Jacob Obrecht (1457-1505) died too young; Josquin Desprez outlived and overshadowed him. But he was very forward-thinking; as R.D. Ross observed, his "motets reveal the extent to which tonal root movements had overtaken modal root movements possibly for the first time in music history." Or as Richard Staines puts it, it "represents an early stage in the evolution of diatonic tonality."
He lived in times when masses were based on a cantus firmus (a predetermined melody), and he was skilled at manipulating it as a structural device. His Missa Maria Zart is almost Brucknerian in its length and structure; he breaks the chant up into segments for development.
"Obrecht's premature death deprived Europe of one of its most formidable musical intellects," Richard Staines observed.
Has anyone else explored his music?
