A - Z of Music - J

Josquin Des Prez - usually referred to just as Josquin - was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance. During the 16th century, Josquin gradually acquired the reputation as the greatest composer of the age, his mastery of technique and expression universally imitated and admired.
Josquin wrote both sacred and secular music, and in all of the significant vocal forms of the age, including masses, motets, chansons and frottole.
His music was so admired and imitated over the years, that, with the advancement of scholarly knowledge, a number of works have been removed from the cannon of his output and attributed to his contempories.
Because of his immense prestige in the early sixteenth century, many scribes and publishers did not resist the temptation of attributing anonymous or otherwise spurious works to Josquin. The German editor Georg Forster summed up the situation admirably in 1540 when he wrote, "Now that Josquin is dead, he is putting out more works than when he was alive."
Josquin's fame lasted throughout the 16th century, and indeed increased for several decades after his death, eventually being replaced in popularity by the works of Palestrina (we'll come to him later!)
As usual, I struggled to decide which work to protray here, but decided on this one:  Miserere Mei Deus



Now, what shall we have for J? The all too obvious choice would be Michael Jackson, the so-called 'King Of Pop', and indeed, his was an extraordinary talent, even if his life was somewhat weird. I guess when you achieve such heady fame at the age of 5, it will take its' toll on your lifestyle and personality.
However, rather than Michael, I've opted for the Jacksons as a whole.
This is the Director's Cut of their amazing (for its' time) video to an equally great song - 'Can You Feel It'

Did you know..........redundancy makes you fat!

No, I haven't been made redundant, but I stand by the title of this post!

The company I work for is going through a staff reduction programme, where about 9% of the staff are losing their jobs. It's a sad, hard time for most of them, but even so, they tend to be generous to a fault.

They buy cakes. Lots of cakes. And sausage rolls. And feed them to us as a farewell gift.

It's not so bad when one person leaves to take up a new career, but there are so many leavers every day at the moment, those of us who are staying are getting decidedly podgy.

I don't know who ever started the tradition of buying cakes when you leave, or when you have a birthday, or a new baby etc., but it always seems to be a bit incongruous to me. Surely we should buy them the cakes as a token of our respect and sorrow at their leaving, or pleasure at their good news.

However, so be it. I will stay here, and do my work.........

And get fat..............