JANNEQUIN (JANEQUIN), CLÉMENT. - Belgian composer, who lived in the 16th century, of whose life very little is known. A pupil of Després, later chaplain to Francesco di Lorena, duke of Guisa, he Clemens Jacob (v.).
Creator of the French chanson in the “a cappella” style, he composed masses and motets; Sacrae cantiones seu motetta, 4 vols. (Paris 1533); Proverbes de Salomon mis en cantique et rime française (ibid. 1558); Octante psaumes de David (ibid. 1559). Many of his chansons were printed in Paris in 1529 and in Venice in 1538; others appeared in subsequent editions, while quite a number are preserved in manuscript in various libraries in France and in Rome. All J.’s compositions stand out for their originality and beauty of invention, and in many chansons the imitative style is skilfully expressed in passages of splendid sonority.