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Josquin des Prez
FRENCH-FLEMISH COMPOSER
Josquin des Prez, des Prez also spelled Desprez, des Prés, or Després (born c. 1450,
Condé-sur-l’Escaut?, Burgundian Hainaut [France]—died Aug 27, 1521, Condé-surl’Escaut), one of the greatest composers of Renaissance Europe.
Josquin des Prez, drawing by Joris van der Straeten, 16th century.
The Bettmann Archive
Josquin’s early life has been the subject of much scholarly debate, and the first solid
evidence of his work comes from a roll of musicians associated with the cathedral in
Cambrai in the early 1470s. During the late 1470s and early ’80s, he sang for the courts
of René I of Anjou and Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza of Milan, and from 1486 to about
1494 he performed for the papal chapel. Sometime between then and 1499, when he
became choirmaster to Duke Ercole I of Ferrara, he apparently had connections with
the Chapel Royal of Louis XII of France and with the Cathedral of Cambrai. In Ferrara
he wrote, in honour of his employer, the mass Hercules Dux Ferrariae, and his motet
Miserere was composed at the duke’s request. He seems to have left Ferrara on the
death of the duke in 1505 and later became provost of the collegiate church of Notre
Dame in Condé.
Josquin’s compositions fall into the three principal categories of motets, masses, and
chansons. Of the 20 masses that survive complete, 17 were printed in his lifetime in
three sets (1502, 1505, 1514) by Ottaviano dei Petrucci. His motets and chansons were
included in other Petrucci publications, from the Odhecaton (an anthology of popular
chansons) of 1501 onward, and in collections of other printers. Musical laments on his
death by Nicolas Gombert, Benedictus Appenzeller, and Hieronymus Vinders are
extant. Martin Luther expressed great admiration for Josquin’s music, calling him
“master of the notes, which must do as he wishes; other composers must do as the
notes wish.” In his musical techniques he stands at the summit of the Renaissance,
blending traditional forms with innovations that later became standard practices. The
expressiveness of his music marks a break with the medievaltradition of more abstract
music.
In his motets, particularly, Josquin gave free reign to his talent, expressing sorrow in
poignant harmonies, employing suspension for emphasis, and taking the voices
gradually into their lowest registers when the text speaks of death. Josquin used the old
cantus firmus style, but he also developed the motet style that characterized the 16th
century after him. His motets, as do his masses, show an approach to the modern
sense of tonality.
In his later works he gradually abandoned cantus firmus technique for parody and
paraphrase. He also frequently used the techniques of canon and of melodic imitation.
In his chansons Josquin was the principal exponent of a style new in the mid-15th
century, in which the learned techniques of canon and counterpoint were applied to
secular song. He abandoned the fixed forms of the rondeau and the ballade, employing
freer forms of his own device. Though a few chansons are set chordally rather than
polyphonically, a number of others are skilled examples of counterpoint in five or six
voices, maintaining
JOSQUIN DESPREZ TIMELINE
1450 :
Josquin was born in France
1460 :
Josquin was serving as a choirboy, at Saint-Quentin
1466 :
Josquin's father passed away
1477 :
He was appointed at the chapel of René, Duke of Anjou, in Aix-en-Provenc
1480 :
He moved to Italy
1483 - 1484 :
Josquin started serving the Sforza family in Milan
1489 - 1495 :
Josquin was one of the members of the papal choir and served
1503 - 1504 :
Josquin was employed at the court of the Duke Ercole I d'Este of Ferrara
1504 :
Josquin left Ferrara, by April, and arrived at Condé-sur-l'Escaut, in France
1504 :
He was appointed as the Provost of the collegiate church of Notr
1521 :
Josquin died on 27 August