Josquin Desprez 1440-1521

Northern French composer

One of the greatest composers of the renaissance and certainly the most important composer before the latter half of the 16th century. Like Dufay, Josquin lived part of his life in Italy. In 1459, he became a singer at the Milan Cathedral and in 1474 was employed inthe chapel of the powerful Sforza family in Milan. Although composers were employed by the rich and powerful, a famous one, such as Josquin, could still exercise some control over his own activities as the following letter illustrates. This letter, written to the Duke of Ferraro who was considering hiring Josquin, recommends that the Duke should hire another composer, Isaac:

To me, he [Isaac] seems very well suited to serve Your Lordship, much more so than Josquin, because he is of a better nature among his companions and will compose new works more often. It is true that Josquin composes better, but he composes when he wants to, and he is asking 200 ducats in salary while Isaac will come for 120--but Your Lordship will decide what should be done.

Josquin, in fact, got the job but soon left Ferraro because of an outbreak of the plague.

Another anecdote illustrates the same point. It is said that Louis XII of France asked Josquin to write a part song for him so that he, the King, could sing the tenor part. Because the King had a bad voice, according to the story, Josquin wrote a song in which the tenor had only one note.

Josquin's music was praised by the famour French writer, Rabelais (Pantagruel, 1533-5) and was the favorite composer of Martin Luther.