Adieu mes amours was a popular secular

polyphonic Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice ( monophony) or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords ...

chanson A (, ; , ) is generally any Lyrics, lyric-driven French song. The term is most commonly used in English to refer either to the secular polyphonic French songs of late medieval music, medieval and Renaissance music or to a specific style of ...

of the late 15th century. Many settings of this tune are in fact based on the c. 1480 setting by

Josquin des Prez Josquin Lebloitte dit des Prez ( – 27 August 1521) was a composer of High Renaissance music, who is variously described as French or Franco-Flemish. Considered one of the greatest composers of the Renaissance, he was a central figure of the ...

, in which the lower two voices are in quasi-canon, and the upper two voices are freer. The tune itself is in a simple ABA' form. It appeared in many

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has ...

s and prints from many countries, including in Ottaviano Petrucci's Odhecaton A.

Josquin's version

Josquin's chanson was used as the basis for works by a number of other composers, including a version by Heinrich Isaac, and the five-voice chanson "Vous seulement" by Simon Moreau. The setting by

Jean Mouton Jean Mouton (c. 1459 – 30 October 1522) was a French composer of the Renaissance music, Renaissance. He was famous both for his motets, which are among the most refined of the time, and for being the teacher of Adrian Willaert, one of the f ...

seems to be unrelated to the setting by Josquin. Although "Adieu mes amours" was originally a secular chanson, it was used in a number of mass settings such as, ''Missa "Adieu mes amours"'' which uses both

parody A parody is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satire, satirical or irony, ironic imitation. Often its subject is an Originality, original work or some aspect of it (theme/content, author, style, e ...

and

cantus firmus In music, a ''cantus firmus'' ("fixed melody") is a pre-existing melody forming the basis of a polyphonic composition. The plural of this Latin term is , although the corrupt form ''canti firmi'' (resulting from the grammatically incorrect trea ...

compositional techniques by Francesco de Layolle, and another ''Missa "Adieu mes amours"'' by

Jacob Obrecht Jacob Obrecht (also Hobrecht; 1457/8

. The first attribution to Josquin of this chanson is in the '' Casanatense chansonnier'' of around 1480, which was probably put together to celebrate the betrothal of Isabella d'Este to Francesco Gonzaga. The chansonnier includes works by many of the great composers of the period, including

Johannes Ockeghem Johannes Ockeghem ( – 6 February 1497) was a Franco-Flemish composer and singer of early Renaissance music. Ockeghem was a significant European composer in the period between Guillaume Du Fay and Josquin des Prez, and he was—with his colle ...

, Johannes Martini and Alexander Agricola. It included six chansons attributed to Josquin, each with a different spelling of his name, suggesting that the copyist was not aware of Josquin prior to this, lessening the likelihood that the chanson was mistakenly attributed to Josquin. An issue in the performance practice of Josquin's setting of this chanson is whether it was a vocal piece or an instrumental piece. Although there is underlay of the text in the Florence 2794 manuscript, the music does not fit well with the rondeau refrain of the original. At least ten other contemporary manuscripts include only the

incipit The incipit ( ) of a text is the first few words of the text, employed as an identifying label. In a musical composition, an incipit is an initial sequence of Musical note, notes, having the same purpose. The word ''incipit'' comes from Latin an ...

and no other text.Sherr, pg. 356

References

Citations

Sources

* * Sherr, Richard, ed. ''The Josquin Companion''. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2000. . "Chansons for Three and Four Voices" by Louise Litterick.

External links

* {{Josquin des Prez Compositions by Josquin des Prez Renaissance music Renaissance chansons