Josquin Des Prez

While scholarly detective work has greatly reduced the number of pieces formerly attributed to Josquin Des Prez, those that have passed the authenticity test confirm his status as the finest composer of the early 16th century. He was born Josquin Lebloitte dit des Prez in northern France around 1450-55; little is known of his early life until 1477, when his name appears among the singers employed by the Duke of Anjou. He surfaces again in the employment of Milan’s ruling Sforza family and as a singer in the papal chapel in Rome. After further high-level jobs in France and Italy, he became provost of the collegiate church of Notre Dame in Condé-sur-l’Escaut in 1504 and remained there until his death in 1521. Several of his finest works, the chanson “Mille regretz” and two settings of the psalm De profundis almost certainly date from the composer’s Condé years. Josquin set aside the late-medieval fashion for seemingly endless contrapuntal lines in favor of polyphonic pieces built from short strands of melody subject to repetition or “imitation” in different voice parts, exemplified by his Marian motets Ave Maria … virgo serena and Alma Redemptoris mater - Ave regina caelorum. Josquin’s refined counterpoint and use of melodic inflection to project the emotions of a particular word or idea, although not without precedent, were groundbreaking in their quality and consistency of invention. His compositions, mainly sacred but with notable excursions into the field of secular French chanson and Italian song, served as models of best practice for well over 50 years after his death.