Jean Titelouze

Jean (Jehan) Titelouze (c. 1562/63 – 24 October 1633) was a French Catholic priest, composer, poet and organist of the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods.

His work was not limited to Rouen: he also acted as organ consultant and helped with the installation and repair of important instruments in various cities.

In 1613, he won his first award from Rouen's literary society, the Académie des Palinods, for his poems.

The same year, due to health problems, Titelouze partially retired from his organist position (although he kept the post until his death).

[2] Titelouze was a friend of Marin Mersenne, an important French music theorist, mathematician, philosopher and theologian.

As an example, the Parisian composer and organist Nicolas Gigault included a fugue à la maniere de Titelouze (literally "in Titelouze's style") in his 1685 Livre de musique pour l'orgue.

Some three hundred years later, the composer inspired one of Marcel Dupré's organ works, Le Tombeau de Titelouze, op.

[3] The second collection, Le Magnificat ou Cantique de la Vierge pour toucher sur l'orgue suivant les huit tons de l'Église, published in 1626, contains eight Magnificat settings in all eight church modes.

According to the prefaces of both collections, he was concerned with making his pieces easier to play and playable by hands alone.

The city of Rouen in 1610. Titelouze spent most of his life here, working as organist of the Rouen Cathedral .
The Rouen Cathedral , where Titelouze worked from 1588 until his death in 1633.
Example 1 . Opening bars of Titelouze's 3rd verset of Veni Creator . The hymn in the tenor is highlighted. The outer voices form a canon at the octave; in the other two canonic versets in the 1623/4 collection, Titelouze created canons at the fifth (and the hymn is in the soprano voice [ Conditor ], or bass [Ave maris stella ]).
Example 2 . Bars 10–13 from the second setting of Deposuit potentes from Magnificat primi toni . In this inversion fugue (the subject is highlighted with shades of blue), like in much of the rest of the collection, Titelouze's musical language is more progressive than in any of the 1624 hymns.