Page 81 - ESSENTIAL LISTENING TO MUSIC

suggests that Josquin had a tempera- mental, egotistical personality, one typ- ical of many artists of the Renaissance. He would fly into a rage when singers tampered with his music; he composed only when he, not his patron, wished; and he demanded a salary twice that of composers only slightly less gifted. Yet Josquin’s contemporaries recognized his genius. Martin Luther said of him: “Josquin is master of the notes, which must express what he desires; other composers can do only what the notes dictate.” And Florentine humanist Co- simo Bartoli compared him to the great Michelangelo (1475–1564):
Josquin may be said to have been a prodigy of nature, as our Michelangelo Buonarroti has been in architecture, painting, and sculpture; for just as there has not yet been anyone who in his com- positions approaches Josquin, so Michelangelo, among those ac- tive in his arts, is still alone and without a peer. Both Josquin and Michelangelo have opened the eyes of all those who delight in these arts or are to delight in them in the future.
Josquin composed in all of the mu-
sical genres of his day—secular as well
as sacred—but he excelled in writing motets. The Renaissance motet is a com- position for a polyphonic choir, setting a Latin text on a sacred subject, and in- tended to be sung either at a religious service in a church or in private devotion at home. While composers of the Renaissance continued to set the prescribed text of the Mass, they increasingly turned to the more colorful, dramatic texts in the Old Testament of the Bible—specifically, in the expressive Psalms and the mournful Lamentations. A vivid text cried out for an equally vivid musical set- ting, allowing the composer to fulfill a mandate of Renaissance humanism: use music to heighten the meaning of the word.
Josquin’s motet Ave Maria (Hail Mary; c. 1485; see Listening Cue) honors the Virgin Mary and employs the standard four voice parts: soprano, alto, tenor, and bass (S, A, T, and B in Example 4.3). As the motet unfolds, the listener hears the voices enter in succession with the same musical motive. This process is called imitation, a polyphonic procedure whereby one or more voices duplicate in turn the notes of a melody.
FiguRE 4.12
Interior of the Sistine Chapel. The high altar and Michelangelo’s Last Judgment are at the far end; the balcony for the singers, including Josquin Desprez, at the lower right. Josquin carved his name on the door to this balcony and the graffito remains there to this day.
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