Si placet Parts for Motets by Josquin et al.

Regarded by musicologists and performers as one of the most important composers of the Renaissance, Josquin des Prez achieved similar acclaim during his lifetime and in the century following his death. One way that Josquin’s followers engaged with his motets, and those of his contemporaries, was by writing si placet parts for them. This edition contains fourteen settings with si placet parts of twelve motets, seven by Josquin and five by his contemporaries Antoine de Févin, Mathieu Gascongne, and Jean Mouton, preserved in sources scattered throughout the sixteenth century. Rather than dismiss the si placet additions as inauthentic corruptions of otherwise good pieces, this edition demonstrates that they are more profitably considered as a type of compositional reworking. Individual compositions reveal changing conceptualizations of early-sixteenth-century motet style as time passes. Among the highlights of the collection is Josquin’s six-voice "Benedicta es, caelorum regina" (no. 11) enriched with six supplementary parts by Jean Guyot de Châtelet (Castileti). The edition also reproduces Protestant revisions to the texts as found in the sources, conveying an additional aspect of the reception of these works.