oa Obrecht and Erasmus

The biographical connection between Obrecht and Erasmus, attested to by Glarean and Rhenanus, remains problematic: there is no easy way to read either the composer’s or the humanist’s career in such a way as to allow for a musical apprenticeship during the years of Erasmus’s youth. However, renewed scrutiny of the pertinent evidence brings to light a number of considerations that appear to strengthen the possible ties between Obrecht and Erasmus, and that make the figure of Johannes Tinctoris loom large in this picture as well. The search is on for a plausible scenario that can take account of these considerations.