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”.  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.

Jean Courtois "Venite populi"

by Concentus Musicus MN, Arthur Maud, dir. | 'Sounds of the City', 1977