Clément Janequin

Janequin was born in Châtellerault, near Poitiers, though no documents survive which establish any details of his early life or training.

In his will, dated January 1558, he left a small estate to charity, and he complained again of age and poverty in a dedication to a work published posthumously in 1559.

La bataille, which vividly depicts the sounds and activity of a battle, is a perennial favorite of a cappella singing groups even in the present day.

The programmatic chansons for which Janequin is famous were long, sectional pieces, and usually cleverly imitated natural or man-made sounds.

Le chant des oiseaux imitates bird-calls; La chasse the sounds of a hunt; and La bataille (Escoutez tous gentilz), probably the most famous, and almost certainly written to celebrate the French victory over the Swiss Confederates at the Battle of Marignano in 1515, imitates battle noises, including trumpet calls, cannon fire and the cries of the wounded.

In addition to the programmatic chansons for which he is most famous, he also wrote short and refined compositions more in the style of Claudin de Sermisy.

French composer Jehan Alain composed, as a tribute, a set of variations for organ on a theme attributed to Janequin (Variations sur un thème de Clément Janequin, 1937); although later scholarship has identified that particular piece as being an anonymous love song from a 1529 collection by Pierre Attaignant.

Paris 1923 [trois chansons; édité précédemment par Jean Tiersot dans "Sammelbände der Internationalen Musikgesellschaft (IV) 1902 / 1903, p. 119-128] —, L'alouette (avec les 5 voix de Claude Le Jeune).