Canons of Beauty: Mouton and Desprez

Just over 500 years ago, the Western musical world lost two compositional giants—Josquin Desprez (1521) and Jean Mouton (1522). While it is probably impossible to verify the claims that Mouton was Josquin’s pupil, a great number of other elements show the strong connection between the two. In “Canons of Beauty,” intellectually complexity is hidden behind irresistible euphony. Ethereal mass movements, motets, and chansons result from canonic puzzles, where one or more voices are not written but implied and have to be solved by the singers.