Antoine Bruhier : life and works of a Renaissance papal composer

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Antoine Bruhier (c. 1470-after 1521) was a professional singer and composer, with secular works published by Petrucci and probably, by 1513, at least two masses to his credit. He had worked at the Cathedral of Langres and the courts of Ferrara and Urbino, if not elsewhere, when he received an appointment to the papal music establishment. In March of 1513, Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici, son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, had been elected pope and took the name Leo X. Leo, who himself composed and fervently loved music, almost immediately established a private chapel of singers and instrumentalists. Bruhier, with his record of accomplishment as a composer, was the first French musician to join the new chapel, which was to provide music for the pope's entertainment and private devotions. Besides at least two further masses and some occasional motets, Bruhier composed, while in the service of the pope, four of the most obscene songs in the history of music. This publication explains what might have motivated a Renaissance papal composer to write them and contains a complete critical edition, with commentary, of his surviving works.