Christianus [Christian]  Ameyden [Ameiden] {Pius IV-Paul V}

Tenor; Liège (Oirschot in Brabant); admitted without examination 7 September  1563 ;  mandati : October  1563 -October  1571 (see mandati  910, fol. 143v: special payment for his salary for September 1563), January  1580 -November  1586 , list of  1573 ,  DS  lists of July  1577 , June  1578 ,  1587 - 1590 ;  died  in Rome on 20 November  1605  and was buried the next day in Santa Maria dell'Anima;  punctator ,  1572 ,  1573 ,  1575 ,  1578 ,  1581 ;  abbas ,  1573 ,  1574 ,  1580 ,  1581 ;  maestro di cappella ,  1593 ,  1594 .

Ameyden has the distinction of being the last major Flemish musician in the papal chapel (in fact, at the end of the 16th century, he was the only Flemish musician in the chapel). Like a number of other singers, he owed his success in the choir to abilities other than his singing; he was admitted without audition, something the singers at first resisted. The cardinals' commission of 1565 recommended that he be removed from the chapel ("ha voce mediocre et quasi tollerabile"--Document 1.15), and his name was in fact placed on the list of those to be excluded they gave to the singers on 17 September 1565. But Ameyden had apparently so ingratiated himself with the other singers that they petitioned specially on 21 September 1565 to allow him to keep his post (an action they took for none of the other fired singers), admitting that he did not have a good voice, but was sufficient in other matters. The petition was successful and Ameyden was never dropped from the  mandati  lists, although he had to be "readmitted" by paying again the standard entry fee of 12 ducats on 26 September 1565 (the money was given back to him almost immediately). In September1588, after 25 years of service, Ameiden became one of the first singers to be giubilato under the rules promulgated by Sixtus V. Ameyden was clearly a person the other singers trusted and was elected again and again to the major leadership positions of the chapel, including eventually that of  maestro di cappella . He was also financially successful; he purchased a house on the via Condotti in 1579 and his estate was large enough to found a daily Mass for pilgrims at the cappella della Pietà in Santa Maria dell’Anima and to enable his nephew, the writer Theodore Ameyden, to settle in Rome.

CELANI gives his epitaph:

D.O.M./CHRISTIANO AMEIDEN ORSCHOTANO BRARANTINO/OR SUMMAM VITAE PROBITATEM ET MUSICAE PERITAM/PIO IIII ET SUCCESSORIBUS PONTIF. MAX. CARO AC OB/MORUM SUAVITATEM ET BENEFACIENDI STUDIUM/OMNIBUS AMABILI QUI DE HOC HOSPITALI IN VITA/SEMPER BENE MERERI STUDUIT ET MORIENS SUA/HAEREDITATE DUMMODO IN HOC ALTARI PRO IUVANDA/PEREGRINORUM PIETATE QUOTIDIE PRIMA MISSA ET/ANNIVERSARIUM QUOTANNIS CELEBRETUR EIDEM/PRAECLARE SUBVENIT OBIIT DIE XX NOVEMBRIS/ANNO M.DC.V/AMMINISTRATORES HUIUS HOSPITALIS CONFRATRI BENEM. PP.

WORKS IN VATS MSS

Mass: Missa Fontes et omnia quae moventur in aquis  a 5 (VatS 30).

Magnificat: Magnificat primi toni (VatS 29)

DOCUMENTS

DS 7

64r: entry dated 5 September 1563

Eadem die congregatis cominis in sacrista Sancti Marci fuit presentatus per R.mum dd. Archiepiscopum Sipontinum qui tenet locum magistri capelle unum motu proprio in favorem domini Christiani Ameyden ut receptatur in cantores seu domini discuterunt tempore donec melius intelligerent voluntatem Sanctissimi quia alias perceperat nullum cantorem pro illaque motu proprio nisi previus examinatus. . .

64v: entry dated 7 September 1563

Eadem die post missa fuit admissus dominus Christianus Ameyden per cantores.

155r-155v: entry dated 21 September 1565

[Secundus ingressus sive admissio domini Christiani Ameiden] Vota fuerunt publicata presentia prefati R.mi car.lis qui retulit vive vocis oraculo sibi facto mentis sue s.tis fuisse et esse quod dictus Christianus admittatur in dicta cappella et pro hac vice dumtaxat velle suplere diffectum vocis dictis domini Christiani licet non essere in totum perfecta pro servitio eiusdem cappella attento quod in reliquis erat idoneus et sufficiens pro cantore dicte cappelle ac etiam ex parte S.mi d.ni n.i precepit et mandavit R.do etiam magistro capelle et ... quod de ceteris nullas admitta ... in cantorum dicte cappelle nisi primo [becomes illegible]

156r: entry dated 26 September 1565

Eadem die d. Christianus solvit 12 ducatos pro suo novo ingressu.

156v: entry dated 28 September 1565

The money is returned. Attento quod infra biennium solvit bis novum ingressum, attento etiam quod in eius admissione Rev.mus cardinalis Vitelletius voluit quod gratis admitteretur.

DS 16

30v: entry dated 18 September 1588

M. Cristiano Ameiden ha finito il compimento del servitio della cappella delli 25 anni et secondo la bolla che ci à fatta il N.S.re è absente dal servitio quotidiano, perho mi è parso farne qui mentione.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:  VANDER STRAETEN , VI, pp. 445-460; CELANI, p. 756;  FREY , Di Diarien, pp. 146-147;  CASIMIRI , "Disciplina Musicale e Maestri de Capella dopo il Concilio di Trento nei Maggiori Istituti Ecclesiastici di Roma,"  Note d'Archivio  15 (1939): 233.