Pierre Passereau - Music and Influence

Music and Influence

Almost everything Passereau wrote, or everything that has survived, are chansons. Since details of his biography are spotty, it is difficult to determine how much lost work there may be. He is known to have written one sacred composition, a motet, Unde veniet auxilium michi (the text is from Psalm 120, and used in the Office of the Dead).

Passereau's chansons are mostly light-hearted affairs, similar in content to the Italian frottola, although no direct influence from the earlier popular Italian form has been reliably demonstrated. He liked to use nonsense syllables, often in imitation of animals, as in Il est bel et bon, his most popular piece, which imitates the clucking of chickens. This composition was sung as far away as Venice. While Passereau may have gotten the idea from Janequin, who was writing onomatopoeic chansons as early as 1515 (Il est bel et bon was published in 1534), its popularity rivaled that of the music of Janequin, and printer Pierre Attaingnant devoted a book entirely to the music of the two composers (in 1536). It is possible that Francis I, who knew Passereau from his service at the French court, recommended the composer to the printer.

Additional features of Passereau's chansons include the use of quick declamation, chordal passages with occasional polyphony, generally syllabic word setting, satirical and ribald subjects, and catchy rhythms.

An additional indication of Passereau's popularity is his inclusion by François Rabelais as one of a list of popular musicians in Gargantua and Pantagruel.