Pierre de la Rue

De la Rue was one of the leading composers of the late 15th and early 16th centuries, though he never quite achieved the European fame of his contemporary, Josquin. Born in Tournai around 1450, he spent the prime of his professional career (1492-1516) at one of the richest musical centres in Europe, the Hapsburg-Burgundian court at Brussels-Mechelen, ruled over by Duke Philip “the Fair” of Burgundy. He contributed to all major genres of his time (25 motets and 24 secular pieces) and was the most prolific mass composer of his generation (completing over 30 works). His Requiem Mass is amongst the first to survive, and his Missa “Ave Sanctissima Maria” may be the earliest six-voice mass, and the first wholly canonic one. He is perhaps best known as a composer of canons: a strict form of imitation in which the voices mirror each other at different intervals. Thanks to his longevity at court and revenues from the church, he died a wealthy man in 1518.