Josquin Des Prez

Josquin des Prez was the most admired composer in Europe around 1500, though the documents of his life are thin. Born around 1450 in the French-Flemish borderlands, he spent years singing and composing at courts and chapels in France and Italy, including the papal chapel in Rome, where a name scratched into the wall of the singers' gallery, JOSQUINJ, is believed to be his own graffiti. He ended his days as a church provost in Condé-sur-l'Escaut, dying in 1521.

His specialty was the mass, a setting of the church service for unaccompanied voices, in which several vocal lines weave around each other while somehow staying perfectly clear. He was among the first composers whose fame was spread by the new technology of music printing, and Martin Luther praised him as the master of the notes, who made them do as he wished.

Start with the Missa Pange lingua, late Josquin and a good first taste of Renaissance choral sound.