April 15, 2013.Josquin des Prez.We hope that admirers of Franz von Suppé’s operettas, Nikolai Myaskovsky’s symphonies and Giuseppe Torelli’s concerti grossi will forgive us if we skip their birthdays (all three were born this week) and instead write about a composer whose birthday is unknown.Josquin des Prez, one of the greatest Franco-Flemish composers, was born around 1450 (or several years later), probably in the County of Hainaut, which occupied the land on the border between modern-day Belgium and France and then part of the Duchy of Burgundy.The lands of the Duchy, geographically separated from the Burgundian proper and consisting of small counties that are now Belgium and the Netherlands, were inherited by the dukes at the end of the 14th century.The Duchy was one of the most developed European realms, both economically and artistically.Philip the Good, the duke who ruled from 1419 to 1467, was famous as a patron of painters, Jan van Eyck and Roger van der Weyden among them.Guillaume Dufay, probably the most renowned composer of the time, worked in his employ.Very little is known about Josquin’s youth.It’s assumed that around 1477 he traveled to Aix-en-Provence and was a singer in the chapel of René, Duke of Anjou.Around 1480 he worked in Milan, probably it the service of Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, well known to the fans of the TV series The Borgias.And it was probably Sforza who introduced Josquin to the Papal court in Rome.From 1489 to 1495 Josquin sang in the papal choir; a wall of the Sistine Chapel bears a graffito with his name.All the while he was also composing: we know that some of his motets are dated to those years.He probably moved to Milan around 1498 to work for the Sforzas again, and after Milan fell to the French he moved to France.In 1503 he was hired by Ercole, the Duke of Ferrara.It was here that he composed a popular Miserere, a motet for five voices in plainchant, which was probably inspired by the life and execution of Girolamo Savonarola (you can listen to it here, performed by the ensemble De Labyrintho, Walter Testolin conducting).In 1504 Josquin left Ferrara and returned to Condé-sur-l'Escaut, not far from where he was born.He lived there till his death in 1521.
The attribution of Josquin’s opus is a work in progress in itself: rather than adding to it, musicologists subtract works that were traditionally credited to him.Still, even in this diminished state, the surviving corpus is large: 16 masses (though the authenticity of some of them is in doubt), and a large number of motets and chansons.His polyphonic style was highly influential, and he was the most famous composer till Palestrina more than half a century later.Here is the motet Ave Maria, performed by Tallis Scholars, and here – the first two parts from his famous Missa La sol fa re mi, Kyrie and Gloria, performed by the same ensemble.Josquin took the syllables of a phrase "Lascia fare mi" ("leave me alone" in Italian) and derived notes La (A), Sol (G), Fa (F), Re (D), and Mi (E) from it.Different figures consisting of these notes appear throughout the Mass.
Josquin des Prez 2013
April 15, 2013. Josquin des Prez. We hope that admirers of Franz von Suppé’s operettas, Nikolai Myaskovsky’s symphonies and Giuseppe Torelli’s concerti grossi will forgive us if we skip their birthdays (all three were born this week) and instead write
about a composer whose birthday is unknown. Josquin des Prez, one of the greatest Franco-Flemish composers, was born around 1450 (or several years later), probably in the County of Hainaut, which occupied the land on the border between modern-day Belgium and France and then part of the Duchy of Burgundy. The lands of the Duchy, geographically separated from the Burgundian proper and consisting of small counties that are now Belgium and the Netherlands, were inherited by the dukes at the end of the 14th century. The Duchy was one of the most developed European realms, both economically and artistically. Philip the Good, the duke who ruled from 1419 to 1467, was famous as a patron of painters, Jan van Eyck and Roger van der Weyden among them. Guillaume Dufay, probably the most renowned composer of the time, worked in his employ. Very little is known about Josquin’s youth. It’s assumed that around 1477 he traveled to Aix-en-Provence and was a singer in the chapel of René, Duke of Anjou. Around 1480 he worked in Milan, probably it the service of Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, well known to the fans of the TV series The Borgias. And it was probably Sforza who introduced Josquin to the Papal court in Rome. From 1489 to 1495 Josquin sang in the papal choir; a wall of the Sistine Chapel bears a graffito with his name. All the while he was also composing: we know that some of his motets are dated to those years. He probably moved to Milan around 1498 to work for the Sforzas again, and after Milan fell to the French he moved to France. In 1503 he was hired by Ercole, the Duke of Ferrara. It was here that he composed a popular Miserere, a motet for five voices in plainchant, which was probably inspired by the life and execution of Girolamo Savonarola (you can listen to it here, performed by the ensemble De Labyrintho, Walter Testolin conducting). In 1504 Josquin left Ferrara and returned to Condé-sur-l'Escaut, not far from where he was born. He lived there till his death in 1521.
The attribution of Josquin’s opus is a work in progress in itself: rather than adding to it, musicologists subtract works that were traditionally credited to him. Still, even in this diminished state, the surviving corpus is large: 16 masses (though the authenticity of some of them is in doubt), and a large number of motets and chansons. His polyphonic style was highly influential, and he was the most famous composer till Palestrina more than half a century later. Here is the motet Ave Maria, performed by Tallis Scholars, and here – the first two parts from his famous Missa La sol fa re mi, Kyrie and Gloria, performed by the same ensemble. Josquin took the syllables of a phrase "Lascia fare mi" ("leave me alone" in Italian) and derived notes La (A), Sol (G), Fa (F), Re (D), and Mi (E) from it. Different figures consisting of these notes appear throughout the Mass.