Jean Courtois (composer)

{{Short description | French composer}}

Jean Courtois (fl. 1530{{ndash}}1545) was a composer of the Franco-Flemish School of the generation after Josquin des Prez. He was maitre de chapelle to the Archbishop of Cambrai in present-day France. His motet Venite populi terrae was written to celebrate Emperor Charles V and was performed in the Cathedral; the Emperor would have heard it in 1539 on his march to suppress the Revolt of Ghent.{{cite web |url=http://www.artistdirect.com/artist/bio/jean-courtois/418016 |title=Jean Courtois Biography |last=Johnson |first=Keith |website=artistdirect.com |accessdate=20 December 2014 }}{{Cite Grove1900|wstitle= Courtois, Jean |volume= 1.13 | page= 411 |last= Hamilton |first= Mary Catherine |author-link= |year=1900| short=1}} He wrote around 20 chansons, 15 motets, and 2 masses.The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music, edited by Don Michael Randel (Belknap Press, 1996), p. 182. Courtois’ work exhibits the varied imitative procedures and shifting textural treatment which typify the Franco-Netherlandish motet style. The chansons, for 4 voices, are in the "Parisian" style of the day; the works for 5 or 6 voices are in the more contrapuntal "Netherlandish" style.