For twenty-four or more years composer Pierre de la Rue (d. 1518) provided music for one of the leading musical institutions of his day, the grande chapelle of the Habsburg-Burgundian court. Serving successive rulers Maximilian I, Philip the Fair, Juana of Castile, Marguerite of Austria, and the future Charles V, La Rue surpassed a dozen composer colleagues in his creation of polyphony to meet the needs of the court and its extravagant liturgy. This study, the first ever in English, traces La Rue's life and career, explores aspects of his compositional output, and recounts the reawakening of...

A timely addition to Routledge's "Criticism and Analysis of Early Music" series, this collection of essays examines the common compositional practice of borrowing or imitation in fifteenth-and sixteenth-century music, addressing how and why borrowing was used, the significance of borrowing, the techniques of borrowing, and its recognizable features. The book provides a broad overview of this common practice and sheds light on previously unexplored aspects of early musical borrowing. It functions as both an introduction to the subject as well as a guide for further research. The contributors,...