Josquin DesPrez

Born: c. 1440 in northern France; Died: c. 1521, in Condé

Assignments: in Milan, 1459–1479, at the papal chapel in Rome, 1486–1494, by King Louis XII of France, at the court of the d'Estes in Ferrara and finally in his native region of Condé as Provost of the Collegiate Church

Music for the church: Eighteen Mass settings survive, including one using as a basic motif the well known secular song L'homme armé; one honouring his Ferrara patron, Duke Ercole d'Este, Hercules Dux Ferrarie, its motif based on the musical transliteration of its title, and the Missa Pange lingua, which uses the Latin hymn of the same name.

Josquin also wrote a large number of motets of equally faultless technique, the epitome of Renaissance musical achievement, among which may be mentioned Absalom, fili mi, Ave Maria gratia plena and his Stabat mater dolorosa.

Quotable: “Josquin is master of the notes, which must express what he desires; other choral composers must do what the notes dictate." — Martin Luther

Less than six degrees of separation: Josquin and Reich both use L’homme armé.