Jean Courtois
Jean Courtois has not attracted much attention from the musicology community. At least we know that he was chapelmaster at Cambrai Cathedral in January, 1540, when Charles V was welcomed by festivities that included Courtois’ motet , “Venite populi” . . . 34 singers would have been plenty. Courtois began his service to the Cathedral in 1516 as a “petit vicaire”. His surviving oevre consists of 2 settings of the Ordinary, 14 motets and 19 chansons.
Venite populi
This exuberant motet shows that music at Cambrai was still maintaining high standards under the leadership of Courtois, 75 years after Dufay’s exceptional tenure at the Cathedral there. The motet was printed in 1545 in ‘Concentus 8, 6, 5 et 4 vocum’ by Sigmund Salminger
Jean Courtois "Venite populi"
Venite populi terrae, et videte opera Dei.
Exultate gaudio et laetitia,
quia fecit Deus prodigia sua magna,
auferens bella usque ad finem terrae
Ecce principes terrae convenerunt
in unum et civitas pacem conduce suo,
incedit obviam eis.
Juvenes et virgines, senes cum
junioribus,
cantate canticum novum, psallite in
jubilatione.
Ave Caesar, ave majestas sacra,
plena est terra gloria tua, gloria tua.
benedicta acta Dei in secula. A-men.