Weerbeke, Gaspar van (c. 1445–c. 1517)

Flemish composer and singer. Of his works, about eight Masses, 28 motets, and several other liturgical works survive. Five of his Masses were published by the Venetian printer and publisher Ottaviano Petrucci.

Weerbeke took holy orders at Tournai and went to Italy in the 1470s, becoming maestro di cappella at Milan Cathedral and a singer in the service of the Sforza family at the ducal court. He was in Rome as a singer at the papal chapel 1481–89, but in 1488 produced music for allegorical plays given at the marriage of Galeazzo Sforza, Duke of Milan, to Isabella of Aragon. He returned to the Sforza court in 1489. From 1495 he spent two years as a singer in the court choir of Philip the Handsome, Archduke of Austria and Duke of Burgundy. He returned to Rome in 1500, where he again sang in the papal choir. He is last heard of as a canon at St Maria ad Gradus in Mainz.

Works Choral eight Masses, 28 motets, Stabat Mater, and other church music.