Adieu mes amours was a popular secular polyphonic chanson of the late 15th century. Many settings of this tune are in fact based on the c. 1480 setting by Josquin des Prez, in which the lower two voices are in quasi-canon, and the upper two voices are freer. The tune itself is in a simple ABA' form. It appeared in many manuscripts and prints from many countries, including in Ottaviano Petrucci's Odhecaton A. [1] [2]
Josquin's chanson was used as the basis for works by a number of other composers, including a version by Heinrich Isaac, and the five-voice chanson "Vous seulement" by Simon Moreau. The setting by Jean Mouton seems to be unrelated to the setting by Josquin. Although "Adieu mes amours" was originally a secular chanson, it was used in a number of mass settings such as, Missa "Adieu mes amours" which uses both parody and cantus firmus compositional techniques by Francesco de Layolle, and another Missa "Adieu mes amours" by Jacob Obrecht.
The first attribution to Josquin of this chanson is in the Casanatense chansonnier of around 1480, which was probably put together to celebrate the betrothal of Isabella d'Este to Francesco Gonzaga. The chansonnier includes works by many of the great composers of the period, including Johannes Ockeghem, Johannes Martini and Alexander Agricola. It included six chansons attributed to Josquin, each with a different spelling of his name, suggesting that the copyist was not aware of Josquin prior to this, lessening the likelihood that the chanson was mistakenly attributed to Josquin. [1]
An issue in the performance practice of Josquin's setting of this chanson is whether it was a vocal piece or an instrumental piece. Although there is underlay of the text in the Florence 2794 manuscript, [3] the music does not fit well with the rondeau refrain of the original. At least ten other contemporary manuscripts include only the incipit and no other text. [4]
Josquin Lebloitte dit des Prez was a composer of High Renaissance music, variously described as 'French' or 'Franco-Flemish'. A central figure of the Franco-Flemish School, Josquin is considered among the greatest composers of the Renaissance and had a profound influence on the music of 16th-century Europe. He built on the work of his predecessor Guillaume Du Fay and his elder contemporary Johannes Ockeghem, to develop a complex style of expressive—and often imitative—polyphony which informs much of his work. In addition, he pioneered the development of word painting and gradually departed from the early Renaissance emphasis on melismatic lines, preferring to use shorter, repeated motifs between voices. A singer himself, Josquin's compositions are chiefly vocal, including masses, motets and a variety of secular chansons. His better-known compositions include the masses Missa Pange lingua, Missa Hercules Dux Ferrariae, Missa L'homme armé super voces musicales and Missa L'homme armé sexti toni; the motets Ave Maria ... Virgo serena, Inviolata, integra et casta es Maria and Miserere mei, Deus; as well as the chanson Adieu mes amours, the frottola-inspired El Grillo and Nymphes des bois, a lament for Ockeghem.
Johannes Ockeghem was a Franco-Flemish composer and singer of early Renaissance music. The most influential European composer in the period between Guillaume Du Fay and Josquin des Prez, Ockeghem was an important proponent of the Franco-Flemish School and among the greatest composers of 15th-century Europe. He was well associated with other leading composers of the time, and spent most of his career serving the French royal court under Charles VII, Louis XI and Charles VIII. Numerous poets and musicians lamented Ockeghem's death, including Erasmus, Guillaume Crétin, Jean Molinet and Josquin, who composed the well known Nymphes des bois for him.
Antoine Busnois was a French composer and poet of the early Renaissance Burgundian School. While also noted as a composer of motets and other sacred music, he was one of the most renowned 15th-century composers of secular chansons. He was the leading figure of the late Burgundian school after the death of Guillaume Dufay.
Pierre de la Rue was a Franco-Flemish composer and singer of the Renaissance. His name also appears as Piersson or variants of Pierchon and his toponymic, when present, as various forms of de Platea, de Robore, or de Vico. A member of the same generation as Josquin des Prez, and a long associate of the Habsburg-Burgundian musical chapel, he ranks with Agricola, Brumel, Compère, Isaac, Obrecht, and Weerbeke as one of the most famous and influential composers in the Netherlands polyphonic style in the decades around 1500.
Loyset Compère was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance. Of the same generation as Josquin des Prez, he was one of the most significant composers of motets and chansons of that era, and one of the first musicians to bring the light Italianate Renaissance style to France.
Jean Richafort was a Netherlandish composer of the Renaissance, a member of the third generation of the Franco-Flemish School.
"L'homme armé" is a secular song from the Late Middle Ages, of the Burgundian School. According to Allan W. Atlas, "the tune circulated in both the Mixolydian mode and Dorian mode ." It was the most popular tune used for musical settings of the Ordinary of the Mass: over 40 separate compositions entitled Missa L'homme armé survive from the period.
In Renaissance music, the cyclic mass was a setting of the Ordinary of the Roman Catholic Mass, in which each of the movements – Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei – shared a common musical theme, commonly a cantus firmus, thus making it a unified whole. The cyclic mass was the first multi-movement form in western music to be subject to a single organizing principle.
Lupus Hellinck was a Flemish composer of the Renaissance. He was a prominent composer of masses, as well as German chorales and motets. Although he was a Roman Catholic all of his life, his music shows evidence of sympathy for the Protestant Reformation, and three of his motets—including a famous setting of In te domine speravi—were probably inspired by the prison writings of the martyred reformer Girolamo Savonarola.
A paraphrase mass is a musical setting of the Ordinary of the Mass that uses as its basis an elaborated version of a cantus firmus, typically chosen from plainsong or some other sacred source. It was a common means of mass composition from the late 15th century until the end of the 16th century, during the Renaissance period in music history, and was most frequently used by composers in the parts of western Europe which remained under the direct control of the Roman Catholic Church. It is distinguished from the other types of mass composition, including cyclic mass, parody, canon, soggetto cavato, free composition, and mixtures of these techniques.
The Miserere, by Josquin des Prez, is a motet setting of Psalm 51 for five voices. He composed it while in the employ of Duke Ercole I d'Este in Ferrara, in 1503 or 1504. It was one of the most famous settings of that psalm of the entire Renaissance, was hugely influential in subsequent settings of the Penitential Psalms, and was itself probably inspired by the recent suffering and execution of the reformer Girolamo Savonarola.
The motet-chanson was a specialized musical form of the Renaissance, developed in Milan during the 1470s and 1480s, which combined aspects of the contemporary motet and chanson.
Antonius Divitis was a Flemish composer of the Renaissance, of the generation slightly younger than Josquin des Prez. He was important in the development of the parody mass.
The Missa Pange lingua is a musical setting of the Ordinary of the Mass by Franco-Flemish composer Josquin des Prez, probably dating from around 1515, near the end of his life. Most likely his last mass, it is an extended fantasia on the Pange Lingua hymn, and is one of Josquin's most famous mass settings.
The Missa L'homme armé super voces musicales is the first of two settings of the Ordinary of the Mass by Josquin des Prez using the famous L'homme armé tune as their cantus firmus source material. The setting is for four voices. It was the most famous mass Josquin composed, surviving in numerous manuscripts and print editions. The earliest printed collection of music devoted to a single composer, the Misse Josquin published by Ottaviano Petrucci in 1502, begins with this famous work.
Abertijne Malcourt was a Franco-Flemish priest, tenor singer, and music copyist of the Renaissance, principally active at the end of the 15th century, contemporary with Johannes Ockeghem. He is considered to be the composer most likely to have written the famous chanson Malheur me bat, used as the basis for mass settings by Jacob Obrecht, Josquin des Prez, Alexander Agricola, and Andreas Sylvanus.
Marbrianus de Orto was a Dutch composer of the Renaissance. He was a contemporary, close associate, and possible friend of Josquin des Prez, and was one of the first composers to write a completely canonic setting of the Ordinary of the Mass.
Noel Bauldeweyn (first name also Noe, Natalis; surname also Balbun, Balduin, Bauldewijn, Baulduin, Baulduvin, and Valdovin; was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance, active in the Low Countries. A contemporary of Josquin des Prez, he had a strong reputation until well after the middle of the 16th century. That some of his works have long been misattributed to Josquin, the most renowned composer of the age, is indicative of his skill as a composer.
The Loire Valley chansonniers are a related group of songbooks copied in the Loire Valley region of central France c. 1465-c. 1475 and produced in the context of the French royal court. They consist of five chansonniers: Copenhagen, Dijon, Nivelle, Laborde and Wolfenbüttel. The songbooks, smaller than a modern paperback, personalized and lavishly decorated, are the earliest surviving examples of a new genre which offered a combination of words, music, and illuminations.
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