Carpentras (EN)

Carpentras, born Elzéar Genet, *ca. 1475 Carpentras (departament Vaucluse), †1548 Avignon, French composer. In 1505, he was granted a prebend in Avignon. In 1508 he sang in the Sistine Chapel choir, and shortly afterwards moved to France to the court of Louis XII. In 1513, or slightly later, he returned to the Sistine Chapel choir, and in 1518 became its choirmaster; in 1521 he settled in Avignon, where – with the exception of the years spent in Rome (1524–26) – he remained for the rest of his life. Carpentras devoted considerable attention to the printing of his compositions, establishing, among other things, a special typeface for musical notation and reserving exclusive rights to its use for a period of four years.

Carpentras’s work falls within the stylistic sphere of Josquin des Prés, characterised by the simplicity of the technical means employed and a careful approach to the textual content. His masses belong to the “missa parodia” type, all of which are based on chansons. Some of Carpentras’s compositions were included in the mandatory repertoire of the Sistine Chapel Choir during the pontificates of two successive popes.

Literature: L. Rigsby E. Genet, a Renaissance Composer, in: Studies in Music History and Theory, Tallahassee (Florida) 1955; R. Sherr Notes on Two Roman Manuscripts of the Early Sixteenth Century, “The Musical Quarterly” LXIII, 1977; D.G. Cardamone Madrigali a tre et arie napolitane. A Typographical and Repertorial Study, “Journal of the American Musicological Society” XXXV, 1982; F.A. d’Accone Singolarità di alcuni aspetti della musica sacra florentina del Cinquecento, in: Firenze e la Toscana dei Medici nellEuropa del ‘500, ed. N. Pirrotta, Florence 1983.