title: Joannes Florentius a Kempis
text: # Joannes Florentius a Kempis
  
  Joannes (or Ioannes) Florentius a Kempis (Brussels, baptised on 1 August 1635 – after 1711) was a Flemish Baroque composer and organist.
  
  ## Biography
  
  Joannes Florentius was born in Brussels as the fifth son of Nicolaes a Kempis, an organist and composer. He likely studied music with his father, Joannes Florentius was also a composer and an organist. Between 1670 and 1672, he succeeded to his father's position as an organist at the St. Michael and Gudula Cathedral in Brussels. Before that, he held a similar position at the Church of Our Blessed Lady of the Sablon in Brussels.
  
  ## Works
  
  His collection of Cantiones Natalitiae for five voices was published in 1657 at the Phalesius press in Antwerp. Similar volumes of Christmas carols composed by a single composer were published by the same press. The authors included composers Petrus Hurtado, Guillielmus Borremans, Gaspar de Verlit, Joannes vander Wielen and Franciscus Loots. Furthermore, a Kempis published a mass, a sequence Victimae paschalis and twelve sonatas for violin, viola da gamba and double bass. A polychoral Canticle of Zachary has been ascribed to Guillelmus (Guillaume) a Kempis.
  
  ## Sources
  
  * ↑ Jean Ferrard, revised by Lewis Reece Baratz, A Kempis family Grove Music Online
  * ↑ Programma Kerstconcert 2000
  