Josquin des Prez
Polyphony of beauty and of voice
Without obscuring instrumental sound
Made churches of the Renaissance rejoice
And made Josquin des Prez’s chansons bound
From palaces to houses of the whores.
But where is Josquin now? He carved his name
Among the hundreds by the Sistine doors;
The painting of him’s disappeared. What fame
His music once enjoyed is not quite dead:
Songs fill up tiny corners of the Web
(“El Grillo” and bassoons are there instead
Of Josquin himself). Thus does renown ebb.
“Plus nul regretz” he wrote, a stoic song
That Piaf might have chanted. They are wrong.