Credo - Music

Josquin Des Prez /artst French Pronunciation /ʒɔskɛ̃ Depʁe/ C. 1450/1455 – 27 August 1521 Often Referred To Simply As Josquin Was A Franco-Flemish Composer Of The Renaissance. He Is Also Known As Josquin Desprez And Latinized As Josquinus Pratensis Alternatively Jodocus Pratensis Although He Himself Expressed His Preferred Spelling Of His Name Josquin Des Prez In An Acrostic In His Motet Illibata Dei Virgo Nutrix. He Was The Most Famous European Composer Between Guillaume Dufay And Palestrina And Is Usually Considered To Be The Central Figure Of The Franco-Flemish School. Josquin Is Widely Considered By Music Scholars To Be The First Master Of The High Renaissance Style Of Polyphonic Vocal Music That Was Emerging During His Lifetime. During The 16th Century Josquin Gradually Acquired The Reputation As The Greatest Composer Of The Age His Mastery Of Technique And Expression Universally Imitated And Admired. Writers As Diverse As Baldassare Castiglione And Martin Luther Wrote About His Reputation And Fame Theorists Such As Heinrich Glarean And Gioseffo Zarlino Held His Style As That Best Representing Perfection. He Was So Admired That Many Anonymous Compositions Were Attributed To Him By Copyists Probably To Increase Their Sales. More Than 370 Works Are Attributed To Him It Was Only After The Advent Of Modern Analytical Scholarship That Some Of These Mistaken Attributions Have Been Challenged On The Basis Of Stylistic Features And Manuscript Evidence. Yet In Spite Of Josquin’s Colossal Reputation Which Endured Until The Beginning Of The Baroque Era And Was Revived In The 20th Century His Biography Is Shadowy And We Know Next To Nothing About His Personality. read less