Benedictus Ducis
Benedictus Ducis (Composer), Born: c1492 - near Konstan, Died: 1644 - near Ulm
Benedictus [Benedict] Ducis [Duch, Dux, Herzog, Hertoghs] was a Flemish/German composer and Protestant pastor. (Benedlctus Ducis, wbo is often caned by his first name alone, must not be confounded with Benedlctus Appenzelders, a Swiss musician who lived in Belgium, but of later date and less genius.)
Life
Benedictus Ducis was organist of the Lady Chapel in the cathedral at Antwerp, and 'Prince de la Gilde ' in the brotherhood of St. Luke in that city. He left Antwerp for England in 1515, but as his name does not appear in the lists of court musicians at that time, and no manuscript compositions of his have been found in this country, it appears that his residence in England must have been very short, if not altogether mythical. His elegy on the death of Josquin (1531), and another on the death of Erasmus (1536) fix two more dates in his life. After that no more is known of him. He was connected with the Reformation and became a pastor at various churches in the Geislingen and Ulm regions. He appears to have been an irascible character, given to wife-beating, though intellectually a friend to humanism. Some German historians have claimed him as a countryman on the strength of the publication and dedication of a setting of the Odes of Horace (published at Ulm in 1539, and dedicated to the youths of that city), maintaining that.this proves his residence in that city, but the dedication was more , probably the work of the publisher than of the composer, and the existence of the book is itself very doubtful. (See Q.-L.) His connexion with Antwerp, mentioned above, was discovered by M. Leon de Burbure, and certainly outweighs anything said in favour of his being a German; while the internal evidence of his compositions, which bear the decided Flemish character, and very closely approach the style of Josquin, sets the matter entirely at rest. Other experts say that his style is closer to that of Heinrich Isaac and Sixt Dietrich than that of Josquin Desprez, and his use of the cantus firmus is unusually free.