I am grateful to Bonnie Blackburn, John Milsom and Bernadette Nelson for generously commenting on earlier drafts of this text.Google Scholar

1 As in so many cases involving Josquin's name, this attribution should perhaps be treated with some caution: it occurs in only one of the many vocal sources of the piece, and this source – Susato's L'unziesme livre contenant vingt et neuf chansons amoureuses a quatre, 1549“ – is late. The piece bears the name ‘J. Lemaire’ in Attaingnant's Chansons musicales a quatre parties of 1533 (f. 11^v); Martin Picker and Daniel Heartz have suggested that this might be a reference not to the composer but to the author of the text, Jean Lemaire de Belges (Martin Picker, The Chanson Albums of Marguerite of Austria: MSS. 228 and 11239 of the Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique, Brussels: A Critical Edition and Commentary, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1965, 17, and Daniel Heartz, Pierre Attaingnant, Royal Printer of Music, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1969, 97), although Brian Jeffrey has expressed doubt concerning this attribution, pointing out that the poem is not associated with Jean Lemaire in any literary source (‘The Literary Texts of Josquin's Chansons’, Josquin des Prez: Proceedings of the International Josquin Festival-Conference, ed. Edward Lowinsky, London, New York and Toronto, 1976, 401–20 (p. 416)). It is perhaps worth recalling, however, that Josquin did set one ‘regretz’ text by Lemaire, Plus nulz regretz. Picker defends the attribution of Mille regretz to Josquin, on stylistic grounds, in ‘Josquin and Jean Lemaire: Four Chansons Re-examined’, Essays Presented to Myron P. dimore, ed. Sergio Bertelli and Gloria Ramakus (Florence, 1978), 447–56 (p. 452).Google Scholar

2 Mille regretz is placed first in the group of intabulations of French chansons in book 3. Narváez introduces it as follows (f. 40): ‘Comiençan las canciones Francesas y esta primera es una que llaman la cancion del Emperador del quarto tono de Jusquin’ (‘Here begin the French chansons, and this first chanson is one which they call the emperor's song, [and is] in the fourth tone, by Josquin‘).Google Scholar

3 The 1538 publication is dedicated to Francisco de los Cobos, secretary to Charles V. In 1548 Narváez was one of the musicians in the service of Charles's son, Prince Philip (later Philip II), being appointed to teach the choirboys.Google Scholar

4 An edition by Higinio Anglés can be found in Cristóbal de Morales: Opera omnia, Monumentos de la música española, 11 (Barcelona, 1952), i, 238–73.Google Scholar

5 Christophori Moralis Hyspalensis missarum liber primus (Rome: Valerio and Luigi Dorico, 1544).Google Scholar

6 On the other hand, Hermann Finck's declaration that Gombert was Josquin's pupil might, if true, supply more than adequate reason for Gombert's tribute. An edition of Gombert's Mille regretz is in Nicolai Gombert opera omnia, ed. Joseph Schmidt-Görg, Corpus mensurabilis musicae, 6 (n.p., 1975), xi, 160–3.Google Scholar

7 The number of surviving sources of the piece, including intabulations, is quite substantial but by no means exceptional. For a list, see Charles, Sydney Robinson, Josquin des Prez: A Guide to Research (New York, 1983), 43.Google Scholar

8 On the principal groups of chanson reworkings in the fifteenth century, sec Honey Meconi, Art-Song Reworkings: An Overview', Journal of the Royal Musical Association, 119 (1994), 1–42.Google Scholar

9 This work is misattributed to Crecquillon in one printed source (Missae cum quinque tum sex vocum, 1568’), leading to erroneous references to a Crecquillon Missa Mille regretz, most recently by Martin Picker in ‘Josquin and Jean Lemaire’, 451.Google Scholar

10 The piece opens with an imitative development of the initial superius motive of Mille regretz. see Silliman, A. Cutler, ‘“Responce” and “Replique” in Chansons Published by Tylman Susato, 1543–1550’, Revue belge de musicologie, 16 (1963), 30–42 (pp. 39–40 and Examples 15–16).Google Scholar

11 The avoidance of the term imitatio – whose application to Renaissance music is the subject of current debate – is deliberate: this article does not seek to address the larger issues surrounding musical borrowing in the-Renaissance and the associated terminology, but focuses instead on a single group of musical resemblances. For a recent discussion of some of these wider issues, see Meconi, Honey, ‘Does Imitatio Exist?’, The Journal of Musicology, 12 (1994), 152–78.Google Scholar

12 Such a borderline case is that of Johannes Lupi's Vous scavez bien, which – as Bonnie Blackburn has pointed out – ‘begins with a theme very similar to one in Josquin's Mille regretz’ (i.e. the opening of that chanson; see ‘Johannes Lupi’, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, London, 1980, xi, 334–5 (p. 335)). Dr Blackburn has also noted (in correspondence with the author) that the setting of Vous scavez bien by Cipriano de Rore is clearly related to Lupi's in its opening section. The resemblance between these openings and that of Mille regretz may not have been deliberate, and certainly there is no significant parallel between the poems which would have led to such a conscious allusion. Modern editions may be found in Johannes Lupi: Opera omnia, ed. Bonnie J. Blackburn, Corpus mensurabilis musicae, 84 (Neuhausen-Stuttgart, 1989), iii, 143–5, and Cipriano de Rore: Opera omnia, ed. Bernhard Meier, Corpus mensurabilis musicae, 14 (Neuhausen-Stuttgart, 1977), viii, 144–5.Google Scholar

13 Howard Mayer Brown, ‘Emulation, Competition, and Homage: Imitation and Theories of Imitation in the Renaissance’, Journal of the American Musicological Society, 35 (1982), 1–48 (p. 14).Google Scholar

14 See Gombosi, Otto, ‘Ghizcghem und Compère’, Studien zur Musikgeschichte: Festschrift Guido Adler (Vienna, 1930), 100–6, Howard Mayer Brown, Music in the French Secular Theater, 1400–1550 (Cambridge, Mass., 1963), 187, and Irena Cholij, ‘Borrowed Music: “Allez regrets” and the Use of Pre-existent Material’, Companion to Medieval and Renaissance Music, ed. Tess Knighton and David Fallows (London, 1992), 165–76 (pp. 168–71).Google Scholar

15 The attribution to Hayne is found, for example, in Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS f. fr. 2245, and that to Agricola in Brussels, Koninklijke Bibliotheek Albert 1, MS 11239. The consensus of opinion is that Hayne is most likely to be the composer. Modern editions may be found in Alexandri Agricola opera omnia, ed. Edward R. Lerner, Corpus mensurabilis musicae, 22 (n.p., 1972), v, 120–1, and in Picker, The Chanson Albums, 422–4.Google Scholar

16 The parallel with Mille regretz is all the more striking because Les grans regrets is not Phrygian.Google Scholar

17 The dactylic rhythm of motive A is also found here, though this is too commonplace an opening device to be counted a ‘significant relationship’.Google Scholar

18 An edition of the whole piece is in Picker, The Chanson Albums, 347–9.Google Scholar

19 For an edition of the whole work, see Schmidt-Görg, Nicolai Gombert opera omnia, xi, 139–42.Google Scholar

20 Ibid., 142–5.Google Scholar

21 Ibid., 230–40.Google Scholar

22 Gombert even engineers one entry during the opening section of the piece which employs the pitch-classes of motive A, i.e. beginning on E; see the fifth voice down at bars 15–17 of Example 9.Google Scholar

23 See bars 21–4 of Schmidt-Görg's edition, Nicolai Combert opera omnia, xi, 161.Google Scholar

24 Je prens congie was an appropriate source of music for Lugebat David Absalon, since that text is also, of course, concerned with the pain of separation and with death. An edition by John Milsom of Lugebat David A bsalon is published by Mapa Mundi (series B, no. 8; London, 1979).Google Scholar

25 For a discussion, see Norbert Böker-Heil, ‘Zu einem frühvenezianischen Motettenrepertoire’, Helmuth Osthoff tu seinem siebzigsten Geburtstag (Tuning, 1969), 59–88 (p. 70).Google Scholar

26 Recognition of the relationship between Mille regretz and Je prens congie, and – more importantly – of the fact that this relationship sprang from the kinship of the texts, can increase our confidence that ‘Je prens congie’ was the original text for which Gombert conceived this music, rather than ‘Tulerunt dominum meum’ or ‘Sustinuimus pacem’.Google Scholar

27 For an edition of the whole work, see Jacobus Clemens non Papa: Opera omnia, ed. K. Ph. Bernet Kempers, Corpus mensurabilis musicae, 4 (n.p., 1962), x, 104–7.Google Scholar

28 There is an equally striking similarity between the opening of Clemens's chanson and that of Lupi's Vous scavez bien, mentioned above (see note 12); indeed, this relationship is closer than that between Vous scavez bien and Mille regretz, noted by Bonnie Blackburn. In addition to the melodic correspondence, the mode is the same (although with different transpositions), as is the plan of the initial four imitative entries (in terms of pitch-classes, the order in which voices enter, and – to a large degree – the spacing of entries). Although one would be rash to classify this as a conscious allusion, it is at least possible that Clemens knew Lupi's work in addition to Gombert's.Google Scholar

29 There is, however, no close textual parallel to account for the allusion. The text set by Clemens is as follows:Google Scholar

30 An edition of the whole song may be found in Schmidt-Görg, Nicolai Gombert opera omnia, xi, 97–9.Google Scholar

31 An edition of Si le partir may be found in Schmidt-Görg, Nicolai Gamberi opera omnia, xi, 66–8.Google Scholar

32 I am most grateful to Bernadette Nelson for initially drawing my attention to these similarities.Google Scholar

33 Edition in Picker, The Chanson Albums, 339–42.Google Scholar

34 Sec bars 10–18 and 41–51 of Picker's edition.Google Scholar

35 This musical resemblance may have been prompted by the word ‘piteuse’, since the same ending (‘-euse’) forms the rhyme of the middle two lines of Mille regretz and occurs (‘douloreuse’) in the musical phrase discussed here.Google Scholar

36 Edition in Picker, The Chanson Albums, 335–7.Google Scholar

37 See bars 33–40 of Picker's edition.Google Scholar

38 Edition in Picker, The Chanson Albums, 351–4.Google Scholar

39 See the contratenor at the beginning of Picker's edition.Google Scholar

40 Editions in Albert Smijers, Werken van Josquin des Prés (Amsterdam, 1921–69), Wereldlijke Werken, aflevering i, bundel i, 15–16 and 5–6 respectively.Google Scholar

41 Bars 6–7 of Smijers's edition.Google Scholar

42 When this passage is repealed to form the end of the piece, there are further harsh dissonances caused by the fact that the tenor holds its d (as in the fourth bar of Example 3) in the following bar also, against the last part of the statement of motive C in the second pan down; see bar 58 of Smijers's edition.Google Scholar

43 It is also worth mentioning that the first prominent cadence in Plusieurs regretz is essentially identical to the first cadence of Mille regreiz, that it occurs at an identical point (after four breves), and of course that it occurs on the same word (‘regretz‘); see bars 4–5 of Smijers's edition. There is an (inexact) resemblance – which may or may not be significant – between the opening rising motive in the superius and the two canonic voices of Plusieurs regretz on the one hand and the beginning of Hichafort's Sur tous regretz (a piece which itself acted as a model for a Mass by Gomberi and a setting of the same text by Clemens) on the other.Google Scholar

44 The other motivic parallel to Mille regretz within this chanson is hardly less prominent: lines 3 and 4 of the poem (preceding the passage shown in Example 24) are set to motive A in the two canonic voices (although the descending suffix is not exactly as in motive A). See bars 28–41 of Smijers's edition.Google Scholar

45 Complete edition in Smijers, Werken, Wereldlijke Werken, aflevering v, bundel ii, 38–40, I am most grateful to John Milsom for pointing out the resemblance to Mille regretz.Google Scholar

46 That is, the voice labelled tenor in Smijers's edition, following Susato's printed edition in Le septiesme livre, 1545¹⁵. As Bonnie Blackburn has pointed out (‘Josquin's Chansons: Ignored and Lost Sources’, Journal of the American Musicological Society, 29 (1976), 30–76 (p. 50)), this voice is more properly designated the contratenor.Google Scholar

47 Bars 14–17 and 19–21 of Smijers's edition.Google Scholar

48 It will have been noticed that, surprisingly, most of the works discussed so far are in the Dorian mode.Google Scholar

49 For an edition of the whole piece, see Anonymous Chansons Published by Pierre Attaingnant, ed. Albert Seay, Corpus mensurabilis musicae, 93 (Neuhausen-Sluttgart, 1986), iv, 106–8.Google Scholar

50 See bars 9–11 of Seay's edition.Google Scholar

51 In this case, starting with Susato's Le septiesme livre, 1545¹⁵.Google Scholar

52 See Osthoff, Helmuth, Josquin Desprez (Tutzing, 1967), i, 73, where part of the text of the document is reproduced, and Herbert Kellman, Josquin and the Courts of the Netherlands and France; The Evidence of the Sources', Josquin des Prez: Proceedings, ed. Lowinsky, 181–216 (pp. 186–9). Martin Picker defends the identification of the singer as Josquin des Prez in ‘Josquin and Jean Lemaire’, 454, note 24.Google Scholar

53 Osthoff, Josquin Desprez, i, 74.Google Scholar

54 Marguerite was made Charles's guardian (and hence responsible for his education) in 1507 following the death of his father, Philip the Fair: she re-established the Burgundian court for him at Mechlin, and sited her own court in the same city. Marguerite's influence upon the young Charles, in cultural as in other matters, must therefore have been considerable. This situation continued until 1515, when Charles, having attained his majority, moved his own court to Brussels.Google Scholar

55 The sources of the piece – six of which attribute it to la Rue – are listed by J. Evan Kreider in ‘Works Attributed in the Sixteenth Century to Both Josquin des Pres and Pierre de la Rue’, Proceedings of the International Josquin Symposium, Utrecht 1986, cd. Willem Elders (Utrecht, 1991), 103–16 (p. 108). Kreider argues that the style of the work likewise points to la Rue rather than Josquin as the composer (ibid., 109).Google Scholar

56 An edition of the piece can be found in Picker, The Chanson Albums, 180–3. Motive A appears in the bassus at bars 13–15 and in the tenor at bars 17–19. It is worth noting that Martin Picker has proposed la Rue as the likely author of the anonymous Me fauldra il? and Il me fail mal discussed above; see ‘The Habsburg Courts in the Netherlands and Austria, 1477–1539’, The Renaissance from the 1470s to the End of the Sixteenth Century, ed. Iain Fenlon (London, 1989), 216–42 (p. 230).Google Scholar