About the book

Clément Janequin: French Composer at the Dawn of Music Publishing (Boydell & Brewer, 2024) has chapters on: Beginnings; Bordeaux; Descriptive Chansons; National Attention; Angers; Chansons musicales; Du Chemin and the 28 Psalms of 1549; Paris, 1551-55; Prebends, Patrons, and the Commerce of Music Printing;  and Paris, 1556-58.

The book traces the life and works of Janequin from his birth around 1485 to his death in 1558. It reviews the documentary evidence, including at least one document not previously discussed in the literature, and refines a number of authenticity issues.  It also calls into question the traditional tri-partite chronology, and is frankly prescriptive about performance considerations, in which the role of Janequin as a provider of entertainment music is central.

It is designed to be used in conjunction with Clément Janequin: Chansons Polyphoniques (6 volumes, ed. Francois Lesure and A. Tillman Merritt, Éditions de l’Oiseaux Lyre 1965-71 and 1983) and with the transcriptions of Janequin’s sacred works provided on this website.

For information about ordering Clément Janequin: French Composer at the Dawn of Music Publishing click here.

 About the author

Rolf Norsen studied choral conducting with Olaf Christiansen, stage directing with Cosmos Catalano and musicology with Marc Honegger, William F. Prizer and Alejandro Planchart.  He is the author of several plays (in Norwegian), two opera librettos and I Manoscritti Musicali del Duomo di Castelfranco Veneto (1985). He lives in Nord Østerdal, Norway and Manoppello, Italy.