Josquin des Prez
Franco-Flemish composer central to Renaissance polyphony.
Josquin Lebloitte dit des Prez (c. Considered one of the greatest composers of the Renaissance, he was a central figure of the Franco-Flemish School and had a profound influence on the music of 16th-century Europe. Building on the work of his predecessors like Johannes Ockeghem, he developed a complex style of expressive—and often imitative—movement between independent voices (polyphony). He further emphasized the relationship between text and music, departing from the early Renaissance tendency towards lengthy melismatic lines on a single syllable, preferring shorter, repeated motifs between voices.
- field
- Renaissance music
- nationality
- French or Franco-Flemish
- known_for
- Expressive polyphony, text-music relationship, masses, motets, chansons
Lore & Background
Josquin's biography has been continually revised by modern scholarship. He was born somewhere in what is now northeastern France or Belgium. In the 1480s he traveled to Italy with Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, may have worked in Vienna for the Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus, and wrote the motet Ave Maria ... Virgo serena, and the chansons Adieu mes amours and Que vous ma dame. He served Pope Innocent VIII and Pope Alexander VI in Rome, Louis XII in France, and Ercole I d'Este in Ferrara. Many of his works were printed by Ottaviano Petrucci, including the Missa Hercules Dux Ferrariae. In his final years in Condé, Josquin produced some of his most admired works, including the motets Benedicta es, Inviolata, Pater noster–Ave Maria and Praeter rerum seriem, and the chansons Nimphes, nappés and Plus nulz regretz.
Reader's Guide
Influential both during and after his lifetime, Josquin has been described as the first Western composer to retain posthumous fame. His music was widely performed and imitated in 16th-century Europe, and was highly praised by Martin Luther and the music theorists Heinrich Glarean and Gioseffo Zarlino. In the Baroque era, his reputation became overshadowed by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. Josquin continues to draw interest in the 21st century; his music is frequently recorded and the subject of continuing scholarship.
Did You Know?
- Josquin's full name, Josquin Lebloitte dit des Prez, became known only in the late 20th century.
- His first name Josquin is a diminutive form of Josse, the French form of the name of Judoc, a Breton saint.
- In his motet Illibata Dei virgo nutrix, he includes an acrostic of his name, spelled IOSQVIN Des PREZ.
- Scholarly opinion differs on whether his surname should be written as one word (Desprez) or two (des Prez).
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