Celebrating the 500th anniversary of Josquin des Prez's death with a series of participatory events.

January 2021 – December 2021

Conductor Harold Rosenbaum cordially invites you to commemorate the legacy of Josquin des Prez by participating in the complete catalog of his works*.

The Franco-Flemish composer Josquin des Prez stands as a towering figure within Western music. His contemporaries considered him the greatest composer of his time. He composed instrumental and vocal, sacred and secular, Latin and vernacular works. Martin Luther himself called Josquin “the master of notes.” He was born in France but worked in the courts of Milan, Ferrara, and even the Vatican. He was the first composer to have a book of printed music dedicated to a single composer. Josquin also may very well have been the first “textbook” composer; fourteen music treatises during the 1500s included examples of his music, some even complete works, all of which serve as exemplars of compositional techniques and methods. His reputation? Internationally renown in his lifetime and posthumously. His works? Revered, emulated, and studied.

In commemoration of the 500th anniversary of Josquin’s death, Dr. Harold Rosenbaum has chosen to bring the complete choral output of the composer to you, but not in the way you might think. Instead of attending a series of concerts, you participate in the music making by singing and playing. You make this monumental project possible in the immaculate acoustic space of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church.

When: 14 Wednesday evenings between January and December, 2021 

Where: Trinity Lutheran Church of Manhattan, 164 West 100th Street (at Amsterdam Avenue), Manhattan

Tickets: $10 per evening (7:30 pm – 9 pm) 

Music at the door: $8; Download PDFs for free here.

Subscribe to 7 or more and save 20%

Subscribe to all 14 and save 25%

Ticket sales will start in late summer/early fall 2020.

More information including the schedule of works

Audience attendees also welcome

Performance information:

All performances will be at pitch 440.

Instruments:
– Bowed or plucked strings
– Early winds and early brass

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Many thanks to the following for their assistance with this project:

    Alexander Blachly - scores/editions
    William Kempster - scores
    Pastor Heidi Neumark - location
    Vincent Rone - program description and notes
    Sig Rosen - scores
    Richard Sherr - advisor 

* The difficulties in compiling a works list for Josquin cannot be overstated. Because of his immense prestige in the early sixteenth century, many scribes and publishers did not resist the temptation of attributing anonymous or otherwise spurious works to Josquin. (Source)

"The authenticity of many of the works over the centuries has been disputed on stylistic grounds or because of problems with sources, or both. After consulting with leading Josquin experts, I have decided that every work presented in our Josquin 21 project is indeed by the master himself." — Harold Rosenbaum