Claudio Monteverdi and the madrigal From the fourteenth century onwards, Italy saw the successive appearance of two forms of madrigal: the first lasted only a century (from 1320 to 1420 approximately), and the second was born in the sixteenth century (around 1520). A poetic and vocal genre, mainly secular...
Pierre Sandrin, born Pierre Regnault, was a French Renaissance composer. He was a famous composer in his time. He was in the service of François I, Henri II and Hippolyte d’Este around 1550-1560, and Hippolyte d’Este around 1550-1560. He is the author of fifty songs for four voices, on...
Jacob Obrecht (* 1457 or 1458 in Ghent/Belgium; † shortly before 1 August 1505 in Ferrara/Italy) was a Franco-Flemish composer, singer and cleric of the Renaissance. He was the only child of the Ghent city trumpeter Willem (Guillermus) Hobrecht (1430/35 – 22 November 1488). The approximate date of birth...
Jehan Chardavoine (baptized on 2 February 1538 at Beaufort-en-Vallée, Anjou – died c. 1580) was a French Renaissance composer mostly active in Paris. He was one of the first known editors of popular chansons, and the author of “the only volume of monodic songs from the 16th century that...
Robert Ballard (* about 1575 in Paris (?); † after 1650) was a French lutenist and composer. He was the son of the publisher Robert Ballard Senior (c.1527–1588), the head of the well-known music publishers “Le Roy & Ballard”, founded in 1551 with cousin Adrian Le Roy (a notable...
Antoine Boësset, Sieur de Villedieu, was a French composer born in Blois, baptised on 24 February 1587 and died in Paris on 8 December 1643. He dominated musical life at the French court during the first half of the 17th century. He married in 1613 Jeanne Guédron , daughter...
Pierre Guédron (also Pierre Guesdron; * about 1570 in Châteaudun; † after 1620 in Paris) was a French singer and composer. He was one of the innovators of French music in the early 17th century and one of the first creators of a dramatically oriented ballet. Pierre Guédron’s career...
Josquin Desprez also Josquin des Préz, Jossequin Lebloitte or Latinized Josquinus Pratensis, (* between 1450 and 1455 in the surroundings of Saint-Quentin; † August 27, 1521 in Condé-sur-l’Escaut, France) was a Franco-Flemish composer and singer of the Renaissance, who mastered all the compositional techniques of the early Renaissance, was...
Guillaume Dufay also Du Fay and Du Fayt, (* shortly before 1400 in or with Cambrai ; † 27. November 1474 in Cambrai) was a Franco-Flemish composer, singer and music theorist of the early Renaissance. Of the composers of this Burgundian (“Franco-Flemish”) school, he was probably the most important...
