have been preserved.
In 1572, Petrus Phalesius the Elder in Leuven and Johannes Bellerus in Antwerp co-published under the title Een Duytsch musyck boeck an anthology of Dutch songs by various composers. The book contains six songs for four voices composed by Belle. These songs are:
  1. "Fluer van alle vrouwen soet"
  2. "Ick en can mij niet bedwinghen"
  3. "Int groen, int groen, met u alderliefste"
  4. "Laet ons nu al verblijden in desen soeten tijt"
  5. "O amoureusich mondeken root"
  6. "O doloreux herte met druck beladich"