Nicolas Payen

When he was about 13 years old he went to Spain to sing in the choir of Charles V; children were commonly recruited in the Low Countries for service in the imperial chapel.

In the 1540s he rose in the chapel hierarchy, becoming successively a clerk and a chaplain, and in 1556 he took over the post of maestro di capilla, the director of music, from Cornelius Canis who had retired the previous year simultaneously with the abdication of Charles V. Thus Payen became the first maestro di capilla for Habsburg monarch Philip II of Spain.

[2] His name appears in association with the controversial term musica reservata, a style of composition and performance beginning around the mid-16th century, which most likely involved intensely expressive setting of text, chromatic part-writing, and small audiences of connoisseurs.

[3] The Bavarian ambassador to the court of Charles V wrote a letter to his employer, Albrecht V, Duke of Bavaria, expressing what would happen when Payen would become maestro di capilla of the Flemish Chapel (capilla flamenca) for the Habsburg king: "musica reservata will become even more fashionable now than before, [after Nicolas Payen succeeds Cornelius Canis for the position], since Canis was not able to reconcile himself to it."

[2][4] For further informations Laura Pollie Mc Dowell, "Nicolas Payen - Motets and chansons", A-R Edition, Middleton, 2006 ISBN 978-0-89579-593-9