Jean Escatefer dit Cousin (before 1425 – after 1474) was a French or
Flemish
Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium ...
singer and composer of the
Burgundian School and a member of the royal chapel from about 1461.
Life and career
Jean Cousin served with
Johannes Ockeghem
Johannes Ockeghem ( – 6 February 1497) was a Franco-Flemish composer and singer of early Renaissance music. Ockeghem was the most influential European composer in the period between Guillaume Du Fay and Josquin des Prez, and he was—with ...
and eleven other singers in the chapel of
Charles I, Duke of Bourbon
Charles de Bourbon (1401 – 4 December 1456) was the oldest son of John I, Duke of Bourbon and Marie, Duchess of Auvergne.
Biography
Charles was Count of Clermont-en-Beauvaisis from 1424, and Duke of Bourbon and Auvergne from 1434 to his dea ...
from 1446 to 1448 at his chapel in
Moulins. Between 1448 and 1461, Cousin was employed in the orchestra at the French court, and perhaps as early as 1452, as Ockeghem at this time became an employee of the French king. It was not until 1461, however, that Cousin is recorded as a member of the court orchestra. At the funeral of
Charles VII, he was given a robe.
King Louis XI asked the
Pope
The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...
for Ockeghem, Cousin and other members of the royal chapel to receive three
benefices, which the Pope provided in his Bull of December 5, 1463. Until at least 1474, Cousin served as a singer and priest of the French king, and by 1473 he had reached third place in the hierarchy of the orchestra. It is unclear when his employment was ended due to loss of the court orchestra bills for the period after 1474.
Cousin was recorded as taking part in the
Tours
Tours ( , ) is one of the largest cities in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the prefecture of the department of Indre-et-Loire. The commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabitants as of 2018 while the population of the whole metr ...
city election assemblies in 1463-1464.
Works
Of Cousin's works, only the ''Missa tubae'' has survived. ''Missa Nigra sum'' mentioned in 1473 by
Johannes Tinctoris seems to be lost.
Further reading
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References
External links
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15th-century Franco-Flemish composers
Date of birth unknown
Date of death unknown
French classical composers
French male classical composers
Year of birth uncertain
Burgundian school composers
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