Gheerkin de Hondt

Gheerkin de Hondt (also Gheerken, Gheraert, Gerit, Gerrit, Gheerart, Gerryt de Hont) (1490 – 1547) was a Dutch singer, choirmaster, and composer of polyphonic songs.^[1]

Despite the enormous popularity of his songs, very little biographical information survives. He was probably born c. 1495,^[2] the son of a Jacob de Hondt;^[3] if this was the Jacob who was guardian of the choirboys in Bruges in the 1530s,^[4] this may imply he was a native of Bruges. He was appointed choirmaster in Delft's Nieuwe Kerk in mid-1521 but left at the end of 1523; he was re-appointed to the post in 1530.^[5] He left Delft 18 months later to take up the equivalent position at the church of Sint-Jacob in Bruges, where he remained until 1539.^[6] In December 1539 he became choirmaster of the Marian brotherhood in 's-Hertogenbosch, where he remained until he left in 1547, apparently dismissed for failing to take adequate care of the choirboys.^[7] It appears he went to Friesland, but he disappears from the historical record at this point - although Diehl asserts that there is a record of his death in the Bruges archives in 1562.^[8]

Of his compositions 5 mass settings, 4 motets and 9 songs survive,^[9] most of them preserved in the songbook of Zeghere van Male (Cambrai MS 125–128),^[10][11] 1542. At least one other mass is known to have been lost. A single song was printed by Pierre Phalèse in 1553 & 1556.^[12]