Clément Janequin

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Clément Janequin (c. 1485–1558) was a French Renaissance composer who became one of the era’s most popular writers of chansons. Along with Claudin de Sermisy, he helped shape the Parisian chanson, especially the programmatic kind that imitates sounds.

He was born in Châtellerault, near Poitiers, but little is known about his early life. Unlike many composers, he never held a stable post at a cathedral or royal court. Instead he worked in a sequence of small jobs for important patrons. In 1505 he became a clerk in Bordeaux for Lancelot du Fau, who would become Bishop of Luçon; he stayed in that position until du Fau’s death in 1523, after which Janequin worked for the Bishop of Bordeaux. He became a priest, though money was often tight.

From about 1530 he held posts in Anjou, starting as a singing teacher for the choirboys at Auch and later becoming maître de chapelle at Angers Cathedral. He drew the attention of patrons such as Jean de Guise, and in 1548, with help from Charles de Ronsard, he became curate at Unverre near Chartres. He lived in Paris at this time. By 1555 he was listed as a singer ordinary of the king’s chapel, and soon after became composer ordinary to the king, a rare honor.

Janequin died in Paris in January 1558, leaving a small charitable estate and noting his age and poverty in a dedication to a later published work.

His music was extraordinarily popular in his lifetime. The Paris printer Pierre Attaingnant published five volumes of his chansons. He wrote about 250 secular chansons and more than 80 psalm settings and chansons spirituelles.

He is best known for programmatic chansons that imitate sounds: Le chant des oiseaux (bird calls), La chasse (the sounds of a hunt), and La bataille (the Battle). La bataille—celebrating the French victory at Marignano in 1515—imitates trumpets, cannons, and cries of the wounded, and helped set a trend for later music, influencing the rise of onomatopoeic effects into the Baroque era.

Janequin also wrote shorter, refined pieces in a lighter style and set texts by poets such as Clément Marot. Late in life he produced psalm settings based on Genevan tunes. Whether he supported Protestantism remains unclear.