Editing Josquin des Prez (section)

===Secular music===
{{listen|type=music
 | filename     = Josquin El grillo sung by the dwsChorale.ogg
 | title        = ''El grillo''
 | description  = Sung by the dwsChorale
}}

Josquin left numerous French chansons, for three to six voices, some of which were probably intended for instrumental performance as well.{{sfn|Litterick|2000|pp=335, 393}} In his chansons, he often used a ''cantus firmus'', sometimes a popular song whose origin can no longer be traced, as in ''Si j'avoye Marion''.{{sfn|Brown|1980}} In other works he used a tune originally associated with a separate text, or freely composed an entire song, using no apparent external source material. Another technique Josquin used was to take a popular song and write it as a canon with itself, in two inner voices, and write new melodic material above and around it, to a new text: he did this in one of his most famous chansons, ''Faulte d'argent''.{{sfn|Macey|Noble|Dean|Reese|2011|loc=§13 "Secular Works"}}

Josquin's earliest chansons were probably composed in northern Europe, under the influence of composers such as Ockeghem and Busnois. Unlike them, he never adhered strictly to the conventions of the ''formes fixes''—the rigid and complex repetition patterns of the [[rondeau (forme fixe)|rondeau]], [[virelai]], and [[ballade (forme fixe)|ballade]]—instead he often wrote his early chansons in strict imitation, as with many of his sacred works.{{sfn|Noble|1980|loc=§ "Works"}} He was one of the first to write chansons with all voices equal parts of the texture, and many contain points of imitation, similar to his motets. He also used melodic repetition, especially where the lines of text rhymed, and many of his chansons had a lighter texture and faster tempo than his motets.{{sfn|Noble|1980|loc=§ "Works"}}{{sfn|Macey|Noble|Dean|Reese|2011|loc=§13 "Secular Works"}} Some of his chansons were almost certainly designed to be performed with instruments; Petrucci published many of them without text, and some of the pieces (for example, the fanfare-like ''Vive le roy'') contain writing more idiomatic for instruments than voices.{{sfn|Macey|Noble|Dean|Reese|2011|loc=§13 "Secular Works"}} Josquin's most famous chansons circulated widely in Europe; some of the better-known include his lament on the death of Ockeghem, ''Nymphes des bois/Requiem aeternam''; ''Mille regretz'', an uncertain attribution to Josquin;{{refn|See {{harvtxt|Fallows|2001|pp=214–252}} and {{harvtxt|Litterick|2000|pp=374–376}} for information on the attribution issues surrounding ''Mille regretz''|group=n}} ''Nimphes, nappés''; and ''Plus nulz regretz''.{{sfn|Fallows|2020|p=351}}

Josquin also wrote at least three pieces in the manner of the [[frottola]], a popular Italian song form which he would have heard during his years in Milan. These songs include ''Scaramella'', ''El grillo'' and ''In te domine speravi''. They are even simpler in texture than his French chansons, being almost uniformly syllabic and homophonic, and they remain among his most frequently performed pieces.{{sfn|Noble|1980|loc=§ "Works"}}{{sfn|Macey|Noble|Dean|Reese|2011|loc=§13 "Secular Works"}}