Josquin's curious little piece on the Latin and Italian text In te, Domine, speravi, per trovar pieta stands at the juncture of several different genres of fifteenth century musical composition. The earliest published source for the piece is a 1504 anthology by Ottaviano Petrucci of the frottola, a lighthearted genre of Italian secular music; In te, Domine does resemble many such pieces in its lively character and chordal style. The text, however, most easily lends itself to a sacred reading: "In Thee, O Lord, have I trusted, that I may find mercy." And the musical style of the frottola closely matches a genre of Italian vernacular devotional music, sung in processions and paraliturgical praise services, known as the lauda. Josquin's In te, Domine, in fact, opens with music for the first few measures almost identical to a Paduan lauda preserved in a Capetown manuscript, with vernacular devotional text "A questa aspra penitentia." Further complicating the generic situation is the existence of several manuscript versions with sacred Latin texts instead of Italian, implying an attempt to elevate the piece to motet status (in a late Medieval hierarchy of genres!). Finally, an anecdotal account of an 1547 event in Josquin's life suggests the politics of courtly patronage as a possible context for the composition. Josquin, the vignette says, once became impatient while waiting to receive his wages from an early employer, Cardinal Ascanio Sforza. To gently prod the Cardinal, he composed the frottola El Grillo, about a cricket who sings for love (even when he has no food?), and also a sycophantic In thee, O Lord, do I place my trust. While the anecdote may be entirely apocryphal, the spunky little piece of music it associated with the story has been charming listeners since Josquin's day.



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