Josquin was the greatest composer of the high Renaissance, the most varied in invention and the most profound in expression. Much of his music cannot be dated. Generally, however, his first period (up to circa 1485) is characterized by abstract, melismatic (many notes to one syllable) counterpoint in the manner of Ockeghem and by tenuous relationships between words and music. The middle period (to circa 1505) saw the development and perfection of the technique of pervasive imitation based on word-generated motifs.
This style has been seen as a synthesis of two traditions: the northern polyphony of Dufay, Busnois and Ockeghem, in which he presumably had his earliest training, and the more chordal, harmonically orientated practice of Italy. In the final period the relationship between word and note becomes even closer and there is increasing emphasis on declamation and rhetorical expression within a style of the utmost economy.
Miserere was based of Girolamo Savonarola's 1498 apology to God for recanting, under torture, his prophetic visions of the destruction of the corrupt Roman Catholic Church.
Petite camusette - imitative polyphony
Miserere mei, deus "Have mercy on us" (Motet - 1504?)
II. Audi, Auditui Meo Dabis "Listen, Let Me Hear" (4:45)
Milli Regretz "A Thousand Regrets" (secular chanson) (vocal 2:00, instrumental 7:00)
A thousand regrets at deserting you
and leaving behind your loving face,
I feel so much sadness and such painful distress,
I feel so much sadness and such painful distress,
that it seems to me my days will soon dwindle away.
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