Claudin de Sermisy

Sermisy was most likely born either in Picardy, Burgundy, or Île-de-France, based on the similarity of his surname to place names there.

At this post he was expected to teach and care for the boys of the choir, as well as find talented singers to recruit.

Few biographical details are available about his last years, but he seems to have been active as a composer up to the end of his life based on publication dates of works.

Unlike many of his contemporaries writing sacred music in France, there is no evidence he had any Huguenot sympathies; he seemed to remain a faithful Catholic all his life.

His interest in the sacred genres increased steadily throughout his life, corresponding to a decline in interest in secular forms, using the publication dates as a guide (actual dates of compositions are extremely difficult to establish for composers of this period, unless a work happened to be composed for a specific occasion).

[3] Typically Sermisy's chansons are chordal and syllabic, shunning the more ostentatious polyphony of composers from the Netherlands, striving for lightness and grace instead.

Sermisy was fond of quick repeated notes, which give the texture an overall lightness and dance-like quality.

Several of his songs are on the topic of an unhappy young woman stuck with an unattractive and unvirile old man, a sentiment not unique to his age.