Guillaume Bouzignac

Bouzignac was a French composer of the early to mid 17th century. Numerous works of his may survive in copy. It is conjectured that a number of anonymous pieces are actually Bouzignac's because of innovations he employed: set patterns to describe or indicate particular phenomena then employed in textual material with the same theme. Genres of music attributed to him include motets, masses, psalms, and many Latin texts. He also tried to write many quick shifts within his music which heretofore had only occasionally been practiced. The music was employed by Bouzignac to bring out the meaning of the words: with tension if the text called for it and subtleness when the occasion arose. He may have been influenced by the madrigals of Vecchi and Marenzio. ~ Keith Johnson