Reflected Glory – Josquin, light and fount of the 16th century Mass

*A live talk for the Thames Valley Early Music Forum*

This year, as we celebrate the 500th anniversary of Josquin’s death, the contradictions bound up in this figure become ever more glaring. He is the most famous composer of the early Renaissance, yet major parts of Josquin’s biography are shrouded in mystery and his work-list is hotly contested.

Yet for contemporaries and followers, as for us, his name was a guarantee of quality and his music utterly distinctive, fusing the medieval inheritance of gothic abstraction with the new emotional directness of humanism. His works were transmitted across Europe, setting the bar in every major genre: Mass, motet and chanson.

In this talk, David Allinson will focus on the ways in which contemporaries and successors used pieces by Josquin as the basis of beautiful Mass settings. He will look at the ways in which composers took Josquin’s material and reworked it into lovely, rhapsodic Masses.

He will feature, in particular, Févin’s Missa Ave Maria, Morales’s Missa Mille Regretz and Rore’s Missa Præter rerum seriem – all exceptionally beautiful responses to Josquin’s material, which we will also spend time enjoying.
David will try to explain why Josquin was such a dominating presence among C16th century musicians, and what it is about his music that is so exceptional. Links to the scores will be on your booking receipt and the Zoom link will be sent by email the day before the event.

Attendance is £5 (plus voluntary donation) and advance booking is essential, via https://www.tvemf.org/forthcoming-events