DES  PR$S, JOSQUIN (c . 1445–1521), also called DEPRES or DESPREZ, and by a latinized

form of his name, JODOCUS PRATENSIS Or A PRATO, French musical composer, was born, probably in Conde in the Hennegau, about 1445 . He was a pupil of Ockenheim, and himself one of the most learned musicians of his time . In spite of his great fame, the accounts of his life are vague and the dates contradictory . Fetis contributed greatly towards elucidating the doubtful points in his Biographie universelle . In his early youth Josquin seems to have been a member of the choir of the collegiate church at St Quentin; when his voice changed he went (about 1455) to Ockenheim to take lessons in counterpoint; afterwards he again lived at his birth-place for some years, till Pope Sixtus IV. invited him to Rome to teach his art to the musicians of Italy, where musical know-ledge at that time was at a low ebb . In Rome Des Pres lived till the death of his protector (1484), and it was there that many of his works were written . His reputation grew rapidly, and he was considered by his contemporaries to be the greatest master of his age . Luther, who was a good judge, is credited with the saying that " other musicians do with notes what they can, Josquin what he likes . " The composer's journey to Rome marks in a manner the transference of the art from its Gallo-Belgian birthplace to Italy, which for the next two centuries remained the centre of the musical world . To Des Pres and his pupils Arcadelt, Mouton and others, much that is characteristic in modern music owes its rise, particularly in their influence upon Italian developments under Palestrina . After leaving Rome Des Plies went for a time to Ferrara, where the duke Hercules I. offered him a home; but before long he accepted an invitation of King Louis XII. of France to become the chief singer of the royal chapel .

According to another

account, he was for a time at least in the service of the emperor Maximilian I . The date of his death has by some writers been placed as early as 1501 . But this is sufficiently disproved by the fact of one of his finest compositions, A Dirge (Deploration) for Five Voices, being written to commemorate the death of his master Ockenheim, which took place after 1512 . The real date of Josquin's decease has since been settled as the 27th of August 1521 . He was at that time a canon of the cathedral of Conde (see Victor Delzant's Sepultures de Flandre, No . 118) . The most complete list of his compositions—consisting of masses, motets, psalms and other pieces of sacred music—will be found in Fetis . The largest collection of his MS. works, containing no less than twenty masses, is in the possession of the papal chapel in Rome . In his lifetime Des Pres was honoured as an eminent composer, and the musicians of the 16th century are loud in his praise . During the 17th and 18th centuries his value was ignored, nor does his work appear in the collections of Martini and Paolucci . Burney was the first to recover him from oblivion, and Forkel continued the task of rehabilitation . Ambros furnishes the most exhaustive account of his achievements .

An admirable account of Josquin's art, from the rare point of view of a modern critic who knows how to allow for modern difficulties, will be found in the

article " Josquin," in Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, new ed. vol. ii . The Repertoire des chanteurs de St Gervais contains an excellent modern edition of Josquin's Miserere .