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The Musical Style of Josquin des Prez
By
Stephen Hubel
MUSI 3204
Music History I
Middle Ages and Renaissance
Dr. Caia McCullar
Dallas Baptist University
April 23, 2013
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Music plays a large role in the twenty-first century. Music can be found in a plethora of
different styles and in the most obscure of locations. For some, it is the icing that brings flavor to
a cake; for others, it is the yeast that brings life to the cake. It is not seen as the angel atop the
Christmas tree only in this modern society, but it has been an important part of life ever since the
beginning of time. The first mentions of music can be traced back to the beginning of the greatest
history book of all time: the Holy Bible. In the twenty-first verse of the fourth chapter in
Genesis, the descendent of Adam by the name of Jubal is described as being the “father of all
who play stringed instruments and pipes.” From the days when David played the harp in King
Saul’s court to the day that he assigned four thousand Israelites to praise the Lord with musical
instruments, he centered his entire life on music. While music has been present since pre-historic
times, not much is known about the music of Antiquity. During the Middle Ages and
Renaissance, music began to be studied at a deeper level than ever before and was assigned a
structural norm which has continued to evolve through time with the influence of composers and
musicians that are entirely too numerous to count. One of the greatest composers of the sixteenth
century was Josquin des Prez. Josquin des Prez was the first great master of polyphonic vocal
music in the style of the high Renaissance compositions, and was such an influential composer
that his musical style can be seen in the compositions of many other great musicians.
Josquin des Prez was a French composer born sometime in the mid-fifteenth century, and
was also known as Des Prés, Després, Jodocus Pratensis, or A Prato. He is known as one of the
most learned musicians of his time, and his compositions make this fact very apparent. Even
though he was such a well-known composer, very little is known for sure about his early life, and
the little amount that is known is very vague and the dates are contradictory (Josquin Des Prez,
2012, Web). The exact location of his birth is not known, however, based on the early activities
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of his family, it is hypothesized that he was born in Condé-sur-l’Escaut which is on the border of
the imperial county of Hainaut. The date of his birth is also not known, but is generally agreed to
be sometime around 1450. After the death of his father, Gossard Lebloitte dit Desprez, Josquin
was adopted by his childless uncle, Gilles Lebliotte dit Desprez, and aunt, Jacque Banestonne, in
1466. He seemed to have some significant contact with Johannes Ockeghem who was the most
famous composer of the Franco-Flemish School. It is unsure whether Josquin was actually a
pupil under Ockeghem, but it is evident in some of Josquin’s works that he was influenced by
him in some way. It wasn’t until the nineteenth of April in the year 1477 that Josquin’s activities
were first documented. On this day, he was listed as a singer in the chapel in Aix-en-Provence of
René, duke of Anjou. He stayed in René’s court until at least the twenty-sixth day of March in
the year 1478 at which point a French document certified his eligibility to receive the first
available prebend in the collegiate church of St Maxe du Château in Bar-le-Duc, the capital of
René’s duchy of Bar. Josquin then falls off the grid once again until February of 1483 when his
name reappears at the time of his return to Condé-sur-l’Escaut with the purpose of claiming his
inheritance from his uncle and aunt. His whereabouts during this time are once again
hypothesized but not known for sure (Sadie and Tyrrell, 2001, pp. 220-266).
Josquin is mentioned in the service of the wealthy Caridnal Ascanio Sforza in 1484 and is
asked for the rectorship of the church of Saint Aubin. He is documented to have traveled around
quite a bit in the next few years to places such as Rome and Milan before finally settling in as a
singer at the papal chapel in 1489. How long Josquin remained at the papal chapel is unknown.
While at the chapel, not only was he a singer, but he also composed for the chapel works such as
the tract for Ash Wednesday entitled Domine, non secundum (Sadie and Tyrrell, 2001, pp. 220266). Josquin spent from May third 1504 until his death at the church of Notre Dame in Conde
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serving as a provost. He died on August twenty-seventh of 1521 and was buried at the church
and left all of his property to the church (Shaked, 2009, Web).
The mastery in Josquin Des Prez’s music is derived from two different cultures: northern
France, where he was raised and educated, and southern France, where he spent the most
productive years of his life and where he reached artistic maturity. His music style can be found
in his many surviving works, which include 19 masses, about 100 motets, some 70 French
chansons, and a number of instrumental pieces and Italian frottole (Josquin Desprez, 2003,
Web). “His motets show the traits of the late-fifteenth-century style we have already seen,
including clarity in phrasing, form, and total organization: fluid and tuneful melodies; transparent
textures; use of imitation and homophony; and careful declamation of the text” (Grout,
Burkholder and Palisca, 1960, pp. 203-210). His motets are probably the works in which his
reputation is most firmly anchored. The reason for this is partly because of their sheer number.
Unlike masses, motets were freely composed, allowing the composer more freedom in
compositional techniques; this is the reason why Josquin decided to compose so many motets.
His motets vary from strictly homophonic settings to complex contrapuntal settings, and some
even have a mixture of both. He has written many motets as canons, and some are even fugal in
nature. Viewing his motets as a whole, it is amazing how he seems to constantly have
reinterpreted and reinvented the genre (Milsom, 2006, Web).
Even in early motets such as the popular Ave Maria … virgo serena, Josquin shows true
independence of mind, strongly innovative tendencies, and a concern for the clear, rhetorical
declamation of the words. Ava Maria is considered to be his earliest identifiable piece which he
composed while in Milan in approximately 1885. The motet is composed for four voices and
employs the technique of imitation while maintaining symmetry and balance. Evidence of word-
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painting can be found in this composition. One example is in the second verse when the world
“plena” is used multiple times. The word means “full” and is an example of word painting
because the word is used during a melisma. Another example is his writing of the upper voices
disjunct from the lower voices so that they occur at different times. Assuming that the higher
voices represent Mary and the lower voices represent Joseph, they symbolize that Mary had no
physical relations with Joseph and remained a virgin. One more example of word painting within
this motet is the downward direction in steps on the word “Angelicis” which symbolizes an
angel’s salutation descending to earth from the sky (Shaked, 2009, Web).
The basic texture of Josquin’s Ava Maria is imitative, yet each section of the text is given
a slightly different treatment. At the beginning of the piece, there is literal imitation either at the
octave or at the unison that works its way from the highest voice to the lowest. Each phrase
overlaps that of the previous voice in such a way that the only time that they are singing the same
thing at the same time is three bars before the first main cadence. The New Grove Dictionary of
Music and Musicians describes just how complicated yet beautiful the voicing is in detail:
For the first strophe of the rhyming votive antiphon that follows, a duet of upper voices is
imitated by a trio of lower ones, leading more quickly this time into a longer full section
whose denser texture is enlivened by sequence and close internal imitation; for the
second strophe, duets of lower and upper voices, now imitating one another at the 5th,
converge briefly to form a four-part texture, which then tapers away to the unrelieved
duet of the third strophe. This temporary austerity enhances the effect of the crucial
fourth strophe, ‘Ave vera virginitas’, whose four-part texture is given new rhythmic life
by a change of metre; the close canon between superius and tenor may symbolize the
Child within the Virgin’s womb. After a fifth strophe in which this almost purely
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harmonic texture is resolved into melodic imitation once more, the motet ends, after a
whole bar’s pause, with a chordal invocation of stark simplicity (Sadie and Tyrrell, 2001,
pp. 220-266).
Josquin’s masses also vary greatly from one to the next and, while his motets can have as
many as six different voices, are essentially scored for four voices. He spent immense amounts
of time concentrating on the sparse detail, dialog between voices, and the working of tiny
melodic ideas. The voices were written in a wide range so as to prove more space to accomplish
all that he had in mind to accomplish (Phillips, 2013, Web) There are several main compositional
methods that he used in writing his masses. A cantus-firmus mass is one where a pre-existing
tune was used in one voice as the base of the entire mass. The cantus-firmus was usually derived
from plainchant, but Josquin took them mostly from secular tunes. He also wrote some imitation
masses where instead of using only one voice as the cantus-firmus, he used all the voices from
the original song in whole or in part. Another type of mass that he composed was the paraphrase
mass. In this type of mass, instead of using a strict hymn melody as a cantus-firmus in one voice,
Josquin took an original melody and paraphrased it freely in all the voices in each movement.
One more method he used to compose some of his masses was called soggetto covato dale
vocali. In this, he designated each vowel to represent a specific note, and let the vowels of the
text depict what the melody would be (Grout, Burkholder and Palisca, 1960, pp. 203-210).
Josquin’s masses have been broken up into three categories: the early masses; the mature
masses; and the last masses. L’ami Baudichon is known as being one of his earliest surviving
masses and is based on a cantus firmus based on a simple dance formula with a ribald text. It has
been pointed out that its unchanging head-motif, the simplicity of melody and rhythm, and the
clarity of texture and harmony are all characteristics of the Bergundian style of the 1450s. In
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Josquin’s writing up until this point, he has only used canonic writing sporadically. In the Missa
sine nomine, the canons are distributed through all the voices in turn and all voices including the
bass share in the imitative texture. Josquin reinterpreted the canon mass derived from Ockeghem
and instilled in it new expressivity (Sadie and Tyrrell, 2001, pp. 220-266).
The works which can be included in the first group are characterized by dynamism of the
melodic lines with their extended diatonic runs, melismatic ornamentations occasionally
at the cost of harmonic suavity (expression of the words even at the cost of the textural
transparence and balance)—and all this in most cases combined with rationalistically
motivated canonic complications by which the composer’s creative talent and technically
mastery are shown in the best possible light (Sherr, 2000, pp. 1-10).
Before that final stage of his development, however, Josquin seems to have passed
through a period of confident maturity in which every resource, both of compositional technique
and of vocal virtuosity, is deployed with something like bravura. In Gaudeamus, he combines the
cantus-firums techniques that he commonly used with those of ostinato. He constructed the
different melodic lines with such inventiveness that it lead to a magnificent climax in the final
Agnus. In the Super Voces Musicales, the melody is presented starting on every note of the
natural hexachord. The Kyrie begins on C, the Gloria on D, and up to A in the Agnus Dei.
Within the different sections of the mass, there is canon between the tenor and the other voices
based on the cantus-firums, and there are some sections where the cantus-firums is absent. The
compositional complexities in his masses continue to advance as he incorporates more
techniques and perfects the simple techniques that he has previously used (Sadie and Tyrrell,
2001, pp. 220-266).
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Characteristic of the second or middle group of Josquin’s compositions is the variety of
melodic invention and the diversity of contrapuntal constructive means. Dynamism of the
melodi lines is combined with the play of color of the contrasting voice-groups. Canonic
combinations are combined with ever more careful interpretation of the text and a clearly
outlined constructional scheme (Sherr, 2000, pp. 1-10).
Even while in his old age, Josquin continued to compose, but the exuberance of his
compositions had mostly fallen away. His later compositions can also be seen as aiming more at
the inward communication of the sacred texts rather than the outward expressions, but either
way, they change dramatically. In his later years, he began to focus less on coming up with new
and greater ideas and more on reworking old problems with new insight. In the Missa de Beata
Virgine, he did away with much of the elaborate panoply of motivic unity deployed in the
virtuoso middle-period. As in the early mass sections, paraphrased plainsong is the main
constructional principle, but it is handled now with a serene mastery that fully explains why this
work became the most popular of all Josquin’s masses during the 16th century (Sadie and
Tyrrell, 2001, pp. 220-266).
Characteristic for the third group are a more restrained handling of the melodic material
and the technical means, together with a well-calculated stability in the use of
contrapuntal principles of construction. The perfection of form—based on equality of
voices, on clearly-balanced melodic phraseology, and on symmetric distribution of the
dynamic culminations—is combined with expression of the text and syllabic setting of
the words (Sherr, 2000, pp. 1-10).
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Josquin also composed a number of chansons and other secular works. His chansons
represented a new style that almost completely abandoned the fixed forms of that day and age.
Instead of composing in the forms of the ballade, rondeau, and virelai, he chose strophic texts
with simple four or five-line poems. Most of the older chansons were composed with the tenor
providing the skeleton of the composition and the other voices were just the cream-filling,
usually with an instrument playing one of the voices. Josquin composed his chansons with as
many as five voices and each one being equally important and had no instrumental
accompaniment (Grout, Burkholder and Palisca, 1960, pp. 203-210). Many of the secular works
that were originally attributed to Josquin have since then been debated whether or not he really
wrote them. The reason for this is that the sources of the music are fewer, more scattered and less
reliable. The style of the music is also not typical of him and therefore questioned. His chansons
cover a wide range of style and topics, ranging from lively arrangements of popular songs to
somber, densely scored settings of languorous love poetry (Sadie and Tyrrell, 2001, pp. 220266).
Josquin des Prez was most definitely a composer that stood out among the crowd. He
came at a time when the structure of music had been clearly defined, and he decided to stretch
the limits of music in all directions. He fashioned new methods of writing music in ways so that
the melodic lines communicate the message of the music more adequately than the text itself.
There has been one word used over and over by many different people through the years to
describe him; this word is “genius.” He has been looked upon by some as the Beethoven of his
day, and in one situation, Josquin publically berated a singer for adding ornaments that Josquin
had not written in the piece. Beethoven was also known for having this kind of attitude,
especially after saying “I refuse to allow another, whoever he may be, to alter my compositions.”
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Josquin did not release a song until after he had kept it to himself for some years after much
deliberation and with manifold corrections. He and Beethoven alike had such a belabored
approach that, while they composed many works, it took a long time to complete each of them
(Higgins, 2004, pp. 443-510).
Josquin had such a reputation that some people do not accept the fact he was ever capable
of writing any technical defects, even in his apprentice work. A man by the name of Edgar
Sparks wrote that “One can hardly expect Josquin to write a masterpiece every time he sets a pen
to paper; nor can one expect him to write without stylistic variation. But how dull a work, and
how much variation from the norm can one accept?” (Sparks, 1971, pp. 345-359) Sparks was so
reluctant to see Josquin—even in his youth—as capable of making an occasional technical
imperfection and therefore did not believe that some of the earlier compositions were really
composed by Josquin.
Whether Josquin des Prez made an occasional error in his works or if every note that he
wrote on a page was perfectly placed, he was still clearly a musical genius. He listened to the
common music of his day, left out what he didn’t like, and took what he did like a step further
than anyone had before. It was once said by Martin Luther that "other musicians do with notes
what they can, Josquin what he likes." Luther also similarly stated that “Josquin is the master of
the notes. They must do as he wills; as for the other composers, they have to do as the notes
will.” While it may be very unclear when and where he grew up and even how many of the
compositions that have been attributed to him were really written by him, it is very clear that
music flowed through him and out of his fingertips onto paper. From the text-painting in his
motets to the soggetto covato dale vocali in his masses, his musical style was a great influence to
many composers for years to come. Some of his methods can still be incorporated in the modern
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music of this twenty-first century. Music is in many ways vital to our existence, and Josquin was
a clear demonstration of how to make good.
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List of References
Grout, Donald Jay, J. Peter Burkholder, and Claude V. Palisca. "Franco-Flemish Composers." A
History of Western Music. 8th ed. New York: Norton, 1960. 203-10. Print.
Higgins, Paula. "The Apotheosis of Josquin Des Prez and Other Mythologies of Musical
Genius." Journal of the American Musicological Society 57.3 (2004): 443-510. Print.
"Josquin Des Prez." Notable Names Database. N.p., 2012. Web. 09 Apr. 2013.
"Josquin Desprez." Websophia. N.p., 2003. Web. 09 Apr. 2013.
Milsom, John. "Josquin des Prez." The Oxford Companion to Music. Ed. Alison Latham. Oxford
Music Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 10 Apr. 2013.
Phillips, Peter. "Josquin Desprez: Masses and Motets." Musicologicus. Atrium Musicoligicum,
2006. Web. 09 Apr. 2013.
Sadie, Stanley, and John Tyrrell, eds. "Josquin Des Prez." The New Grove Dictionary of Music
and Musicians. 2nd ed. Vol. 13. London: Macmillan Limited, 2001. 220-66. Print.
Shaked, Guy. "Josquin Des Prez: Biography, Articles." Geocities. N.p., 2009. Web. 09 Apr.
2013.
Sherr, Richard. "Introduction." The Josquin Companion. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2000. 1-10. Print.
Sparks, Edgar H. “Problems of Authenticity in Josquin’s Motets”, Josquin Proceedings 1971,
345-59. Print