Henri de La Court

Henri de La Court was a Dutch composer and singer whose career unfolded mainly in Austria in the second half of the sixteenth century. Born in the first half of that century, his date and place of death are not known with certainty: they are placed in Vienna or Prague, on 13 March 1577.

According to Fétis, he is said to have been a singer at Soissons Cathedral in 1547. From 23 August 1563 he appears as an alto in the imperial Hofkapelle of Ferdinand I, Maximilian II and Rudolf II, first in Vienna and later in Prague. Besides singing, he taught music to the choirboys, for which in 1570 he received six florins a month and a bonus of eighteen. The accounts of 1574 and 1576 record extraordinary payments in his favour, suggesting financial difficulties, and after his death his widow received assistance to support the children.

His eight printed motets appeared in Pietro Giovanelli's Novus thesaurus musicus, and one of them is dedicated to this publisher, with whom he may have enjoyed a good relationship. Six further motets for five, six, eight and ten voices survive in manuscript, one of them with a version for organ tablature. His music reflects the style favoured at the Habsburg courts: syllabic and homophonic writing predominates, varied by contrasts between vocal groups. It is unknown whether he was related to Antoine de La Court.