Thursday, April 26, 2012

Josquin des Prez and Yuja Wang?

I get a lot of pleasure out of writing this blog, but some things puzzle me. For example, after we exclude my post on "Guitar Wars" which got an Instalaunch (meaning a link from the Blogfather, Glenn Reynolds), the two most popular posts are the one on pop sensibilities with the photo of Yuja Wang striding onstage in a very brief miniskirt followed by my post on Josquin des Prez. Now the Yuja Wang I can understand, but it is the Josquin des Prez that has me puzzled. That post has been the number one for traffic all this week and today as well.

I would love to know what keeps attracting viewers to this months-old post, but no-one has left a comment. Why not the two posts that I wrote just before on the two "Bills": Guillaume de Machaut or Guillaume Dufay? Is it that people are really more interested in Josquin? That's a real possibility. Well, for whatever the reason, here are a couple of other pieces by Josquin for your listening enjoyment. The first is "Mille Regretz" (A Thousand Regrets), which is a French chanson:


I have performed this piece many times in the setting by Luys de Narvaez (fl. 1526–49), the Spanish vihuelist:




As you can hear, this is a transcription of all the parts with ornaments to fill out the long notes that would die away on the vihuela or guitar. Here is another chanson: Adieu mes amours:



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