Josquin Des Prez

Introduction

Renaissance is a French word which means re-birth. The era of Renaissance marked the new beginning of thoughts and feeling for the music through which the transformation was encountered in the institutions of Europe. Josquin des Prez [Josquin Lebloitte dit Desprez] was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance Period. He was one of the famous poets of and composers of the between the centuries of Guillaume Dufay and Palestrina and was regarded as the establisher of the Franco-Flemish School for music. He is also considered as the scholar of the music as he was the master of polyphonic style of Renaissance that emerged during his time. Josquin served the period of 50 productive years to the industry of music.

The melodies styles of his music were composed in both contrapuntal method and in text-settings, which provided the main heading to the high Renaissance. He was greatly admired by Martin Luther, and his melodies created a great revolution in whole Europe especially in Germany, even after his death. Although he was a recognized artist throughout Europe and revered long after his death, very few traces of his life have come down to us. Some wage records, allusions in scattered letters, rare administrative documents allow us to assemble a puzzle that most parts are permanently lost.

Early Life

Josquin des Prez was born around 1450 to 1455, presumably in east of the Belgian city of Tournai, circa, the area which was controlled by the Dukes of Burgundy, and died on 27 August 1521 in Condé-sur-l'Escaut in the province of Hainaut, in today's border with Belgium, (about 60 km from Lille, but about 35 km from Mons - Belgium - the birthplace of Orlando di Lasso). He preferred to call him simply as Josquin, and he was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance. He is also known Latinized Josquinus Pratensis, alternatively Jodocus Pratensis. There is very little known about the early life (up to 20 years) of Josquin. There is a lot of confusion and vague example mentioned in the history. This lack of information surrounding the character with a veil of mystery that today sharpens the curiosity of many music historians. He is also often mis-regarded as Josquin de Kessalia, who sang Milan in year 1440. Claude Hemer, librarian of Cardinal Richelieu stated in 1633 (112 years after the death of Josquin) that he was cantor or choirboy at St. Quentin.

There is a counterpoint in the music studies of Josquin It is difficult to say that Josquin was a student of Ockeghem, but after the death of Ockeghem, he wrote an eloquent for him which is commonly known as Nymphes des bois/Requiem aeternam. The first singing record as mentioned in the details by Claude Hemer is dated as April 19th 1477, where he was a singer at René, Duke of Anjou, in Aix-en-Provence. Further, no records were discovered until 1483, but he was still in Italy which then consists of a multitude of city-states thriving polits, commercial and artistic like Florence (the ...