Guilielmus van Messaus

Guilielmus van Messaus (1589–1640) was a Flemish composer who spent his entire life in Antwerp. He was a fairly colorful character, a schoolmaster and sacristan who was dismissed from his teaching job for bad behavior and also suspended from his choirmaster duties temporarily for refusing to perform a plainchant mass rather than a polyphonic one for the burial of a child. As a composer he wrote mostly masses and motets, plus a sizeable number of Flemish and Latin carols.

Vocal Works Performed by the San Francisco Bach Choir

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