In recent years pieces accepted as being by Josquin have been falling like dominoes. One result has been that works placed in the Josquin ‘canon’ have occupied a narrower and narrower stylistic range, a process that may still be far from over. Yet Josquin’s reputation – the reason we still care about him today – was built on a very broad range of music, much of it now thought to be by others. Sadly, as pieces by this earlier ‘Josquin’ fall by the wayside, people stop performing them; so in this (coming) Josquin anniversary year it seems more important than ever to take a look at the composer as known to his own generation and the following ones.

Our programme gives today’s audiences the chance to decide for themselves. For close comparison we offer some grand pieces from the ‘core’ repertory alongside others now thought to be the work of others. One great example is the fantastic psalm setting Misericordias domini, its authenticity questioned by some scholars. Placing it in the company of other psalm settings with which it rubs stylistic shoulders, like the wonderfully poignant Domine, ne in furore tuo, we hope to encourage the kind of comparison perhaps more characteristic of gallery exhibitions, where related objects, normally separated by many miles, are placed side by side.

We shed light also into darker corners of the Josquin repertory, like the various single Credo movements assigned to him. Starting our show with the powerful Credo on Hayne’s ‘hit’ song De tous biens plaine, perhaps – if it’s by him – one of Josquin’s earliest pieces, we end it with the multiply ascribed Credo Chascun me crie, the so called ‘red nose’ Credo.

In between, we open up a view on diverse vistas of the Josquin ‘garden’, quite literally in the case of the lovely Song of Songs setting Descendi in ortum meum. We’ll bring every ounce of our musicality to bear on all these pieces, equally; and we’ll have achieved our aim if we send you home mulling over the fundamental question: what’s in a