Josquin des Prez and His Musical Legacy

An Introductory Guide

Willem Elders

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Monograph - paperback

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A comprehensive guide for early music lovers and performers
Josquin des Prez and His Musical Legacy is the most up-to-date contribution to the research on one of the most important and internationally famous composers of the Renaissance. This monograph offers factual information on the composer as well as insights into his 16th-century and modern reception, a survey of the sources of his music, and a discussion of the thorny issue of authorship. Willem Elders, one of the most distinguished scholars of Josquin's music, also discusses the influence of Gregorian chant as a source of inspiration and explains the various aspects of Josquin's symbolic language. Each individual work (including some of those in the old Josquin edition now considered inauthentic) receives a short discussion of relevant contextual aspects and interesting musical features. Ranges and lengths are given for each work. The style is adapted to the professional musicologist as well as to the 'music lover' and performer.
Includes 45 figures and 90 musical examples 

This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content).

Preface
Bibliographical abbreviations and manuscript sigla

Part I Josquin and his cultural environment

1 -; Biography
Josquin's personality
Josquin's patrons
Portraits

2 -; Josquin in the eyes of his admirers
Writers
Poets
Music theorists
Music publishers
Music historians
Composers

3 -; The sources of Josquin's music
Manuscripts
Printed editions
Instrumental arrangements
Music theory treatises

4 -; Issues of authenticity and chronology
Doubtful works
Chronology

5 -; Gregorian chant as a source of inspiration

6 -; Aspects of Josquin's symbolic language
Cantus prius factus
Soggetto ostinato

Special forms of notation
Mode and musica ficta
Canon
Number symbolism

Part II Josquin's musical legacy

7 -; Masses and Mass movements
Masses based on Gregorian chants
Masses based on secular monophonic songs
Masses based on secular polyphonic songs
Mass based on a sacred polyphonic song
Masses based on solmisation themes
Canonic Masses
Single Mass movements

8 -; Motets
Motets on texts from the Old Testament
a) Genesis, Samuel, Job, Ecclesiasticus, The Song of Songs
b) The psalms
Motets on texts from the New Testament
Motets on non-biblical texts in honour of Jesus Christ
Motets on non-biblical texts in honour of the Virgin Mary
. Antiphons
. Sequences
. Hymns
. The Proper of the Mass
. Books of Hours
. Contemporaneous poems
. Texts of unknown origin
Motets on other non-biblical texts

9 -; Secular works
Secular works for three and four voices
. Chansons from the courtly song tradition
. Chansons from the folk song tradition
. The Virgil Motets
. The Frottole
.
Secular works with reconstructed texts
. Chansons with no known text
Secular works for five and six voices
. Chansons from the courtly song tradition
. Chansons from the folk song tradition
Instrumental works

Epilogue

Bibliography

Appendix A New Josquin Edition:
summary of volumes and editors

Appendix B List of authentic and doubtful works
by Josquin

Index of names

Format: Monograph - paperback

Size: 234 × 156 × 15 mm

247 pages

ISBN: 9789462702851

Publication: March 22, 2021

Languages: English

Stock item number: 140906

Willem Elders is Professor Emeritusof Music History before 1600 at Utrecht University and General Editor of the New Josquin Edition.


There are few scholars better qualified to write an introductory guide to the life and music of Josquin des Prez (ca. 1450-;1521) than Willem Elders. In addition to his many publications on Josquin, Elders, as general editor of the New Josquin Edition (hereafter NJE ), has been intimately involved in the minute details of producing the most recent editions of the music. He has an unsurpassed control of the sources and problems associated with this great composer of the Renaissance. He states: 'This book, the result of an interest in Josquin des Prez spanning over forty years, seeks to bring the reader closer to the composer, and to provide an insight into his musical legacy' (ii). That goal is largely realized, and readers who do not have the time to delve into David Fallows's massive study of Josquin will be well served by this short book, divided into two parts, 'Josquin and His Cultural Environment' and 'Josquin's Musical Legacy', followed by an epilogue, a short bibliography, two appendixes, and an index of names.
RICHARD SHERR, Smith College, Renaissance Quarterly 67.2


 

Dit boek behoort elke vorser die zich wil verdiepen in onder meer de muziek van Josquin des Prez te lezen en zich in te prenten.
Ludwig Van Mechelen, Klassiek Centraal, 04/01/14 >


 

'This book is indispensable in the libraries of musicologists, music lovers and musicians and they should keep it close at hand! With every performance or listening to a work of Josquin they will want to spontaneously grab this publication.'
Ignace Bossuyt, Professor Emeritus in Musicology, University of Leuven