Published in the early sixteenth century,[1] El Grillo is attributed to an "Iosquin Dascanio", traditionally identified as Franco-Flemish composer Josquin des Prez.
Several scholars have posited that Josquin wrote the song to either honour or make fun of his colleague at the House of Sforza, an Italian court singer named Carlo Grillo.
It received considerably little attention from modern musicologists until 1931, when it was included in Geschichte der Musik in Beispielen by Arnold Schering.
[5][12][13] Willem Elders calls it "one of the most brilliant songs of the late fifteenth century",[14] while Richard Sherr describes it as a "delightful jokey little piece.
This can be explained by different factors, including the poetic liberty of the artist, emphasizing the melodious and captivating nature of the cricket, or limitations of the time, such as a lack of scientific knowledge or a colloquial understanding in which the word "bird" was used more broadly to describe creatures that sang or produced musical sounds, such as crickets.