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Josquin Desprez Research Paper

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Jessica Hafner
Professor Keates
Music 101
February 11, 2016
Josquin Desprez Josquin Desprez is one of the best known composers during the Renaissance period. Not much is known about his early life, and it is speculated that his birthdate was during the year 1450, likely in Picardie which is a region north of Paris. He died August 27, 1521. Although there are many theories about his education, training, and career, it seems that he really started his rise to fame in the 1470’s when he became a singer for the courts of René I of Anjou and later began to work for the ruling family of Milan, the Sforza’s. In 1499 he became a choirmaster to Duke Ercole I of Ferrara, which is where he wrote the largely popular Miserere. He spent the later part of his life in France, which is where he served as a provost in the church of Condé. Josquin is viewed as one of the most important and influential composers of his time. His music was expressive and combined his musical innovations with traditional techniques that would later become the standard forms that many others would follow. Josquin wrote sacred and secular music and composed many motets, masses, and chansons. In his motets especially, Josquin liked to polyphony and textures to highlight the emotion of the text that was in the motet. He used …show more content…

Much of the life of Josquin is a mystery, and many believe that some of his compositions were actually imitated by people that would claim the pieces to be Josquin’s so they would sell at a higher

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