Certon's Miscellany , an anthology of Renaissance music

Pierre Certon's Meslanges constitute a unique musical collection of the Renaissance. First and foremost, they represent the culmination of a long career as a composer in Paris within the circles of power. Certon's name appears in 1529, when he became a clerk at Notre Dame. Three years later, he was attached to the Sainte-Chapelle, an institution where he became master of the choirboys in 1536. During this period, Certon distinguished himself, along with Clément Janequin and Claudin de Sermisy, as one of the leading exponents of the polyphonic French chanson, also known as Parisian chanson.

It was no less than forty years later, in 1570, that Nicolas Du Chemin published his Meslanges in Paris. Certon is referred to here as Composer of Music to the King's Chapel. The collection is also unique because, unlike the miscellanies of other musicians, it contains almost exclusively newly published works, and in considerable number: 96 pieces!

The songs in this collection, however, possess a retrospective character, insofar as they are based on pre-existing 16th-century songs. The models are borrowed from Certon himself, Sermisy and Janequin, lesser-known French musicians, as well as Franco-Flemish composers, such as Josquin Desprez, Jean Richafort, and Jacques Arcadelt. Certon essentially recomposes new pieces by appropriating the melodic elements of these models and recombining them in countless ways.

We are far removed here from the aesthetic of originality so dear to the 19th century… Certon fully embraces the Renaissance aesthetic of imitation/homage, which encouraged musicians to appropriate pre-existing musical material in order to both pay homage to the great composers and surpass their achievements. From this perspective, it is not surprising that Certon wrote pieces for 5 to 8 voices, based on models for 3 or 4 voices!

Only one copy of the Meslanges survives today, in the Uppsala University Library. This edition consists of six separate parts (six independent notebooks). However, one of these parts, the quintus, is lost… The missing voice must therefore be completed. This task will be undertaken by Marc Busnel, a singer with the ensemble and a specialist in the reconstruction of Renaissance polyphonic works.