Josquin Des Prez Essentials

“Josquin is the master of the notes, and makes them do what he wants,” said Martin Luther of Josquin des Prez. Luther was in no doubt that Josquin, as he is more simply known, was the composer of music the likes of which had not been heard before. Born in the mid 15th century, somewhere in modern-day northern France or Belgium, Josquin built on the musical achievements of composing giants such as Guillaume Dufay and Gilles Binchois. By combining technical genius with an instinct for expressive beauty, Josquin supplanted his predecessors’ early forays into polyphony with flowing masterpieces that paved the way for Palestrina, Tallis and, later, J.S. Bach, who sang Josquin’s music as a young chorister in Eisenach. Here you can marvel at the sophistication, beauty and drama of Josquin’s vocal interplay in sublime liturgical works such as the motets Tu solus qui facis mirabilia and O Virgo prudentissima, as well as the larger-scale masses Missa l’homme armé and the composer’s late acknowledged masterpiece, Missa Pange lingua. Listen, too, to Josquin’s equally wonderful secular songs. Try Nymphes des bois (Nymphs of the woods), written on the death of composer Johannes Ockeghem, or Mille regretz (A thousand regrets), an equally mournful choral work that was said to have been a favourite of Charles I of Spain. You can also hear an entirely contrasting side to Josquin, such as his popular Italian songs, or “frottole”, including the evocatively skittish El grillo (The Cricket), or Scaramella, Josquin’s comic portrayal of a hapless soldier.