Josquin Des Prez

Josquin Des Prez

Introduction

The earliest articles and links about Josquin Des Prez say that he was born in 1435, and studied in St. Quentin France; Josquin got his first job in 1459 at the Cathedral of Milan. After the latest updates, the history tells us that he was born in 1450 or in 1455, originally named as Josquin Lebloitte. He got his early education in Cambrai, France. He got his first job at the court of King Ren of Anjou in 1470's. There is some unconfirmed data available as well, because of the confusion of the name of Josquin and other musicians named nearly same like, Josquinus, Jossequin and/or Jodocus. The other confusions with his name were that Milan cathedral identified him as “Jodocho de frantia biscantori”, and he also got an Italian identification for himself as “Jodocho de frantia”. But the fact is that Biscantori is another singer. Josquin has no link with Biscantori. Biscantori is another adult singer.

Here, the main influencing part about the Josquin is not his early life and the confusions about it, because that can be ignored. It is all about the music and development that Josquin brought in the history of music, and according to a few historians and music lovers he is one of the greatest originators of Renaissance. One of his earliest works and of course a beautiful one was Ave Maria (Hail Mary), and if we compare his early works with his later life work than definitely the maturity is quite noticeable. Many musicians have named his maturity as creativity and innovation.

Ave Maria (Hail Mary)

His master piece Ave Maria comes under the category of history classics. If you have a look at the composition of Ave Maria, it is quite noticeable that it is one of his best compositions of early life. This master piece came in 1485 in Italy for Holy mother Virgin Mary as a devotion and dedication to her. The popularity of this work can be judged by the fact that for a very long time, it was a ritual to sing this in front of the statue of Virgin Mary by the church musicians before ending their day. Ave Maria has five main principle highlighted which reflects the life of Virgin Mary and the principles of her life; starting from the conception, birth, then humility and annunciation, and in the end purification and assumption. These five principles were also highlighted on the Marian Feast Days of the Catholic Church. In the end, the writer pleads Virgin Mary for forgiveness and to help him on the Day of Judgment. As Josquin writes “O Mater Dei, Memento mei. Amen. (O Mother of God, be mindful of me. Amen.)” The opening of this master piece Ave Maria, Gratia Plena was adopted from popular sequence “Marian sequence”. It is then the skills of Josquin that the phrase was beautifully redecorated and used. All four voices of the imitative fashion were used in Ave Maria, which are alto, ...