Voices of Music Releases Josquin Video

Saskia Coolen, Hanneke van Proosdij, and Andrew Levy performing Josquin on period instruments

Yesterday Voices of Music rang in the New Year with an “earlier” Early Music video than usual. The music was a chanson by the Renaissance composer Josquin des Prez. Josquin was, himself, a singer; so this was a pioneering example of advances in vocal polyphony. However, for this video the music was performed by a matched consort of recorders: treble, tenor, and bass. These were performed, in that order, by Hanneke van Proosdij, Andrew Levy, and Saskia Coolen. The duration of this video is less than two and one-half minutes, but it serves up a generously informative account of Josquin’s impact on the creation and performance of polyphonic music.