[picture of woodcut of des Prez, narrator speaking:]The Flemish composer Josquin des Prez, was considered the greatest composer of all. Regarding that even today among the supreme masters. He served in the Italian and French courts as well as in the Papal chapel. Josquin’s music was published widely and known throughout Europe. [painting of priest saying mass] Although he wrote masses in the flemish style, he focused on the motet, which by the year fifteen hundred had changed since Machaunt used the form more than a century earlier. Shorter and more flexible than the mass, the motet allowed the composer greater opportunity to invent and experiment. [picture of music] Josquin des Prez was a master in imitative counterpoint, a characteristic feature of renaissance polyphony. [stone carving of boys singing]  In imitative counterpoint various musical lines enter one after the other. Each starting with the same pattern of notes, so that the later entrances appear to be imitating the first. Because Josquin’s music was less ornate than that of his predecessors, it more effectively reflected the images and feelings suggested by the words. It’s simplicity also underlined its sense of tonal clarity [singing - painting of angels singing] . Josquin’s polyphony suggests a spiritual conversation among equal participants, although the voices seem to move independently, they are delicately balanced to maintain fluid continuity until the music settles into the cadence, or temporary resting point.