Josquin des Prez

C. 1450-1521
Earliest Printed Music
1450: First printing press by Gutenberg
Movable type:
Earliest Printed Music
First printed music: chants in 1465

Ottaviano Pettruci
First collection of polyphonic music:  Harmonice Musices Odhecaton
In part books
Triple inscription: staff, notes, text
1502
Earliest Printed Music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FL8cAROIMc
Reading from Part Books

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao6wrmrnYEs
First Printed Music Book by a Single Composer
Masses by Josquin (1502)
Heinrich Isaac: 120 ducats

Josquin: 200 ducats

Works
• 110 secular works are ascribed to Josquin, we can only confirm about
a ¼ of them. 28 survive without text and 12 of them are believed to
be written for instruments.
• 18 Masses
• 171 motets are ascribed to Josquin, we can only confirm 62.
Motets are now polyphonic religious songs in Latin, with one text,
derived from a certain earlier source.
Cantus prius factus
• A term first used by Franco of Cologne
• Origin: sacred monophonic chants, sacred polyphonic music, secular
monophonic songs, secular polyphonic songs.
• Use: across the board.
• Treatment: from a single use in a single voice to a continuous use in
all voices.
 Binchois: Comme femme desconfortée

Josquin: Stabat mater

Soggetto Ostinato – scala musicalis
• Soggetto Ostinato: a melody that continually repeats.
• Sometimes inspired by the musical scale and named after the
solmization syllables.
• Uses the melody’s aptitude to “ascend” or “descend” to symbolize
upward motion and downward motion.
• Soggetto cavato: “carved out of the vowels of the words”
Missa La sol fa re mi (226 times!)
Gaude virgo
re ut re ut re fa mi re
Classification of masses according to cantus
prius factus technique
• Technique != origin
• The classification only applies to masses
• Cantus firmus mass: based on a monophonic melody, regardless of
origin.
• Paraphrase mass: based on a paraphrase on a monophonic melody.
• Imitation / Parody mass: based on several voices from a polyphonic
piece.
Number Symbolism

Josquin’s Nymphes des bois Josquin’s Absolve, quesumus, domine

Point of Imitation
• Between two voices, between two pairs of voices, between all voices.
• At the octave, at the fifth.
Musical effect → Compositional principal
Point of Imitation != Canon
Canon: Horizontal thinking
Point of Imitation: Vertical thinking
Ave Maria . . . Virgo Serena
• The earliest datable piece by Josquin.
• The form of the music follows the form of the poem with five
strophes, that refer to the following five joys of Mary: her conception
and nativity, the annunciation of the angel Gabriel, her purification
and her assumption.
• The declamation of the text is followed in the music.
• Variety of textures.
End of sequence Beginning of stanza I
Missa Pange lingua
• One of the latest pieces by Josquin, written after 1515.
• Published only after his death.
• Bach has his own copy of it.
• Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus dei – name?
• Paraphrase mass
• Imitation at the beginning of every movement and almost every sub-
movement.
• Alternates between 4 voices and duets.
Sanctus: soggetto ostinato
Sanctus: soggetto ostinato?
00:51 – Pleni sunt Caeli
03:49 - Benedictus
For Next Time
I am going to assume that you know what the reformation and counter-reformation is.

Suggested resources

Norton: 213-229.

Reformation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1o8oIELbNxE&t=726s

Counter-Reformation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy_M4pDjafo&t=390s
Key take-aways
• Music printing, Petrucci
• Part books
• Josquin – basic biographical facts, types of works
• Cantus prius factus and the classification of masses
• Soggetto cavato, soggetto ostinato
• Number symbolism Reading Material on Josquin’s
• Point of imitation Characteristics and the mass:

• Ut Phoebi Chapter by Dennis Shrock on Moodle

• Ave Maria . . . virgo serena
• Missa Pange lingua