Alexander Agricola

He was probably born sometime in the late 1450s and had a brother named Jan.[3] A commemorative motet first published in 1538 gave his age as 60 at the time of his death in 1506, but that may be due to a medieval convention concerning the number 60.

Agricola was previously identified as the Alessandro d'Alemagna who served as a singer for Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza of Milan from 1471 to 1474, during the period when the Milanese chapel choir grew into one of the largest and most famous ensembles in Europe; Loyset Compère, Johannes Martini, Gaspar van Weerbeke, and several other composer-singers were also in Milan during those years.

[7]: 344  In April 1492 Charles VIII of France wrote a letter to Pietro de Medici asking for the return of Agricola, which implies that he had been serving in the French royal chapel for an unknown duration beforehand.

However Ferrante's enthusiasm cooled during the rest of 1493 as the situation in Italy deteriorated (war broke out in the next year) and he told Agricola to not come to Naples.

[10] After this the paper trail for Agricola runs cold until the spring of 1500, when he took a position with Philip the Handsome, who was Duke of Burgundy and became King of Castile upon the death of his mother-in-law in 1504.

[2] Josquin paid homage to Agricola in his Missa Faisant regretz by borrowing the ostinato idea first used in his four voice Tout a par moy, which is in turn based on Frye's chanson.

[11] Works by Agricola, La Rue and Josquin make up the bulk of the choir book B–Br MS 9126, which was prepared just before Philip's second trip to Spain.

Agricola's style is related to that of Johannes Ockeghem, especially early in his career, and towards the end of his life he was writing using the pervasive imitation characteristic of Josquin des Prez.

Agricola wrote masses, motets, motet-chansons, secular songs in the prevailing formes fixes such as rondeaux and bergerettes, other chansons, and instrumental music.