Gysbert Japiks

Gysbert Japicx, 1637, portrait by Matthijs Harings

Gysbert Japiks or Japicx (1603–1666) was a Frisian writer, poet, schoolmaster, and cantor.

Life

Japiks was born in Bolsward, Friesland. He admired the Latin poets Horace and Ovid, but was also an enthusiast for his own Frisian memmetaal, or mother tongue. His work was the most notable in that language of his day and had the effect of elevating Frisian to literary status.[1] The poems of Japiks were published in Friessche Tjerne (1640) and also posthumously in Fryske Rijmlerye (1688).[2]

Songs

Japiks's Frisian songs were contrafacta to well-known tunes by composers such as Goudimel, Bourgeois, and Pierre Guédron. A selection from them was recorded by Frisian singers and Camerata Trajectina in 2003.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Roderick Jellema, Country fair: poems from Friesland since 1945 in Frisian and English (Eerdmans, 1985), pp. xiv–xv
  2. ↑ Horst Haider Munske, Nils Århammar, Volker F. Faltings, Handbuch des Friesischen / Handbook of Frisian Studies (2001), p. 710
  3. ↑ Gysbert Japix (1603-1666), Frisian soloists: Tetsje van der Kooi, soprano; Femke de Boer, alto; Jaap Hoekstra, tenor; Siebren Kramer, baritone; Rozemarijn Palma, song; GLO 6055


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