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Biography
Jean Courtois (fl. 1530–1545) was a composer of the Franco-Flemish School of the generation after Josquin des Prez. He was maitre de chapelle to the Archbishop of Cambrai in present-day France. His motet Venite populi terrae was written to celebrate Emperor Charles V and was performed in the Cathedral; the Emperor who would have heard it in 1539 on his march to suppress the Revolt of Ghent. He wrote 19 chansons, 14 motets, and 2 masses which have survived. Courtois’ work exhibits the varied imitative procedures and shifting textural treatment which typify the Franco-Netherlandish motet style. The chansons, for 4 voices, are in the "Parisian" style of the day; the works for 5 or 6 voices are in the more contrapuntal "Netherlandish" style.