Josquin des Prez was, in his day and for more than a century after his death in 1521, the most influential and most revered composer in Europe. He demanded, and got, the highest salary; he was the first to have an entire volume of printed music devoted to his work alone; he was the first composer about whom anecdotes and jokes have survived. Zachary Woolfe gives a brief explanation of why his music is both important in music history and wondrous to listen to, then present-day composer Nico Muhly interviews Peter Phillips, director of The Tallis Scholars, who have just completed their project of recording all of Josquin’s mass cycles. – The New York Times
