Josquin des Prés

Admired throughout much of Europe during his lifetime, Josquin des Prés remains one of the greatest composers of the Renaissance, for his mastery of polyphony as well as for the care he lavished on the text and expressiveness of his masses, motets and chansons. Although many areas of his life remain obscure, a few landmarks shed light on his biography, which is still being researched. Josquin Lebloitte dit des Prés was born around 1450 in the county of Hainaut, in Condé-sur-l'Escaut or Beaurevoir, on what is now the Franco-Belgian border. His name "des Prés", derived from a family nickname or a locality, has several spellings, including "Desprez" or Josquinus Pratensis in Latin. Like most Franco-Flemish musicians, he began his musical education as an altar boy at the collegiate church of Saint-Quentin or Cambrai, then studied grammar and counterpoint. An excellent singer, he soon developed an interest in composition, and spent most of his life in Italy. He entered the service of Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, one of Milan's most powerful families, around 1469. Between 1476 and 1489, he worked for Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza and rubbed shoulders with Leonardo da Vinci, before moving to Rome to serve in the papal chapel, from 1489 to around 1495 during the reign of Innocent VIII, then from 1501 to 1503 during that of Alexander VI, with periods of interruption due to travel. Already well known as a singer, Josquin des Prés established his reputation as a composer, notably through his highly innovative masses. He composed two masses based on the great secular song of the Renaissance, the famous Missa L'homme armé super vocales musicales, in which he transposed the melody to different modes, and the Missa L'homme armé sexti toni, which is more elaborate in its polyphonic technique in the sixth mode of Gregorian chant, particularly in the virtuoso Agnus dei. In 1502, Venetian printer Ottaviano Petrucci published the first in the collection Misse Josquin, followed three years later by a second volume and a third in 1514. Other masses from this period include the Missa La sol fa re mi, whose sequence of notes refers to a saucy Italian song, Lascia fare mi ("Let me do it"). In 1503, Josquin des Prés served as maître de chapelle at the court of Ferrara, for Duke Hercules I d'Este, a prestigious position he held for only one year, leaving the city the following year, probably due to the plague. This nevertheless gave him time to compose for his employer the Missa Hercules Dux Ferrariae, a work whose theme uses the vowels of the Duke's name, according to a procedure he had perfected, the soggetto cavato, a musical cryptogram technique that was to flourish. Among the hundred or so motets written by him, Miserere mei, Deus was composed for the Duke of Ferrara, or for Louis XII of France, whom he is also said to have served. In any case, he is best known for his chromatic descent on Descendit de caelis, the music reflecting the idea. In 1504, des Prés returned to his native region, never to leave again. Appointed provost of the collegiate church of Notre-Dame de Condé-sur-l'Escaut, he made a few more trips, but devoted the last years of his life to his work and composition. He created one of his greatest scores, the Missa Pange lingua, a mature work based on the homonymous hymn by Thomas Aquinas. The third line of his Kyrie is one of the most frequently used in fugues by Baroque composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach, and by Mozart in his 41st Jupiter Symphony. Along with the Missa Gaudeamus (an early work), the Missa Ave maris stella and the Missa de Beata Vergine, this is one of the four most popular plainchant masses of its time. Another of his eighteen masses is the Missa sine nomine. Josquin des Prés, who benefited from rents including several properties and an extensive music library, remained a very active composer until his death on August 27, 1521. De Prés was also a great composer of motets, particularly Marian ones such as the famous Ave Maria... Virgo serena, which showcases his mastery of musical architecture, canon and vocal expression. His sense of word research in the service of music is also a feature of his secular songs, of which there are some seventy, the best-known of which is Mille regretz, alongside others such as Adieu mes amours, Faulte d'argent, Plus nulz regretz, la Petite camusette and El Grillo, whose onomatopoeia imitates the song of the cricket. Considered a major and influential artistic figure during his lifetime, he was for Martin Luther the "master of notes, the others being mastered by them". His works circulated throughout Europe during the 16th century, before being rediscovered in the 19th and, above all, 20th centuries, with the revival of early music.

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