15 Chansons

This anthology, with each song available separately, will be of primary interest to choral conductors and singers in a practical and historically informed modern edition.
Clément Janequin, like Pierre Certon (c. 1510 -1572) and Claudin de Sermisy (c. 1490 - 1562), contributed to what we now call "la chanson parisienne": a printed song for four voices based on a short text that deals with all the common themes of the time, often homophonic, and whose declared aim is to entertain a social class that is well-informed by the practice of polyphonic singing. This intense production, more than 280 songs for Certon and 160 for Sermisy, will make their century the golden age of French song.

Even today, the life of Clément Janequin remains obscure and imprecise, in contrast to his work, which has been published many times since the sixteenth century. He was probably born in Châtellerault around 1485, and grew up in Poitou, Saintonge, or Bordeaux, where he began his musical career. Or sus, or sus" was in circulation from 1510 onwards, and the following songs were printed, attesting to his fame. His great descriptive panoramas, atypical in the chanson style, such as "La bataille de Marignan", "La chasse", "Le cacquet des femmes", "Le chant des oiseaux" or "Les cris de Paris" made him the master of the genre.