...Is apotheosizing a composer well worth? Josquin des Prez is an unavoidable figure when we discuss renaissance music, like Beethoven for classical music. However unlike in the case of Beethoven, there is not enough definite evidences to support the greatness of Josquin. The author Paula Higgins claimed this Josquin-movement has more political meaning beyond the musicological purpose in her article “The Apotheosis of Josquin des Prez and Other Mythologies of Musical Genius”. Higgins was obsessed with any possible conspiracy behind the Josquin apotheosis. Basically, she did not agree that Josquin is superior than every composer in Renaissance and she blamed Lowinsky for getting his own reputation by apotheosizing Josquin. After the Josquin-conference held in 1971, the genius character of Josquin has been established by Lowinsky and his colleagues, which Higgins found it was very sudden and abrupt, considering the...
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...Matona mia cara Orlande de Lassus Matona, mia cara, is a song during the Renaissance by Orlande de Lassus. Matona mia cara is a polyphonic madrigal where two or more different melodic lines are combined, which distributes melodic interest among all the parts. Matona, mia cara is an example of an imitation which is one method that composers use to give unity and shape to the texture. The song starts with a female which is a mezzo-soprano and at the same time there is a bass male singer. This song is of strophic form while the music within the stanza offers contrast the repetition also binds the song together. I would describe the tempo of the song as moderato. The song never really speeds up or slows down, with the ending being a very strong cadence. This is actually quite a dirty song when translated, when translated from the original translation to English the song goes as follows: “My dear Lady, I'd love to sing a song below your window. I'm a lancer, and a good lad. Please listen to me, for I sing well, and I love you greatly, as a Greek does his capon. When I go hunting, hunting with a falcon, I'll bring you woodcocks as fat as a kidney. Though I do not know so many elegant phases, and know nothing of Petrarch, or the fountain of Helicon, if you'll have me, I'm no laggard; I'll make love to you all night long thrusting like a ram.” This song contains what I believe 4 different voices as instrumentation, there are not any other instruments. I really enjoyed listening...
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...Josquin des Prez is regarded as one of the finest and most influential composers in the history of Western music. His level of writing, gave the Renaissance period a new level. Josquin des Prez was born around the year 1440 and dying in 1498, at 58 years old. Although, recent scholars indicates that he was born around 1450, before it was even recorded. Josquin des Prez is simply called Josquin, however he is also called in different names, pronounciation, in different countries. Study also indicates that Josquin des Prez didn't go to Italy until the early 1480's. Josquin's birth place is County of Hainaut, Belgium; although, they aren't possistive, as Josquin is considered a legal Frenchman. Josquin's ethnicity is French, a famous composer during the Renaissance. Also, there are a lot of unclear information about Josquin's life....
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...The Renaissance The actual meaning of the word Renaissance is “rebirth.” This idea of rebirth definitely applies to the music of this period. The Renaissance came towards the end of the Middle Ages and spanned from 1400 to 1600. A central characteristic was the rebirth of humanism, which is a way of focusing the importance of human beings, their nature, and their place in the universe. During the Renaissance vocal music was more important than instrumental music, and composers during that period wrote music to enhance the meaning and emotion of the text. (Source: www.thinkquest.org) Renaissance composers often used word painting, a musical representation of specific human feelings of love,hate,fear etc Word painting was used in the madrigal, which is a piece that matches the word of the song with a musical setting.For example if the text had words like “rising,” “flying,” or “soaring” then the music would be fast upward scales. (Source: Jeremy Yudkin “Understanding Music”) The most famous composer that wrote such madrigals was Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. Palestrina, according to most Renaissance scholars, was a master composer. He started out in 1554 performing Masses and sang in the Cappella Sistina. (Source: w3.rz-berlin.mpg) He was so famous that he was actually asked to rewrite the church’s main plainchant books, but had to follow the Council of Trent’s guidelines. His most famous Mass, Missa Papae Marcelli...
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...The Misattributions of Josquin 10/16/2015 Ashley Sullivan There are many reasons to account for Josquin’s reputation as the finest composer of his time. He was one of the first composers to benefit from print culture. Printing gave Josquin the ability to achieve recognition that was previously denied from composers whose work was distributed only in manuscript, which was really expensive. In addition, Josquin’s unique style, which would have been considered arrogant in the era before his time, was instead praised due to the evolving movements of the Renaissance. These movements, including humanism and Protestantism both valued individualism which allowed Josquin to flourish with his distinctive and innovative style. Although he is so greatly admired, many of his works have been proven not to be authentic and misattributed. In the New Grove catalogue of Josquin’s works, out of 315 compositions 136 are thought to be misattributed to him. This has been a central problem in the authenticity and chronology of Josquin’s output and career. In this paper, I will try to bring light to certain errors in the documentation of Josquin’s career that have been assumed to be a part of his life which have caused confusion not only in his biography but also in his career. In order to accomplish this I will 1) Discuss Josquin’s background of his life and career; 2) Examine why Josquin is so popular and widely revered and how that affected the documentation of his life; 3) Explore one of...
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