Josquin de Prez in the Eyes of His Peers-Essay Response

The best part about this source reading was the description of Josquin’s interactions with Louis XII, the French King.  The first story that was described was Josquin’s response to not getting the payment promised for his work.  Josquin allegedly responded with a composition based on Psalm “Remember thy word unto thy servant”.  The composition was so wonderful that it was said to have brought shame onto the king and he then paid Josquin what was promised.  It is said that Josquin immediately composed another Psalm, “Thou has dealt well with thy servant, O Lord.”  I could not tell whether this story is known to be a true story or if it could possibly be a legend, but it was a great story and a great example of how music can be used to communicate all types of ideas and feelings, even in a very practical way.

The second story about Lois XII was even better and more humorous.  I liked how the author described the king as having an “inadequate voice”.  But he asked Josquin to compose a song in which he (the king) could sing a part.  This was apparently quite a challenge because the king was known to be “entirely ignorant of music”.  But josquin was able to solve this problem by composing a 4 part song with the upper 2 voices being very light so that the king’s voice would not be drowned out. He also gave the king a part with one continuous tone in the alto range.  On top of that, Josquin arranged the bass so that it would be supporting the King at various intervals at the octave.  This was done so that the king would not “waver in pitch.”  I found this story very amusing and thought that the solution was brilliant.  This is a problem that many composers and musicians face even today.  Sometimes situations arise when someone who is “entirely ignorant of music” wants to participate, and this person’s feelings are more important than protecting the music, but sometimes creative solutions can be supplied that provide the person with the joy of participating while still protecting the integrity of the music.  J  Some things that come to mind are, turning the microphone down or off or having a better musician double the part. 

There were other interesting points in this source reading.  The author described Josquin as a man of great talent and brilliance but made the criticism that he sometimes lacked “proper measure and a judgment based on knowledge” so that in certain places in his songs where he did not “fully restrain the impetuosity of a lively talent”.  I don’t know if this was an accurate criticism or not or if it is similar to the criticism of the Mozart in the movie “Amadeus” when he was told that there were “too many notes”.  In that case they were clearly jealous or not able to understand the music, but in some cases, musicians do have this problem.  I have noticed this lack of restraint the most in musicians that have amazing improvisation skills.  The musicians are sometimes tempted to overdo it a bit when the music would be more effective if they exercised some restraint.  This is also true of guitarists who like to show off with 10 minute guitar solos.

The other point that I thought was interesting was the description of Josquin as a teacher by one of his students.  The student described him as being able to make perfect musicians in a short time without writing out musical exercises or giving “lengthy and frivolous instructions”.  He also did not give his students assignments which he did not feel they were capable of doing well.  This was particularly interesting to me since I am a piano teacher.  I hope that I am not guilty of giving “lengthy and frivolous instructions”.  

"Gaude Virgo, Mater Christi" Josquin des Prez

This is a sacred motet with latin text.  The English translation is below:

Gaude, virgo mater Christi

"Rejoice, virgin mother of Christ who hast conceived by ear, with Gabriel as messenger.
 Rejoice, for full of God thou gavest birth without pain, with the lily of purity.
 Rejoice, for the resurrection of thy Son now shines, whose death thou mourned,
Rejoice, as Christ ascends, and, in thy sight, is carried into heaven by his own strength.
 Rejoice, thou who riseth after him and to whom great honor is due in the palace of heaven,
Where the fruit of thy womb is granted us, through thee, to enjoy in eternal rejoicing. Alleluia."

This was a 4 voice motet with women singing the top parts and males sing the bottom parts.  I enjoyed the mixture of male and female voices.  One feature that I noticed is that the cadences were kind of slipped in and the piece kept moving along with a sense of forward motion.

There was a lot of imitation that occured at the point of unison. I liked  that I could hear a sense of choral build up during the piece, something I had not preciously heard in earlier music, and it had a very nice cadence at the end.

Ave Maria-Josquin des Prez

This was a very beautiful, peaceful song.  The recording that I listened to had a female voice and several male voices. I found the combination of voices to fit really well. The style of this piece was a sacred motet.  The song was very canonical with the imitation initially occurring at the octave.  The bass imitation occurred down a fifth.

The song had a special feature where there were several duets occurring in the song with two voices at a time.  I really enjoyed this feature and thought it added a lot of interest to the piece.

This song was very syllabic with only a few melismas.

The English translation is below.  I noticed it is the typical "Hail Mary" prayer, still prayed by Roman Catholics today.

Ave Maria

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee;
blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus [Christ].
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death. Amen

El Grillo-Josquin des Prez

All versions of this song that I listened to were sung in Italian.  The English translation is below.

El Grillo

The cricket is a good singer 

He can sing very long 

He sings all the time.

But he isn't like the other birds.

If they've sung a little bit 

They go somewhere else 

The cricket remains where he is 

When the heat is very fierce 

Then he sings only for love

I love this song.  I have heard it a number of times and it makes me laugh every time.  It is a very fast paced, rhythmic song, with a jovial and lively feeling. The whole tone is playful and light.  The texture was mostly homophomic and it had a lot of chordal movement with the top voice taking the melody.

Some scholars believe this may be a satirical piece used as a reminder to his patron Galeazzo Sforza that  musicians need to be paid. Some also believe that Josquin may be punning on the name of a fellow musician (Frillo) by calling him a cricket (Grillo).

Guillaume Dufay - Nuper rosarum flores

recording

This song was written for the consecration of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence. It was consecrated under the direction of Pope Eugenius IV on March 25, 1436.

The composer is Guillame Dufay,a Franco-Flemish composer of the early Renaissance.  This is a very beautiful piece.  A unique feature of this performance is that in the middle an instrument (maybe a horn) begins playing the bass part.

I enjoyed this piece very much.

Bibliography

Jeremy S. Begbie, S. R. (Ed.). (2011). Resonant Witness: Conversations Between Music and Theology. Cambridge: Eerdmans.

This is a great book with some great quotes by Martin Luther about music.  It also discusses his views on music and how it can be used to communicate the word of God.  There was also a discussion about Luthers"s philosophy of music as a gift of creation, a gift that was created to appeal to our senses.

Luther, M. (2002;). An Invitation to the Writings of Martin Luther. (S. B. John F.Thornton, Ed.) New York, New York: Random House.

This is a good source because it has an entire chapter devoted to all of Luther's hymns that includes text and notation.  It also has some insights into the mind of Martin Luther, such as his preoccupation with the devil and how this theme made it into some of his hymns.

Marius, R. (1999). Martin Luther: The Christian Between God and Death . Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

This book is very biographical and it also contains many discussions about the philosophy of Martin Luther.  It will be very helpful as I try to show how the life experiences of Luther contributed largely to his compositions.

Martin, M. (2004). Martin Luther. London: Viking Penguin.

This book is also very biographical and contains some great quotes by Luther.

Oettinger, R. (2003). Thomas Murner, Michael Stifel, and songs as polemic in the early reformation. Journal of Musicological Research , 22:1-2, 45-100.

This is a journal article that is actually a review of a book that I wasn't able to get a hold of, but the article itself contains a lot of information about how music was used in the Reformation.  It was not specifically about Luther, but it had a lot of information and discussion about him.

Saliers, D. (2007). Music and Theology. Nashville: Abingdon.

This contained quotes from Martin Luther about how music and theology are linked and how music should be used to communicate good theology,

Tarry, J. E. (1973). Music in the Educational Philosophy of Martin Luther. Journal of Research in Music Education , 355-365.

This is a journal article with information about Luther's philosophy of music.

Guillaume Dufay: Missa l'Homme Armé 1. Kyrie

recording

I found this description about this particular piece and found it very interesting.

"L'Homme Arme was a monophonic melody with political and satirical strains. Dufay made one of the first versions of it in a polyphonic setting in his Missa L’Homme Arme. The beginning of the cycle is designed so that, in the absence of instrumental accompaniment, the cantus firmus is virtually indistinguishable until near the end of the Gloria. The tenor sings the cantus firmus, overlapped by the bass line and other voices that conceal the melody of L'Homme Arme. If this were played by instrumentalists, rather than vocalists, the tone quality of the varying instruments would serve to open up all the parts to the ear, thus illuminating the cantus firmus as well. This hidden quality of Missa L’Homme Arme suggests the playfulness of Dufay with his compositions."

This text of this piece did not seem to be important at all.  I could definitely imagine it played on an organ or with an orchestra.  I liked the cadence at the end.